Alright, I've never been much of a technical dude but with my new PC I'm trying to learn and figure out how to keep my pc running optimal speeds. Note that I'm running on windows XP so don't mention linux stuff.

Can any of you give me tips and tricks that you use to keep everything neat and tidy.

What programs do you use for spywares, virus checks?

Do you just use window's XP basic defragmentation tool or something else? (don't link me that speaker thing I'm not gonna open up my hard drives :P)

Thanks in advance on helping me keep this computer clean and sexy. *nods*

Defrag is useless.


I use three different spyware programs -

Spybot - search and destroy
Adware SE Pro
Webroot Spysweeper

and Norton Antivirus 2005 for viruses

I usually spyware scan my computer once every 2 or 3 days, and virus scan once a week.

Oh, and I don't visit porn sites

I use Ad-Aware by Lavasoft, and Spybot - Search and Destroy. Both of those are free, and regularly offer updates.

For defragging, I use Norton's Speed Disk which came with Norton SystemWorks. So I use Norton's Antivirus to scan for viruses. Never had a problem with it - but I know lots here don't like Norton's.

Lol don't visit porn sites? Are they a raving source of virusesssscks? hahaha

I have Spybot (for spyware) and Avast (for viruses). I'm gonna get Ad-aware also I guess.

How is defrag useless? I thought defragging your HDD at least once a month was a good thing!

Well, I figured it would be pretty commonly known that porn sites are literally FULL of spyware.

About the defrag being useless:

I cant remember how specifically, i'm certain you can find out using google how Defragment isn't very good. I just remember all my college professors in computer courses telling us that windows defrag was useless, partially because it used 20% system resources to run o rsomething like that.. Can't quitre remember, but I trust my computer programming professors. I think it's only a good thing to use or only has some good effect if you haven't defragged your computer in like a year, but once a week does nothing I heard.

Well, technically you don't run it every week. Maybe once a month at the most. Of course thats unless you're installing a lot of games or downloading a lot of files, then I'd suggest defragging after that. And I don't get why its bad that it takes 20% of system resources just to run. I mean come on, you aren't supposed to be USING the computer while it defrags in the first place. Just let it run overnight while you sleep.

I'm not saying its going to give you a 60% performance boost but maybe a 10% boost, maybe 5%.

I personally never trusted Computer Lab teachers but thats mainly because the ones I've had in the best were doorknob teachers who were given that because they sucked at every other courses. :p

Yeah, I agree. For some reason though, there's something in my mind that sticks out where I either read or have been told by a credible computer source that defrag doesnt really help.. I honestly don't remember.

Perhaps someone who knows ****tons about computers can answer this.. I'm just going off vague memory

It could always be that while that source was trustworthy he was an avid microsoft hater or whatnot :p But yea, maybe a computer tech dude can answer us. But I'll google it anyways.

I've been googling it since I posted it... I actually can't really find anything concrete. I suppose I was incorrect, or actually, my professors were incorrect.

Burn em all I say! Yarrrr!

This one for sure. I was going through a bunch of trouble with winfixer a few days ago and Spysweeper was the only program able to get rid of it and also caught a bunch of other stuff that nothing else picked up.

If you want performance don't leave the virus scanner running all the time. Use it only when you need it, ie when you've downloaded something.

Yea I do that. Turn off avast anytime I'm playing a game or photoshopping. Matter of fact, I even shut off internet connection when I don't need it.

Regarding defrag.

Over time, files stored on the hard drive become fragmented. When the operating system requires a file to be read, the parts are assembled. The more and more fragmented the hard drive becomes, the longer files take to open. The OS has to scan the HD for the file parts and assemble. This is where defragmentation helps. When a HD is sorted out, files are quick to open. There is a performance increase. It's not blazingly fast but it is noticible. Run your defraggers in safe mode. This way, there are minimal processes running that don't do HD activity.

Other tips:
Windows XP straight from the box has, quite frankly, a lot of useless **** running. Try to minimize what's needed. One of the things you can tune is what services run. ** STOP NOW IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS **. I say this because you can screw up your machine if you turn off/disable a key service. But, if you take the time to learn, you can see that most of these services are useless for your computer operation. Some even pose security risks.

Bah! I clicked submit too soon. Anyway. Keep your startup processes to a minimal. I cringe whenever I see a system tray that's 15 icons long. Those processes are running in the background using memory and CPU cycles! Also more work for the OS to schedule them.

You can really fine tune a computer w/o need for hardware changes.

ditto, I also use Microsoft Anti-spyware as well.

Although in the past 6 months I've only had to remove 6 items in total in all the scans and even then they were all cookie's which aren't exactly the worse thing in the world. I scan with each approx once every 1-2 weeks.

Also a good tip to keep the spyware at bay, have a good look in either msconfig.exe or using Spybot (startup items, gives descriptions for most known items) on the programs that automatically start with windows, also cuts out the clutter.

On the defrag issue, the default windows defrag isn't exactly very good but is better than nothing, but you shouldn't be doing it every week, I do it at most once a month if that, more like once every 2-3 months. I analyise the hard disk first and if it isn't more than 8-10% fragmented I leave it for a few weeks.

It does however make a noticable difference on startup times and load times for app's in windows and for levels in games and is something I'd recommend.

Ok, can someone explain to me why I run Spybot - S&D once, it finds 18 spyware, it fixes them all. As soon as its done, it finds 14 more?

Which services would you disable?

Well right off the bat any thing like Msn Messenger, or background crap like Sait-tek's keyboard profiler or frankly any programs that you would only need here and there : Virus software, spyware software,, etc.

Nevermind, they were cookies and by hitting clear all cookies in Firefox erased em.

Ad-aware just found one additional cookie.

Oh, and I had my hard-drives for 4 days and it already told me they needed defrag. Obviously thats probably due to the massive installations I've been running. Installed like 8 games on the D: drive and a lot of apps on the C:.

This is what I've disabled. Others I changed from Automatic -> Manual. I figure some program will bark at me for not having a service...or turn it on.

Funny you guys bring this up topic. My computer was being a jerk this morning and was locking up at the windows screen so I was forced to load the computer with the Windows CD (Safe mode wasn't working because it locked up on loading drivers). I ran chkdsk.exe to fix any errors or bad sectors that could have been halting my computer. After waiting for a good 2 hours (damn those scans take a long time), I finally got it working again.

Edit: I really need to stop using so many long sentences with aside comments breaking it up :p

Gandalf, where do you go for that? (I imagine its something you type in the RUN menu.)

I'm definatly checking that out when I get home.

Run -> "services.msc" (no quotes)

It that shot you posted, I see a

"Messenger" "Transmits..."

Did you block MSN messenger's transmission or something? (just need to make sure i don't do that since i use it :p)

1.) Defrag doesn't really affect performance that much. Due to the way Windows NT schedules I/O, files are rarely (if ever) read in a single block. Windows also precaches some files and so does the hard drive. The only real effects you'll notice involve special cases that you'll almost never encounter -- and in those cases, the file is more aggressively cached by Windows anyway. Defragmentation hasn't mattered much since the days of Windows 98, because NT has a much better I/O scheduler.

2.) This is something that everybody should know by now, but given JG's post above I guess not: disabling services won't make any difference. Those services aren't actually active programs. Most of them are simply "available", so when a thread/process requires certain functionality, that service can be put to use.

3.) Windows handles idling threads exceedingly well. It also reprioritizes threads based on the amount of computer time they require. A game should use up close to 99% of your computer's power -- because the other threads only need 1%. And that 1% requirement will even DROP as more power is allocated toward running the game.

4.) Disabling virtual memory will make your computer slower, not faster. Windows handles virtual memory very efficiently. Yes, idle programs will be cached to your hard drive -- meaning that memory is free for games.



All of this aggressive tweaking nonsense is just a bunch of useless ricing crap. Most of the stuff I've seen out there will end up just making your computer less stable or slowing it down, and if you don't have any idea what you're doing (or even if you do... grr, JG, bad advice) you could end up having to reformat to fix your mistakes.

Thanks for the input Jon.

You have some misinformation yourself in there. Defragging does help exceedingly well when loading games--though not nearly as much as a straight up format. It can also help if you have a low amount of memory--say 512mb, for games that use enough virtual memory to require use of the page file. Also, disabling virtual memory helps a lot--if you have 2 gigs of memory. Otherwise it does slow your computer down and makes it highly unstable (hell, with one gig and having it disabled my computer would hit BSoDs while playing even Warcraft 3.)

I would've forwarded you to Black Viper, but it seems his page has gone down. If you could find it, it has a LOT of information regarding making windows go faster. Don't listen to Jon, though he knows what he's talking about most of the time, people actually disabling some of the services (the less important ones, usually not ones that actually come with Windows) and doing some registry hacks has made it speed up. I know because I've done some of it...not a lot, but some, and it's shown me improvements in performance.

But he does have a valid point that you can miss-step when doing those modifications and be stuck doing a full reformat. I'll look for that Black Viper page nonetheless.

http://www.dead-eye.net/WinXP%20Services.htm

Boom.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]Defragging does help exceedingly well when loading games--though not nearly as much as a straight up format. It can also help if you have a low amount of memory--say 512mb, for games that use enough virtual memory to require use of the page file.[/QUOTE]Uh... the page file is contiguous. Always. Defragging would not affect memory paging at all. Additionally, - as I said before - due to the way Windows schedules I/O you aren't going to notice much difference.

The only time you should notice a difference with virtual memory disabled is if you have programs idling in the background and then you switch back to them.


And I know that sugar pills cure cancer, because I take sugar pills all of the time and I don't have cancer yet. :downs:

I expected EXACTLY this retort--and I still don't give a damn. My advice stands.

All right all right. Simmer down all.

That's nice, so does mine. The placebo effect does wonderful things, and if you're happy with your system... well... good for you, I guess.

The fact remains: The services that come with Windows are there for a reason, and unless you're actively using them they aren't using much (if any) system resources. As an added bonus, if you leave virtual memory/paging enabled, they'll be safely cached on your hard drive for later use (having no impact on performance whatsoever). Even tests that involve placing the swap file on a RAM disk have shown minimal (2-3%) memory performance improvement.

The only point I'll concede is the one about memory defragmentation. NTFS is resistant to fragmentation but it's not immune. I'm going to stand by my own tests on this one, though - you definitely won't notice as much difference as you did in Windows 98.

Here's a site I found while googling: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html

1) I said MOSTLY SERVICES THAT DON'T COME WITH WINDOWS. We like reading, no?
2) You won't notice as MUCH difference, but you will notice a difference--especially depending on how much you uninstall/reinstall/download/delete, etc. I've seen performance increases of 50% in memory-intensive games from a reformat--however this was when I had only 512mb.
3) It's not placebo affect--I wouldn't say "It SEEMS faster" if it's only a smidge faster. I mostly dealt with game performance--hard, solid facts, not "HEY A WINDOW POPPED UP OMGFASTER"

Increasing virtual memory to at least the amount of RAM in your PC (or up to 3x if you don't have much) will improve performance and stability as Windows has more memory to swap out to if it needs to.

If you turn it OFF, your system could CRASH if you run out of physical memory. However, if it is ON, Windows can use as much as 4GB. If you unknowingly run a program with a memory leak this could be a significant difference.

My recommendation, based on an old tweak and some rethinking of it:
- Set your virtual memory maximum as high as it can go, XP supports up to 4gb which is a good maximum.
- Set the minimum high enough so that you have more than enough to run as many programs as you would want to at once. Mine is 2gb, which is probably .5gb over what I need, but still good.
- - This ensures Windows will not be constantly resizing the swap file, improving performance.

And placing the swap file on a RAM disk is pointless. It would be better to turn of virtual memory and lose the RAM disk (or size down the disk). Of course, it's even better to have one on an HD.

Thanks for that thing about the services Jon`C, I actually didn't know it myself. I still think it's useful if you want to tweak memory usage.

DJ_Yoshi, I'll address your points when you drop the attitude problem. Simmer down.

[QUOTE=The Mega-ZZTer]- - This ensures Windows will not be constantly resizing the swap file, improving performance.[/QUOTE]
A lot of the advice I'm seeing in this thread seems to be based on recommendations from the Win9x days. Windows XP does things much more intelligently. I see we're covering the whole spectrum. :p

I'm going to continue advocating the default settings. Like I said: They're there for a reason. Windows XP will not continuously resize the swap file specifically because that's a massive performance penalty. Changes in the swap file size happen gradually, only when appropriate and the changes are usually in the upward direction. XP is much better designed than any of you seem to give it credit for.

Most of what I'm saying here is advice imparted to me from a Microsoft employee. SA folks here know who I'm talking about. They did these things for a reason and no amount of process termination memory hacking and jumper soldering tomfoolery is going to make Windows any better.

Edit: To jest, this tweaking is like neutering yourself to reduce wind resistance.

Yeah, that tweak was for 9x originally. :p

But, better no resizing than gradual, eh?

Or when you can come up with a reason why they're wrong. Oh wait--they're not.

And I was never angry, nor did I have a specific attitude problem towards you.

Yoshi isn't angry. He's just ignorant.