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CHAPPY1 · Feb 12, 2007, 06:46 PM

What Are You Doing When You Optimize Your Computer,
I Do It As Per Instructions, But I Have No Idea What I'm Doing Or How & Why It Is Helping My Compuer!!
Thank You To All Who Reply & Explain

ScottGem · Feb 12, 2007, 07:46 PM

It just means to make it run more smoothly.

CHAPPY1 · Feb 12, 2007, 09:20 PM

Well I knew that did something, but I really don't see any iprovement in starting up, which takes a good 35 seconds/or more, & I've checked all start up programs,& eliminated 6 programs from startup... so if it's doing something it's something I can't visibly see

TheSavage · Feb 13, 2007, 03:58 AM

Ok I am looking at my start menu and I see 15 programs that are enabled at startup, and about the same # disabled. How many do you have ? At this site you can download a zip that will tell you what you must have / can remove from your start menu
Startups - Contents

CHAPPY1 · Feb 13, 2007, 05:38 AM

Thank you both for answering,I do appreciate it
I have five (5) programs checked at startup
1. spysweeper
2.ccApp... part of norton(symantec)
3.sndmon... part of norton (symantec)
4. ohitp... identity theft
5.speed up my PC
All are programs I installed,with cd's,so they must be culprits taking time to get settled in @ startup
Thanks again appreciate your concern & help, I love to read these help letters, learn something every day

ScottGem · Feb 13, 2007, 06:36 AM

How long is your startup? Is the PC on a network? Also look at your services to see what is loading there.

CHAPPY1 · Feb 13, 2007, 08:58 AM

Never Had Checked Services Before,but Man I Have 54 Of Them Running,all

Are From Microsoft,puter Takes At Least 35 Seconds To Fireup From

Hibernation.

From A Cold Boot At Least A Full Minute,sitting There Seems Like I Could,

Go Shave Waiting For It To Load Up... man 54 "services" Seem Like A

Lot,but As I Said All Are From Microsoft, & I Sure Don't Really Know What

Services Are,or Do,& Which If Any To Get Rid Of!!

ScottGem · Feb 13, 2007, 09:33 AM

35 seconds to a minute isn't much, especially if you are on a network.

HVAC888 · Feb 13, 2007, 09:44 AM

Run msconfig at the "Run" prompt, and in the services tab and startup tab, uncheck the ones that are not necessary. The good thing with msconfig, is that it can be undone, if something doesn't work after.

There are many websites that explains each services / startup item in detail, so you can use that as a guide on what is considered non-essential.

On a side note, right after bootup, I have only 25 services running, and 2 of them are Adobe related startup items. From the startup screen to the desktop, only takes about 12 seconds:)

Lord_Darkclaw · Feb 13, 2007, 11:13 AM

My old AMD Athlon 1.3 takes almost 10 minutes to start up (to the point where I can connect to the internet). I think my new firewall is slowing it down a bit, but start-up always took at least 6-7 minutes.

Even the latest PC's take a little while to get going so don't expect to cut your start up time dramatically.

HVAC888 · Feb 13, 2007, 01:51 PM

Chappy1 - Glad I could help.

Lord Darkclaw - You are right. On this particular PC with the 12 second bootup, I stopped a lot of services and startup items and only installed basic Office apps. lightweight antivirus and a multi-tabbed browser. The apps do experience periodic crashes though, so there are probably some services that I shouldn't have disabled... :)

Curlyben · Feb 13, 2007, 02:06 PM

I've been reading this thread for a bit and I thought I'd jump in.
My new AMD 64 X2 multi-booting XP, Vista and Fedora core takes under 10 seconds to boot to XP.
On the XP splash screen the bar DOESN'T complete two scans ;)
I'm running about 25 services.
OK I've mentioned this app before and I'm going to mention it again.
CCleaner does an excellent job of keeping you system working well.
It clears out junk files, cleans the registry and does a really good job of controlling your start up programs.
The good thing about it is it's "safer" than playing around in MSCONFIG as this can cause problems.
All I have running at start up are AV, Spybot Teatimer, sound and video drivers, diskeeper and that's about it.
I have disabled all the scheduled updates (adobe, quicktime, java, etc) M$ office stuff, msn messenger etc.
Basically I have nothing in my startup folder. If I want to use a program I just fire it up. Why have it running in the background if you don't need to use it ?

Hope this has given you something to think about.

Ps I haven't touched any of the services, they are all standard.

HVAC888 · Feb 13, 2007, 02:23 PM

Curlyben - If you stopped a few services, you could probably bootup even faster :D

My configuration is very much like yours. I'm running an Athlon 3200+ on a ATI RS480 motherboard.

I was aways wary of optimizing software, but CCleaner looks very promising, 48 million downloads... Wow, I think I'll give it a try.. :)

Curlyben · Feb 13, 2007, 02:27 PM

HVAC, if you review some of my posts you'll see I highly recommend it, especially in my maintenance C&P.
It's no really an optimizer app more of a cleaner, hence the name ;)
Since I started using it regularly I have found my system to be more stable and faster.
There are a few things it misses, but overall for a free app it's excellent.
Also there are regular updates for it as well.
Does a good job for security as part of the junk removal is a delete of index.dat file as well as cookies and history.
You can set it to selective removal of cookies, which is great.

Ps My Fedora does start like greased lightening.

TheSavage · Feb 13, 2007, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by CHAPPY1

Never Had Checked Services Before,but Man I Have 54 Of Them Running,all

Are From Microsoft,puter Takes At Least 35 Seconds To Fireup From

Hibernation.

From A Cold Boot At Least A Full Minute,sitting There Seems Like I Could,

Go Shave Waiting For It To Load Up..................man 54 "services" Seem Like A

Lot,but As I Said All Are From Microsoft, & I Sure Don't Really Know What

Services Are,or Do,& Which If Any To Get Rid Of!!!!!!!!!

If you look those services up that are in the msconfig startup window in that zip file above it will tell you which ones are needed and which can be shut down.
2 things that always get on it are real one player and windows media player -- not needed on the start menu at all -- msn massager is bad for that to

TheSavage · Feb 13, 2007, 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by HVAC888

Curlyben - If you stopped a few services, you could probably bootup even faster :D

My configuration is very much like yours. I'm running an Athlon 3200+ on a ATI RS480 motherboard.

I was aways wary of optimizing software, but CCleaner looks very promising, 48 million downloads....Wow, I think I'll give it a try..:)

Ive used CCleanert for a year or so and its been good to me.