How do I make my computer start up quicker?

Soldato
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Blythe
How do I make my computer start up quicker? It was really quick when it was new but as soon as I loaded games and music onto it, it has become really slow. Could getting more hard drives to seperate music games and OS make it quicker?

Thanks
 
Soldato
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Try defragging your harddrive, run a couple programs like CCleaner and RegSeeker to remove any rubbish on your system and clean out the registry. Try disabling any services you don't need and stopping any programs from loading on boot thats the main cause of slow down.

I use different harddrives for different stuff on my PC, I keep my OS and games on one drive as this gives it the most speed and the hard drive doesn't get filled up with junk:)
 
Soldato
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If you've installed stuff like media players (RealPlayer, QuickTime, iTunes and Winamp), they'll often have added start-up programs too (usually shown next to the clock). Go through the options of any non-vital programs that are showing there, and disable them from starting (or you can use 'msconfig').

If you have an afternoon free, you could use the XP Tweak Guide at www.tweakguides.com - it's a long, detailed PDF file, but if you flick through it you should be able to get to the good stuff. The services guide is especially useful; by default XP starts a lot of services that aren't required.

There's a program called Bootvis that can help a bit too.
 
Soldato
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Just out of interest here are the services that I run, most of the ones I've disabled aren't any use for a home user and it still leaves me with total functionality. Might still be worth reading through the PDF to see what each one does though and whether or not you need it:)

streeta-services2.jpg
 
Caporegime
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cant emphasise enough about the system tray

nearly every pc i look at for a mate is full of pointless quicktray apps that arent required. Winzip quick pick / windvd cinema manager / quicktime tray app/ etc.. all come from installing everyday apps

get rid of them all !!!

i have only about 4 things in my system tray, of which all have to be there and cant be removed unfortunately
 
Associate
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Yes above really I had the same problem with my computer starting up soooo slowly, but i used msconfig, and removed everyday rubbish you don't need and it helps bigtime
 
Associate
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Try msconfig (from the Run... prompt). This will allow you to go through some of those pointless task tray programs and stop them from running. Only work with the startup page unless you really know what you are doing.

(It is best to try and find the option within the utility to tell it to stop running in the task tray. Quicktime, Winzip, Winamp all have options like this. But things like Real player are pretty anti-social. Too many programs want to "check for updates" everyday... And why does Adobe need to pre-load Acrobat every time I boot a PC?)


Another thing that is needed is space on your C drive. Make sure you havn't got it jammed up to the max.


Check for spyware.


Clear out your temp folders. (%temp% into Run... and then delete everything in there)
 
Associate
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Somewhere East of Eden
MAllen said:
Try msconfig (from the Run... prompt). This will allow you to go through some of those pointless task tray programs and stop them from running. Only work with the startup page unless you really know what you are doing.

(It is best to try and find the option within the utility to tell it to stop running in the task tray. Quicktime, Winzip, Winamp all have options like this. But things like Real player are pretty anti-social. Too many programs want to "check for updates" everyday... And why does Adobe need to pre-load Acrobat every time I boot a PC?)

Sometimes when I've removed items from Start-up using msconfig they appear on the next bootup. And annoyingly they list themselves below, on a separate line, rather than just puting the tick back in the box. The msconfig box always appears smaller than I would like.

Are there any solutions? (I don't want to uninstall the programs)

Thanx
 
Don
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run hijackthis and post the log here..

run ccleaner to clear out temp files, and do a defrag :)

what av are you using, if its norton or mcaffee, then uninstall them and put nod32 on

-edit, don't use msconfig, it doesn't show all startup entires ;)
 
Associate
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Belly said:
Sometimes when I've removed items from Start-up using msconfig they appear on the next bootup. And annoyingly they list themselves below, on a separate line, rather than just puting the tick back in the box. The msconfig box always appears smaller than I would like.

Are there any solutions? (I don't want to uninstall the programs)

Thanx
The best way to stop programs from your task tray is to go into the progams and find the option pages and then look for the tasktray option in there.

For those that don't supply the option, just choose "exit" from their menus to quit the program.

For those that don't supply a "quit", use task manager to zap them out of existance.

Then goto msconfig and untick them. As the program is now not running, it shouldn't put itself back into the tray.

Re: msconfig - the window is stuck at one size (though I think the Win9x one's can be resized). There was a day when we all used to use 800x600 screens and that wouldn't of mattered. And the reason you are seeing items being "reinserted" is because msconfig is only a prettified front end to the more complex registry. So when you "untick" there is actually work occuring to the registry to remove the item from the relevant section and "back it up" elsewhere. So when a program comes along and puts it's settings back, you then end up with the two entries - one ticked, and one unticked. So it is not a bug, but a feature. :)


Also listen to bledd. He is dead right with his suggestions. I will totally backup that comment about removeing the bloatware that is McAfee and Norton and replace with NOD32 or I personally use AVG Free (http://free.grisoft.com). This can give you a huge speed increase - especially if you are low on RAM (under 512MB in XP)

The note about msconfig not showing everything is also worth noting if you think you have been infected with a virus. There are a number of other places things can hide. HijackThis is a big friend. :) Learn how to use it :)
 
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