This link has been bookmarked by 149 people . It was first bookmarked on 06 Aug 2008, by Lou Lou.
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10base TomAs a tech writer, one of my biggest pet peeves is the plethora of bad advice littered across almost every web site dedicated to system tweaking. Besides the tweaks that simply don't work, some of them will actually cause your computer to run even slower—or worse. Let's examine some of the most offensive myths out there regarding PC performance tweaking, and debunk them once and for all.
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• micha •As a tech writer one of my biggest pet peeves is the plethora of bad advice littered across almost every
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For the uninitiated, these are the only tools you need to clean out your startup programs, services, and to even remove most viruses by hand.
- Boot into Safe Mode
- Install Startup.cpl
- Only leave important things such as antivirus and printer drivers in your startup. Most other things will load themselves when you need them. No use wasting ram and cpu cycles.
- Run Hijack This
- Remove anything that looks suspicious. Google what each line means, usually this list can be cut in half to kill off Internet explorer toolbars, viruses, spyware, and bloat services.
- Run CCleaner to clean our your temp folders to ensure that none of that spyware was hiding out anywhere.
- Run services.msc in the Start->run box.
- Turn all bloat services to manual. These include things like "Remote Registry" which is only for domains, "Wireless Zero Configuration" if you don't even have a wireless card in your pc, or "Apple iPod Service" if you don't even have an ipod. Again, Google things that look unnecessary, are third party, or don't have a description field.Remember: Whenever you see something like "CrazySearchToolbar.exe" or "xnelwidh.exe" you can probably be pretty sure that it's not supposed to be there.
Anyway, Reboot the machine back into normal mode. When done properly, this will usually clean out most spyware, viruses, trojans, and bloatware hiding out on the system. Just about any computer can be taken back to a vanilla XP install with this process. I don't reformat anymore. This process will speed up just about any computer.
I call it the Holy Trinity. Startup.cpl, Hijack This, and CCleaner.
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Though this may be veering off topic, if you want a fast computer, to my mind it's all about choosing the most efficient options for what you need...
For my very low-powered silent pc I found that getting shot of explorer.exe was the most astute decision I made.
I run XP, but I replaced the shell with Go! Light and use powerpro for my taskbar, Traymodule for the tray and FreeCommander for the file manager - this uses about a quarter of the resources of the default shell. (I did use BlackBox as my shell for a bit - another top option, but my new combination hasn't caused quite the same degree of culture shock for my wife!)
Pair this with some lean applications like K-MeleonCCF ME, Foobar2000 and utorrent and, despite having about as much juice as a clock radio, the thing flys. Plus it's loads more configurable too.
Linkage:
Go! Light - [www.shellcity.net]
powerpro - [powerpro.webeddie.com]
Traymodule - [am-productions.biz]
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FirstN@me L@stN@meAs a tech writer one of my biggest pet peeves is the plethora of bad advice littered across almost every
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Debunking Common Windows Performance Tweaking Myths
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Debunking Common Windows Performance Tweaking Myths
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