Mourning the loss of our friend, WhitPhil.
There's no such thing as a stupid question, but they're the easiest to answer.
JoinTour
Login
Search
 
Tech Tips & Tricks
Tag Cloud
access audio black screen blue screen boot bsod connection crash dell desktop driver drivers dvd email error excel firefox hard drive hardware hijackthis internet keyboard laptop malware monitor motherboard network networking outlook problem ram recovery router safe mode screen slow sound spyware trojan upgrade vba video virus vista vundo windows windows 7 windows vista windows xp wireless
Search
Search for:
Tech Support Guy Forums > General Technology > Tech Tips & Tricks >
Any Good "performance improvement" programs

Tip: Click here to scan for System Errors and Optimize PC performance
[ Sponsored Link ]

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Stoner's Avatar
Distinguished Member with 39,518 posts.
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Dayton,Oh
26-Mar-2007, 05:18 AM #16
Quote:
Originally Posted by dr911
Running 98SE.



I've tried to run services.msc. A little window pops up say....." Cannot find file 'services.msc' or( one of its compote(s)).

Is this for XP or what ??
For 98se you should use msconfig.
WhitPhil's Avatar
Computer Specs
Trusted Advisor - Gone but never forgotten with 9,280 posts.
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Whitby, Ontario
26-Mar-2007, 09:23 AM #17
Quote:
Originally Posted by dr911
Running 98SE.
I've tried to run services.msc. A little window pops up say....." Cannot find file 'services.msc' or( one of its compote(s)).

Is this for XP or what ??
"Services" are part of the XP architecture.
JohnWill's Avatar
Computer Specs
Moderator with 96,685 posts.
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: South Eastern PA, USA
Experience: Advanced age & experience
26-Mar-2007, 10:20 AM #18
Quote:
Originally Posted by ferrija1
After a while, though, it still has unused (but prefetched) things in there that slow it down when your computer starts.
Hmm... I think you need to re-think this piece of advice. XP automatically maintains this folder, no need for intervention.
XP systems have a Prefetch directory underneath the windows root directory, full of .pf files — these are lists of pages to load. The file names are generated from hashing the EXE to load — whenever you load the EXE, we hash, see if there’s a matching (exename)-(hash).pf file in the prefetch directory, and if so we load those pages. (If it doesn’t exist, we track what pages it loads, create that file, and pick a handful of them to save to it.) So, first off, it is a bad idea to periodically clean out that folder as some tech sites suggest. For one thing, XP will just re-create that data anyways; secondly, it trims the files anyways if there’s ever more than 128 of them so that it doesn’t needlessly consume space. So not only is deleting the directory totally unnecessary, but you’re also putting a temporary dent in your PC’s performance.
Quote:
Bottom line: You will not improve Windows performance by cleaning out the Prefetch folder. You will, in fact, degrade Windows performance by cleaning out the Prefetch folder. I’ve done performance testing that establishes this definitively. In all the many sites that offer this bogus tip, I have yet to see a single piece of actual performance testing
__________________
Remember: Data you don't have at least two copies of is data you don't care about.

Microsoft MVP - User Desktop Experience
ferrija1's Avatar
Computer Specs
Distinguished Member with 9,752 posts.
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Experience: Mac Addict
26-Mar-2007, 05:08 PM #19
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnWill
Hmm... I think you need to re-think this piece of advice. XP automatically maintains this folder, no need for intervention.
XP systems have a Prefetch directory underneath the windows root directory, full of .pf files — these are lists of pages to load. The file names are generated from hashing the EXE to load — whenever you load the EXE, we hash, see if there’s a matching (exename)-(hash).pf file in the prefetch directory, and if so we load those pages. (If it doesn’t exist, we track what pages it loads, create that file, and pick a handful of them to save to it.) So, first off, it is a bad idea to periodically clean out that folder as some tech sites suggest. For one thing, XP will just re-create that data anyways; secondly, it trims the files anyways if there’s ever more than 128 of them so that it doesn’t needlessly consume space. So not only is deleting the directory totally unnecessary, but you’re also putting a temporary dent in your PC’s performance.
I read somewhere that you should clean it out, but that convinced me you shouldn't.

You win.
WhitPhil's Avatar
Computer Specs
Trusted Advisor - Gone but never forgotten with 9,280 posts.
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Whitby, Ontario
26-Mar-2007, 05:17 PM #20
Quote:
Originally Posted by ferrija1
I read somewhere that you should clean it out, but that convinced me you shouldn't.

You win.
It's the age old axiom, don't believe half of what you read and question the other half.
jhpolk's Avatar
Junior Member with 1 posts.
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Experience: Only my point of view
27-Mar-2007, 07:24 PM #21
Cut to the Chase
A few things to look at when tring to clean a computer
Ad-aware Pesonal Additon (free)
Spybot Search and Destroy 1.4 (free)
Avast Antivirus home (free)
ccleaner (free)
if you have xp-Microsoft Defender (free)

Download the above program, let them update and run there scan. Ad-aware and Spybot will take from 15 to 20 minutes each CCleaner will remove all of the leftover progams (eg. temp files, internet temp files, cookie) Avast is a good free antivirus that to me has shown it sees and remove more viruses that AVG, Norton, McAfee or Trend Micro. If you have XP or Vista you would need to have the Microsoft Defender (at Microsoft's download page) It will get it's updates via Microsoft Updates. After runing all those program you can us 'msconfig' to temporary stop program that are starting at startup. The nice thing about msconfig is that you can go back and have programs you need without any trouble or reloading. Unchecking in msconfig is easy and you can start by stoping most of the items.
If thing still keep recreating themselfs in msconfig you may want to try 'hijackthis'. I leave this to last hoping I don't need to use it. If not careful you can disable services you need.

Take all this and do some research on these programs to see if you could use them. To me I still am looking for the one progam or fix that will work but by the time if think I found it, the problem changes and I have to look even more.

Happy Computing
jhpolk
ferrija1's Avatar
Computer Specs
Distinguished Member with 9,752 posts.
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Experience: Mac Addict
27-Mar-2007, 10:30 PM #22
Quote:
Originally Posted by WhitPhil
It's the age old axiom, don't believe half of what you read and question the other half.
LitomoSilver's Avatar
Computer Specs
Senior Member with 1,507 posts.
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Wandering amidst the stars...
Experience: Advanced
02-Apr-2007, 06:21 PM #23
And use RegSeeker too!

Great registry cleaner!
SlimJimmy's Avatar
Junior Member with 20 posts.
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Covington, La.
Experience: Trying my hardest to learn everything I can.
06-Apr-2007, 05:59 PM #24
I use two freeware apps. on a regular basis - CCleaner and RegSeeker. CCleaner gets rid of the CRAP (Hence the name CCleaner) that accumulates on your hard drive and which isn't needed. As far as RegSeeker goes, I know that some very great people who post here, especially JohnWill (whom I respect very much and who's posts I really enjoy reading daily and religously), think that messing with the registry is very dangerous and unecessary, some of us are just anal and can't help ourselves. I've been using it for a very long time, I only select the green items and I've never had any adverse effects. It also automatically makes a backup before cleaning. Advanced Windows Care is also a very good app. But you have to know what you're doing with that one with version 2. Anyways, just my thoughts.
LitomoSilver's Avatar
Computer Specs
Senior Member with 1,507 posts.
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Wandering amidst the stars...
Experience: Advanced
13-Apr-2007, 08:28 PM #25
Yeah, Advanced Windows Care is good too.

And it helps inoculate your computer against lots of things, just like SpyBot S&D does.
rpbreno's Avatar
Computer Specs
Junior Member with 4 posts.
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Experience: Intermediate
18-Apr-2007, 12:12 AM #26
Speed up your Computer.
Have you tried defraging? Diskeeper 10 is software everyone should have.Set it for screen saver and you will be defraged every time the screen saver comes on. Also, hit control. alt and delete to bring up Task Manager. At the top of Task Manager you will see a pull down called View. Click on update SPEED and click on fast. Also, while you are in Task Manager you can check your CPU use, memory and etc.
Good Luck and Take Care
rpbreno
kingy169's Avatar
Junior Member with 9 posts.
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Experience: Intermediate
23-Apr-2007, 07:02 AM #27
I have not seen anyone say anything about drive zappers, I use a program that I got (not at home can't rem the full name) from a comuter magazine, it seems to be a good program. Basicly what it does is delete programs/files that have been deleted from your computer over the months/years and when I have used it on different PC's it has varied from the amount deleted. I got a new hard drive and after about 3 months I run the drive zapper, it wiped 40gb of c**p off my computer. I then ran it on another one and it deleted 87gb. I then ran it on another computer (quite old) and it deleted 127gb of deleted information. So for you people who want to give your system a full cleanup, do the main things first. Like disc cleanup, run programs such as ccleaner, adaware, avg, spybot, plus many other ways you do it. then get a drive zapper. I then use Diskeeper after all this, I have found systems after a good clean out then run drive zapper and Diskeeper they speed up a alot. I hope people have found this helpfull.
ferrija1's Avatar
Computer Specs
Distinguished Member with 9,752 posts.
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Experience: Mac Addict
23-Apr-2007, 08:00 AM #28
Quote:
Originally Posted by rpbreno
Have you tried defraging? Diskeeper 10 is software everyone should have.Set it for screen saver and you will be defraged every time the screen saver comes on. Also, hit control. alt and delete to bring up Task Manager. At the top of Task Manager you will see a pull down called View. Click on update SPEED and click on fast. Also, while you are in Task Manager you can check your CPU use, memory and etc.
Good Luck and Take Care
rpbreno
1. Newer, hard-drives do not benefit much from defragmenting, though it is not a bad idea to defragment every couple of months.
2. There is such thing as over defragmenting (it's really using the hard drive too much) , so you should not defragment every time the screen saver starts.
__________________
An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
JohnWill's Avatar
Computer Specs
Moderator with 96,685 posts.
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: South Eastern PA, USA
Experience: Advanced age & experience
23-Apr-2007, 09:12 AM #29
Quote:
Originally Posted by ferrija1
1. Newer, hard-drives do not benefit much from defragmenting, though it is not a bad idea to defragment every couple of months.
HUH? There has been no change in the benefits of defragmenting the filesystem since the dawn of time. The age of the hard disk in question does not change that fact.
ferrija1's Avatar
Computer Specs
Distinguished Member with 9,752 posts.
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Experience: Mac Addict
23-Apr-2007, 05:29 PM #30
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnWill
HUH? There has been no change in the benefits of defragmenting the filesystem since the dawn of time. The age of the hard disk in question does not change that fact.
I always thought newer hard drives did not benefit as much as older drives as they are faster. Now I'm confused.
Closed Thread Bookmark and Share

THIS THREAD HAS EXPIRED.
Are you having the same problem? We have volunteers ready to answer your question, but first you'll have to join for free. Need help getting started? Check out our Welcome Guide.

Smart Search

Find your solution!



Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
WELCOME TO TECH SUPPORT GUY! Are you looking for the solution to your computer problem? Join our site today to ask your question -- for free! Our site is run completely by volunteers who want to help you solve your computer problems. See our Welcome Guide to get started.

Thread Tools


You Are Using:
Server ID
Advertisements do not imply our endorsement of that product or service.
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:12 PM.
Copyright © 1996 - 2009 TechGuy, Inc. All rights reserved.
Powered by vBulletin, Copyright © 2000 - 2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Powered by Cermak Technologies, Inc.