XP assistance

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Dec 4, 2003 | 08:49 PM

88grandmarquis

Thread Starter

Laughing Gas

Joined: Nov 2002

Posts: 1,143

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XP assistance

Couple of questions.

1. It seems to be running a bit sluggish. Any way to speed it up? There seems to be a lot of things running when I go under "start-run-msconfig-services". Anyone know if thinning out the running programs will help speed it up? Anything that I should keep running?

2. I can't upload any images on any sites. It will sit and think for a few minutes, then say "page cannot be displayed". Nothing I do seems to work. Wondering if anyone can help.

Thanks. Sorry for the many Q's, but I'm trying to adjust to XP.

Edit: Just found over a dozen WinXP "hotfix" programs under "add/remove programs". What are these and why so many? Can they be removed?

Last edited by 88grandmarquis; Dec 4, 2003 at 09:16 PM.

Dec 4, 2003 | 09:28 PM

Andysutt

Postmaster

Joined: Jan 2003

Posts: 3,775

Likes: 2

From: Conway Arkansas

The hotfix is updates from Windows
leave them, you'll need them.
Im not sure on what to delete, as Im not sure exactly what you have installed. but maybe the slowness uploading images is your internet or your PC?

Dec 4, 2003 | 10:14 PM

wesg

Freshman User

Joined: Mar 2003

Posts: 42

Likes: 0

Hey 88GrandMarquis,
See if these are any help. I do not use XP, I prefer to stick with Win98 and am playing with Linux. These are from a newsletter I subscribe to.

"Ten Ways to make Windows XP Run Better" http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011204S0009

"System Setup Secrets For XP," and it's at http://www.informationweek.com/story...cleID=12803122

wes

Dec 4, 2003 | 10:50 PM

hyepwrd

Senior User

Joined: Sep 2003

Posts: 149

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Re: XP assistance

1. yes. a lot of programs normally start themselves up with the computer by default when you install them and you have to take them out. if not they run in the background. its probably the best thing to do, assuming you do defrag and cleanup frequently.
2. probably firewall settings, if not, internet explorer settings.

hope that helps. if someone can get more technical, they'll just roll eyes at my reply and give you more. good luck.

Dec 4, 2003 | 11:22 PM

modru2004

Elder User

Joined: May 2003

Posts: 500

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From: Wichita Falls

first of all disable any programs you do not need running all the time so they do not run at startup, this keeps you from having to open task manager and close them. you can close anything that says its being run by the user, if its system its best to be left alone unless your an expert user, as some of them can be closed off. go to run and type in msconfig and go to the startup tab, thats where you can stop the programs from loading. other than clearing out excess background programs you can't do anything more for your performance unless you want to upgrade. when you say images im assuming that it won't load webpages? what type of internet connection do you have? dialup or broadband? and did it just start doing this out of the blue? if it just started happing the servers at your isp could be having issues. also note that some windows hotfixes can slow your computer or even cause worse issues. so i would leave those be unless you know what your doing. defrag and make sure your hd isn't fragmented into a jillion pieces, as that will hurt performance.

Dec 5, 2003 | 04:45 AM

droptop

Senior User

Joined: May 2003

Posts: 336

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Is this slowdown happening when you are on the internet? (The reason I'm asking is because of your second question) Get Spybot Search and Destroy and run a scan on your computer. Spyware/malware can cause a tremendous slowdown on your computer.

As for the hotfixes, your machine probably has Windows Automatic updates enabled and is downloading and installing the hotfixes on it's own. It makes it easy because you don't have to remember to check for updates, but you also get every patch that Microsoft puts out for XP. Many of them you may not need and/or are not applicable to your situation. I pick what hotfixes to download and I never take what Microsoft says I need at 100% face value.