How long does it take for your computer to boot up from the time you click on restart to the time you are able to be back up at your desktop with no hourglass.
60 seconds
90 seconds
2 minutes
2.5 minutes
3 minutes
More than 3 minutes
or
None of the above...."my computer hangs on shutdown indefinitely so I have to turn it off and on manually to get it to restart".
I did not know how to create one of those polls so I just posted the questions. Answer if you have time. This is interesting. There have been lots of reported problems surrounding this subject in Windows 95 & 98. It got better with Windows 2000. It is supposed to be even better with Windows XP (or so they say).
These tricks have been helpful to me to in trying to configure my son's Sony laptop with XP. (I run Win 98 on my desktop, due to being too cheap to buy a new scanner, among other things)
I used the screencapture tricks to capture the running tasks on his XP machine. My question is this:
1. With 98 I typically end task on everything except systray and explorer when I 9install new programs. What would be the comparable processes to keep running in XP when Installing?
2. Could you point me to a site that tells what are the typical running apps on an XP machine? I suspect that he has too many going right after bootup. There are 26 at that time. I suspect some of them are due to the proprietary nature of the Sony laptop, but I don't know for sure. I am now gonna see if I can use that link to learn what some of them are.
To do the same thing, you right click on the bottom bar and select Task Manager.
However, most of the vital processes (in XP, NT, and W2K they're called "services") are just that--vital. Memory protection really works across program boundaries in XP, unlike in Windows9x, so it's not necessary to kill programs first.
"If you use your computer more than a few hours per day, we suggest you not to turn off your computer at the end of the day. Instead turn off only the monitor to save electricity. Daily power up and down makes the components exposed to high and low temperature cycles that are not good for the life-time of the components, particularly the critical ones such as hard drives, CPU, and memory. The temperature cycle would result in expansion-shrinking cycle for the components. The life-time of electronic components would be increased if they are run at constant temperature through adequate ventilation."
Except that hard drives really are "moving parts" and the more they run, the more wear you put on them. If you're going to leave your computer on, make sure you set the power saving features to turn off the harddrives after an hour of non-use.
The temperature thing may have been true in the days of the 486 and MS-DOS, but every Microsoft operating system based on the NT kernel (that means NT, Win2000, and WinXP) does automatic CPU-throttling, in effect shutting the power to the CPU off when it isn't actively running programs. There were utilities to do this under Win9x, like Rain and Waterfall, if memory serves. In other words, when you're using your computer, the CPU temperature is going to shoot up, then fall back when it starts to idle. This temp swing is much greater and frequent than the idle->ambient temp swing when you shut the sytem down, so the point is moot. My CPU idles at about 110 degrees F, going up to 150 degrees F under full load. Heat kills.
I need an answer to a problem that just developed. Somehow I have gotten a different look to the bottom tray on my screen. I have one about double wide now and "Desktop" is listed as well as "My Documents". How do I get it back to the one thin line tray that I had before?
I have one about double wide now and "Desktop" is listed as well as "My Documents". How do I get it back to the one thin line tray that I had before?
LB, you might be able to put your cursor near the top of that tray. if it changes to an up/down arrow thing, you can drag it back down to proper size. (Or almost hide it completely)
I have one about double wide now and "Desktop" is listed as well as "My Documents". How do I get it back to the one thin line tray that I had before?
LB, you might be able to put your cursor near the top of that tray. if it changes to an up/down arrow thing, you can drag it back down to proper size. (Or almost hide it completely)
I have one about double wide now and "Desktop" is listed as well as "My Documents". How do I get it back to the one thin line tray that I had before?
LB, you might be able to put your cursor near the top of that tray. if it changes to an up/down arrow thing, you can drag it back down to proper size. (Or almost hide it completely)
I tried that and it doesn't work. It has worked before but not now for some reason.
Is the task bar the only thing that is bigger than usual on your desktop and programs? I thought it might be an appearance setting (Control Panel>Display> appearance) but most of those settings would affect more than just the taskbar. ie caption button size setting. You might save your current scheme as something you remember (I use dates to help remember the latest scheme) Then try adjusting the settings for variou of the items listed.
I dunno what else, hopefully Igotout or someone will pop in here to help you soon. I am no expert, just a trial and error person.
It's gotta be something simple. I have the same advice as Hap said. Just try and work with it. Do you mean "Show Desktop" icon is there or something called Desktop?
This must be one of the reasons XP gives us a feature that you can turn on or off called "lock the taskbar". I am certain it was invented because the dumb taskbar can go all over the place sometimes, as you may have experienced.
But I do not like the feature so I turned mine off.
Are you using Windows 98, 2000, or XP? XP seems to give us the best taskbar management of all. Pretty nice and easy to fix.
Try right-clicking on the taskbar, then click "Properties".
If nothing else, you can always set it to "auto hide". What this does is hide the taskbar when it's not in use. It "unhides" when you move your mouse down where the taskbar is supposed to be, or when you hit the "start" button on your keyboard.
[This message was edited by Steve! on May 23, 2003 at 13:11.]
[This message was edited by Steve! on May 24, 2003 at 11:57.]
By now I would think everyoe must know what USB is. We have all plugged something into our USB port such as a keyboard or mouse or printer.
After years of USB 1 there is a big improvement; USB 2 which is 40 times faster than USB 1 and faster than firewire. It is here to stay. Say goodbye and good riddance to USB1 and possibly firewire.
I installed a USB 2 card and it is really fast (when you are using a USB 2 device of course.)
Ever had problems with your computer not shutting down properly or hanging on shutdown or taking forever to shut down? I have.
I thought with XP this problem would go away completely but apparently it still happens, though not as bad as with Windows 98 or 95.
Unfortunately, this is not an easy thing to trace down. It could be a number of things ranging from hardware to software. You can find more info about it on the internet.
Here are two things I have found and proved beyond doubt that caused slowdowns on my system which is XP Professional.
1. A service that was running called NVIDIA Driver Helper service. Go to "services" and stop it from running and put it on disable or manual. It is not needed. It may be there if you have a graphics card that has the NVIDIA chipset and have NVIDIA's recent drivers.
2. Incredibly, the latest drivers from Logitech for their nice looking "Elite Keyboard" caused a complete hang on shutdown. When uninstalled all problems disappeared. I reinstalled and uninstalled them several times to test this. Needless to say I am returning this keyboard. I alerted Logitech but they will probably hide the truth from the general public as is the manner of most big tech companies. Either that or they will blame it on Microsoft.
Now I am back to an almost immediate shutdown again. Why should we all be bothered with this at all??!! Why can't they make it like an automobile complete with ignition and key?
Imagine having to wait 2 minutes for your car to turn off or that it wouldn't shut off at all unless you unhooked the battery?
[This message was edited by igotout on January 28, 2003 at 19:50.]
You ned to have to have your desired picture posted on an internet site. Then you have to link it according to the basic instructions using the path where that picture is located. For further questions I would post on that thread. Maybe other want to learn how to do this as well and someone can be more specific there.
Act2
Though I grew up in KY, my ministry time there was only two years, 1974 - 1976. I have fond memories of Doug McMullan and Randy Anderson, Limb coors back then. They were pretty cool. I was in Fellow Laborers back then with the Right Rev., righteous, stubborn Mr. Bill Green who (for some ungodly reason) is still in.
Keep in mind, if you disable a service, you MAY cause unexpected results, so only disable ONE service at a time, then reboot, and see if everything is as it should be. If not, set the service back to it's original state.
If you prefer to use the registry to tweak services, go here:
Bluzeman - nice link about services. I especially like their detailed explanations.
For those who may not know how the heck to find Services:
1. Right click My Computer / click on Manage/ Expand Services & Applications / Click on Services
2. Go to Start / Settings / Administrative Tools / click on Services or right click on it and Send to Desktop as a convenient shortcut.
Back to that article. I am no expert but I do not like the idea of disabling unneeded Services rather than to stop the services and set them to Manual.
I have been told that setting a service to manual is safer because if it is really needed by a process on your computer then it is available. Meanwhile, the Sevice is still stopped and unused. Setting a service to Disabled turns it off permanently. Am I wrong?
I think it is a good idea to compare and read other such sites as the one you listed and get multiple opinions about which services to turn off and on. Here is one I kinda liked. (But he also says to disable which I tend to disagree with).
After all, it is just these guys opinions and experience. Not always correct. For example, the guy in your article says
"So you have had Windows XP for a few months now.. but you have found that it has became slower and slower by the passing weeks" ..... "If you want a quick way to speed up your computer, continue reading!"
IMHO stopping or disabling services will not necessarily give your computer more speed if it has begun to slow.
In my limited experience, slower and slower usually means the user has lots of things going wrong ranging from installing old outdated programs (meant for Windows 95) to improper network configurations to having tons of stuff running in MSCONGIG as well as possible hardware related issues.
That being said, I have turned of quite a few of these unnecessary services. It can only do good if not needed.
[This message was edited by igotout on January 31, 2003 at 22:16.]
Here is another example of a guys' opininion on a service found on yet another site. I disagree with his view:
-----------------------------------------
"Error Reporting Service
Microsoft Description - Allows error reporting for services and applictions running in non-standard environments.
Human Description - When something crashes (quite frequently) and Windows pops up and advises you to tell Microsoft all about it, that is the fruit of this service's loins
One of my pet hates, If something crashes I will scream at the monitor and stamp my feet as I please; I don't need to tell Microsoft that I'm doing it.
Recommended for home PC - Disabled"
-----------------------------------
Though I do not ever report the error, I like to see that message pop up if something crashes. If it happens very frequently it is a reminder that something is seriously wrong and needs to be corrected. Things shouldn't crash "quite frequently" as he states. Otherwise there is a problem somewhere in your system that needs to be investigated.
I agree on wanting to know if something goes wrong. But I THINK...now I'm not sure but THINK that if you disable, or set to manual, the error reporting service, you will still get an error message...just not the send to microsoft thing.
On disable vs manual...I think the only difference is you can't start a service that has been disabled till you re-enable it.
One word to anyone who wants to try any of these...and I can't stress this enough...only stop ONE service at a time, then reboot and see if everything still works properly! Last thing you want is to stop a whole bunch of stuff and then reboot and see a blue screen with a stop error! (Trust me on this...it isn't pretty)
If you have a typical installation, many services are configured as "automatic" (that is, they start automatically when the system starts or when the service is called for the first time). If a service is configured as "manual," you must start the service manually before it can be loaded by the operating system and made available for use. If a service is configured as "disabled," it cannot be started automatically or manually.
For more info, open services in mmc then click help and search for services.
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igotout
How long does it take for your computer to boot up from the time you click on restart to the time you are able to be back up at your desktop with no hourglass.
60 seconds
90 seconds
2 minutes
2.5 minutes
3 minutes
More than 3 minutes
or
None of the above...."my computer hangs on shutdown indefinitely so I have to turn it off and on manually to get it to restart".
I did not know how to create one of those polls so I just posted the questions. Answer if you have time. This is interesting. There have been lots of reported problems surrounding this subject in Windows 95 & 98. It got better with Windows 2000. It is supposed to be even better with Windows XP (or so they say).
What is your experience?
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HAPe4me
John zix, Goey et al,
These tricks have been helpful to me to in trying to configure my son's Sony laptop with XP. (I run Win 98 on my desktop, due to being too cheap to buy a new scanner, among other things)
I used the screencapture tricks to capture the running tasks on his XP machine. My question is this:
1. With 98 I typically end task on everything except systray and explorer when I 9install new programs. What would be the comparable processes to keep running in XP when Installing?
2. Could you point me to a site that tells what are the typical running apps on an XP machine? I suspect that he has too many going right after bootup. There are 26 at that time. I suspect some of them are due to the proprietary nature of the Sony laptop, but I don't know for sure. I am now gonna see if I can use that link to learn what some of them are.
TIA,
HAPe4me
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Zixar
To do the same thing, you right click on the bottom bar and select Task Manager.
However, most of the vital processes (in XP, NT, and W2K they're called "services") are just that--vital. Memory protection really works across program boundaries in XP, unlike in Windows9x, so it's not necessary to kill programs first.
They finally play nice with others...
:)-->
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igotout
The debate continues. I read this:
"If you use your computer more than a few hours per day, we suggest you not to turn off your computer at the end of the day. Instead turn off only the monitor to save electricity. Daily power up and down makes the components exposed to high and low temperature cycles that are not good for the life-time of the components, particularly the critical ones such as hard drives, CPU, and memory. The temperature cycle would result in expansion-shrinking cycle for the components. The life-time of electronic components would be increased if they are run at constant temperature through adequate ventilation."
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Zixar
Except that hard drives really are "moving parts" and the more they run, the more wear you put on them. If you're going to leave your computer on, make sure you set the power saving features to turn off the harddrives after an hour of non-use.
The temperature thing may have been true in the days of the 486 and MS-DOS, but every Microsoft operating system based on the NT kernel (that means NT, Win2000, and WinXP) does automatic CPU-throttling, in effect shutting the power to the CPU off when it isn't actively running programs. There were utilities to do this under Win9x, like Rain and Waterfall, if memory serves. In other words, when you're using your computer, the CPU temperature is going to shoot up, then fall back when it starts to idle. This temp swing is much greater and frequent than the idle->ambient temp swing when you shut the sytem down, so the point is moot. My CPU idles at about 110 degrees F, going up to 150 degrees F under full load. Heat kills.
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L.B.
I need an answer to a problem that just developed. Somehow I have gotten a different look to the bottom tray on my screen. I have one about double wide now and "Desktop" is listed as well as "My Documents". How do I get it back to the one thin line tray that I had before?
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HAPe4me
LB, you might be able to put your cursor near the top of that tray. if it changes to an up/down arrow thing, you can drag it back down to proper size. (Or almost hide it completely)
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L.B.
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L.B.
I tried that and it doesn't work. It has worked before but not now for some reason.
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HAPe4me
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by L.B.:
I have one about double wide now and "Desktop" is listed as well as "My Documents". How do I get it back to the one thin line tray that I had before?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is the task bar the only thing that is bigger than usual on your desktop and programs? I thought it might be an appearance setting (Control Panel>Display> appearance) but most of those settings would affect more than just the taskbar. ie caption button size setting. You might save your current scheme as something you remember (I use dates to help remember the latest scheme) Then try adjusting the settings for variou of the items listed.
I dunno what else, hopefully Igotout or someone will pop in here to help you soon. I am no expert, just a trial and error person.
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igotout
It's gotta be something simple. I have the same advice as Hap said. Just try and work with it. Do you mean "Show Desktop" icon is there or something called Desktop?
This must be one of the reasons XP gives us a feature that you can turn on or off called "lock the taskbar". I am certain it was invented because the dumb taskbar can go all over the place sometimes, as you may have experienced.
But I do not like the feature so I turned mine off.
Are you using Windows 98, 2000, or XP? XP seems to give us the best taskbar management of all. Pretty nice and easy to fix.
More details needed.
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Steve!
Try right-clicking on the taskbar, then click "Properties".
If nothing else, you can always set it to "auto hide". What this does is hide the taskbar when it's not in use. It "unhides" when you move your mouse down where the taskbar is supposed to be, or when you hit the "start" button on your keyboard.
[This message was edited by Steve! on May 23, 2003 at 13:11.]
[This message was edited by Steve! on May 24, 2003 at 11:57.]
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igotout
USB 2
By now I would think everyoe must know what USB is. We have all plugged something into our USB port such as a keyboard or mouse or printer.
After years of USB 1 there is a big improvement; USB 2 which is 40 times faster than USB 1 and faster than firewire. It is here to stay. Say goodbye and good riddance to USB1 and possibly firewire.
I installed a USB 2 card and it is really fast (when you are using a USB 2 device of course.)
Read all about it here;
USB 2 explanation
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igotout
Ever had problems with your computer not shutting down properly or hanging on shutdown or taking forever to shut down? I have.
I thought with XP this problem would go away completely but apparently it still happens, though not as bad as with Windows 98 or 95.
Unfortunately, this is not an easy thing to trace down. It could be a number of things ranging from hardware to software. You can find more info about it on the internet.
Here are two things I have found and proved beyond doubt that caused slowdowns on my system which is XP Professional.
1. A service that was running called NVIDIA Driver Helper service. Go to "services" and stop it from running and put it on disable or manual. It is not needed. It may be there if you have a graphics card that has the NVIDIA chipset and have NVIDIA's recent drivers.
2. Incredibly, the latest drivers from Logitech for their nice looking "Elite Keyboard" caused a complete hang on shutdown. When uninstalled all problems disappeared. I reinstalled and uninstalled them several times to test this. Needless to say I am returning this keyboard. I alerted Logitech but they will probably hide the truth from the general public as is the manner of most big tech companies. Either that or they will blame it on Microsoft.
Now I am back to an almost immediate shutdown again. Why should we all be bothered with this at all??!! Why can't they make it like an automobile complete with ignition and key?
Imagine having to wait 2 minutes for your car to turn off or that it wouldn't shut off at all unless you unhooked the battery?
[This message was edited by igotout on January 28, 2003 at 19:50.]
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igotout
Go here for all manner of boot disks.
http://www.bootdisk.com/
You can also boot up with the windows CD if you make your CD one of your 1st items to be recognized upon boot up.
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act2
John, how can I put my own picture on my avatar?
I am from KY also. Lived there from 1956 thru 1989, except 2 years when I went WOW.
In twi, 1975 till 1994.
The decisions we make today form our future.
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igotout
Hi act2
Go to this thread and I believe there are some simple instructions on how to do that.
Thread about Avatars
You ned to have to have your desired picture posted on an internet site. Then you have to link it according to the basic instructions using the path where that picture is located. For further questions I would post on that thread. Maybe other want to learn how to do this as well and someone can be more specific there.
Act2
Though I grew up in KY, my ministry time there was only two years, 1974 - 1976. I have fond memories of Doug McMullan and Randy Anderson, Limb coors back then. They were pretty cool. I was in Fellow Laborers back then with the Right Rev., righteous, stubborn Mr. Bill Green who (for some ungodly reason) is still in.
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act2
John, I know all of them. Bill was in Henderson. Were you? We had a fellowship with Bill and Sherri (who was/is now married to JPW.).
Thanks for info on avatar. I dont have my pic on a website or anything...oh well...
The decisions we make today form our future.
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Bluzeman
For those who want to tweak with WinXP Services, there is some pretty good info at this site.
http://www.overclockersclub.com/windowsxpservices.shtml
Keep in mind, if you disable a service, you MAY cause unexpected results, so only disable ONE service at a time, then reboot, and see if everything is as it should be. If not, set the service back to it's original state.
If you prefer to use the registry to tweak services, go here:
http://hr.uoregon.edu/davidrl/windowsxp.html
Rick
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Zixar
Hey guys (and gals)! Belkin is having a 50% off your entire order sale if you enter code 32149 at the shopping cart. (www.belkin.com)
Belkin makes networking stuff, cables, game joysticks, USB hubs, media readers, etc.
The offer expires on Feb. 4th, and you might want to price check their stuff against other online vendors before buying, but it's worth looking into.
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igotout
Bluzeman - nice link about services. I especially like their detailed explanations.
For those who may not know how the heck to find Services:
1. Right click My Computer / click on Manage/ Expand Services & Applications / Click on Services
2. Go to Start / Settings / Administrative Tools / click on Services or right click on it and Send to Desktop as a convenient shortcut.
Back to that article. I am no expert but I do not like the idea of disabling unneeded Services rather than to stop the services and set them to Manual.
I have been told that setting a service to manual is safer because if it is really needed by a process on your computer then it is available. Meanwhile, the Sevice is still stopped and unused. Setting a service to Disabled turns it off permanently. Am I wrong?
I think it is a good idea to compare and read other such sites as the one you listed and get multiple opinions about which services to turn off and on. Here is one I kinda liked. (But he also says to disable which I tend to disagree with).
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411...nsfer%20Service
After all, it is just these guys opinions and experience. Not always correct. For example, the guy in your article says
"So you have had Windows XP for a few months now.. but you have found that it has became slower and slower by the passing weeks" ..... "If you want a quick way to speed up your computer, continue reading!"
IMHO stopping or disabling services will not necessarily give your computer more speed if it has begun to slow.
In my limited experience, slower and slower usually means the user has lots of things going wrong ranging from installing old outdated programs (meant for Windows 95) to improper network configurations to having tons of stuff running in MSCONGIG as well as possible hardware related issues.
That being said, I have turned of quite a few of these unnecessary services. It can only do good if not needed.
[This message was edited by igotout on January 31, 2003 at 22:16.]
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igotout
Here is another example of a guys' opininion on a service found on yet another site. I disagree with his view:
-----------------------------------------
"Error Reporting Service
Microsoft Description - Allows error reporting for services and applictions running in non-standard environments.
Human Description - When something crashes (quite frequently) and Windows pops up and advises you to tell Microsoft all about it, that is the fruit of this service's loins
One of my pet hates, If something crashes I will scream at the monitor and stamp my feet as I please; I don't need to tell Microsoft that I'm doing it.
Recommended for home PC - Disabled"
-----------------------------------
Though I do not ever report the error, I like to see that message pop up if something crashes. If it happens very frequently it is a reminder that something is seriously wrong and needs to be corrected. Things shouldn't crash "quite frequently" as he states. Otherwise there is a problem somewhere in your system that needs to be investigated.
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Bluzeman
I agree on wanting to know if something goes wrong. But I THINK...now I'm not sure but THINK that if you disable, or set to manual, the error reporting service, you will still get an error message...just not the send to microsoft thing.
On disable vs manual...I think the only difference is you can't start a service that has been disabled till you re-enable it.
One word to anyone who wants to try any of these...and I can't stress this enough...only stop ONE service at a time, then reboot and see if everything still works properly! Last thing you want is to stop a whole bunch of stuff and then reboot and see a blue screen with a stop error! (Trust me on this...it isn't pretty)
Rick
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Bluzeman
OK, I found this about services...
If you have a typical installation, many services are configured as "automatic" (that is, they start automatically when the system starts or when the service is called for the first time). If a service is configured as "manual," you must start the service manually before it can be loaded by the operating system and made available for use. If a service is configured as "disabled," it cannot be started automatically or manually.
For more info, open services in mmc then click help and search for services.
Rick
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