Deleting uneccesary background programs

[deeelare]

Fellow Trainzers,

A long while back, one of you computer savy guys wrote a simple tutorial on deleting unnecessary programs running in the "background" . I copied that thread but have since lost the copy and unfortunately the name of the member who took the time to post it , and regretably , I may have never thanked them . I believe it was before the Forum crash . Could someone please repost this info and/or direct me to where I can find the info ?
I am running - Win XP SP2
I think I have so many uneccessary background programs running , that I am certain it is killing my PC performance .

Any and all input is appreciated , Thanks , --- ,dave

 

[narrowgauge]

Dave

Google for 'Startup Manager'.


Peter

 

[johnwhelan]

Fellow Trainzers,

A long while back, one of you computer savy guys wrote a simple tutorial on deleting unnecessary programs running in the "background" . I copied that thread but have since lost the copy and unfortunately the name of the member who took the time to post it , and regretably , I may have never thanked them . I believe it was before the Forum crash . Could someone please repost this info and/or direct me to where I can find the info ?
I am running - Win XP SP2
I think I have so many uneccessary background programs running , that I am certain it is killing my PC performance .

Any and all input is appreciated , Thanks , --- ,dave

If you have 2.5 gigs of memory or more do not stop any unnecessary background tasks. It appears the overhead of remembering they are stopped is greater than leaving them running. If you have 512mb of ram then you gain extra memory for Trainz but this is not the case if you have more than 2.5 gigs.

Determined on at least two different machines by the empirical method.

Cheerio John

 

[Xcom]

Very good site for services explanations and tweaking.

Windows Services ~ Includes complete explanations of each service and advice on which services you can safely disable.

http://www.blackviper.com/

 

[john259]

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk has a huge list of startup programs and advice on whether each of them should be disabled or not. Last time I looked at that site the list was a bit awkward to find but it was there.

Disabling startup items will reduce processor usage as well as memory usage. Not by much in most cases but some. Some startup programs are malicious spyware which is best disabled or uninstalled. If in doubt don't disable a startup item as that may adversely affect a vital function.

There's some more advice on the subject and related issues here:
http://askbobrankin.com/make_windows_xp_run_faster.html

John

 

[johnwhelan]

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk

Disabling startup items will reduce processor usage as well as memory usage. Not by much in most cases but some. Some startup programs are malicious spyware which is best disabled or uninstalled. If in doubt don't disable a startup item as that may adversely affect a vital function.


John

But strangely enough on my machine and at least one other the frame rates in Trainz were higher when tested when programs were not disabled which would seem to suggest there is a performance penalty for disabling programs. This makes no sense to me but is what was observed.

Cheerio John

 

[john259]

As you say, very curious. Do you remember which programs? For example, could they have been nVidia Control Panel or the ATI equivalent which might affect the video board's performance, or something similar?

John

 

[jost62]

Search in Google for Enditall - or Enditall2.
I use it once in a while, but can not report about changes - never tested comparing with/without.

 

[deeelare]

Thanks everyone for the replies -

I will check out the links and programs listed , and continue to watch this thread .

At the current time it is taking Windows approx 3-4 minutes to load from a cold boot and be ready to use , seems a bit long to me , I have 3G ram .

Thanks again --- ,dave

 

[meatloaf747]

My advise is simple, (& I'm not trying to go against the grain here or against any of the above post's).
Turn off everything that is not absolutely necessary to have running in the background if you are going to running any version of Trainz's in XP...
If your running XP, press ALT-CTRL-DEL all at the same time & that will take you to 'Windows Task Manager'.
Look at the bottem left hand corner where it say's 'Processes' If the number is any higher than either 21, 22 or 23, then in my opinion, you have unnecessary stuff running in the background that you don't need to to have running. (if you are going to be running/playing Trainz's)...
Over the years many Tec's have been arguing/debating the benifits of turning off everything that doesn't need to be running in the background...
I don't claim to be an expert in this specific area, but with my own personal experience as a tec, and the personal opinions of many of my tec mates, most agree that's it's far better to turn off all that unnecessary crap/sh_t running in the background...
Sure the amount of overall ram you have can come into the equation, but my person philosophy is simple, why have unnecessary crap running in the background when it doesn't need to be...
Before turning off anything, make sure you create a; 'System Restore Point' just incase you need to restore your system back to where it was before you made any changes...
Go to RUN, type in; MSCONFIG After making the 'Restore Point', Go to; 'Startup' and start unticking everything that you don't need running in the background... APPLY then go to; SERVICES and untick the obvious ones you don't need running in the background there... (if in doubt, leave it running)... Click on; APPLY, then reboot...
Hopefully you have turned off most, if not all the unnecessary crap that's usually running in the background with XP...
Cheers, Mac... (& happy new year to all)...

 

[john259]

At the current time it is taking Windows approx 3-4 minutes to load from a cold boot and be ready to use

Could that be an anti-virus or similar program doing a scan on bootup? Some have an option to do so. (That's only one theory, there are many other possible explanations.)

John

 

[deeelare]

Could that be an anti-virus or similar program doing a scan on bootup? Some have an option to do so. (That's only one theory, there are many other possible explanations.)
John

John,
I am almost certain it is some sort of virus , I received a 'Severe Warning' posted on the screen by Mcafee , and since then everything appears to be getting worse !
Ran a scan with Mcafee and it quarantined some 35 items . I have since this thread ran msconfig but I am reluctant to disable an item without knowing what it is ? I must Google each item to discover what it is/does .
My thoughts are at this time reformating and rebuilding :'( :'(
Recently did a rebuild and am not looking forward to it .

Thanks for everyone's input --- ,dave

 

[meatloaf747]

Dave, Not sure whether you run a registry cleaner - crap cleaner program. While it is unlikely to solve your current virus/spyware problem, it may help to tidy up some of the crap most computers accumulate...

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Worth installing and running. Run the Cleaner & Registry options... I tick everything except - Autocomplete Form History - Start Menu Shortcuts - Desktop Shortcuts & Custom File and Folder. (long shot, but may help). Certainly won't do any harm...
If you have to do a reformat & re-install, atleast you know you'll solved the problem. Make sure you virus check any programs/backups before you re-install. (just incase they are infected). Good luck...
Cheers, Mac...

 

[johnwhelan]

John,
I am almost certain it is some sort of virus , I received a 'Severe Warning' posted on the screen by Mcafee , and since then everything appears to be getting worse !
Ran a scan with Mcafee and it quarantined some 35 items . I have since this thread ran msconfig but I am reluctant to disable an item without knowing what it is ? I must Google each item to discover what it is/does .
My thoughts are at this time reformating and rebuilding :'( :'(
Recently did a rebuild and am not looking forward to it .

Thanks for everyone's input --- ,dave

If you do set up a partition of roughly 30-50 gigs and put the operating system in there. Leave the data files etc on other partitions. Since XP will overwrite the operating system files they should be clean after a reinstall, you shouldn't need to do a format though it is probably wiser. The other technique is to add another hard drive and put install the operating system on that.

re you running Windows update? If so there is a Microsoft malware scanner than runs as part of that which should look for nasties as well.

Cheerio John