What is Digg?115 Comments
- mikesbaker, on 08/06/2008, -1/+82one thing that will really help is clearing out your start up programs. stuff like quick time and open office have no business being in your start up. they are there so that when you do use them the program starts slightly faster. the rest of the time it is just slowing down your system
- kevyn, on 08/06/2008, -5/+58It helps to remove bulky software...
Norton (get AVG)
itunes (lots of alternatives around)
Adobe reader (replace with Foxit reader)
to name a few - jmke, on 08/06/2008, -4/+47* Disabling Services to Speed Up the Computer
you should not disable services using the MSConfig control panel but with the services.msc (start -> run -> services.msc ) , there you can manage them better, allow to the start automatically, manual or disabled. You can also check dependencies and see a much better description - Seaton, on 08/06/2008, -11/+48Article is *****.
I have been tweaking Windows XP boxes for years. Your machine boots in 5 minutes. My machines boot in 18 seconds. Bottom line? Life is too short, I don't like to wait.
My machines are zippy, responsive, and safe. One of the reasons for disabling certain services is INCREASED SECURITY. This also boosts performance by not loading a useless service at start and ALLOWS MORE RAM TO BE AVAILABLE to other system resources. - Craig1394, on 08/06/2008, -0/+35Surely these guys have heard of BlackViper.com?!?! He explains every service in XP and Vista, and states clearly why an end user should or should not disable a particular service.
- AlmostEvil, on 08/06/2008, -2/+32I personally have stopped my AVG subscription and moved over to Avast!
AVG has been getting more and more bloated. Bit of a shame really, AVG used to be the top dog for an efficient low resource usage anti-virus. - mikesbaker, on 08/06/2008, -10/+39░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░▓▓▓░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓░░▓▓▓░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓░
░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓░
░▓▓▓░░░░░░░░▓▓▓░▓▓▓░░░░▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓░
░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓░
░▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░░░░░░▓▓░░
░▓▓▓░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░░░░
░▓▓▓░░░░░░░▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓▓░
░▓▓▓░░░░░░░▓▓▓░░░▓▓▓░░▓▓▓▓▓░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░▓▓▓▓░
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
seriously everyone is ***** sick of that stupid meme - unitedatheism, on 08/06/2008, -1/+26It was good until the point he decided to say that removing unneeded services will not help you.
Yeah, they all don't consume memory, neither hook system's calls and we never heard of one screwing someone else's computer not due to performance (which is the standard issue) but due to software malfunction. In fact, right now vmware makes my keyboard to lose its ctrl and shift key under host system, but not under any guest. How's that?
Then he proceeded to explain what may happen if you removed needed services, WHAT??????//// Wasn't this supposed to be about _unnecessary_ services? Can he tell the small difference between each? He would have done a much better job to acknowledge this as a valid method but warning everyone that most of the time that can be more trouble/risk than what it worth. - MacSuxWindozSux, on 08/06/2008, -4/+24Placebo Effect.
- Grimdotdotdot, on 08/06/2008, -2/+20Quite sick of ***** ASCII art to, to be honest.
- Lateralis1, on 08/06/2008, -1/+16Hey guys I just found an awesome program called Windows Optimiser. It removes the system 32 folder which is used to store temporary files and speeds your system by 200% get it at www.rapidshare.com/windowsoptimiser.zip
/sarcasm. - jmke, on 08/06/2008, -1/+16not the same... there's a crucial difference.
"The reason is because with msconfig and Hardware Profiles, you can disable services that may be vital to boot your system. With the management console (services.msc) you cannot."
http://www.blackviper.com/AskBV/XP25.htm
Keep on Digging! - PhilMoskowitz, on 08/06/2008, -2/+16Yup. This guy's just a "don't screw with things" minimalist. Might as well just say "follow MS best practices."
- mattomondo, on 08/06/2008, -14/+27I was surprised that registry cleaning made the list. My system always feels a little quicker after I clean the registry- there seems to be slightly less disk thrashing when browsing the start menu and starting programs. While it could just be a placebo effect, I'm still happy to do it since it doesn't take long and I only use freeware.
- Vindicoth, on 08/06/2008, -1/+13OH YEAH? MY MACHINE BOOTS IN 16 SECONDS. LIFE IS TOO SHORT, WHY WAIT 2 SECONDS LONGER?
/sarcasm - Seaton, on 08/06/2008, -0/+11Interesting...
An article from "How To Geek" about why tweaking is bad. How To Geek is a site for tweaking your computer. Their recommendation? Disable Indexing Service.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/save-cpu-an ...
Ow...My brain hurts. - notwizt, on 08/06/2008, -0/+11Eset Nod32 is by far the most non-bloated antivirus available for Windows if you're looking for a top notch antivirus. It has won a lot of tests in detecting viruses as far as I know, and still has a very small memory footprint compared to Norton and other *****.
Kaspersky is also very nice memory-wise but not as good with detecting if I remember correctly, but still good. - bitseq, on 08/06/2008, -2/+12Hot tip for XP users, go to: Start > Run > "msconfig" and on the "start up" tab you will see a list of most of the 3rd party software that loads when windows boots.
This is a great way to see how much crap you have loading, common ones are Acrobat, Itunes helper, quicktime, java update, office quick load, the list goes on! The great thing is that you can always re-enable them should you need to.
Enjoy!
P.S. I would not advise cleaning your registry, this can sometimes be fatal! - p3ngwin, on 08/06/2008, -0/+10excellently earned Digg for BlackViper.
that guy knows his stuff so well that i trust him for enormous amounts service tweaking.
here's the website to help ohter fellow Windows XP & Vista users get rid of the too many services that are default on most machines.
http://www.blackviper.com/ - bjornski, on 08/06/2008, -1/+11I'll have to try out Avast.
AVG is starting to piss me off. - n4tune8, on 08/06/2008, -0/+9Check your HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun registry key. You can disable some of the programs simply by putting a semicolon in front of the path, such as
;"C:Program FilesQuickTime AlternativeQTTask.exe" -atboottime
This way, it is easily reversible, and the next version that you install sees the key is already there and does not overwrite it. - mikesbaker, on 08/06/2008, -0/+8that was the idea behind posting it
- Seaton, on 08/06/2008, -2/+10Note to author:
Peppering your article with the term "SnakeOil" makes you sound like my grandfather.
He's dead, but even if he was alive, he wouldn't know ***** about computers. - ostracize, on 08/06/2008, -0/+8WHERE DO WE GET THESE PLACEBOS?!
- Nesh, on 08/06/2008, -0/+7You don't need yet another program to do this. msconfig is easy to use and built in. Or, for the more techie-types: use regedit and clean out HKLM/Local Machine/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run
- Tenoq, on 08/07/2008, -0/+7I'm surprised disabling services made the list. Disabling non-essential services certainly DOES speed up your computer, both at boot (less to load) and in general use (smaller memory footprint). Perhaps if you have an uber machine with 8GB of RAM it's a non-issue, but the fact remains that disabling services you never use will certainly improve the performance of your machine.
The rest of the points are right, though. - PJBovoNox, on 08/06/2008, -3/+10One of the worst articles I've ever read. Disabling services DOES improve performance. It stops processes from running, which undoubtedly improves performance.
Then the moron goes on to say how disabling system services can affect stuff. No *****, sherlock! He disabled the service that deals with his Dell printer and his printer stopped working. Shock!
Then he went on to say that disabling VMWare services prevents VMWare from working. Who'd have thought it?
What a retard. - Bluezdood, on 08/06/2008, -1/+7I too have moved away from AVG ever since 8.0 came out. It was just too heavy to run anymore. I used to recommend it to everyone. Now I use Avast! and recommend that to everyone as the best free anti-virus software. I'd like NOD32, but I'm on a limited budget and don't want to pay for something else.
- MWeather, on 08/06/2008, -2/+8"The best anti-virus is common sense."
Spoken like a member of a botnet. - sotonohito, on 08/06/2008, -2/+8I swear that Norton should really be classified as malware. It slows systems to a crawl and it usually won't remove using add/remove programs. I keep the Norton removal tool on my thumbdrive.
Now that AVG is following in Norton's footsteps its time to find another antivirus. - inactive, on 08/06/2008, -3/+9Nobody's system takes 5 minutes to boot.
- Vindicoth, on 08/06/2008, -2/+7Check OSX and in the " Stuck Up Steve Jobs Ass " and you will find the " Mac Fanboys "
The fact that 3RD PARTY SOFTWARE HAS THE ABILITY TO LOAD PROGRAMS with out your knowledge is the reason 3RD PARTY DEVELOPERS are *****.
You don't know much about 3rd party though. - netdroid9, on 08/06/2008, -5/+10***** YOU! TWO OF MY FRIENDS DIED ***** ME!
...I... ah, mean... Nevermind. - funklor, on 08/06/2008, -2/+7AVG8 is a nightmare. Completely bloated compared to 7. Unkillable processes that aren't loaded by any obvious service or entry in msconfig == FTL.
- dc5mike, on 08/06/2008, -3/+8That's what I'm feeling aswell.
- troglodytejb, on 08/06/2008, -1/+6Especially since the default XP services are unnecessary and insecure. No thanks, I really don't need the remote registry editor service running on my gaming machine... same with remote desktop support and remote help. If I want it I'll add it, but please, for a fresh install it's a security void.
- mousky, on 08/06/2008, -1/+6Actually, this guy is in love with Ed Bott.
- latinjones, on 08/06/2008, -2/+7I always disabled services in XP (dhcp service, system restore, spooler....why leave it running if I don't have a printer?) to reduce the memory footprint and it never caused any problems. Now I don't worry about it because I'm no longer trapped in a windows world.
Now somebody just has to fix that damned Xorg memory leak!!! - Abomonog, on 08/06/2008, -3/+8There are two situations where a memory cleaning does help.
The first is just before starting a game that takes huge amounts of memory (and your memory is somewhat limited). Clearing the memory gives the games a bit more free memory to allocate.
The second is just after said game crashes. If the memory hasn't cleared properly a memory cleaner can clear the fragments so you don't have to reboot as much.
Using msconfig to stop ***** programs like Adobe updater and stopping spamware from running at start up is highly recommended. They do slow a computer down and cause instability. No need to even look at the services tab. Just the run tab.
Finally: If you have registry entries in the run and runonce sections of the registry that don't actually lead to a program the boot will hang for a second or so. This can add a second or two to a boot for each entry.
Using the tools listed for the purposes listed in the article is useless, but the tools do have their uses. It's all a matter of knowing when and how to use them. - MWeather, on 08/06/2008, -0/+4"seriously everyone is ***** sick of that stupid meme"
that was the idea behind posting it - Seaton, on 08/06/2008, -0/+4I stopped using Kaspersky when they started loading my computer with NTFS streams and fragmenting my drive.
- moulin1, on 08/06/2008, -0/+4The author brings his own competence into question when he descibed how he disabled services he didn't understand and programs and hardware stopped working. If you don't understand what you are doing you shouldnt be tweaking and you certainly shouldnt be writing an article on tweaking.
For the record, the larger your registry the slower your machine. The more uneeded programs running whether services or HKLM/startup the slower your machine. - drex8, on 08/06/2008, -0/+4That joke is getting really old..and fast.
- Seaton, on 08/06/2008, -6/+10I have personally stopped using AVG and moved over to nothing. Sure I have NOD32 on the computer, but the service is disabled and does not run resident in the background. Why?
The best anti-virus is common sense. - theaceoffire, on 08/06/2008, -1/+5Like those above me, I found the newest AVG to be large and annoying...
I am trying out AntiVir right now, and if anyone else has good AVG alternatives I would love to hear em. - drex8, on 08/06/2008, -0/+4I cannot agree with you more!
I moved over to NOD32 after playing with AVG8 for a month. Compared to AVG 7.5, AVG8 is a nightmare. - mttyd, on 08/06/2008, -1/+4Oh and Macs have lousy keyboards...
- Zounas, on 08/06/2008, -0/+3Also promise to go to edit school.
- antparrott, on 08/06/2008, -2/+5He spends 10 minutes telling us that cleaning up our PC's won't speed up performance and then ends with, "The better option is to simply install more RAM and CLEAN UP YOUR PC." Huh?
- dc5mike, on 08/06/2008, -2/+5I thought I used to help my friend's computer go faster by following the steps in the article, backwards.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 117 discussions
Check out the new & improved 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is