Hello everyone,
Well last night i thought i was doing the right thing by downloading service pack 2 for Windows XP, but today upon starting up my computer and when entering windows everything was running very, very slow.Ã, Everything that usually boots up during startup took forever and my hard drive was just running and running.
On top of that, when going into control panel, it probably took about 30 seconds to find all of the icons in the folder.Ã, This was never a problem until last night, and i know it wasn't my computer because i bought this thing brand new about a month ago.Ã, So i am assuming there might be some issues with the new service pack.Ã, But thank goodness, i was able to uninstall it and return my computer back to normal.
I'm just wondering if anybody else running XP has had the same problem after downloading it.
Maybe Microsoft needed to do more fine tuning on this before releasing if for download. I don't know, but glad everything worked out in the end.
Shawn
This has happened to me before. I had a spew of viruses afterwards that sneaked in durring the download that I still cant get rid of. I found that restarting my computer gradually made my computer faster then it was after the download.
I downloaded it ...
But I haven't rebooted yet, now I'm scared to.
** crosses fingers **
Microsoft released a Windows Update patch one year and it had a very bad virus in it and lots of people downloaded it.
Hmm I havnt had any problems wish SP2 at all. I installed it after a fresh format of my computer, so that probably helped things a bit. I don't know, maybe it was one of the programs you were running, or you might have a virus or spyware or something.
In my experiences, SP2 has much better response time than before.. Perhaps you should take a look at my guide: http://lilgryph.sitesled.com/docs/tweaky-clean.doc ;)
I installed it a while ago, the RC2 version, and it all seemed fine, then (I don't know if this is related) I got a virus that corrupted some system file so I got an error each time windows loaded. To get rid of the error message I formatted and started up a fresh version, but I still haven't put SP2 on yet, I can't see any benefits at this time.
Quote from: [lgm] on Fri 27/08/2004 02:26:47
In my experiences, SP2 has much better response time than before.. Perhaps you should take a look at my guide: http://lilgryph.sitesled.com/docs/tweaky-clean.doc ;)
LGM, sorry man, but i've tried opening this on two computers. One at home, and the other at work.Ã, Both times, it locked up on me and when i went to do a virus scan, i had a nice juicey virus.Ã, I'm not saying it was from you, but why does your doc file lock my computer up.
This only happened after downloading your files to both my home computer and work computer.
I tried downloading it too and got the same results.Ã, A computer that just freezes up.Ã, It took over 2 1/2 hours of virus scanning my computer to finally find something.Ã, It was fine until i tried getting your doc file.
okay, i tried again and guess what, lockey lockey, it froze up again.
now going off to do another virus check.
edit: LGM, i really wanted to read that too. But i keep trying and trying.
Then it's whatever program you use to view .doc files that is corrupted. I have scanned my file.. No viruses. That sounds very odd. Anyone else have this trouble?
I scanned it with AVG.
No virus found.
Before i downloaded WinXP service pack 2 and after that my computer just keeps getting slow and slow. I assumed that it took up too much space or had files that made my computer slow so I used my recovery disk and never downloaded it again. After wards it was MUCH better.
LGM, my man, thanks a bunch for the file! It improved my system so damn much!
My dad works at IBM and he says that on the XP booting screens it says "Whatever you do don't install SP2".
And coming froman IBMer i guess it would also say 'Install Linux' :p
LGM's file also doesnt load on my computer. It may be because i dont have m$word though.
Would someone care to post the contents up here?
QuoteWould someone care to post the contents up here?
atTweaky Clean
How to get the most out of Windows XP for the low low price of free.
by Andrew Edmark
**Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any problems that arise on your computer during the use of this guide. If you mess up your computer, it's not my fault. But feel free to send me an email... I may be able to fix it for you. Or maybe just send you an 'E-Tissue (tm)**
Note 1: This guide is written for Microsoft Windows XP (SP1 or 2) and ONLY Windows XP.
Note 2: All programs used and referenced to in this guide are exclusively Free ware. No pirating or use of trial-software will be necessary to gain the same effect this guide aims to achieve. (Piracy should never be used or tolerated, by the way.) Of course, if you're one of those crackpots that think software you pay for is always better, then you are not worthy of this guide. ;)
Introduction
Is your computer running extremely (strangely) slow for some reason and you don't know why? Well... Most likely you have lots of junk on your program. Bad registry entries, resource hogging adware, spyware, junkware. Whatever it is, you probably want to clean it out of your computer and get it running at top performance.
The method described in this guide works perfectly for me, and I run at peak performance most of the time without any sacrifices... Except the time, of course, that it takes to do this guide.
Be advised: This guide is strictly for intermediate/advanced users. This means you should know how to work a computer and understand somewhat how things work. You should also be able to easily adapt to new (albeit, simple) programs. With that in mind, let us proceed. But of course, there ARE a few tips here and there for beginners. One of them starting out this guide. So good luck.
Phase One
(Before we go anywhere, if you do not know anything about updating your computer with Microsoft's Windows Update service, take a trip over to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and run their wizard. This will get you up to par with everything. Service Packs, security updates, newer program versions, new software, updated drivers, etc.)
CodeStuff Starter
First, you'll need a program called CodeStuff Starter (http://members.lycos.co.uk/codestuff/). Run Starter and you can stop all
those nasty programs that plague you on startup (if there are any.) You can observe the startup programs, whatever looks questionable you can double click and check to see if it's something you don't want, or something that doesn't need to be loaded at startup. If you don't want it, just select the process and hit the 'delete' key.
Remember... Most processes that start up with your computer usually don't have to. If you know what the program does, and are 100% sure you don't need it at startup, delete it with CodeStuff. It's also probably a good idea to check the program's settings and make sure it's not set to load at startup.
RegScrubXP
After you sort out the startup programs, you'll need to go on and grab a program called RegScrubXP (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2048). Run the program once or twice. Everything in this program is pretty self explanatory. Running RegScrub will clean all the gunk out of your registry. This (should) make your computer noticeably faster on the first run-through.
Adaware SE
Now for some spyware detection. Go ahead and grab AdAware SE (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/), if you don't have it installed already. Make sure it's updated with the latest reference file (do this by hitting the update button on the main screen that should come up at the start of the program) Once you're updated, go ahead and run it. AdAware (should) get rid of all, or mostly all of the spyware and crudware on your computer.
Spybot: Search & Destroy
Optionally, if you feel like being extra safe, go on and get Spybot: Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/) and run THAT once or twice... Also, you can hit the immunize button on the side and prevent any of those spybots from coming back.
Now would be a GREAT time to restart. Get ready for Phase 2!!
Phase 2
Once things boot up again, you should notice quicker boot time (hopefully.) If not, there's still hope for you.
TuneXP
Now you'll want to get a nice little gem called TuneXP(http://www.driverheaven.net/dforce/). Just follow the manual that comes
with it and you can tweak the heck out of your system and enable it to run almost 5x faster (again, hopefully). One of the coolest features is the option of re-organizing your boot files causing boot-up time to increase 3-5 times in speed. It's great stuff!
EasyCleaner
If you wanna clean up the registry further (and free up space from old files), you can get EasyCleaner (http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm) and use that. Again, this program is self explanatory and you can run anything you'd like on it (if you know what you're doing.)
RegCleaner
Last but not least, you can go ahead and download ONE more program. This one's going to be RegCleaner (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download460.html) This program is similar to RegScrubXP, but a bit more complicated.
I'll run you through how to do a thorough registry scan. First, go into Options>Registry Cleanup>Method and check the “Automatic†option.
Then, go into Options>Registry Cleanup>OLE Cleanup and check “Extra Powerful.â€
To run the cleaner, go to Tools>Registry Cleaner and select “Do All.†Let the program do it's business, and you're set.
And now for Phase 3.
Phase 3
Now for some good ol' fashion junk cleaning. Now you'll want to open up the Windows Disk Cleanup wizard at Start>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup
Wait a while as the wizard estimates what it can do for you. Once it's done, browse through all the categories of what the wizard can clean. Check what you want it to do, and what not to do. After you're finished, just hit the go button. This may take awhile depending on what you checked and how much space you are freeing up. (On a personal account, I've cleared up almost 3GB of space in one go... It took almost an hour.)
And now for our last endeavor, Defragmentation.
Phase 4
Defragmentation
First of all, if you are not aware of what defragmenting is.. I will give a quick rundown. Basically, a hard drive is like a big warehouse. When large quantities of stock are put into the warehouse, sometimes things can get spread out and messy and get totally unorganized (if the staff is incompetent). In computer terms this means that, when large amounts of data are put onto the Harddrive, they get fragmented. Defragmenting the hard drive puts these files back together and moves all the files to the front of the drive. It's like putting all the boxes back together in the warehouse and being all organized again.
To defragment you'll need to restart your computer into Safe Mode... To do this, you must hold the F8 key down during system boot-up. A screen should come up, asking for a command. Select "Start Windows in Safe Mode" with the arrow keys and then hit enter. After Windows is done loading, go into the start menu again: Start>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter
Why are we defragmenting in Safe Mode? Well, sir, defragmenting in Safe Mode ensures that you are affecting every file on the hard drive. Safe Mode loads only the necessary components of Windows and nothing on the drive is write protected. You basically have control of everything. As mentioned earlier, this is great for defragging, because EVERYTHING can be moved and optimized on the drive.
With the defragmenter loaded, you should first analyze the drive. If the resulting prompt informs you that you should defragment the drive, do so. If not, you still have the choice to defrag if you want to... But if you don't want to, simply reboot back into normal Windows.
After you log back in, everything on your system should be a much much faster! If it isn't, I would most definitely consider reformatting your hard drive or getting a new computer.
So that's it! You're Done! Enjoy your rejuvenated PC!
Further Reading
If you would like to jump further into the world of tweaking and system optimization, these are a couple of guides I would like to recommend:
From Reformat to Relax - http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=324
From Relax to Righteous -
http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=434
Questions? Comments? Complaints? Send it to LilGryphMaster@msn.com
Yup.. There it is... You shouldn't need MSWord to view it.. I have no idea what the problem could be.. General consensus was that .doc was the most usable format.. It used to be pdf, but everyone complained.
I dunno.. There it is, anyways.. Thanks Redrum, and you're welcome. I'm glad it helped.
Bah, it is very hard to download CodeStuff Starter.
There are a million download locations for it.. try searching in http://www.majorgeeks.com
I finished everything but defragmenter
Good job :)
Hate to double post, but I've replicated the freezing thing. I have no idea what went wrong, but OpenOffice was fudging it up somehow. I've saved in RTF format and everything seems to work beautifully.. So... Here's Tweaky Clean again, working properly: http://lilgryph.sitesled.com/docs/tweaky-clean.rtf
Enjoy