Some computer help please

[HeavenScent]

My computer has really slowed down and I'm wondering if it's because I have too many things starting up when I start up the computer. There seems to be quite a lot of stuff on the taskbar, a lot of which I don't use regularly but that I don't want to get rid of completely.

Where do I look to see what is all starting up when I turn on the computer? How do I change what is starting up? What do I need to keep on start up and what is superfluous?

I'm using Windows98 second edition.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[PhxPlay4n6]

Everyone's computer is different, but generally if it's a media application like Photoshop or Media Player you can get rid of it just by going into the application and changing the preferences. You really don't need anything in the taskbar unless you like the volume control icon there for easy access and any network icons if you're on a network or any internet icon like AOL or dial up networking. You would almost need to make a screen cap of your taskbar for us to know what's on your system...

 

[Weird Harold]

I'm using Windows98 second edition.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Step one: Go to Start/Run, enter MSCONFIG. Choose "create a backup." That will save a copy of your current startup so you can experiment safely.

Step two: Click the "startup tab" in MSCONFIG and uncheck anything that you recognise as a program you only use occasionally. You can always access those programs through Start/Programs when you need them.

Step three: Reboot and check to make sure everything you normally use is working correctly. Retore your backup and start over if necessary.

Additional steps:

Run Scandisk and Defrag. A severely fragmented hard drive will slow down your system badly. Purge your temporary internet files and temporary files BEFORE defragging, and check for any *.CHK files after you run scandisk. (*.CHK files are recovered "lost clusters" and usually don't contain anything useful unless you system has just crashed and you lost some data when it did.)

Something I do about every six months that seems to speed up my system is to change the "virtual memory" settings to force Windows to re-create the swap file on the disk. Defrag won't touch the swap file, and it eventually gets fragmented to the point where it doesn't have a big enough free block to swap RAM into efficiently.

In your control panel open the "System Icon" (Start/Settings/control panel/System) On the Performance Tab is the button to configure virtual memory.

PS: Download and run AD-Aware to remove any spyware that might be hiding on your system. (There's thread on spy-ware on the General Board that has a link to Ad-Aware.)

 

[HeavenScent]

I have no idea how to make a screen cap (or even what one is). I'm not very computer savvy about those things, I'm afraid.

Would it help if I just told you what's on it? There's the Show desktop icon, launch internet explorer, windows media player, zonealarm, norton task scheduler, winamp agent, Norton A/V auto protect, ATI icon, volume, zonealarm scheduler, yahoo messenger, and msn messenger. That seems like an awful lot of stuff.

I can easily access these items from the program menu but I have no idea how to not have them start up every time I turn my computer on.

 

[HeavenScent]

Thanks WH, I'm going to give that a try.

 

[HeavenScent]

I'm sorry to be such a dip about this. I don't know what to turn off and what to leave on. There's a whole whack of stuff in there and I don't know what it all is.

I have turned off the messengers and winamp but that's all I recognize besides the antivirus (and I'm thinking that should stay on, right?).

 

[Lust Engine]

My fingers are crossed for you JUST in case! Good luck!

 

[HeavenScent]

Thanks Lust!

 

[Weird Harold]

I'm sorry to be such a dip about this. I don't know what to turn off and what to leave on. There's a whole whack of stuff in there and I don't know what it all is.

That's why I suggested saving a backup first. That way you can turn off stuff you don't recognise to see if anything you use fails when you reboot.

To do a screen capture, press print screen and open a photo editor program. "Paste as new image," or create a new image the size of your screen display and paste the clipboard contents into it. Crop, Resize, sharpen, or whtever else you might wish to do (blanking out personal information is a good idea) and "Save As" a JPG. Then you should be able to attach it for the rest of us to see.

Ad-Aware or other spyware killer will likely remove many of the entries for you.

Another program tht might help you to decide which you need, and which you don't is DRWATSON. It can take a "snapshot" of what is running on your system and when and where it loaded from.

To use DrWatson:

Start/run DRWATSON. That will put the DrWatson icon in your System Tray (near the clock.)

Double click the DrWatson Icon to take a snapshot.

Select Advanced view from the view menu and click the Startup tab.

This is what DrWatson reports on my Startup Tab:
---
*----> Startup Items <----*

Name
Loaded from
Command
-------------------

1. 3Com Modem Manager
Startup Group
I:\USR\3Com\mdmMgr\ModemMgr\Program\mdmMgr.exe

2. Drwatson
Common Startup Group
C:\WINDOWS\DRWATSON.EXE

3. Real-time monitor
Common Startup Group
I:\PC-cillin\IOMON98.EXE

4. mdmMgr.exe
Common Startup Group
I:\USR\3Com\mdmMgr\ModemMgr\Program\mdmMgr.exe

5. ZoneAlarm
Common Startup Group
"I:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zonealarm.exe" -nopopup

6. load
Win.ini
i:\musicrck\mixeron.exe

7. load
Win.ini
I:\OPLIMIT\ocraware.exe

8. Taskbar Display Controls
Registry (Per-User Run)
RunDLL deskcp16.dll,QUICKRES_RUNDLLENTRY

9. ScanRegistry
Registry (Machine Run)
C:\WINDOWS\scanregw.exe /autorun

10. SystemTray
Registry (Machine Run)
SysTray.Exe

11. Tweak UI
Registry (Machine Run)
RUNDLL32.EXE TWEAKUI.CPL,TweakMeUp

12. pnpchk
Registry (Machine Run)
pnpchk.Exe

13. midiset
Registry (Machine Run)
midiset.exe

14. Adaptec DirectCD
Registry (Machine Run)
f:\DirectCD\DIRECTCD.EXE

15. LoadPowerProfile
Registry (Machine Run)
Rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,LoadCurrentPwrScheme

16. mdac_runonce
Registry (Machine Run)
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\runonce.exe

17. PiDunHk
Registry (Machine Run)
"D:\PRODINET\BIN\PIDUNHK.EXE"

18. EM_EXEC
Registry (Machine Run)
I:\MOUSE\SYSTEM\EM_EXEC.EXE

19. IOMON98.EXE
Registry (Machine Service)
i:\pc-cillin\IOMON98.EXE

20. LoadPowerProfile
Registry (Machine Service)
Rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,LoadCurrentPwrScheme

21. TrueVector
Registry (Machine Service)
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ZONELABS\VSMON.EXE -service

22. MiniLog
Registry (Machine Service)
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ZONELABS\MINILOG.EXE -service
---

You can see that it shows the directory for most of the entries, and the directory name will (often) give you a clue as to the purpose of the program. (PC-Cillin is my virus checker -- yours would show a Norton directory for that stuff.)

 

[HeavenScent]

Backup has been done. This is what Dr. Watson says (sorry, I couldn't figure out how to show the actual pic of it):

1. Zone Alarm
Common Start up
"C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\Zone

2. MSMSGS
Registry (Per...
"C\Program Files\Messenger\msms

3. Yahoo! Pager
Registry (Per...
CROGRA~1\YAHOO!\MESSEN...

4. ScanRegistry
Registry (Ma...
C:\WINDOWS.000\scanregw\.exe/...

5. TaskMonitor
Registry (Ma...
C:\WINDOWS.000\taskmon.exe

6. System Tray
Registry (Ma...
SysTray.exe

7. LoadPowerPr
Registry (Ma...
Rundll32.exe powerprof.dll.LoadCurre...

8. LoadQM
Registry (Ma...
loadqm.exe

9. AtiCwd32
Registry (Ma...
Aticwd32.exe

10. AtiKey
Registry (Ma...
Atitask.exe

11. Norton Auto P...
Registry (Ma...
C:\PROGRAM~1\NORTON~1\NAV

12. Norton eMail...
Registry (Ma...
C:\Program Files\Norton Antivirus\P

13. TkBell.Exe
Registry (Ma...
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Re...

14. WinampAgent
Registry (Ma...
"C:\PROGRAM FILES\WINAMP\...

15. Critical Update
Registry (Ma...
C:\WINDOWS.000\SYSTEM\wucr...

16. AVG_CC
Registry (Ma...
CROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVG6\a...

17. LoadPowerPr...
Registry (Ma...
Rundll32.exe powerprof.dll.LoadCurre...

18. SchedulingAG...
Registry (Ma...
mstask.exe

19. ScriptBocking
Registry (Ma...
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sy...

20. Avgserv9.exe...
Registry (Ma...
C:\PROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVG6\A...

21. TrueVector
Registry (Ma...
C:\WINDOWS.000\SYSTEM\ZON...

22. MiniLog
Registry (Ma...
C:\WINDOWS.000\SYSTEM\SON...

 

[Weird Harold]

1. Zone Alarm
Common Start up
"C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\Zone

Zonealarm should stay -- that's your firewall to keep snoops out of your system

2. MSMSGS
Registry (Per...
"C\Program Files\Messenger\msms

3. Yahoo! Pager
Registry (Per...
CROGRA~1\YAHOO!\MESSEN...

These two are your instant messagers. They should probably stay if you use instant messenging at all.

4. ScanRegistry
Registry (Ma...
C:\WINDOWS.000\scanregw\.exe/...

This one MUST stay, or anything in that loads from the registry will be disabled.

5. TaskMonitor
Registry (Ma...
C:\WINDOWS.000\taskmon.exe

This one can go unless you have scheduled tasks configured -- weekly defragmentation or daily backup, etc. If you aren't using scheduled tasks, the task monitor is just wsting processing time checking to see if it's time to do nothing

6. System Tray
Registry (Ma...
SysTray.exe

This is another that should stay -- it's what enables the section nearest the clock where things minimize down to icons. Some things just won't run if it isn't there.

7. LoadPowerPr
Registry (Ma...
Rundll32.exe powerprof.dll.LoadCurre...

There are two occurances of this one -- both loading from "machine service" -- MSCONFIG should be able to turn one of them off. The other one controls your standby and sleep functions, so it needs to stay

8. LoadQM
Registry (Ma...
loadqm.exe

I have no idea what "QM" is. "Machine service" entries usually have something to do with hardware drivers, so I'd delete this one with care.

9. AtiCwd32
Registry (Ma...
Aticwd32.exe

10. AtiKey
Registry (Ma...
Atitask.exe

These two would seem to indicate you have an ATI computer, and since they're "machine service" entries, they're probably needed to enable hardwware functions on your computer. (AtiTask MIGHT be a replacement for the windows Task Monitor (item m5) and if it is, it can go away too.

11. Norton Auto P...
Registry (Ma...
C:\PROGRAM~1\NORTON~1\NAV

12. Norton eMail...
Registry (Ma...
C:\Program Files\Norton Antivirus\P

These two are your Norton Anti-Virus protection and should stay.

13. TkBell.Exe
Registry (Ma...
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Re...

Is this one a driver for your ISP? If it isn't related to your ISP, It may be expendable.

14. WinampAgent
Registry (Ma...
"C:\PROGRAM FILES\WINAMP\...

If you use Winamp, this one stays. If you don't, then it should go away if you uninstall WinAmp.

15. Critical Update
Registry (Ma...
C:\WINDOWS.000\SYSTEM\wucr...

I have my doubts about any of these that load from Windows.000. The directory would indicate they're leftovers from a previous version of Windows or a previous installation of Win 98. They'r definite candidates for removal.

16. AVG_CC
Registry (Ma...
CROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVG6\a...

The designation AVG makes me suspect this is your video driver, although I don't know what products GRISOFT makes or supports. I'd be very wary about deleting this one.

17. LoadPowerPr...
Registry (Ma...
Rundll32.exe powerprof.dll.LoadCurre...

This is the duplicate entry.

18. SchedulingAG...
Registry (Ma...
mstask.exe

This is part of the task scheduler and can go if you're not scheduling tasks.

19. ScriptBocking
Registry (Ma...
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sy...

I have no idea what this one is -- it's worth a try at deleting to see if it's being used by something critical

20. Avgserv9.exe...
Registry (Ma...
C:\PROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVG6\A...

See note @16

21. TrueVector
Registry (Ma...
C:\WINDOWS.000\SYSTEM\ZON...

I'd need to see the full filename, but "truevector" is either video or printer related. See comments above about the windows.000 directory, though.

22. MiniLog
Registry (Ma...
C:\WINDOWS.000\SYSTEM\SON...

This one is probably no longer needed. Again, the full filename would give a better clue. The "SON" before it cuts off might mean it's for a SONY component in your system, but it appears to be a diagnostic type driver that logs error messages. Error messge logs can be helpful, but usually aren't needed unless you're having problems.

A lot of my comments are SWAGs, but as long as you've got the backup, experimentation shouldn't be too dangerous.

(SWAG = Scientific Wild Ass Guess.)

 

[Lust Engine]

Kudos & a huge round of applause to Harold for lending a VERY technical hand here!

Bravo!!!!

 

[HeavenScent]

Wow! Thanks Harold! That helps immensely!

I truly appreciate your time and know-how regarding this problem I've been having. I'm going to try what you have suggested.

Thanks again!

LOL@SWAG

 

[Weird Harold]

LOL@SWAG

Actually, I think you'll get more improvement from defragging -- especially if you haven't done it recently. Fragmentation is the most common cause of a system slowing down over time.

SWAG is an old technical term for making a decision based on not enough information. If youdon't have ANY information, it's just a WAG.

 

[HeavenScent]

Actually, I think you'll get more improvement from defragging -- especially if you haven't done it recently.

Thanks, I'll give that a try, too.

SWAG & WAG....I'll have to remember those.

 

[bondage_philosopher]

Try emptying your temporary internet files folder. Click on Toos >> Internet Options >> Delete Files (click the check box) >> click OK.
Then, click Settings >> View Files >> Edit >> Select All >> press the delete key and hit enter for the pop up box.

Also, if your bandwidth is tied up in programs like Kazaa or WinMx, your computer might run slower. Make sure to exit those kinda programs after your done.

A lot of things can make a computer run slowers so it's hard to diagnose the problem when you don't know its specs. Hope I helped.

 

[HeavenScent]

Thanks BP, I've already deleted the temp files, and cookies, and history. I also ran the defrag (took forever to get through it!) and so far things seem to be running a bit better. I appreciate your advice.

 

[Weird Harold]

I also ran the defrag (took forever to get through it!)

Defrag does take a long time unless you keep on top of it -- if you run it every week or so, it goes much faster than if you wait until your system starts to slow down.

 

[HeavenScent]

You know, every time I've tried to do a defrag - since I got the computer - it would tell me that it didn't need to be done as it was less than 1% fragmented. I think I won't be listening to that advice anymore. There were a whole lot of blank spots on the screen.

I'll do what you suggest Harold, and defrag once a week or so. I don't want to be waiting another six+ hours to get it all cleaned up again.

Thanks so much for all your help and patience with me.

 

[mokum13]

Regclean is a good tool to clean up your registry. It will delete all obsolete keys from your registry in a save way. It's a free little program from MS.