Want a faster Windows Computer?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

Don't want to spend a lot of money on a new machine? Want the damn contraption to not crash as much?

Here's how. I do this a lot and have a lot of very happy customers for this ritual. I share with my friends.

Note: Most programs in this are either free or have unlimited evaluations. If you like the shareware, register it. Support good software and smart software authors.

The two sites you need for this ritual are

http://www.webattack.com

http://www.majorgeeks.com

Get these programs and install them:

jv16 Power Tools 1.3(!)(majorgeeks)

KMCS System Suite(majorgeeks)

Diskeeper Lite(free, webattack)

Spybot Search&Destroy(webattack)

Startup Manager(webattack)

PageDefrag(webattack)(The setup for this is self-explanatory, when you run it, and it does its thing every startup. It is a real keeper.)

Run Spybot. If you see an entry for New.net in there, DO NOT DELETE IT!!! You will lose your internet connectivity. Delete it after you get either WinsockXPFix.exe or LSPFix.exe(Non-XP) and have them ready to run. New.Net and a few others patch the TCP/IP stack and if you just take them out, no internet. You must repatch the registry with these programs. Google these programs up. They work.

Run KMCS. Goto "System Cleanup". Generate cleanup scripts. Run cleanup. Do this part regularly, even though cleanup runs automatically on startup. Things change in there.

Leave KMCS open. Run jv16. Goto the registry section. From the Tools pulldown menu, select the registry cleaner. Run it. From the pulldown menu selection "Special Select", choose "All entries that are safe to remove". Remove them. Select all. Hit "Try to repair". Quit.

Goto KMCS Registry Compressor. Compress registry. Reboot.

Run Diskeeper Lite(A much betterdefrag program and does NTFS systems as well...). Wait.

That's it. You WILL be a lot faster.

Rinse and repeat regularly.

Use Startup Manager to turn off MSMSGS(or whatever the hell it is called) and turn off the things that load, on startup, that you just don't need to load on startup.

Or, you can skip this whole ritual and get Linux. Like me. :evilgrin:

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. how much do you charge

To do that FOR people.

Because lord knows, if I tried to do that I'd end up with a $500 toaster.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Pretty standard rates.

Ain't hard. Ain't expensive and neither am I. For friends? Free. For acquaintences? $75.00. For businesses? $100-150, depending on the business and my mood. ;-)

[Dogmudgeon]

3. MajorGeeks.com Warning

There's some major scumware on MajorGeeks.

It installs "SpyBot", or, if you're running a scumware detection utility, it tries to.

--bkl

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. Never happened to me.

n/t

[Dogmudgeon]

10. The details ...

Spybot S&D 1.2 (running in "Advanced Mode") detected it as soon as the window opened.

Some of the words are double-underlined and when the curser hits them, an ad pops up.

Nothing destructive, just a big annoyance.

--bkl

[charlie]

4. And...

If you're willing to roll up your sleeves and put a few hours effort into it, use the guides at this site:

http://www.blackviper.com/

especially this one:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

to configure profiles that are stripped of most of the gazillions of services XP runs by default. I've done it a few times, it's well worth it. You get a tremendous performance boost and it can make your system safer from online intruders.

[LTR]

5. Useful info

Thanks.

I do have FixIt Utilities. Do these programs do pretty much the same thing?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. I used to be a BIG fan...

of Fix-It, but I have not instaled and used it in a few years. Been through a lot of ownership changes. If they have kept up on it, it should be good.

Having said that, my experience is that it does not do the drive cleaning as well, and the registry compression at all. These are two very important components.

For drive cleaning, Evidence Eliminator is very good, but they are on glue if they think I would recommend it at the price they charge. It is way too expensive.

[BigBigBigBear]

8. Spybot is great

BlackViper's page is outstanding.

The only *ware I've used from this list is SpyBot S&D. It's excellent.

I have had dodgey results with registry programs, and generally stay away from them. One false move in an unbacked-up registry and it's reformat time.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. jv16 offers...

registry backup. Having said that, the registry MUST be maintained, or it will become corrupted over time.

[charlie]

11. Second that

I've used JV16 for a long while. It's well-thought out, so you'll screw up only if you don't pay attention. It's never hosed a file on me yet, though I understand BBBB's reticence for mucking around with the registry.

One more recommendation:

Total Uninstall

A really nice program for tracking and reversing software installations. Configure it once, then run it before, during, and after installing a new program. Then you can go back anytime and get a clean removal if you choose.

[Abaques]

12. Nice, but.....

Unless people are running win2k, you should just tell them about msconfig. Its built into windows 98/Me/XP and will manage the startup processes just fine.


Just go to Start -> Run -> type: msconfig

Click 'ok'


Then just check 'selective startup' on the general tab and then unchecking 'load startup programs'. If something doesn't work when you reboot, just go back into msconfig and look for the device that wasn't working in the startup tab. You can always use google to find out what each startup file is doing.




Oh, and btw, if you are running Roxio Easy CD Creator, make sure that you go into msconfig's startup tab and uncheck directcd.exe, its a real memory pig. That and DirectCD doesn't work well at all. No data you have on a directcd should be considered secure. Use the data cd project and cheap as hell cdrs instead.

Sorry for the rant. 9 months of Roxio tech support left me bitter.