Andromeda43

While Windows displays the Welcome screen, it's also busy loading Services, Drivers and startup programs in the background. Have you tried booting up in SAFE mode, to bypass most of that peripheral BS? Don't rule out a Virus, Trojan or Spyware at this early stage. But try SAFE mode first and report back. We'll go from there. Andromeda43

And still they use "Internet Exploder" ....... ????????? Just for grins and giggles, have you tried Mozilla Firefox? It solves many problems that people have with I.E. Most of the time, fixing problems in I.E. just ain't worth the time and effort. Firefox Rocks!!! Andromeda43

Since you didn't give the customary info about your system, I'm going to have to do a lot of guessing. If you have Windows XP (any ver.) you can Start,,,,run....(type in) Services.msc When the window opens up, maximize it. Then scroll down the list of services till you get to the one you want to shut down. Right click it, Then click on Properties You will see a box with the word Automatic, or Manual, or Disable, in it. Change that to "Disable" to make sure that service will never run again. Apply the change and close the window. reboot and that service should never bother you again. There's actually about a dozen services that can be shut down on almost any PC. Here's the list I use when tuning up customer's PC's.::: ********************************************** Here's my short, short list of services to disable for a stand alone PC, not on a network: From the RUN box, type in Services.msc , then maximize the window to full screen size. Then scroll down the list of services to each item on the following list and right click on an item and then click Properties. In the properties box you can Stop a running service and then set the action box to "Disable". Then Apply the change and OK the window to close it. Move down the list to the next item and repeat the process. When done, close the entire window and reboot your PC. Clip book Computer Browser Error Reporting Service Messenger Performance Logs and Alerts Portable Serial Number Remote Registry Remote Desktop Help Session Manager Routing and Remote Access Server (leave this on for a local network) Smart Card Helper System Event Notification Task Scheduler Universal Plug and Play Device Host Upload Manager Web Client Windows time Wireless Zero Configuration (disable if you will never use a wireless network) *************************************** Shutting down these redundant services can greatly add to your system performance and efficiency. Good Luck and Happy Computing, Andromeda43 B)

I'm sorry,,,,,did I miss something or do I just not understand the problem? Windows XP provides everything you need to keep one user out of another users stuff. Logon passwords take care of the first layer of protection. Then you can lock files and folders on the HD to prevent someone from futzing with them. Extra dirves, partitions, all that mumbo jumbo don't mean anything. Use what Microsoft has already given you in Windows XP. KISS.......(keep it simple stupid)

Assuming that it's really a space problem, have you cleaned up your hard drive lately? For starters, run Windows own "Disk Cleanup". Then defrag. Then DO go into the Recycle Bin's properties and check them. Don't just assume they are correct. LOOK!

MS borrowed a few things from W2k or NT when they made ME. That restore thing was a huge mistake. The little program, "ME Restore Remover" takes care of that. One thing I did like was the revised Defrag program. It looks just like the 98 defrag but it's about 50 bytes smaller and runs about ten times faster. I give it to all my 98 customers. It really takes the drudgery out of defragging a 98 machine. I just took a HP Pavillion in on trade with ME on it. It was really screwed up. I did a factory restore with the disks from HP and then applied my ME tweaks and cleanup. Now, it's running like a champ. ME is like a one-legged old lady trying to cross a busy street. She just needs a little help. With just a little TLC, windows ME can be made to run just fine. Cheers! Andromeda43

There is absolutely NO file that cannot be deleted by Deltree.exe run from a boot floppy or CD. If you can type the name or a wild card example of it, Deltree can delete it. Attributes not withstanding. DOS can do what Windows 98 will NOT. I quit using my Windows 98 boot disk when I found out how much more usefull a Windows ME boot disk could be. Now that's all I ever use. I even put it on my Download Site for ease of sharing with users and techs everywhere. Download wnMEboot.exe to create a boot floppy. Or, download ME-Boot CD.iso to create a boot CD. This is a really great tech tool. From a boot disk, like mine, you can run the Deltree command using wild cards to delete just about any file you can imagin from your HD. I've done it a gzillion times to get rid of viruses, spyware, trojans and corrupted files. Here's an example of a command line entry to delete an I.E. Favorite. A:\ deltree /y "C:\windows\favorites\MSNBC *.html" After deltree is a space.....after /y is another space. this will delete any favorite that starts with the letters "MSNBC". Get the disk.....if you have any questions, then PM me. The disk is menu driven so there shouldn't be too many questions. Cheers! Andromeda43 B)

Laptops are generally so screwed up that I can increase performance by around 100%+. I just tuned up one, on Monday evening, while sitting at a bar drinking Budweiser. The owner was blown away by what I could do in just thirty minutes. (or so) I did have to get my Utilities CD out of my car. I ran a script to shut down 13 totally unneeded Services. Then another script to tweak memory, then my XPCleanup.bat file to dump a couple of gigs of crapola files from the HD. Then I did the MSCONFIG thing and then Un-Installed a bunch of junk that was installed by the factory. Then I installed AdAware SE/Personal and Spybot S&D and removed several hundred pieces of spyware. Miracle of miracles, AVG 7.1 only found three viruses. Finally, a Defrag finished off the process. I left a shortcut to my "XPCleanup.bat" program in his Startup folder for a FREE cleanup every time he boots up. NO MORE build up of the crapola. Everything I've mentioned here, except the AV and AS software, is available on my Download Site. Oh yes, get more ram if you can. There's NO replacement for having ample RAM on any system, especially a laptop. At least double it. I usually suggest to my customers when they buy a new laptop, "MAX out the RAM" for best performance. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

I'm reminded of a verse from an old song......"And the beat goes on". The scenerio of this thread is repeated hundreds of times a day in homes and shops accross this world. If ONLY people would wake up and do the one word thing repeated in every forum on the internet, hundreds of times a week. BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!!!! Gads I'm feeling musical.....another song verse, "when will they ever learn.....when will they eeeeeever learn?" When I do an install of a new PC, or when I used to build a PC for someone, I'd get everything installed and set up and Tweaked just the way I wanted it and then I'd burn a GHOST Image CD or DVD of the hard drive. I'd then put the CD in my own file so the user couldn't loose it. They will, you know? Then if they ever had a serious problem that demanded a reinstall of windows, I'd just restore the Image file and be done with it. Then post the latest updates to the OS and AV and AS programs and the job is done. There are other very simple ways of restoring Windows XP to a computer, but forum rules prohibit me from going there. Sorry. Cheers! Andromeda43 B)

I quit using ZA the same day I updated my system to SP2. Version 6 has caused all sorts of problems for many users. It's even crashed systems when doing the upgrade from ver 5 to ver 6. It's system loading is horrendous. It's not even needed when you've got SP2 and some decent AV and AS software running and updated. Personally, I'd dump ZA and turn on the Windows Firewall and forget it. Cheers! Andromeda43

Well, I hope the "tech shops" in your area are better than the ones around here. (I AM the best shop in this area, with 40+ years of technical experience) Most are on a par with "The Geek Squad" and are a bunch of idiots. I would run away from anything they recommended. They used to sell Norton, and some still do. They don't get any money from AVG FREE, so they won't even mention it. Techies, nerds and geeks may like the GUI of Avast, but the average home user will find AVG much more user friendly. Remember: The worlds best Security Software is still absolutely FREE. And yes, ANYTHING is better than NORTON. Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear? Andromeda43 B)

I hope I'm not speaking out of turn here.....but speaking of a "Pain"....Office 2003 falls into that category. I find it constantly fighting with other programs like "Spyware Blaster" and wanting to load some new routine. If you have the CD for it, that's a minor pain in the bucket, but when the software came pre-installed on the PC and you don't have the CD, it's a real "PAIN". My only real fix for this is to completely remove Office 2003 and replace it with Office 2000. My software guru says that reinstalling Office 2003 and installing ALL modules will fix the problem but I've never been able to get that to work for me. Your mileage may varry. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

Your question is a very valid one and an Important one to all XP users. (lets just leave it here,,,,please) When you've used a program for a long time, it's hard to know what program to use when replacing it. Norton is now recognized as one of the worse AV programs and one of the most invasive and system resource hogs on the planet. I personally remove it from several PC's every week in my Computer Repair Business. Avast might be a possible choice, but I much prefer AVG 7.1 FREE. It's the EU's #1 AV program and for us home users, its absolutely free. If properly set up, it will update itself and run a full AV scan once every 24 hour. Just set the scheduler to a time that you'll be on line for the update and just ON for the scan. You can download it here: AVG 7.1 FREE: World famous AVG FREE will keep your computer free of viruses, trojans, dialers, etc. By default, it updates and scans for viruses on a daily basis. Can be downloaded from: http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/ Save to your desktop and run the install from there. Immediately get updates. More than one may be required. Congratulations on getting rid of Norton. Andromeda43 B) PS: Many times Norton will not remove itself as it should. Symantec has provided a removal tool to accomplish this. (possibly under federal court order) With some difficulty, I've found this tool and its three files and downloaded them, zipped them together and put them on a download site that I rent space on. Select "Computer Tools" from the opening menu to get to the download page. Download "Norton Killer.exe" and save it to your desktop. Put it in a new folder on the desktop and click the file for an automatic Un-Zip. Run the three files in numerical order to finalyze the removal of Norton. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

It's called a FIX because some computers are screwed up and will not run any 16 bit programs. I've seen that a lot on Dells and some Gateways. Appologies to anyone who's already downloaded the zipped up Norton Killer The zipping process does horrible things to batch files, it seems. Turns them into binary files or Russian or some such. Anyway it makes a total mess of them. I found a work-around for the problem by compiling the .bat file of the Norton Killer into a .com file. It then goes through the zipping process without change. At lease none that I can discern. I've fixed it, I hope, and uploaded the newly corrected zip file to my Download Site. Again,,,,,Appologies! Andromeda43 B)

Put the install file for Adobe Acrobat Reader on a removable media such as a CD or thumb drive and install it directly from the removable drive. that will save you lots of time and trouble. I do that almost every day. Just did it today as a matter of fact. Cheers! Andromeda43

IF, you have a CD with the exact (and I do mean exact, not close) version of windows as is already on your computer, you can do an Unattended Re-Install and it will refresh all the windows files in your C:\windows folder and NEVER ask you for your key. I've done it many times with perfect results. Here's how it's done: Re-Installing Windows-XP If you need to reinstall Windows-XP and want to keep all your current installed applications and settings: 1. Start Windows-XP 2. Find the location of your source files (a folder called "I386" , May Be on Your Install CD or a folder on your HD) You may find several i386 folders on your PC but you want the one that has the .cab files in it along with the command file "Winnt32.exe". 3. Run WINNT32 /unattend ,,, For example, D:\I386\winnt32.exe /unattend (type this command into the RUN box, then press ENTER).... Leave just one space where I've put three for emphasis, at the end of the command and before the switch (/unattend). I've often needed to do this to repair something that had gotten corrupted and I didn't want to do a clean install. No data or drivers will be harmed in this process. Good Luck and Happy Computing, Andromeda43 B)

NO diff, except that I've compressed all three files into one easy to download zip file. Then I numbered each file so you can run them in the proper order without any confusion. Just save the zip file to a desktop folder (new folder) and click on it to execute the unzipping process. Then run the three files. I no longer build computers for my customers since I'm officially retired. When they get home from Circuit City or somesuch with their new PC I go out and set up the new PC for them. My first step in the install is to remove whatever AV program, trials, demos, and spyware put on by the manufacturer. EMachine has the least amount of crapola on it and is the easiest and quickest to install. Then I shut down all unneeded Services and tweak the registry for greatly improved performance. Then I install my "Security Package" consisting of AVG 7.1 FREE, Anti-Virus and AdAware SE/Personal and Spybot Search & Destroy, plus Spyware Blaster, anti-spyware software. Then I set up my custom Weekly Maintenance routine. About six programs to keep the PC clean and running at top performance. I give my customer a booklet which I publish, with a full page of instructions for each Security program that I give them. I set up their ISP and eMail and install Mozilla Firefox (latest edition) along with the Flashplayer and Shockwave addons. Once on-line, I get the latest updates for all programs. It takes about three hours to do a full install, the way I do it. But it pays off for the customer, because they have a faster and safer computer. I can usually improve a PC's performance by 100% from the out-of-box state. Happy Computing! Andromeda43 B)

Defrags can be lengthy and never quite do the good job that the old Windows ME Defrag did. I no longer Defrag. Before you start flaming me, let me continue. I use Ghost 2003, run from a boot disk to backup my system (C:) at least twice a week. With my SATA HD that only takes me slighly over 4 minutes. Then without rebooting, I do an immediate Restore of the image file back to C:. All the files are written in sequence as if writing to a brand new HD. This also takes about 4 min's and all files are written with NO spaces and NO fragmentation. In less than ten minutes, I've done a backup and one heck of a fabulous defrag. When I'm done, my HD looks like this, when viewed by Windows Defrag Analysis. The green area is the Windows Pagefile, re-created by Windows XP on the first boot after the backup and restore. I erase it before I do my backup, to save space in the backup image file. Cheers! Andromeda43 B)

Or, just ask a professional Computer Security tech who's responsible for the safety of hundreds of customers PC's. Like me........ Never, Never, Never, buy any computer security software, when the worlds best software is absolutely FREE. Here's the list of software that I use and share with my hundreds of customers. Did I mention it's all FREE? ******************************* I suggest every person having any Virus or Spyware issues get these programs and use them immediately. Do check for updates to all your security software on a DAILY basis. (if possible) SPYWARE/Trojan BLOCKERS/REMOVERS: Trojan Hunter, is a first class Trojan Horse Virus removal program. The dowloaded version is a 30 day, Fully Functional, free trial. Use the Free Trial to clean up a Dirty system or buy the retail license to have a year of full service plus updates. Download "Trojan Hunter" here: http://www.misec.net/trojanhunter/ From the web page, just click "Download Free Trial Version" It's a 5.9 meg download. Spybot Search & Destroy, a great anti Spyware program. Can be downloaded from: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_desc...id,22262,00.asp For instructions on how to set up Spybot for best operation, See my Spybot Setup instructions on this webpage. AdAware SE/Personal. Another top notch anti Spyware program. Can be downloaded from: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download506.html Spyware Blaster, a great Spyware Blocker. Protects both I.E. and Mozilla Firefox. Can be downloaded from: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2859.html ANTI-VIRUS PROTECTION: AVG 7.1 FREE: World famous AVG FREE will keep your computer free of viruses, trojans, dialers, etc. By default, it updates and scans for viruses on a daily basis. Can be downloaded from: http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/ Save to your desktop and run the install from there. Immediately get updates. More than one may be required. REGISTRY CLEANER: Easy Cleaner, the best Registry Cleaner I've found so far. Can be downloaded from: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm Personal Website = (http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts). Just scroll down to "Download & Installation" and click on the first floppy disk symbol. FIREWALL: The XP windows firewall is only a 50% firewall, blocking incoming hackers but doing nothing to stop any ET that's already on your PC from "Phoning Home". It seems like almost every program you install anymore, wants to "Phone Home". It's a good idea to NOT allow this activity. My suggested Firewall to prevent this activity is the FREE version of a world famous product called "Zone Alarm". ZA can be downloaded from: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/cata...lid=dbtopnav_za ****************************************** Go FREE and stay malware FREE, Andromeda43 B)

It was NOT written with Vista in mind. It was written to increase compatibility within Windows XP. If you try it, be sure to do a registry backup first. Andromeda43

That was going to be my own question, since that's not something normally done.

That's what the Format command is for. From your boot disk, either floppy or CD, just type: Format C: /s and the format command will format C: and install the system (boot) files for you. Then you can just copy any files you want on C: from the boot disk. Cheers! Andromeda43 B)

Sign up for M$'s notification eMail and they will let you know when updates are ready for download. OR, just set up your PC for AutoUpdates and then don't worry about it any more. Their update notification letter looks like this: ****************************************** Microsoft Download Notifications August 18, 2006 Microsoft Download Notifications is a weekly mailing that points you to the latest free downloads and download-related services from Microsoft. The following offerings are now available in your preferred categories. Register now <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5338313> if you are not already receiving this free mailing. 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To cancel your subscription to this newsletter, reply to this message, type "Unsubscribe" in the Subject line, and send. You can also unsubscribe through the Subscription Center <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5338315>, where you can manage all of your Microsoft.com communication preferences. Legal Information <http://www.microsoft.com/info/legalinfo/default.mspx> This newsletter was sent by: Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 United States © 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Active Directory, DirectX, Internet Explorer, MapPoint, MSN Messenger, .NET, the Office logo, Outlook, SharePoint, Visual Basic, Windows Live, Windows Server, Windows XP, Windows, and Zoo Tycoon are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. ****************************************** They make it pretty easy to keep up with what's going on. Now as for the WGA thing.....well, the false positives have created more hate and discontent than anything Microshaft has ever done since releasing Windows ME. I've had two customers so far, that have called me in a panic because WGA is popping up on boot, telling them they have an illegal copy of windows XP. In both cases, XP is legal. I wrote a little batch file to remove WGA and stop the popups. Then I had to disable the WGA downloads in the Windows Update program. I placed the WGA Killer batch file on my (rented) download site. Here's the text of that batch file. Just copy and paste the text into a Wordpad document and save it to your desktop with the name "WGAKill.bat" Run it once, to get rid of the active WGATray, etc. ************************************* @Echo off Cls rd "c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Windows Genuine Advantage\" /S /Q rd "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Windows Genuine Advantage\" /S /Q del "%windir%\System32\WgaTray.exe" /S /F rem The above lines remove Genuine Advantage from the HD. Echo: Now, reboot your system to finish the job. pause ************************************* That won't legitimize a bogus version of XP, but it will stop the totally obnoxious popups. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

Unlike so many forum participants, I don't have just this one computer to take care of. I have hundreds of customers, some of them corporate Hq's. Telling them they have to reinstall their OS several times a year would get me lynched. So I set them up with a weekly Cleanup routine and Ghost backup. With proper maintenance, any system should run for years without ever having to be rebuilt. I try to see each PC twice a year for cleaning and updating. Keeping tower computers UP off of the floor and providing coolers for the HD's has cut down on system crashes immensely. Success in running hundreds of computers with a minimum of problems is about 10% technology and 90% common sense. Remember, the only bad backup is that one you decided NOT to do. Good Luck, Andromeda43

That's because, people don't know how, to properly use Imaging Software If something gets on your PC that screws up drivers or data, an Unattended install will do you NO good at all. With a total backup image of C: safely put away, you can reformat, repartition, even replace the HD with a new one and just Restore your backed up Image file and you're back in business like nothing ever happened. Having that Image file along with the Imaging Software on a bootable DVD makes the job of recovery a snap. With the Imaging Software that I use (Ghost 2003) I can make a total backup of my C: drive in just over four minutes on my SATA hard drive when the image is saved to a second HD or second partition on my main drive. Writing that Image file to a DVD with Ghost 2003, takes about a half hour. A side benefit of having that compressed Image file on another HD, is that after doing the four minute backup I can do a four minute Restore and get the effect of the Worlds Greatest Defrag. Every file on the HD is re-written in perfect order with NO spaces between files and (of course) NO fragmentation. So in less than ten minutes, I've done a complete system backup and a 100% defrag. It just don't get much better than that. Since it takes so little time, I do it several times a week. I'm completely familiar with the Unattended RE-Install technique, but with System Restore and a Ghost backup handy, I really have no need to ever do the RE-Install again. It becomes redundant. An added attraction to my backup system, is that I run Ghost 2003 from a boot disk (floppy or CD). Since my entire system is still in FAT-32 mode, I can run batch files from my boot disk (in DOS) to delete my pagefile, old Restore files and all temp files before actually doing my backup. That typically reduces the size of my backup image file by about 2 gig's. When I reboot to XP after my backup, windows makes itself a new Pagefile and a new Restore Point. I now have hundreds of my customers using my system and they really love the protection against disaster that it provides. Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear? Andromeda43 B)