Have a Slow 98 Desktop?

[HoppaLong]

I had to find a way to run resource intensive apps on an old

Gateway running 98SE. I have an elderly parent who will not

accept a new desktop with a more recent Windows system.

(I've offered to buy a hundred times!)

Anti-malware apps like Spybot or Avast are compatible with 98

or 98SE. Unfortunately, most desktops that were built to run 98

have slow processors and not enough RAM to load the huge

definition databases for these apps.

Running in Safe Mode may work. Spybot crashed (BSOD) in Safe

Mode on my dad's Gateway. Even if you get it to run in Safe Mode,

the full scan could take several hours, at best!

Before you do anything, backup the entire system. I know backing

up a slow computer can be tedious, but it must be done.

This procedure is for advanced computer users only. Since every

computer is a little different, I cannot promise the same results

on your old desktop. If the worst happens, the system can be

restored from the backup you just created. All I can say is, it

worked like a charm on this old Gateway.

Cleanup the system. Use an app that deletes the swap (paging)

file during a reboot. Hopefully, the win386.swp file is on its own

partition, or a secondary hard drive. If you want, you can set the

maximum and minimum size to the same number. Make sure it's

well above the amount of actual RAM on your system.

Get a copy of MaxMem. This app is not a "memory manager." Most

memory managers consume system resources and do very little

to improve overall system performance. MaxMem does one thing

very well. It frees up more RAM for the system. It's a tiny applet,

so it won't be consuming memory faster than it can give it back.

Get it here:

http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/S...em/Freeware.htm

Left-click the icon in the System Tray and select "Config." Choose

"perform aggressive cleanup" from the menu. Move the "minimum"

slider to 35% and the "aggressive" slider to 90%. These settings

would be extreme under normal conditions. They are absolutely

necessary when performing these resource gobbling scans.

If you're running GoBack, it must be disabled. It won't appear on the

list of system processes. Any process that is very disk intensive will

cripple GoBack. Running a full backup, defrag, scandisk, or many

anti-malware scanners will damage GoBack. When in doubt, disable

GoBack!

Use Process Explorer, or a similar app to view all running processes

on your computer. You're going to kill a bunch of them. Do not try

to terminate system processes by selecting the app from a list and

clicking "kill process." It usually won't work. If it does, the process

dies in slow motion, resulting in a system crash or freeze up. System

processes must be killed quick, from the command line.

NirCmd may be the best command line app. Get it here:

www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

Terminate absolutely everything, except for these three:

kernel32.dll

explorer.exe

maxmen.exe

Don't worry, your desktop won't explode! In fact, "Power Options"

will still turn off the monitor during a lengthy scan. Also, the

System Tray will function normally. It's ok to kill systray.exe.

Before trying this procedure Spybot took forever to load. After it

did, the system failed quickly. The latest defintions file has over

800,000 items. My dad's system never made it past 30,000.

If you watch the MaxMem icon, it will be very active freeing up

memory while the database is loading. As the scans proceeds,

you'll notice MaxMem responding to the constantly changing

load. Eventually, the scan settles down. A nice, horizontal green

line on the MaxMem icon indicates that you've won the battle!

The scan will go to completion, without trashing the system.

On my dad's Gateway, it took about three hours. The scan was

smooth, with no noticeable glitches.

When the scan completes don't reboot or shutdown in the normal

way. Create a shortcut or use the Start > Run box with this command:

C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE USER.EXE,ExitWindows

The system will shutdown immediately, without the usual "goodbye"

logos. You can hit the reset button, or use the on-off switch to restart.

I'm sure you could apply this same procedure to any other anti-

malware app that demands a lot of resources from an old desktop.

[Monroe]

I have a few suggestions or ideas that you might consider since you have limited resources. I no longer use Spybot. I use to like that program several years back until it became a resource issue with me. Why not consider SpywareBlaster ... it actually doesn't run at all and does what Spybot does.

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http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

No-Nonsense Security SpywareBlaster can help keep your system secure, without interfering with the "good side" of the web. And unlike other programs, SpywareBlaster does not have to remain running in the background. It works alongside the programs you have to help secure your system.

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Then I also have the latest Hosts file on my machine .... Jan 12, 2010. That doesn't run at all ... so I got rid of Spybot and use SpywareBlaster and the latest Hosts file.

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

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http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/2005/PL20...EMUTILITIES.php

Then there is a little program called MemLoad that tells you exactally what each running program is using in resources and uses very little resources itself.

MEMORY HOGS

A program Memload (2.0, july 2001) written by Johan Samuelson. It lists the memory usage for every main process in the order of how demanding they are. Memload is a great little tool in order to quickly find out the memory hogs amongst the programs. Unfortunately Memload only works under Win95/98 and is no

longer supported by the author, although it can still be downloaded from Tucows. The program is very small and doesn't require any installation, just unzip and start using it.

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A little program called RAMpage hardly uses anything and will free up memory automatically. Click on the word RAMpage (green color) in the upper part of the page ... that is version 1.6. Further down there is mention of ver 1.6.1 but it would only be for what the description says. I use ver 1.6.

http://www.jfitz.com/RAMpage/

Features:

* Frees memory automatically, on demand, or after an application finishes running

* Very low active memory footprint, and very low resource and CPU usage

* Can run "hidden", which further reduces memory and resource usage

* Can be run from a batch file, or via a shortcut, to free memory on a "once off" basis

* Easy to install, configure and automate, (click here to see the configuration screen)

* Freeware

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Cacheman is a nice little utility that will adjust the memory settings on a Win 98SE machine. Cacheman v4.1 works very well on my machines but you may find a later version that also works well.

Cacheman 4.1 for Windows 95/98/ME

Cacheman is a utility which tweaks the Disk Cache settings of Windows 95/98/ME and prevents frequent swapping of the data to hard drive resulting in an improved performance, system reaction time and even stability. Besides this Cacheman corrects also generic problems on systems with more than 512MB of RAM.

*** I can no longer find a link that works for version 4.1 but I found a link to version 5.0 ... I just happen to like version 4.1 but others like 5.0 or 5.5. I will continue to look for a working link and post it when found.

http://www.old-software.com/software-52-cacheman.html

Link to version 5.50 that may work ... not 100% sure it is Freeware, I think it might be, it's old now and they call it "Cacheman Classic". Others who use it may be of some help.

http://www.outertech.com/index.php?downloa...imageField.y=11

Maybe these programs could be of some help on your older machine.

Edited January 30, 2010 by duffy98

[Fredledingue]

Buy your dad a 512 Mb or a 1Gb RAM stick.

On top of that it will increase the OS stability.

Edited January 30, 2010 by Fredledingue