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Old Nov 24, 2008, 07:56 PM
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kimmydawn kimmydawn is offline
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What can I do to speed my computer start up times...also changing from one user to another takes FOREVER.

How do I find out what's slowing it down, and correct that please?

KD
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  #2  
Old Nov 24, 2008, 10:18 PM
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Regardless of what virus program you run, it misses a lot of the "little stuff" (especially if it's the basic.) I use Lava soft's ad-aware, a free program that grabs and quarantines and allows you to view and anihilate them after a scan.

You may need to clear your cache more often. Browsing history, cookies, etc. I have two or three places to do that, and often do all of them... PC bar has the cleaner under it's Privacy tab... and your browser has one under tools/options or such.

Just like here at PC if you go into the gallery and view pictures and then go to chat, you'll find yourself being booted out...until you clear your cache... it probably needs to be done more often with many users.

Then you also have a place on your computer to set the amount of RAM for holding all that history. Make sure you increase it according to the size of your total memory. No sense in having a limit of even 1 GB if you have a computer of 160 GB.

Others might have more info too.
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Thanks for this!
kimmydawn
  #3  
Old Nov 24, 2008, 10:24 PM
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kimmydawn kimmydawn is offline
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Thank you, sky.

I have ad-aware as well and use it often. I also do a "clean disk" often, etc.

It runs GREAT when surfing and stuff. We don't really do downloads or the such.

It's start-up and logging on and off two different accounts...it takes FOREVER. Now I realize that I can cut out some programs that automatically start at start-up, but I think it would still take forever (for instance, hubby doesn't have those start-up programs and it still takes his forever to get up and running from hibernation or log on.

I hope that made sense?

Thank you again!

KD
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  #4  
Old Nov 24, 2008, 10:42 PM
Orange_Blossom
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UPDATE-- I didn't see your post, lol. Disregard the following.

KD,

You could also try this.

Two things to try. One go into Add/Remove programs and remove any programs you don't use. Like stuff that came with your computer when you bought it. Example. I had a program to make movies. Ya right, lol. Puter will warn you if it doesn't think it's a good idea that you remove it.

And try this. The list are programs that automatically start up. Example, you don't need your Ad-aware to start up every time you turn your puter on. It will start when you run it the same way.

Start
Run
Type in MSConfig
Click on Start Up
"Deselect" the ones you recognize, like Ad-aware

http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/

That might help a little.
Thanks for this!
Christina86, katheryn, kimmydawn, therealme
  #5  
Old Nov 24, 2008, 10:47 PM
Orange_Blossom
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PS If you have XP you can try this.

Start, Control Panel.

Performance and Maintenance, and then click System

Click on Advanced

Under Performance, click Settings

Click the Advanced tab

Under Virtual memory, click Change

Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file (virtual memory) settings that you want to change. In almost every case, this will be your C: drive

Click to select the "System managed size" option, then click Set

Click OK three times and restart your computer

RAM might be the culprit.
Thanks for this!
katheryn, kimmydawn, therealme
  #6  
Old Nov 25, 2008, 07:48 AM
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kimmydawn kimmydawn is offline
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Orange,

I don't wanna disregard the first one...do I have to?

Seriously, I think that first one and checking programs on startup is my culprit! I wasn't sure how to check that though!

I'll let you know!

KD
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  #7  
Old Nov 25, 2008, 07:50 AM
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Kimmy

im a computer tech. you can also run a defragmenter. this will speed up you pc.

go to start programs accessories, system tools, disk defragmenter and click on defragment, make sure all programs are closed. it could take some time, sometimes at least an hour.

also go to start and run. type in c:\windows\prefetch.

click on edit select all. then hit delete. this is the folder that holds files for indexing. you wont lose anything. anything in the prefetch folder is garbage.

pm me if you need to

Colleen
Thanks for this!
kimmydawn, Orange_Blossom, sabby
  #8  
Old Nov 25, 2008, 08:13 AM
Orange_Blossom
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Thanks for that tip Colleen.
  #9  
Old Nov 25, 2008, 08:16 AM
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Np. It helps if u clean our prefetch before defragging.

Hope it helps!
Colleen
  #10  
Old Nov 25, 2008, 08:24 AM
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kimmydawn kimmydawn is offline
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Thank you so much!

"prefetch"? I don't know what that is and thank you!

KD
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  #11  
Old Nov 25, 2008, 08:26 AM
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Just know if u go to that folder and clean it out before defragging it gets rid of wasted space and helps speed things up. Let me know if u can't find it

Colleen
  #12  
Old Nov 25, 2008, 09:14 AM
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kimmydawn kimmydawn is offline
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Thank you!

I've gone into startup (thank you orange) and removed some yuck there.

I did an analyze to check to see if it needed defragged and it did, and I'm doing that now.

But, even before the defrag, it had to restart to make the changes I'd done in "startup" and it only took two minutes before I could bring up firefox! Umm, heck of an improvement already. That's what was taking forever.

Now, when it's done defragging, the real test will be to see how long it takes to switch from one user to another (hubby's gripe).

Oh, I also changed some things like how long to go before the system "rests" and you have to log on again, etc. I did a clean disk, but I'd recently done that and there wasn't much there.

Hopefully we're getting there and thank you so much!

I'll let you know how it's going after the defrag. I'll switch user, then shut down and turn it back on. I'll report the progress.

KD
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  #13  
Old Nov 25, 2008, 09:16 AM
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Cool. It will be a noticeable improvement
  #14  
Old Nov 25, 2008, 10:51 AM
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kimmydawn kimmydawn is offline
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Between the combination of defragging, closing out some useless startup things, and changing the time frame that the computer goes to "sleep" (which I think was huge), the change was AMAZING! YAYAYAYAY, and thank you!

I logged myself off completely (when we usually just switch users which leaves programs running AFTER it's gone to sleep) and logged onto hubby's account and it took just under two minutes total! That's awesome!

Also, changing the sleep mode time will have it going to sleep much less often without having to even go through any kind of signing back on.

Thanks so much!

KD
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  #15  
Old Nov 25, 2008, 10:58 AM
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Glad i can help......

Orange gave some good stuff too!!!! what a team! what a team!

colleen
Thanks for this!
kimmydawn
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