Thanks all for the several tips to all,
Let's tackle you first, Rich!
Quote:
There are many ways and I will give you the most important.
To maintain your computer
10 Tips on How to Properly Maintain Your Computer
Ignore, reg cleaners.
Answer: My friend may not be the greatest computer
maven ever, far from it - hence my trying to help him. However, I can assure you that most of your maintenance tips have always been applied - with the sad exception of me noticing at such a late stage that several most important updates had not been acknowledged by the OS. But since that matter has been taken care of, this particular mishap is fortunately water under the bridge. So, defrags, scan disks, system restore points, prudent use of CCleaner, backups and so on, have been done on a relatively regular base (I am not sitting every day behind my friend's machine, but nevertheless keep an eye on things).
By the way: all my own machines, which I do maintain properly, regularly and thoroughly are - touch wood - in perfect working order (I have been using computers since 1979; so, along the years, a thing or two must've rubbed off). More about this perceived perfection in the note below.
Only exceptions or variations:
1.
Microsoft Security Essentials
I am using Avast (professional version) as Virus Scanner and have been extremely happy with that software throughout the years. Or would you suggest that Avast is less reliable than MS Security Essentials?
2.
System Restore
I double up Windows System Restore (which I have been finding wanting in many respects and which makes automatic Restore Points every day anyway - if it works) with ERUNT, which in my uneducated view is far more complete since it records the entire system, and has served me well, too, now and then under quite dramatic circumstances.
3.
Malwarebytes
Ah, there you got me! Didn't know the existence of that utility before registering on your forum. It has been applied to my friend's computer during the SP repair operations, so this has been taken care of. And I will indeed continue to use it.
Note: I have by now installed Malwarebytes on my own machines - both the XP driven and the new Win7 one. After I full scanned them, the utility did indeed discover 1 malware on the new machine as well as a bad Registry item and 4 instances on the XP laptop: 2 Registry data items and 2 files.
All these items had never been detected before, so this utility has been a great boon indeed.
Quote:
Making a system Image once a month (varies by user)
My systems are fully mirrored and the mirrors maintained on a regular base. I do not think the small amount of my friend's operations warrants a mirror of his system. But one of these days, I'll make one, just to be sure - although I don't see how such a measure would speed up his machine!
Quote:
Not relying on your A/V common sense, should prevail. You know of many sites can cause a problem.
What's A/V common sense? A/V cannot stand for Audio-Visual, can it? As for sites possibly causing problems, I am wary of them. However, most of the malware files and Registry problems detected by Malwarebytes came from site downloaders. So I'll be especially prudent when it comes to such kinds of downloads (going through a third party in order to download one or other thing).
Quote:
Do not use any reg cleaning or optimizing software.
Well, I do reg cleaning. But, as said, prudently. I know just enough about working with registers, so that I can control this aspect. Never had a problem with this on any machine - but one never knows for sure, of course. As for optimizing, the only interventions I do is manually turning services on and off - when I am sure that I am not doing something untoward. Although... at a certain moment, indeed on my friend's machine, I turned off all Toshiba 'extra utilities' in services. And what do you know? All his mails had gone down the drain! Fortunately, I knew what I had been doing, together with System Restores an Erunt back-ups along the way, so I could restore everything without a problem (but a lot of cold sweat). And the mails reappeared. (I knew of course where they were located). Never found out which Toshiba "utility" had done the deed. But it goes to show to what extremes Toshiba goes in rummaging into the OEM OS.
Quote:
Download and use Ccleaner about once every two months. Untick any registry entries. http://www.piriform.com/
I do, I do! Except for that registry thing. See above.
Quote:
Download and use PSI, to to be sure that all of your software is up to date
http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/
Here you got me again. Have not used PSI and was unaware of its existence, but will try it out on my friend's PC in two weeks' time, when I'll have my hands on the machine again. However, in this case too, I don't see why a program that has not been updated, would impair a PC.
Quote:
Be sure to back up your hard drive about once a month (varies by user) and to keep system restore points up to date.
Have done all that and been there - over and over again...
Quote:
If you follow these instructions, you will be trouble free for a long time to come.
I have been trouble free - on my own machines - since long (double touch wood!) My question for this discussion in fact amounted to this: Why would a more modern OS on a relatively more powerful PC run slower? In clear: My far older and/or less powerful machines running on XP, are by all means faster, and less stalling prone than my friend's. That's all.
In truth, I discovered recently (due to the enormous amount of separate Win updates following the installation of SP1 & 2 on that PC, that the automatic Window updates, reduced the machine to a crawl (with now and then minutes long stalls of everything) during download and install. I had indeed arranged for these updates to be downloaded automatically, due to my friend's lack of proficiency in computer use. Wrong, wrong move! I have now taught him how to update Windows manually. It took some doing to get that into his head, but he'll do it. I am sure that most speed problems will go away.
But not all! To give you the most telling example: Starting up a program the first time, or just opening a window the first time, or whatever operation the first time, still takes up an inordinate amount of... time - both before the launch or, in case of a window the building up of its contents, certainly when using large icons. However, when doing this the second time, almost immediate response. A prefetch problem? With my very limited knowledge, I don't know.
So the question remains: why these problems, when everything seems in order. Lack of power perhaps - even if my friend is only using the computer for very simple operations?
That's the answer I would like to get on his behalf.
Finally
Quote:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...er-performance
This page can not be found!
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/81176-speed-up-performance-vista.html
No real answers, there - at least not for this problem... However, I'll have a look again in a fortnight.
Bye for now Rich.
haku6
