XP computer is slow

There are good reasons why no one has suggested "Disabling useless
services".

1- Everyone has their own opinion of what is a "useless" service.
2- When months from now your computer crashes or your software doesn't
work it turns out that the service you disabled is not so "useless"
after all.
3- It doesn't make a noticeable difference (except inside your head.)

---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

microman wrote:
> There is one way of speeding up the computer which no one here seems to have
> mentioned. Disabling useless services.
>
> To do this click Start>Run type in "services.msc"
> To stop a service right click on it click "properties" and in the "startup
> type" dropdown menu select "disabled". If the service you want to disable is
> running you should click "stop" before disabling it.
> Here is a list of services that are not needed and waste memory my system
> works fine. I only have 256 MB ram running XP SP2 fine.
>
> Alerter: Disabled
> Application Layer Gateway Service: Disabled
> Application Management: Disabled
> ASP.NET State Service: Disabled
> Automatic Updates: Disabled
> Background Intelligent Transfer Service: Disabled
> Clip Book: Disabled
> COM+ Event System: Disabled
> COM+ System Application: Disabled
> Computer Browser: Disabled
> Cryptographic Services: Disabled, unless you are planning to install a new SP
> DCOM Servcer Process Launcher: Automatic
> DHCP Client: Automatic
> Distributed Link Tracking Client: Disabled
> Distributed Transaction Coordinator: Disabled
> DNS Client: Automatic
> Error Reporting Service: Disabled
> Event Log: Disabled
> Fast User Switching Compatability: Disabled
> Help and Support: Disabled
> HTTP SSL: Manual
> Human Interface Device Access: Disabled
> IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service: Disabled
> Indexing Service: Disabled
> ISPEC Services: Disabled
> Local Disk Manager: Disabled
> Local Disk Manager Administrative Service: Disabled
> Messenger: Disabled
> MS Software Shadow Copy Provider: Disabled
> Net Logon: Disabled
> NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing: Disabled
> Network Connections: Manual
> Network DDE: Disabled
> Network DDE DSDM: Disabled
> Network Location Awareness (NLA): Disabled
> Network Provisioning Service: Manual
> NT LM Security Support Provider: Disabled
> NVIDIA Display Driver Service: Automatic
> Performance Logs and Alerts: Disabled
> Plug and Play: Automatic
> Portable Media Serial Number Service: Automatic
> Print Spooler: Disabled only if you don't use or need a printer
> Protected Storage: Disabled
> QOS RSVP: Disabled
> Remote Access Auto Connection Manager: Manual
> Remote Access Connection Manager: Manual
> Remote Desktop Help Session Manager: Disabled
> Remote Procedure Call (RPC): Automatic
> Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locater: Disabled
> Removable Storage: Disabled
> Routing and Remote Access: Disabled
> Secondary Logon: Disabled
> Security Account Manager: Disabled
> Security Center: Disabled
> Server: Disabled
> Shell Hardware Detection: Automatic
> Smart Card: Disabled
> SSDP Discovery Service: Disabled
> System Event Notification: Disabled
> System Restore Service: Automatic Would not recommend disabling EVER
> Task Scheduler: Disabled
> TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper: Disabled
> Telephony: Disabled
> Terminal Services: Disabled
> Themes: Disabled, Note I have a blank Background you should do the same
> Uninterruptible Power Supply: Disabled
> Universal Plug and Play Device Host: Manual
> Volume Shadow Copy: Manual
> Web Client: Disabled
> Windows Audio: Automatic
> Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS): Disabled, Don't complain
> just do it and install an anti virus like AVG Free
> Windows Image Acquisition (WIA): Disabled
> Windows Installer: Automatic, unless you don't ever plan to install anything
> Windows Management Instrumentation: Automatic
> Windows Service Pack Installer update service: Disabled, unless you plan to
> update your SP soon
> Windows Time: Disabled
> Windows Zero Configuration: Disabled
> WMI Performance Adapter: Disabled
> Workstation: Disabled
>
> Note only do a few at a time to see if everything still works properly,
> although I believe it will work fine. If something does go wrong you can
> narrow it down to the last 5 or so services you just disabled, so that you
> can re-enable them.
>
> Also if you would like to provide me a list of programs that run at startup
> so I can check if anything is slowing you down, Start>Run msconfig.exe click
> the startup tab and post back with the results.
>
> Hope this is useful to you,
> Chris
>

If you are going to go to all that trouble and budget a full day to the
process, it seems to me that you would be better off reformatting the hard
drive and starting from scratch. Also a full day process, but you'd have a
nice clean slate with no worries about left over garbage from the uninstalled
programs.

Just my seldom humble opinion


"Shenan Stanley" wrote:

> sweetp5555@yahoo.com wrote:
> > I repair computers for my friends. I receive a lot of computers that
> > my friends say are “slow�. It used to be that a cleanup of Spyware
> > and startup programs would speed things up. But more often lately
> > this does not work. I have had 3 computers in the last month that
> > are slow, that is when you press the start button it takes a long
> > time to draw the start options and switching between windows is
> > slow, you can literality watch the windows being redrawn.
> > After re-installing XP on 2 of the computers, things worked fine and
> > they were MUCH speedier. This slowness has nothing to do with
> > networking, local programs are slow. I am working on a 3rd computer
> > now with same issue,
> >
> > I have checked all of the following and have nothing else left to
> > check and I am almost ready to re-install XP again:
> > Ad-aware is up to date and runs clean
> > Spybot S&D is up to date and runs clean
> > Norton AV is up to date and runs clean
> > 80 gig HD, 40 gig free
> > HD is not fragmented
> > Removed all not needed programs out of startup via msconfig
> > No errors in error logs
> > Scan disk runs clean
> > Indexing is off and set to manual
> > 256 meg RAM
> > (one of the other PCs with same issue only had 256 and after XP re-
> > install it was fine)
> > XP sp2 installed and up to date on all XP updates
> > Only one FW enabled, that is Sygate personal FW
> > Pentium 4 CPU
> > taskmanger shows CPU is not over worked, 70-90% idle
> >
> > I am getting tired of re-installing XP to fix this issue, any ideas,
> > please HELP!!!
> >
> > I am suspecting that in these cases maybe the registry has grown too
> > big over the years. But I do not trust registry cleaners, I’ve had
> > bad luck with them in the past.
> >
> > Or may rootkits are the issue, aren't they undetectable?
> >
> > Thanks for any help!!!
>
> Vundo maybe?
>
> Try superantispyware and multi-av to see if they find anything.
>
> Backup the machine "as is" (imaging would be a great way to do this) before
> doing anything...
>
> The registry thing is myth - at least in the situations (extremely slow) you
> are giving. I am on a machine originally installed with Windows XP in
> 2002 - have changed hardware on it twice before and have done repair
> installs because of that (not clean) and have installed/uninstalled more
> software than most normal users likely do in a lifetime (theirs, not the
> computer/OS install) of use - simply because I test so many things myself
> and others and I have finally turned it into a virtual machine now because
> it just doesn't give me trouble (although I have had to clean it up for
> various incidents over the 6+ years it has been running.)
>
> I would check for infestations with the two things I mentioned, uninstall
> all unused (or easily replaced/installed again applications) to get it as
> close to just "Windows XP and nothing else" as you can. Then I would update
> the hardware drivers to the latest/greatest and make sure it has the latest
> Windows XP updates (including SP3) and I would use AVG Free 8 without the
> email/link scanners (search to see how to install that way.)
>
> Here is where I bend a "little" on the "don't futz with the registry" thing.
> Run CCleaner. Let it completely clean the files and the 'registry' - in my
> experience with it - I have not had any ill-effects from doing this on a
> machine in this state (minimal installed.)
>
> After you have it down to a "well-updated bit virtually only Windows
> XP"-like installation and it is running okay - then install the applications
> back on - one at a time. Don't forget that Quicktime, Real Player
> (alternative), Shockwave, Flash, Adobe Reader, PDFCreator, TweakUI, Firefox,
> Paint .NET, Open Office, etc - all of those types of programs should have
> been removed and now need to be put back. This was done to safely cleanup
> any corruption these applications have encountered over the years and to
> update them.
>
> This will all take some time - expect to spend a good solid day or more on a
> machine to do this - and I heavily suggest heeding the backup the entire
> machine suggestion first.
>
> Check performance monitor too. I've noticed a lot of people coming to me
> with 512MB of physical memory as of late and upon initial boot - they are so
> scaring the 500MB mark - it is obvious they need to get some memory. Last
> couple of times I upgraded people from 512MB to 2.5GB total for less than
> $70 investments from them.
>
> Truthfully though - a clean install would be the easiest fix (with an SP3
> integrated installer and all the latest hardware drivers - at least *if* you
> have everything else to install and no program settings/etc to keep.
> Time-wise - about the same in my experience, because I save everything I can
> of the users (favorites, documents, special settings, etc - but all without
> exporting/importing their profiles - as sometimes - their profile contains
> the issue.)
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP
> --
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
>
>