Post by thread:[OT]: winxx hard-drive wipe was Uninstalling a Dua

> It wont remove win98, but it wont show up on the boot screen. I do sugget > though that a complete re-load be done. Any Version of windows needs it > about once every 6 months, well mine does at least ;-) > > Does anyone know exactly what happens to winxx machines in this regard? I have seen numerous cases of a winxx pc slowing down until it barely crawls, locks up, etc. The only thing that will cure it is a reformat of the hd/reinstall of Windows and all associated apps/drivers. It's a real pain! Mark -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList spam_OUTpiclist-unsubscribe-requestTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu

If you have M$ Office components loaded, FindFast will do this to you. Fonts are another horrible thing - don't load them if you don't need to. You can store them offline in a separate directory from \windows\fonts and just copy them in as needed. I have a Win95 box that hasn't been scrubbed in 4 years, and still runs well (considering it's a 133). Andy Mark Skeels <.....meskeelsKILLspam@spam@EARTHLINK.NET> on 09/28/2000 03:27:37 PM Please respond to pic microcontroller discussion list <PICLISTKILLspamMITVMA.MIT.EDU> To: .....PICLISTKILLspam.....MITVMA.MIT.EDU cc: (bcc: Andrew Kunz/TDI_NOTES) Subject: [OT]: winxx hard-drive wipe was Uninstalling a Dual-boot computer > It wont remove win98, but it wont show up on the boot screen. I do sugget > though that a complete re-load be done. Any Version of windows needs it > about once every 6 months, well mine does at least ;-) > > Does anyone know exactly what happens to winxx machines in this regard? I have seen numerous cases of a winxx pc slowing down until it barely crawls, locks up, etc. The only thing that will cure it is a reformat of the hd/reinstall of Windows and all associated apps/drivers. It's a real pain! Mark -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList EraseMEpiclist-unsubscribe-requestspam_OUTTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList piclist-unsubscribe-requestspam_OUTmitvma.mit.edu

A large portion of this has to do with the registry. Just about every time a program starts, closes, accesses the disk or a user moves or clicks the mouse, windows accesses the registry. On a new install this is rather small, but on a long running system (where I've installed and uninstalled programs, and modified to suit my needs, etc, etc) the registry can reach 10MB or larger. My system, which hasn't had a reload in 2.5 years, is at 9MB now. Some programs are better at this than others, choosing to keep their settings in a seperate ini file. Microsoft had the brilliant idea that if every computer and program setting were kept in one file, then the computers would crash more, requiring more certified microsoft clone-people, meaning more money in their coffers. Or, at least, that's my interpretation of the registry concept... -Adam Mark Skeels wrote: {Quote hidden}> > > It wont remove win98, but it wont show up on the boot screen. I do sugget > > though that a complete re-load be done. Any Version of windows needs it > > about once every 6 months, well mine does at least ;-) > > > > > Does anyone know exactly what happens to winxx machines in this regard? I > have seen numerous cases of a winxx pc slowing down until it barely crawls, > locks up, etc. The only thing that will cure it is a reformat of the > hd/reinstall of Windows and all associated apps/drivers. > > It's a real pain! > > Mark > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList > @spam@piclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspammitvma.mit.edu -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList KILLspampiclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspammitvma.mit.edu

Andy is right, FindFast can ultimately slow your system to a crawl. I always go to Start/Settings/Taskbar, locate the Startup folder and DELETE the FindFast Icon. If you don't like the idea of deleting the icon, MOVE it to some other subdirectory at least. FindFast is one of the reasons you get the hourglass "wait" icon on the screen for several seconds when you first start up Windows and finally get to the desktop. I also move any other icons I find in Startup that I really don't want to autoload on startup. There are some items you really want to keep, but typically about half of the items in Startup don't really *have* to be there. I move these kind of items to a subdirectory (folder) that I have named Startupx. Fr. Tom McGahee {Original Message removed}

> I also move any other icons I find in Startup that I really don't > want to autoload on startup. There are some items you really want > to keep, but typically about half of the items in Startup don't > really *have* to be there. I move these kind of items to a subdirectory > (folder) that I have named Startupx. Don't forget to also check the other places used to automatically start applications at startup / logon. Check out the Windows Registry ... check in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and review the Run and RunOnce keys. You might also want to check out the WIN.INI file in Windows' main folder (usually c:\windows) and search for the the RUN= and LOAD= lines. Also, if you have Windows NT or Win2k, make sure you check out both your own (personal) Startup folder and the All Users\Startup folder. There are lots of different places to make apps. start automatically. -- Mitch -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.