XP Insane slowdowns - Any ideas?

[Boot_WB]

I was recently experiencing ridiculous slowdowns on Thunderbird - moving a single e-mail to particular folders (ie ones with lots of stored messages) could take up to two minutes. Tracked it down to McAffee (Networks Associates), and found a fix - disabling the "Decode MIME encoded files" in the on-access scanner.
As MIME types are still decoded in the "on delivery" scanner, the risk is minimal, and the positive effects were immediate.

I had been thinking that I'd have to ditch Thunderbird and find a new e-mail client, but not any more.

You could also exclude certain drives/directories from the on-access scan - obviously not removable drives, but certain areas of fixed disks shouldn't be too much risk.

[Hodgkinson]

Ah, that might be a point. At the moment every setting under the sun is turned up full in the AV - If I think on I'll try a search (Next time I need to find something) with and without the on-access scanner and see what happens ;-)

Hodgkinson.

[pyrre]

I have run my XP install for a little over two years now. I have never defragged my disks. I use NTFS and have never really seen any difference in defragged or not... even when my disks are full.
However. installing and removing programs build up much unwanted entry's in the register file. so an occasional cleanup is needed.
I use symantec antivirus, spybot and firefox...
And i never really experience any significant performance loss. And if the system gets slow, i do a reg cleanup...(manually)...
My pc system is:
Intel P4 3200 HT
Asus P4P800
2gig ram
XFX 6800 ultra
Onboard audio and network
Promise IDE controller
and a total of 1TB disk space...

[Hodgkinson]

What do you use to clean up your registry?

[bloodline]

Hodgkinson wrote:
What do you use to clean up your registry?

Buy a Mac :-D

[twizzle]

well its been about 6months now and yes you have guest it,
this week i had to re-install xp pro again  :-(

i had all the above problems again, plus my dvd +rw would not reconise any blank cd or dvd disc`s or most of my backup data disc`s? i even uninstalled and re-installed the programs to cure the problems, but to no avail,

everythings back to normal now :-) (until the next time)

[bloodline]

twizzle wrote:
well its been about 6months now and yes you have guest it,
this week i had to re-install xp pro again  :-(

i had all the above problems again, plus my dvd +rw would not reconise any blank cd or dvd disc`s or most of my backup data disc`s? i even uninstalled and re-installed the programs to cure the problems, but to no avail,

everythings back to normal now :-) (until the next time)

Why not image your HD now in this clean state. Then in 6Months simply reimage your HD from this image, bingo clean system again :-)

[pyrre]

What do you use to clean up your registry?

regedit

I manually remove any unwanted input...

EDIT:
And of course, spybot with teatimer.

But for the last two years i have never really experienced any significant performance loss...
After i became aware of what i install. Especially components from internet... blocksite is a very nice firefox addon...

[Hodgkinson]

Manually cleaning up the registry? (Brrr shudder, or at least from what I've heard...). Any suggestions for automatic ones?

I've taken the precaution of keeping the main PC non-internet connected, so hopefully that should help to reduce any problems.

[pyrre]

@ Hodgkinson

Well...
Using firefox with adblock, blocksite, flashblock, stop autoplay and java console (e new version of java console is needed for firefox 3.0), Spybot with teatimer (even though it wont help firefox much. But it will stop any spyware from using iexplorer.exe...) and of course symantec corporate antivirus.

Doing this you never really see anything to spyware/maleware. unless you accept downloading some *.exe codecs to see porn vids on the net. :-D
As for internet connectivity.

However, using win xp. you should never have less than 1gig ram. I have 2 gigs. and i think it is not enough...
I have never defragged any disk after i started using NTFS..
And i frankly don't see the point... 1 maybe 2% performance increase on modern computers...

And manually cleaning the registry. it really is no fuss... be aware of what you install, and when uninstalling it. remove it from registry... not really a problem...

My previous windows install was two years old. and it was originally installed on a AMD system. but was later changed to intel. I manually removed the AMD drivers and it worked flawless... only reason for reinstalling windows... well.. porn and spyware.... bluscreen on every bootup... :-(

[twizzle]

@Blodline

i have now put in a small 20gig hd (slave) and backed up the complete hd onto it  :-)

[bloodline]

twizzle wrote:
@Bloodline

i have now put in a small 20gig hd (slave) and backed up the complete hd onto it  :-)

I think that's a seriously good idea :-)

[quarkx]

I have used a product called "System Suite" by V-com since 1998. It has a very good registry cleaner among other tools. It uses the Trend micro anti-virus definitions, but not the trend virus cleaner. It also has a very good system diagnostic tool that reports in plain language. It takes up virtually no system resources on a day to day basis, but when is cleaning, it does bog the system down. I can safely say, I have never got a virus running it in the past 7 years. But, that just goes to say nothing, as I am pretty safe with my surfing habits. I like it because it scans my downloads and torrents before they are ever completed and will let you know right away if they are infected. There is a free 15 day trial on v-com's website, enough to get you started, just remember you can't have 2 anti-virus programs running at the same time or shouldn't do to conflicts.

[Hodgkinson]

Thanks for the post!

I've actually just installed CCleaner (On a recommendation) from http://www.piriform.com/products

It's got a registry cleaner, file cleaner (Eg, empties cookies, cache, temp file folders, etc) and easy to access pages for the startup programs and to uninstall programs.
So far I've only tried the file cleaner section, but it looks like a very useful free tool!

I've also been and deleted some of the unused hidden devices in device manger (Registry hack) recently.

Hodgkinson.

[adolescent]

CCleaner is great.  I've been using it for a couple of years (when it was called Crap Cleaner).

BTW, I still have the original, OEM, install on my old Fujitsu Lifebook S from 2002.  I did upgrade it sometime in 2003 from Home to Pro but never did a clean install.  Still runs at it's full Pentium III Mobile, 1.3GHz of fury.  Probably tens of thousands of hours on this thing now.  A real workhorse.

I don't bother with all the spyware, adware, etc. protection.  Just don't install stuff you don't trust, surf "questionable" sites, etc. and no need to worry about it.  Right now I just have CA antivirus, and my WRT54GS doing firewall duty.  Haven't had a single malware on the computer for several years now.

[NoFastMem]

Hodgkinson wrote:
Any tips of the trade for keeping XP going? (Eg, apart from AVscanning/Defrag/Scandisk)

To be honest, the detriment to your performance over time from the AV scanner will always dwarf that of the potential viruses out there. Especially if you have on-access scanning enabled. I don't run AV, I just browse safely (in Firefox) and don't download stupid stuff. Never had a virus.

Make sure you're formatted in NTFS and you really shouldn't have to run Scandisk. You'll see that all it performs is a basic validity check. DOS-based scanners will do a more low-level job, but of course you're basically looking for a hardware fault there, not really fixing the issues with Windows.


Your best bet is to start with a squeaky clean build:

Fresh install from original Windows media, or a slipstreamed SP3 disc.

Windows Update.

Download and extract the most recent drivers for your machine/mobo and components & store them somewhere for later reference/use.

Install your drivers using the device manager, rather than running the .exes.

Install the software, browser plugins, etc, that you need and update.

Install & Run CCleaner. (CCleaner is great, you have to look in the options and check that it will allow you to delete temp files newer than two weeks...)

Use regedit to check HKLM\Software\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run for any background process that come with some drivers/software. (This is handy for working installations too.)

Disable pointless services.

Use Ghost to image your drive. No need to defrag before this as Ghost handles that - it should also remove your pagefile, so that'll start back at a healthy size again.

Then you've got a base image to go back to should it really foul up again.

One last tip, don't run as an Administrator if you can help it. If you have programs that absolutely require administrator access (ie. can't be fixed with permissions, etc) try workarounds like runas, so that you're logged in as an admin as little as possible.