(deprecated) Microsoft Windows OS (XP/NT/Vista) Forum

The Windows restore is good in some circumstances, but it isn't a true roll-back method. You would need to use drive imaging software for that.

It has stated acting even more wired,once i am rebooting and then opening any program it hanging as usualy but once i press ctrl+alt+delete and windows task manager is opening it start acting as normaly.

I dont have virus software installed and i dont need it as has never had a virus problems.

How would you know whether you had a virus? It's very possible you have been clean, but how would you know? I would suggest you at least try one of the free online virus scans.

Zonealarm is a very good thing to prevent all kind of viruses when you know how to configure it.

I haven't used ZoneAlarm for several years. Some people love it, but others say that it is a resource hog and that it is the cause of system slowdowns and hangups. I would try removing ZoneAlarm completely to see whether it is the source of your problems.

Unfortunaly i dont have registry protection software,would you please recommend me one?

Here are two programs (free) that I run on all my systems:

MS are trying to ignore the noise over it's effects ..and they will probably not be going back to the folks who wrote it for them ..

The best instructions on how to get back to where you were before it ( and to stay free of it ) were already written by Poolarchitect elsewhere ..)..find his post like this ..

I can't link out to it from here ..but copy and paste this search string entire into google with quotes on it ..like this ..

"To get rid of Microsoft’s nasty Software Distribution Service 2.0 you first need to go to your START Menu and open MY DOCUMENTS;"

And you'll find his "walkthrough" to get your old machine back again ..

Then ..
never ever run a machine without a regmonitor ..either regprot or regmon ..and go to sysinternals and read for a couple of days to see why ..and bear in mind that they explain 'doze to the guys at Redmond ..so beleive them
..

Then run a search on your machine for any files of a .tmp type ( there'll be lots ..they are no good ..'doze makes 'em like rabbits beget rabbits )..every time you open a help file or just think about pressing enter doze makes a .tmp file ..they are only small but they get in the way ..

So go download ccleaner and run it to remove all .tmp's ..then look in it's tools dept ..and use it to remove all those things you have hanging around in the registry that belong to apps you no longer have ..

Then go get NOD32 in the trial version ( 30 day TBYB..fully functional ) it finds 99% of the virii and trojans and other malware that the other anti virii apps miss ..install it and run it ( after wards.. you can always.. if you are too cheap to buy it and dont know how to run a machine without an AV and not be "owned" by any kid who can "typo" altavista ..go get and install either Antivir ..nice light weight free av ..or AVG free ..both streets better than norton et al ) ..

Then start running defrags ..( the native doze defrager is slow ..albeit better than the ones shipped with 98II ..and it lies ..it leaves gaps and then other apps bridge them instead of installing themselves all neatly in the same area ..) so go get diskeeper lite ..another freeware ..very very fast ..and run it at all of your HD's like Bill says ..keep doing that until each one is as defragged as possible ..

Then make the .bat file ( like Bill says ) ..you can use it to start the apps .exe ( either the native XP one or diskeeper )..at about 03.00am your local time ( the makers of diskeeper lite say the free version needs manually starting ( they say it cant be scheduled and only on one disk at a time )..but it will start once a day all by itself and it will check all installed disks one by one ..but you'll have to start it manually ..it tends to check around midnight your local time ..or will fire up if you get more than 800 or so fragments on C drive ..when it runs it will slow everything else up ..normal behaviour for defrag utility ..whatever they say ) ..

Also ..dont play around with your default settings for the windows swap file ..it should be on the same drive as your OS is installed ..and should be at least 2 to 3 times your installed RAM ..unless you are running over 1 gig of RAM ..in which case 200 megs of swap is fine ..but better let the app decide for itself ..it tells you that if you adjust this you may not be able to restart you machine or it may act weird ..it is telling the truth ..on this Redmond usually knows best ..

I have one machine where the swap is on D drive and the OS on C ..and it is slower ..but I need it that way ..and put up with it's quirks ..

Then you can clean up your "desktop"...the fewer icons and folders etc ..the faster the box..active desktop makes things slow too ..

There's other file types that doze makes loads of just for fun when you do other stuff that you can remove and other tweaks that you can do to speed up machines ..the rule is never download those packages that say they can do it for you ( they always want to talk to "momma" ..behind your back ..mostly "momma" isnt a nice app and will do you harm as a result of the phone home effects of her offspring ) ..zone alarm can prevent this ( that's what it does ..it prevents apps conecting to the net without your express permission ..and watches over your ports )..but it isnt an AV ..it will let any page , email or image or script or app or download take over your machine ..and some even target it specifically and then it will let them talk to momma without it asking you first ..it is a ressource hog ..but not enough to slow most modern machines ..unless you also want to do 3D rendering at the same time as read PDF's and mount videos and surf without having 2 gigs of RAM

By comparison with what MS put in and then "hobbled" the standalone version "smokes" ..either as the paid version or the V7 lite ..and doesnt leave the spaces in the defragged disk like the MS version ..why they would hobble perfectly good software is a mystery ..

Version 7 is no longer available from the makers ..but can be found elsewhere on the net copy and paste this search string with the quotes into google "diskeeper lite version 7 free download".the first entry has a legal version ..for major geeks ;-)..

Somewhere on this machine I have .txt file of URLs for downloads of such "golden" apps and standalone stuff ..I'll look around for for it and pass the info to Bill as I'm pretty sure some of the link outs would not be OK for open fora ( they are not warez nor torrents ..just blog type places and so on ).. ..

please no stickies for "where can I get" ..

ask in open fora ( I'm not the only one here that has some very esotheric surfing history ..bcolflesh amazes me sometimes ;-) or ask Bill ..

Also some times I dont get on here for weeks or months due to either my crappy ISP or having a life off line ..;-)

Perhaps you could have Task Manager start with Windows. Just add a shortcut to the Startup folder. I'm not sure that will solve things, but if you say that opening Task Manager helps...
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I am runing it manualy once PC is restarted and it helps.
I cant really explain what it has to do with my problem but it really helps.

This might be a good time to run defrag on all your disks. I usually run a batch file on the weekends to defrag all my disks. It's a good idea to do this from time to time. You can use a text editor like Notepad to make a file called "defrag.bat".
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Will run it now,it should take up to 3 hours to complete.

How would you know whether you had a virus? It's very possible you have been clean, but how would you know? I would suggest you at least try one of the free online virus scans.
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Which one would you recommend Norton,Mcafee,AVP or other?

I haven't used ZoneAlarm for several years. Some people love it, but others say that it is a resource hog and that it is the cause of system slowdowns and hangups. I would try removing ZoneAlarm completely to see whether it is the source of your problems.
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Sometimes its really a resource hog but did you tried anything better?
I have tried a few other firewalls but none of them seems to have that much options.
Maybe someone has had a different expirience?

Leosghost,

""To get rid of Microsoft’s nasty Software Distribution Service 2.0 you first need to go to your START Menu and open MY DOCUMENTS;" "

Found it,thanks

I have cleared temp files.

Indeed my swap file is over 2 times my installed RAM size

Overall,you wrote nice tutorial for Windows maintenance :)

...unless you also want to do 3D rendering at the same time as read PDF's and mount videos and surf without having 2 gigs of RAM ...
Rarely anyone is doing it :)

Thank you for all advices.

May i ask you to also add a speed up steps or refer me to a good tutorial?

"the rule is never download those packages that say they can do it for you ( they always want to talk to "momma" ."

Like which ones for example?

Only hacks ..no cracks ..dont want to incurr the wrath of the sith ;-))

..some of the doze stuff I've never had installed ..only fixed ..such as ..millenium ..( the OS from hell )..( hey I'm windows millenium ..own me ) ..