Software Frustration

[Jscotty]

I consider myself to be reasonably patient when it comes to the amount of time it takes for a software program to perform a particular function. It might have a percentage meter or it might just have an hourglass while its performing the function.

But one thing that I cannot stand is looking at the hourglass when the computer is performing a functon that I DONT want it to do. I sat here today patiently waiting for my program to finish loading as it went through a series of unknown hourglass procedures. Eventually an hour later a screen comes up telling me that they found a newer update for my version of the software. Do I want to download it and install it? NO!!! I just want to get some tasks done! I don't need that program to constanty search the internet while I sit here looking at the hourglass!

Even MS Windows can get to be annoying because they figured that people would enjoy the operating system more if the screen came up faster. It used to be (in earlier versions) that when I booted my PC it would take about 30 to 45 seconds, maybe a minute at the most and then I could start working. Now with the latest version of Windows XP, when I boot it, the windows desktop comes up in 18 seconds, however it takes 3 to 5 mintues to go through all of the hourglass gyrations.

[s0urce]

Sounds like you don't know how to work your computer. Don't blame the hardware or software. Blame the user. Mine works flawlessly.

[chucko]

Now with the latest version of Windows XP, when I boot it, the windows desktop comes up in 18 seconds, however it takes 3 to 5 mintues to go through all of the hourglass gyrations.

Do you have a lot of icons in your taskbar tray, it's the area next to the clock on the lower right portion of the taskbar?
These icons represent some of the applications that auto launch at startup. Remove the unwwanted ones from the startup folder and your computer will boot up quicker.

[Kruzen]

Sounds like you are terrible at computers and need to get a mac.

[AndrewBird]

Do you have a lot of icons in your taskbar tray, it's the area next to the clock on the lower right portion of the taskbar?
These icons represent some of the applications that auto launch at startup. Remove the unwanted ones from the startup folder and your computer will boot up quicker.

To go even further, if you type msconfig into the run prompt (under the start menu), you can turn off ANY of the programs that auto start. Just go to the "Startup" tab and un-check anything you don't need running. If you aren't sure what something is, type the name into Google. There are several websites that tell you what various processes do.

Also, to make the computer load faster on start up, go to the "BOOT.INI tab and check "/NOGUIBOOT". What this does is make that that little loading screen when windows XP is loading go away. Makes startup 10-15 seconds quicker.

After you make any changes in msconfig, you will need to restart. After restart, a box will pop up saying stuff has been changed. Just check the box that says to not show it anymore and it will go away.

It also helps to not have a lot of icons on your desktop because it takes longer to load several icons then just a few. Not a huge increase in speed from this, but some.

More stuff to do to make your computer run faster is to change it's visual settings. Right click on the "MyComputer" Icon and click on properties. Then click on the "Advanced" tab and click the button under "Performance" that says "Settings". Under the visual effects tab, un-check any effects you don't really need, like "Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing" or "Fade out menu items after click". All little visual stuff that you won't even notice is gone, but will speed the computer up a ton if turned off.

You can also turn off services that you don't need. In the run prompt, type services.msc In there, you can look through all the various services that Windows uses. Just like the visual settings some you don't even need. Like, if your computer isn't networked to other computers, turn off any services that have to do with networking. They all have descriptions of what they are used for and once again, if you're not sure exactly what it does, type it into Google.

Turning off the "Hibernation" option helps too. In the control panel under "Power Options", there is a tab called "Hibernate". Un-check the box that says "Enable hibernation".

Something that will help programs load faster is clearing out your "Prefetch" folder. Basically, prefect files work like cookies and are used to load a program faster. When the folder gets full of a bunch of files though, it takes longer for windows to find the right file corresponding to the program you are opening. The folder is in c:/windows. Just delete everything in the folder, making sure NOT to delete the folder itself.

After all of these things, your computer should be MUCH faster.

I also suggest downloading a spyware searching program like Spybot Search and Destroy or Ad-Aware SE. Both are great ways to get rid of spyware that virus scanners and other software don't pick up. The best part is, they're both free to download and use. I use both.

Anyways, sorry for the long post. Hopefully it was useful. For more speed upgrades, go to www.tweakxp.com All kinds of stuff there.

[Mr Deagle]

try switching to linux

[Kruzen]

try switching to linux

I doubt he'd get past the installation

[Mr Deagle]

fedora is easy enough if you just use the gui

[325Projectz]

fuck all that business. load dos up.

its so much better, you can type '2+4' and hit enter, then it will give the answer!

sounds like it will run super fast on your machine.

[Jscotty]

Understand here that I am not a total n00b when it comes to computers. I know how to tweak my pc and turn off all of that excess crap that Microsoft puts into their programs and my computers run relatively well.

Its just a couple of these cheap bargain brand software programs that I use that are very elementary and designed to cater to the total idiot. So it is loaded with tons of idiot proof features and every attempt to get from task A to task B is intercepted by some doggone "Are you sure you want to do this? You run the risk of screwing up your computer if you do."

And I don't mind saying "Yes, I am sure" every time but if the computer is going to hang there with the hourglass as it attempts to access the internet just so it can ask me that silly question, thats what frustrates me.

Even the latest versions of AOL seemingly want to take over every aspect of your computer from the CD rom, to the memory stick, to your monitor settings. I had pulled out my DVD burner to put it in another machine and then the next time I booted my PC an AOL window popped up informing me that there might be a problem with my [missing] CD player and that I should call their tech support department to schedule a repairman to come to my house.

I most certainly called AOL.. and cancelled my account.

[Kruzen]

Understand here that I am not a total n00b when it comes to computers.

Even the latest versions of AOL seemingly want to take over every aspect of your computer from the CD rom, to the memory stick, to your monitor settings. I had pulled out my DVD burner to put it in another machine and then the next time I booted my PC an AOL window popped up informing me that there might be a problem with my [missing] CD player and that I should call their tech support department to schedule a repairman to come to my house.

I most certainly called AOL.. and cancelled my account.

Man who are you trying to fool. Nooblar express.

[s0urce]

I most certainly called AOL.. and cancelled my account.

Case in point, you used AOL. Dumbass.

[325Projectz]

:rofl:

[Jscotty]

Man who are you trying to fool. Nooblar express.

LOL!
I use AOL only because I am addicted to it. I joined back in 1992 and have been in the love/hate relationship ever since.

Really.. I have been working on PC's since the 8088 and the TRaSh-80 from radio shack were out. Then they had the coveted 80286 PC at my high school that they kept in a special room that only certain teachers had access to. Oh, and back in those days hard drives were very expensive and only major corporations had them. The average PC user ran everything off of 5.25 inch floppies. You had a dos disk, and then your application disk and then you had a disk that you used to store your data. So there was a great deal of floppy swapping going unless you had 2 disk drives in your computer.

Then when the 386 came out the hysteria was worse than the release of the PS3. At least it was this way in the computer nerd community. Back then only nerds had computers and you were even more of a nerd to know how they worked. But they were not in the mainstream in the manner that they are in today. Back in those days I was one of the beta testers for Windows 1.0. I got frustrated and dropped out of the program halfway through beta version 2.0 and bought a mac. By the release of the 486 I swore off of PC's completely. Then came the first generation Pentium. Intel really had us bamboozled because the latest 486 ran at 100Mhz while the early pentiums only operated at 60Mhz.

[M42Technik]

Just because you've used it forever doesn't mean its good.

Go steal yourself a copy of Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition, and never have to worry about updating your virus software ever again. Best thing I ever put on my computer for sure. Takes care of all that shit, spyware, malware, wareware etc...

You can always go to My Computer - right click on the drive you want to clean up - Properties - Disk Cleanup. Doesn't do that much, but cleans out temp files and whatnot.

Don't forget to Defrag, that helps speed up things a bit too, but its not really neccessary all the time, maybe once or twice a year, maybe more if you add alot of stuff to your hard drive.

EDIT: And don't upgrade to Vista. You will die.