• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Computer performance?

threeputt

threeputt

New Member
Without being a tech myself, is there any way a guy can evaluate whether or not his machine is running optimally?

It seems like mine is slowing down over the last few months. But without any empirical data, how can I know if it's not just me? (hope that makes sense)

I defrag when the machine tells me it's necessary. (after analysis) I have good firewall and anti-virus protection and I know my machine is clean.

Are there any tech-y people who can render an opinion on this?
 
H

hydo1

New Member
Get a program called CCLEANER. It is free. Run it to remove a bunch of junk and see if that helps.
 
threeputt

threeputt

New Member
I downloaded the free version of Temp Cleaner. Ran it.

Freed up 8.649 Gig and deleted 26,691 files.

Can this be correct?
 
Techman

Techman

New Member
yes temp file cleaner cleaned out that much junk.

I tested this util a few months ago and posted about it here. At that time many reported cleaning out multiple gigs of junk.

ccleaner is and older app. It was actually called crap cleaner when it came out several years ago. It is good but there are others such as temp file cleaner that does a few other things extra.

There are a few other things that a user can do to return the speed back to their machine. A utility is not always the perfect answer.
 
choucove

choucove

New Member
No matter what computer you have, or what utilities you run, a computer operating system will begin to slow down with time. An analogy I was told by a teacher was that an accountant for a business that has only been open for three months will be able to retrieve information much faster than an accountant for a business that has been open and have records from three years to sort through.

As you run on your operating system, the registry will fill, temporary files build up, and much much more happens that slowly leads to the operating system slowing down. Applications and utilities can be found which help to alleviate some of this slow-down such as the temp file cleaner to remove old temporary unused files. But the operating system will still be running slower for the longer it has been installed on your computer.

The only sure way to get your computer completely back up to speed is to do a full reformat and re-installation of the operating system back to scratch. And generally speaking, it's more work and hassle installing and transferring files again than it's worth in the end for a slight performance gain.
 
Techman

Techman

New Member
The only sure way to get your computer completely back up to speed is to do a full reformat and re-installation of the operating system back to scratch.
Click to expand...

I completely and utterly disagree. Sorry. My little experience with this computer PC work shows that this type of remedy is not needed and unnecessary.
 
choucove

choucove

New Member
Techman said:
I completely and utterly disagree. Sorry. My little experience with this computer PC work shows that this type of remedy is not needed and unnecessary.
Click to expand...

I agree, Techman. All I meant is it is one of the ways (usually the only way that most people know) to get a computer back to a fresh start running like brand new. It will do the job, but as you have stated before it's not the only way of doing it. But it does do the job and that is what most people will turn to then.
 
Techman

Techman

New Member
you are right it is what ppl turn to unfortunatly..

But it it does nothing to tweak the OS into its best configuration. There are at least 7 little tweaks that make for major performance increases. A reinstall does none og those.
 
Techman

Techman

New Member
User Account Control OFF
Restore, OFF , only use restore when you add something and want to test. Restore is about useless for recovering from a virus infection. Just make sure yoru backups are up too date.

The search (index) is junk too. Turn it off. Use "Everything" this one is instant and uses way less resources that the OS.

Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop < OFF
Aero OFF on older systems.
Drivers corrected and up to date
Clean out System Tray No need for this junk either. Huge waste of resources.

remove all windows junk programs, we do not need modem support, Tablet Windows or Gadget crap.
Services> adjusted to turn off all the junk you are not using.
 
Mosh

Mosh

New Member
We buy a new system at least once a year. $2K a year to stay at full speed is peanuts. We have have 5 systems in the shop now, 1 design, 3 RIP, and one accounting. As I get new I take the oldest one home to use. I then give the replaced home one (wiped out) to one of my employees, they love the bonus.

We keep copies of all artwork on a couple of external drives as a backup BTW.
 
choucove

choucove

New Member
Techman said:
User Account Control OFF
Restore, OFF , only use restore when you add something and want to test. Restore is about useless for recovering from a virus infection. Just make sure yoru backups are up too date.

The search (index) is junk too. Turn it off. Use "Everything" this one is instant and uses way less resources that the OS.

Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop < OFF
Aero OFF on older systems.
Drivers corrected and up to date
Clean out System Tray No need for this junk either. Huge waste of resources.

remove all windows junk programs, we do not need modem support, Tablet Windows or Gadget crap.
Services> adjusted to turn off all the junk you are not using.
Click to expand...

These are all great adjustments that I have used as well and work quite well in helping to alleviate system performance hits.

Nearly every time I look at someone's computer that is slowing down, they have numerous programs running in the background that they can't even see and are hogging system resources. You can eliminate many of these programs from starting up automatically in Windows by editing them in the msconfig utility. Just go to Start->Run and enter "msconfig" without the quotes. In this window you can adjust what services will run and what applications will load by default when Windows starts up. You would be amazed at the performance increase you can get by disabling the unneeded applications in here. But you do also need to be careful not to remove things critical to Windows or your system drivers or the machine may fail to load.

Additionally, keep your drive clean of temporary files. Use the Disk Cleanup utility in the Accessories->System Tools folder regularly to clear out temporary internet files, temporary archived files, and such.

If you have more than one hard drive in your computer, you may want to also look at moving your pagefile off your system drive and to a second drive. This can often speed up access to the pagefile which results in slightly faster performance overall. You can select where to place the pagefile by following the simple steps for XP http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886 or for Vista/Windows 7 http://mintywhite.com/vista/vmaintenance/performance-boost-move-page-file-to-another-physical-drive/
 
Mosh

Mosh

New Member
More you monkey with stuff the more messed up it is going to get. Back in the day Geeks always argued about messing with MS DOS or DS DOS. Guess what, the time wasted messing with crap like this I made 20 signs and paid for a faster new system. Tell me I am wrong all you want, but in all the years I have been in business I have not lost one minute from a computer problem, because I keep everything new and fresh.
 
D

DigitalBBQ

New Member
Your workstation computer should stay focus on work related matters. If you go on secret websites, there is no way to get the bugs out completely. Temp Files clean up, registry clean up, spyware clean up can only do so much because most people admit the "OK" to installed by mistakes. It will take more than just PC tech to battle with the unknown mishaps, and most of the PC techs are not software engineer by trade. They only replace as repair in most case.

Effective backup plan can be benefitial to your works, and re-installed your system with the new window update usually give you the immediate remedy, but you have to install all softwares again.

However, there is a software , "Disk Copy"; it will make exact copy of your hard drive including operating system, files structures, and disk partitions, etc. EXACT COPY.
 
Techman

Techman

New Member
It will take more than just PC tech to battle with the unknown mishaps, and most of the PC techs are not software engineer by trade. They only replace as repair in most case.
Click to expand...

I believe you are mistaken in your opinion. I would agree that a few are nothing more than parts replacers espcially at the box stores.

However, the local neighborhood technician is the one who can do it all. If he cannot he has access to software utilities and private forums loaded with home brew hacks and dozons of other tech's that will have the answer.
 
heyskull

heyskull

New Member
I reformat all our computers (6) each year and it is stunning how much faster it makes them.
Just make sure you have all the necessary files to reinstate them!!

SC
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top