COMPUTER HELP: slow as buggery

[Simon Pieman]

Make sure you run a spyware and virus check once a week. I think spybot is also one of the better anti-spyware programs available:
Spybot Search & Destroy

Make sure you have a firewall as well. XP has a built in one but it's gash because it only monitors incoming traffic. If something in your computer triggers off and tries to contact someone/something else outside it could lead to big problems. If you don't have a decent firewall already get one. I would recommend zonealarm because it's free and it's one of the best out there:
ZoneAlarm

The more stuff you have running in the background of your pc, the slower it will become. You might have loads of programs running in the background, especially from the time you boot. Without going into a hugely technical (and geeky) way of checking every program, for now go to start>all programs>startup. If there are programs in that menu location you do not need to run from the start, delete them from that menu. This will prevent them from running when you switch on your machine but you can still use them whenever you need to anyway.

Don't forget that if you have little free space on your hard drive, performance will also deteriorate. So clean up your hard drive! A simple way to delete all temp files/temp internet files is to right click on your hard drive and then select properties. In the next window (the one with the pie chart) click on disk cleanup. It'll take a while to run it's calculations, but basically tick temp files, internet files and recycle bin. Then ok to clean it up. You should also uninstall all programs you don't need by going to the add/remove programs tool in control panel.

Finally if you haven't done so already I would recommend defragmenting your hard drive. Do this by right clicking on it and selectign properties again. In the pie chart window select the 'tools' tab at the top and run the disk defragmenting tool. You want to select 'defragment' to do the job. This will take some time so I recommend you roll a doob (or whatever you students do) and mong out while it does it's business.

[Simon Pieman]

My registry backup I did the other month took ages. It was nearly 100mb in size.

[strooood]

i knew you'd come to the rescue arr kid.

i'll do all that shight soon.

what does that deframent do? will i lose anything? if it takes ages i'll just wank myself into  coma while i wait.

[Simon Pieman]

apparently according to my anti-virus there's a virus in that ad aware programme.

big trouble in little computer

Nope, ad-aware will quarantine that item, so your virus scan gets tricked, but the item has been quarantined (can't work). Nothing to worry about.

[Simon Pieman]

i knew you'd come to the rescue arr kid.

i'll do all that shight soon.

what does that deframent do? will i lose anything? if it takes ages i'll just wank myself into  coma while i wait.

Um best way to explain it is that files become broken up - so one part of a file might be at one 'end' of your hard drive and the other part might be at the other. This means it takes longer to read. The defraggler puts the parts next to each other (as best it can) to make the reading process more efficient. You won't lose anything.

[strooood]

My registry backup I did the other month took ages. It was nearly 100mb in size.

what the fuck are you on about now?


wowza 75 critical thingys on my firsty ad-aware scan aready. feels like im squeezing a big spot on my bellend  

[Simon Pieman]

My registry backup I did the other month took ages. It was nearly 100mb in size.

what the fuck are you on about now?


wowza 75 critical thingys on my firsty ad-aware scan aready. feels like im squeezing a big spot on my bellend  

Sorry strooood, that was in reply to Lebowski.

[land_of_bo]

My registry backup I did the other month took ages. It was nearly 100mb in size.

what the fuck are you on about now?

Typical geek, bragging about the size of his registry!

[Simon Pieman]

My registry backup I did the other month took ages. It was nearly 100mb in size.

what the fuck are you on about now?

Typical geek, bragging about the size of his registry!

Au contraire, less would be more in this case.

[Bartek]

Avast is the best and for free...
and for spyware a-squared free

...but although I have some problems with mine pc too...
 :|  When I turn it on to the current it hisses , but when I turn on pc it stops . The same if there is a current failure outside...it hisses again...

[yeo]

Sounds like a cockroach problem

[Fred Elliot]

Sounds like a cockroach problem

Nah..................sounds like "snakes on a plane" to me



Toooooo much hissing !

[Sussex]

I've never experienced buggery, so can't comment whether the speed is ok or not.

[Fred Elliot]

I've never experienced buggery, so can't comment whether the speed is ok or not.

Liar !

 

[flammableBen]

Aswell as going for the classic ad aware jobbys you can also go to run in the start menu and run msconfig.

Check the startup tab, anything in there which you don't wan't loading up on startup tick off or uninstall

Check the services tab, anything which looks a bit sketchy, no manufactor etc. do an internet search for to find out what it is and if it's needed.