Technical Tidbits™

Posts Tagged ‘why is my computer so slow’

If you missed part 1 or part 2, click the links to view those.

Well, here is the long awaited final of my series for Why is my PC so slow!

No video this time. Just plain talk – or should I say read – and an outstanding give-away! Just read on.

Thus far I’ve shown you how to tweak your start-up menu so that you don’t have a ton of junk loading when you boot, and I’ve shown you a nifty way of keeping crap off your desktop, yet keeping it within a mouse click away.

So, let’s say you did all that and you still are running slower than molasses?  What then?

Well, we need to drill down into some of the basic, first glance reasons this could happen.

Are you running Windows XP with Service Pack 3? If so, that could be the culprit. I had to uninstall it because it was dragging my dual core into the mach speed of a 486! Consider uninstalling SP 3 and sticking with SP2 for several more months at least.

Are you running Spybot S&D and using the immunize feature while also running a major software providers Internet Security suite? By that I mean, McAfee, Symantec, Norton, TrendMicro, Webroot, Comodo, ZoneAlarm, and so forth. I’m speaking about the “pay for” type of Internet suites that include Antivirus software and a firewall.

If so, UNDO your immunization in Spybot. When Spybot immunizes, it takes control of the files that could become corrupt in the event of a spyware infection. Unfortunately, so does the Internet security suites! So what you in essence have happening, is two programs fighting over control over who’s going to protect your system files and the loser is you and your computer speed and performance!

What if you’re on Vista? Well, make sure that what you have running as far as software is compatible with Vista. Also, you may need to tweak some additional settings that I’ll cover in an up-coming post but for now, you may want to see if there’s some services you can shut down or off.

And this is true for XP also!

If you downloaded iTunes recently – like within the last year – you will have something called the Mobile Device Manager running in the background. Unfortunately, this wasn’t stated as an included part of your installation but is an additional component inside iTunes to help you synch your iPod. But if you don’t have an iPod, then it’s rather a moot point.

To shut off the Mobile Device Manager, right click over your MY COMPUTER icon either from your desktop or your Start button.

Choose Manage.

You will receive a pop-up window called Computer Management Console or plainly Computer Management in the title bar.

Click the plus [ + ] sign next to Services and Applications to expand the list.

Select Services.

On the right side of the window, change the tab from Extended to Standard - it makes it easier to read.

All services are located in here – whether running or not – and they are in alphabetical order. Find the Apple Mobile Device listing and click on it to select it.

Then, right click and choose Properties or double click to open the properties. Either one will work.

If the service status in the lower section says that it’s running or started, click the stop button.

Then in the drop down box above that, labeled: Startup Type, change that to Manual.

Click Apply to accept the settings and close the window.

Without you realizing it, the Apple Mobile Device manager will go out searching your network for an attached mobile phone or iPod every so many minutes. Changing this to Manual, will not disable your ability to use your iPod or iPhone if you have one. It just requires it to start when you want it to start!

If you are really hard pressed for resources, go through all your software and disable the automatic update features in each one. Most of them can be found in the Tools or Options section of the software. You will be amazed at how many software installations you have running that will just randomly go out to the web and look for updates!

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT disable your Internet Security or Antivirus software from auto-updating!

Now, what happens when you’ve done everything I’ve taught you to do and you still are running slow? Tune in tomorrow! JUST JOKING! I wouldn’t do that to you! (Well, maybe I would but not today!)

Well, if you’ve stopped all the junk and you’re still slow, it’s time to do some maintenance! Don’t groan! Oh, that wasn’t a groan? What’s that you say? You don’t know how to do maintenance? You keep hearing about it but you don’t know how? Really?

Well, have I got a treat for you!

I just happen to have an eBook that tells you how to do that! And NO, I’m not going to make you buy it. I’m going to give it to you FREE! That’s right, absolutely FREE.

You see, I found out that many people think I teach on some high level that even beginners can’t understand. I also found out that some people think I’m giving a sales pitch like all the other Internet marketers out there and I’m going to sell you a useless book that has a back-end product on it that will promise to teach you the real stuff. Guess what? That’s not me. That’s not how MICE does business.

But the only way I can prove that to you is to show you how I teach and how I write eBooks! So that’s the reason for this freebie. My best eBook that I think I’ve written is yours FREE today for being such loyal readers of my blog!

Okay, here’s the deal though, and it’s not a requirement it’s optional. If you like what you read, would you do one of three things?

1. Tell a friend to come here and sign up to get their free eBook to this specific blog; or,
2. Go to our shop and post a review about what you thought about the book; or,
3. Use my tip jar over there to give me a tip for what you think the book was worth.

Again, none of these items are a requirement, they are optional but you would be doing me a favor in return for my doing one for you too – giving you the free book!

So, how do you get the free eBook? Well, just fill in the information in the box below and it will be e-mailed to you! Make sure you have mice.org as an accepted sender or we might end up in your spam box. If you aren’t sure how to whitelist our name you can go to this page to see how to do it with your specific e-mail provider.

Now, just in case you still think I’m up to something, I will not be selling your e-mail address. I will not be sending you a ton of “Buy Me” advertisings. I will send you the next free book I give away automatically though! You wouldn’t object to that would you?

And once you opt-in (confirm your e-mail address), you will receive an unsubscribe linkwith every e-mail you receive. So, you can unsubscribe the minute you get your free book! See, no catches!

I really want you to see the value I offer and see that you can trust us.

So, fill out the form, confirm your e-mail address, and you’ll get your free book. It’s that simple! Do it now! And then think about doing me a favor and doing one of the 3 things I’ve listed above in return.

First name

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So, what do I have in store for the next post? Well, we are going to talk about Google again! And why Big Brother might be interested in Politics!

For that you can stay tuned until tomorrow afternoon!

You know, in this day of unethical Wall Street money grubbers, it sure would be nice to know you can still trust us!

The other day, I left you with the thought that we would be discussing the items that start up on boot within your Windows system.

Have you ever taken a look at the bottom system tray? The area by your clock in the lower right corner of your desktop.

Have you ever noticed that when you update some piece of software, or install new software that every one of the manufacturers have to give you some icon there?

Yes, everyone wants a piece of your attention and they are doing it in such a way that you are not even noticing how much garbage is accumulating in your startup menu!

And guess what? The more stuff that loads at start-up, the more bogged down your computer gets!

Software companies have made it increasingly more difficult to stop the unnecessary crap from loading but you can not only stop it from running once it’s installed, but you can also stop it from running at boot time!

In Windows Vista and XP, you have a handy tool called msconfig, or your System Configuration utility. Inside this little tool, lurks every start-up entry that is bogging down your system.

I’ve prepared the following video (about 15 minutes in length) to show you how to use this little utility to stop the insanity at boot time.

Also, inside the video, I show you a little known secret about a wonderful FREE spyware removal tool that can save you reboot after reboot. Curious? It’s using a feature in Spybot Search & Destroy in Advanced Mode!

Now, if you’re one of my students at the online colleges, you may have seen the text version with the step-by-step directions to using other features in Spybot. But in this video, I deal specifically with the start-up items that are bogging down your PC speed.

So, without further delay, here’s the video instruction on how to stop programs from bogging down your PC performance at boot and after!

To download this vide to watch later or save for future reference, use this link and right mouse click to save as:

So, if you’d like to download the FREE Spybot Search & Destroy, you can do so here:
http://www.safer-networking.org

Be sure to use the Safer Networking mirrors to download unless you really know how to tell you are downloading the correct file from the mirrors. Many of my students have accidentally downloaded the advertisers program which told them they had to pay to clean up their system. Spybot is FREE but I would highly recommend donating! This program is very valuable and you’ll see more of what it does in future videos and posts!

And if you missed the URL in the video for checking what the heck the process is that’s running in start-up, you can find it here:  http://www.liutilities.com

Scroll down to the Library Section and select either processes or the dll library to find your specific item. They are listed alphabetically.