Cleaning up a PC

[fiat2]

Hi all,
There are a few workstations with windows 2000 at work and we don't have a sys admin, so they asked me to look into do some things that could "enhance performance".
I was curious if you could give me some tips on cleaning up a pc and helping it run better.
any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
thanks
Frank

 

[Jerryd60]

There are several things that can be done to help enhance Win2K and any other O/S.
First, do a search for .tmp files and remove all that it will let you remove. Do this right after a reboot without any open applications.
Second, delete your browser cache by doing a search for fat.db (for netscape), and deleting that.
Third, perform a scandisk, followed by a disk defrag.
These steps will do a lot toward improving performance for your PCs.

Using third party software, you can also scan your disk for little used files, duplicate files and the like and get rid of those. Delete only those that haven't been used for a loooong time, like a year or more. I have had to help a number of people who assumed that since they hadn't used a file for 2 or 3 months, it must not be needed.
BIG WRONG! to that. After deleting it, one of these people had to do some manipulations to recover their data. Their computer wouldn't even boot up past the BIOS and certainly never got to the point of looking for windows. They had to find another person with a HD for the same O/S, install it as a master disk, set their own disk as a slave and boot up, then reformat their own disk with the boot files. Restoring their configuration allowed them to boot up and restore the data to their drive. Unfortuantely, they lost all their data.

So, be very careful when using one of the 3rd party software packages like this.

 

[chadt]

you can enhance the machine by doing a fresh install.

do a search on google for spybot....this program will identify any spyware on the machine.

or the best route would be to get rid of windows and upgrade to linux/BSD or BeOS.

 

[wolluf]

chadt,

this is a windows 2000 forum - not a Linux/BSD/Beos soapbox. Getting rid of win2k and installing one of the aforementioned is not a best route for hardly anybody - as you obviously well know.

 

[LisaWo]

also, go into the display properties and remove the check mark referring to transition effects.. and remove the check to show content while dragging.

 

[chadt]

//wolluf (TechnicalUser)//

chill out....i was kidding with the last remark....so friggin serious in here.....lighten up!!

 

[orejas]

turn off performance counters
microsoft has a tool for this.
but under run type diskperf -n to turn off disk counters
this really helps speed up shutdown

 

[devilman0]

Get faster network cards, 100tx full duplex is also good, if you have a lot of net apps. You would be surprised how much this will help. Adding memory is also a good solution, adding one 128mb stick to each machine will also help. There is also a more complicated solution, M$ loves to put everything to disk, even if you have 3gb of memory, what i did (and made my computer go a full 1/3 times faster) is i opened up all the apps that i thought i would every use, and some, started disk defrag, and opened up ie 100 times, checked on how much memory i was using, then subtracted how much i had in system memory (actual chips, not paged) added 10% back for system stuff, this result is how big my page file is. By doing this, you force the os to put most of the memory to chip, instead of disk, a slow hd will kill memory performace, save the hard drive for long term memory.

Thanks,
James

 

[orejas]

Why IS everything still going to disk???????
Is there some practical(for programmers, not users) reason to keep doing this??
I am sick of fighting this problem as a user.

 

[devilman0]

I agree, my computer at home i have 3gb of memory, and my page file is only 100mb in size, i found that if increase it to m$ specs, the thing grinds to a holt (relatively) i do a lot of 3d animation, so this is what i used to test. Both times i started with a freshly defraged, and scanded drive, and used the same animation (roughtly 1hr long with lots of raytracing, and shadowing) and found that with almost no page file, it was a lot faster (ddr 2ghz something compared to 133 ata interface, you can see the reasoning)

Thanks,
James

 

[orejas]

Sounds like a plan. I'll have to do some trimming back on mine
thanks