Power User Setup for Windows XP

[anonymez]

chewy, you gonna delve into services.msc & hardware profiles? much better than msconfig

personally i leave the indexing service on, its footprint is minimal & only eats cpu when pc is idle. but if you don't think you'll ever need to search files, go ahead & disable

[blutach]

First thing I do is turn Indexing service off.

Regards

[Chewy]

In good time, i wrote this guide for noobs, not for you all. Next computing 102 and then 103, with adequate warnings.
No blackv***r poweruser script files!

anony,

hardware profiles?

that's 201 and you can write that!

[anonymez]

well disabling indexing will just stop windows from using some cpu during idle time, actually disabling the service at startup, and thus freeing up a small amount of resources, is done by:

1. go start-->run

2. Type "services.msc" and press enter.

3. scroll down the list to "indexing service" & double click it

4. press 'stop' if the service is running, then change startup type to disabled

click ok, close

[Chewy]

well disabling indexing will just stop windows from using some cpu during idle time, actually disabling the service at startup, and thus freeing up a small amount of resources, is done by:

1. go start-->run

2. Type "services.msc" and press enter.

3. scroll down the list to "indexing service" & double click it

4. press 'stop' if the service is running, then change startup type to disabled

click ok, close

that's 103

[anonymez]

that's 103

sorry! should i/you delete it?

that's 201 and you can write that!

glad to if you don't wish to do it

[Chewy]

I figure on losing a lot of noobs along the way here, if they make it just thru the first parts that's OK, they won't be ready for the advanced stuff till later.
As a matter of fact i will encourage them to stop before they get over their heads.

[Chewy]

Chewy I am following every step but I have a ? At the start of jmet's guide it states to make sure you backup before going into it.I am waiting on a Maxtor one touch to arrive which I am going to use to backup my system.Here's my ? should I wait to do that before using the guide and proceeding?Part 1 looks really good and I am sorry about the other thing.I didn't know.I think I should have said backup my whole system.

Well here's my view on backup, a power user might image his install
frequently but it's right before he does it.
Msconfig is just another tool to make your computer right.

[anonymez]

the above steps are simple, can be easily reversed (just tick/untick the options again) and can't really do any damage. IMO a backup isn't needed at all

[soup]

@Chewy I follow your answer but I don't think I am explaining myself properly.I did part #1 and I can already see why.I know there are other things I can use here but they are all attached to my system.What I was meaning with the one touch is using it before anything major to backup my whole system externally just in case then following your education as far as I can go and try to understand.If I don't screw up then fine.When done rebackup my system with revised settings and go from.I wish I could explain this better but I am still a "noob" as far as this is concerned but I want to learn.

I know these ones are but I have been following this thread with interest and you did say it is going to get tougher or is that were I will probably drop out.This is agreat thread chewy thank you for doing this and thanks for your reply anonymez.I just want to be careful.

[Chewy]

There's no rush soup! We still have a lot of ground to cover.

You are seeing the effect of these changes? I know it's a lot to learn, but
you might as well start. A lot of the video stuff is way harder.

[soup]

I am with you as far as I can go.

[Derree]

I think I am one of the 'noobs'that is dropping out I tried to do it but after the first couple of steps my desktop looked so strange..all the icons were very big as were the few things in my task bar. As well when I opened up IE the task bar as well as the bar at the top were quite big as well..and I couldn't get them to go back to normal even when I undid what I had done. Did a system restore to get it back to normal..maybe I am quitting to soon.. is it normal for everything to get big like that? I still think it is a great thing you are doing I might add Chewie!

[Chewy]

all the icons were very big

been there and done that, if you ever lose your video drivers, same thing happens, or if you change your resolution

[Derree]

thanks Chewie...that was the first thing I check last night and I have my res all the way up and it was still up so it didn't change...mabye I just didn't do something right...