XP Pro - new user & hating it. Need advice.

[babbler]

My 4 year old computer gave up the ghost on Monday, so I got a diagnoses/recommendation and proceeded to an upgrade, which includes XP Pro. So far all I can say is I really really miss Win98se and am only forcing myself to adapt to this ugly and slow(er) OS. I'd like to know from you pros what I can get rid of to speed things up. (like MSN Messaging and NetMeeting etc.) I looked at XPTweaks site and tried a few tweaks, but it's not any faster. Couldn't believe how long the log on screen took so I got rid of it.
Things I'm unsure of:
-get ZoneAlarm or stay with XP's firewall?
-get my former antiviri (NOD and BitDefender) because I don't want to stay with Norton.
-is there no EndItAll for XP?
-I have Ghost - do I just let it run on it's own or actively make it image my drive?
-why does EVERY window open less than max? ($%@#ing thing)
-is Power DVD useful when I only have a CD Rom and CD burner?

Any helpful tweak sites you might suggest would be appreciated.

System Specs:
mobile AMD Athlon XP-M
1600+
1.40 GHz
224 MB of RAM
80GB hard drive (in 10/10/60GB partitions)
what else do you need to know?

thanks in advance for any input. right now I'm hating this very much......:

[dunedin]

Whew! A lot of questions, so here`s some advice to start with.
I`ll have a go at the speed one.
First of all you need more RAM. XP will be slow on anything less than 256MB, and to be honest, you really need 512MB especially if multitasking. When XP is running properly it is fast

There are many things which could be causing the slowup.

1.Start/Run/ msconfig then go to link below.

http://www.sysinfo.org/startupinfo.php

Read the Key at foot of page, then click on “list” at top. Use the Search box to check all you entries

2.Many background Services cause slowups. Go to this link and look for XP Services on left hand side. Good advice here on what to disable. Follow instructions carefully

http://www.blackviper.com/index.html

3.Lastly and most important check for viruses and spyware.
Run a different online scanner

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Download and run the free program Spybot. Be sure to get it to check for updates before using it

http://www.safer-networking.org/inde...&page=download

Have you got anything running in the background such as Virus checker or Auto Updates? You should turn off this option and check for Updates on a regular basis at
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp
Right Click My Computer/Properties/Automatic Updates. Tick the "Notify Me Before Downloading" Option.

The XP Firewall is not good. Turn it off and get your Zone Alarm or another.
That`s more than enough for now.

Elaine

[larryS3]

Concerning Enditall. As I recall the download sites don't list XP as one of the systems which Enditall will work on.

However, it will work on XP. I have it installed and use it successfully.

Read this thread on Enditall relative to XP.

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...light=Enditall

After reading that thread I installed version 1.0 rather than version 2.0.

[Train]

To keeper the blaster worm at bay, keep the firewall turned on until you get the firewall downloaded. Or you will be ok if you are sitting behind a router which has nat. Otherwise, you hit the internet with out one or the other, you are infected.

[DVOM]

You can get both versions of EndItAll here. I use version 1 on my XP pro.

http://www.compu-docs.com/Downloads/enditall.exe

[Luke92881]

More RAM for sure! My machine runs great with 512 using Win XP pro. I acually am one of those few people that seem to love XP.

[jslater25]

Luke isn't the only one that prefers WinXP. Ever since I switched from Win98se to XP Home, I have never wished to go back to anything. Both my Home and my Pro versions boot and shut down faster than any other Windows version I have seen. 98se, 98fe, ME, 2000, all seem to be slower. The only 'problem' I have seen with XP is its high demand for RAM. Everyone I know that has 256 or less seems to be greatly troubled by the small amount of memory. It causes Xp to be sluggish and boot slowly. Throw in some extra RAM (not necessarily another 256, but at least 128) and you too will be amazed at how fast it can fly.

[paisan]

As for Power DVD it would probably work fine on XP but you do not have a dvd rom drive or a dvd burner so no, you cannot use Power DVD to watch movies.

[fink]

Also change to windows classic theme... less colors & graphics & 3D stuff to slow things down..

Right click the desktop>properties>themes. The familiar look will be comforting too LOL, it was to me

It took me a little while to get used to XP, (via win2k) but it's so much better than 98 once you've got it running in a proper environment.

[nlday]

and don't forget 'classic start menu'
right click start button
properties
start menu tab
put a dot in classic start menu
just like home....

[babbler]

Hey, that's better already!
Classic Start Menu is what I was missing - Favourites, Small Icons especially.
Changing the theme from "Windows XP" to "Windows Classic" blanked out my desktop wallpaper, which I liked. Those kinds of XP things can't be used I guess.
I've tried to uninstall Windows MSN Messenger from the Control Panel>Add Remove Programs, and it is unchecked there now, but still in my Systray and can be clicked on to 'install'.

thanks a lot for the tips and links. It's not over of course! I'll be back......

[uffbros]

If you want to completely remove Windows Messenger do the following after you close it from the tray by clock.

Insert the following into the run box to remove
windows messenger.

RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection
%windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

[LotusAstra]

If you want to completely remove Windows Messenger then don't install it in the 1st place... why install something you don't want?

[Ridgerunr]

Keep in mind,,'Windows messenger' and 'MSN Messenger' are two different animals. You can stop 'Windows Messenger' with Black Viper's 'services' tweaks. Along with many other uneccessary 'junk' services. Or, you can go to Steve Gibsons site and dn/load his 'shoot the messenger' fix. After removing 'MSN Messenger' from add-remove,you can go to Program Files and rename the Messenger folder. Mine is now 'Messgrrr'. you will get the inevitable warning about renaming might cause it to not work anymore,bur hey,,that's what you 'want' to do,huh?

I, also use the 'classic' look. In Display Properties>appearance click on the 'advanced' button and you can pretty much make the same type of changes to icons,colors,etc. that you had in Win9x...

[phernandez]

I second the suggestion(s) to switch to the classic windows scheme, even disable some of the special effects (menu fades, drop shadows, etc.) for snappier performance.

More RAM will definitely help. XP is rock solid (compared to 9x), but the tradeoff is higher memory requirements. 512 should be more than sufficient unless you're a huge power user/multitasker.

Good luck!