Can I do things the sloppy way? Without too much risk?

  • Thread starter Thread starter micky
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micky

Can I do things the sloppy way? Without too much risk?

Rather than look at each start-up program in msconfig, can I just
uncheck every one I don't know for sure I want. And then recheck the
boxes for any I conclude later I need.

There are 20 or 30 entries that were on this Acer netbook running XP
when I bought the thing USED 4 years ago.

I wanted to use that webpage I found once to look up each startup
program and make an informed decision about which ones to try to
uninstall or at least uncheck in msconfig.

But that will take a lot of time. Is it so bad to do it like I say at
the top?

Thanks.
 
micky said:
Can I do things the sloppy way? Without too much risk?

Rather than look at each start-up program in msconfig, can I just
uncheck every one I don't know for sure I want. And then recheck the
boxes for any I conclude later I need.

There are 20 or 30 entries that were on this Acer netbook running XP
when I bought the thing USED 4 years ago.

I wanted to use that webpage I found once to look up each startup
program and make an informed decision about which ones to try to
uninstall or at least uncheck in msconfig.

But that will take a lot of time. Is it so bad to do it like I say at
the top?

Thanks.




You can do that. I have unchecked them all as a test once and Windows
automatically rechecked the item it needed, so what you want to do is not a
problem.
 
Can I do things the sloppy way? Without too much risk?

Rather than look at each start-up program in msconfig, can I just
uncheck every one I don't know for sure I want. And then recheck the
boxes for any I conclude later I need.

There are 20 or 30 entries that were on this Acer netbook running XP
when I bought the thing USED 4 years ago.

I wanted to use that webpage I found once to look up each startup
program and make an informed decision about which ones to try to
uninstall or at least uncheck in msconfig.

But that will take a lot of time. Is it so bad to do it like I say at
the top?

Thanks.



About all you need for sure would be the virus checker.

Very easy to put back anything else you might need
 
About all you need for sure would be the virus checker.

Very easy to put back anything else you might need

Very good.

Thank you all.

I'm compulsive enough that I want to look at each item, but I see I
won't get that done before I hope to take it on a long trip in 3 months.

I'll definitely keep the virus checker, although he had installed AVAST
Free and 4 or 5 times a sessoin it asks me questions, trying to sell me
something. The same quesitons over and over again. I may have to
remove Avast and, of course, put in something else.
 
Very good.

Thank you all.

I'm compulsive enough that I want to look at each item, but I see I
won't get that done before I hope to take it on a long trip in 3 months.

I'll definitely keep the virus checker, although he had installed AVAST
Free and 4 or 5 times a sessoin it asks me questions, trying to sell me
something. The same quesitons over and over again. I may have to
remove Avast and, of course, put in something else.



Avast is a pretty decent virus checker. The free version is plenty good,
but you have to re-register it once a year. If that's all it's asking
then just go ahead and re-register. There is no need to get the paid
version.


BTW: If the machine is running Photoshop, there may be custom video
settings so also leave Adobe Gamma Loader in start up or anything
related to the video card's control panel (if there is such a control panel)
 
Avast is a pretty decent virus checker. The free version is plenty good,
but you have to re-register it once a year. If that's all it's asking
then just go ahead and re-register. There is no need to get the paid
version.

I haven't clicked on any, but based on their wording, it hasn't even
mentioned reregistering, and I've not done that in the 4 years I've had
it.

I don't use the laptop much, but I'll make a point to, and I'll make a
list of what the screen popups (not web browswer popups) say and let
you know. I'll even follow them all one or two steps to find out what
they're talking about.
BTW: If the machine is running Photoshop, there may be custom video
settings so also leave Adobe Gamma Loader in start up or anything
related to the video card's control panel (if there is such a control panel)

Thanks. I'm not artistic enough to use photoshop, and it did't come
with the computer.
 
I haven't clicked on any, but based on their wording, it hasn't even
mentioned reregistering, and I've not done that in the 4 years I've had
it.

If it's the free version it will need to be registered and you will have
to give them your email address to do so.
 
"micky" wrote in message news:[email protected]...
Very good.

Thank you all.

I'm compulsive enough that I want to look at each item, but I see I
won't get that done before I hope to take it on a long trip in 3 months.

I'll definitely keep the virus checker, although he had installed AVAST
Free and 4 or 5 times a sessoin it asks me questions, trying to sell me
something. The same quesitons over and over again. I may have to
remove Avast and, of course, put in something else.

Register it and then after that is done, rt click on the tray icon and put a
check mark next to "Silent/gaming mode" and almost all popups will cease.
Don't forget to update it (Program and then Definitions) and be careful to
uncheck the box that says to install Google Chome when a new Program Update
is being installed, unless you use Google Chrome. This will show after a
reboot to update the Program (not definition updates) is performed.
I think it is an excellent free anti-virus program and I rarely get a popup.
 
If it's the free version it will need to be registered and you will have
to give them your email address to do so.

Maybe they're still emailing the guy I bought the computer from.

(Didn't have time to look into this all today, and the computer is two
flights up. Not so important since I lost 30 pounds, but I still don't
want to go. )
 
"micky" wrote in message news:[email protected]...

Register it and then after that is done, rt click on the tray icon and put a
check mark next to "Silent/gaming mode" and almost all popups will cease.

That woudl be great. I did look weeks ago in the options, but the
options were about virus scanning, etc.

And I must have right clicked on icon, but I don't remember that option.
Maybe you have to be re-registered. I'll check.
Don't forget to update it (Program and then Definitions) and be careful to

That happens automatically. They're very good to me for someone who may
not be registered and surely hasnt' reregistered.

When I was 8 years old I had a submarine about 4 inches long and less
than an inch wide that I played with in the bathtub. It rose and dived
based powered by baking soda. It always dived if I sent another ship in
its direction, which was better than what the promo promised. The
instructions said to fill it up every time, but it worked like this for
weeks. I think one time because I was dutiful and my mother believed
much of what she read, we thought we should replace the baking soda, so
she or I cleaned out the old baking soda, put in new stuff, and it never
worked as well again.
uncheck the box that says to install Google Chome when a new Program Update
is being installed, unless you use Google Chrome. This will show after a
reboot to update the Program (not definition updates) is performed.
I think it is an excellent free anti-virus program and I rarely get a popup.

Okay. Great. Thanks.
 
There should be almost nothing that needs to run at
startup. I have only a firewall and a mouse utility. But
if you're also stopping services you need to be careful.
Some are critical and will prevent Windows booting if
disabled.

I wonder why you don't use Autoruns rather than
msconfig. The latter is primitive and limited. The former
also shows shell extensions and various other components
that may load at startup yet not be needed.
 
Maybe they're still emailing the guy I bought the computer from.


Possibly so.
(Didn't have time to look into this all today, and the computer is two
flights up. Not so important since I lost 30 pounds, but I still don't
want to go. )



My wife and I get along fine as long as I keep all my "junk" up in the
attic or down in the basement. During the course of a day I can make a
lot of trips up and down three flights of stairs...so even in the winter
can get at least some exercise.

This summer when I was feeding new wires between the attic and basement,
I don't know how many times I ran back and forth but I lost the ten
pounds I gained after being less active following knee replacement surgery.


65 years old and only seven pounds heavier than on the day I got out of
the Army in 1971.
 
"micky" wrote in message news:[email protected]...
That woudl be great. I did look weeks ago in the options, but the
options were about virus scanning, etc.

And I must have right clicked on icon, but I don't remember that option.
Maybe you have to be re-registered. I'll check.


That happens automatically. They're very good to me for someone who may
not be registered and surely hasnt' reregistered.

When I was 8 years old I had a submarine about 4 inches long and less
than an inch wide that I played with in the bathtub. It rose and dived
based powered by baking soda. It always dived if I sent another ship in
its direction, which was better than what the promo promised. The
instructions said to fill it up every time, but it worked like this for
weeks. I think one time because I was dutiful and my mother believed
much of what she read, we thought we should replace the baking soda, so
she or I cleaned out the old baking soda, put in new stuff, and it never
worked as well again.


Okay. Great. Thanks.
I actually had one of those subs. Mine was gray in color and it used baking
powder (not baking soda), I believe
The baking powder would react with the water and form a gas which was
trapped in a clear plastic upside down cone on the bottom of the sub. The
sub would rise, then tip and the bubble would get released and the sub would
sink. Wow, surprised that I actually remembered it.

You need to rt click on the icon in the System Tray (or Taskbar, I believe),
not the icon on the Desktop.
You can also open the Avast interface and click on Settings, General and
then down near the bottom you should see Silent/Gaming Mode, put a check
mark in the box and then click OK on the bottom right.
 
"philo " wrote in message news:[email protected]...
Possibly so.



My wife and I get along fine as long as I keep all my "junk" up in the
attic or down in the basement. During the course of a day I can make a lot
of trips up and down three flights of stairs...so even in the winter can
get at least some exercise.

This summer when I was feeding new wires between the attic and basement, I
don't know how many times I ran back and forth but I lost the ten pounds I
gained after being less active following knee replacement surgery.


65 years old and only seven pounds heavier than on the day I got out of the
Army in 1971.
Were you really fat when you got out??? :) :)
 
Hey Good Guy,
Are you aware that you are posting in HTML format in this
newsgroup? (It's a bit unusual, and was wondering if you were
aware of it. In newsgroups, folks normally use the plain text
option, per protocols).

He does it intentionally to annoy people. That should give you an idea
of how little respect he has for others and how little he deserves.
 
"micky" wrote in message news:[email protected]...
I actually had one of those subs. Mine was gray in color

Mine too. It had a conning tower and a periscope and antennas on that,
and it had a detailed surface for the deck.
and it used baking
powder (not baking soda), I believe

Mine probably used that too.
The baking powder would react with the water and form a gas which was
trapped in a clear plastic upside down cone on the bottom of the sub. The
sub would rise, then tip and the bubble would get released and the sub would
sink. Wow, surprised that I actually remembered it.

It's amazing how much is up there somewhere.

Yes, I think we had the same thing. Mine worked just like that.

Later, the same brand of cereal offered frogmen and I had them too, a
set of three iirc, but they weren't as good. For one thing, a submarine
is always the same shape, but a frogman isn't .

I think I saw the submarine online in the past year, and here it is,
Ebay, searched for toy submarine baking 21 hits

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1950-Cereal...011?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58b87ed1b3

This guy says it comes in the original packaging, but given that the
picture has it saying "the original 1950's cereal premium", I doubt if
that's the orignal packaging. In fact I dont think there was more than
a blank, brown paper enevelope.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DIVING-SUBM...91939?pt=Diecast_Vehicles&hash=item3cee551843

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Classic-Bak...042?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c92c6054a

They cost 10 or 11 dollars with shipping. The very same thing as what
we had.

This one is some cheap imitation! Note the difrerences. Doesn't
claim to be original.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DIVING-sub-...70?pt=Educational_Toys_US&hash=item2c91f4a566

Here's another recent version
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Diving-Subm...Pretend_Play_Preschool_US&hash=item35e12ae9ec
You need to rt click on the icon in the System Tray (or Taskbar, I believe),
not the icon on the Desktop.

I knew you meant that, and that's where I had checked, but I hadn't
remembered what I saw. I checked this morning and the option was there.
I think I ignored it because I don't play games. I think I ignored
"quiet" because I don't play games and the whole Avast is quiet. No
sounds that I hear. I didnt think of visual quietness, which I would
probably complain about anywhere else. Like references to verbal
violence, and emotional violence, and "We're pregant."
You can also open the Avast interface and click on Settings, General and
then down near the bottom you should see Silent/Gaming Mode, put a check
mark in the box and then click OK on the bottom right.

I probably ignore that for the same reasons, but I checked it on the
icon menu this morning, adn afaict, not more interruptions. Thanks
again.
 
There should be almost nothing that needs to run at
startup. I have only a firewall and a mouse utility. But
if you're also stopping services you need to be careful.
Some are critical and will prevent Windows booting if
disabled.

I've never stopped a service, except maybe once when a computer already
was not working right (I forget the details but I did fix it using
msconfig checkboxes.), but I've read things that show there could be one
that messes people up. Any famous ones like that?
I wonder why you don't use Autoruns rather than
msconfig.

Because I never heard of Autoruns! I'm going to get it now.
The latter is primitive and limited. The former

I don't like it because it's in a limited size window (but maybe there
are bigger reasons not to.) . IN win98, you could maximize the window.
Why does MS make some windows small when they should be big?
 
| I've never stopped a service, except maybe once when a computer already
| was not working right (I forget the details but I did fix it using
| msconfig checkboxes.), but I've read things that show there could be one
| that messes people up. Any famous ones like that?
|
Here's the best place to find out about them:
http://www.blackviper.com/

It's very complicated, and it's not one-size-fits-all.
Some of it is unnecessary bloat. Some is risky. Some
is not needed by most people. The services, like
everything else in Windows, are configured by default
to make life easy for corporate IT people. For anyone
whose computer isn't networked and who doesn't enable
file sharing or other functions that involve allowing
incoming contact, there's no reason to enable any of
those services: Server, Workstation, Webclient, DCOM....
some are irrelevant and some, like DCOM, are high
security risks.
Indexing service is an example of pointless wear on
the disk and use of the CPU. It indexes everything on
the system so that Find can work faster. But Find doesn't
work very well on XP in the first place. I've used Agent
Ransack for years and never enabled Indexing.

I currently have about a dozen services enabled, out
of a default of something like 60+. But you really have to
read up on it and decide things for your own system. For
instance, I disable DHCP because I use a fixed IP address.
For many people, disabling DHCP will result in not being
able to get online.

Some services *must not* be disabled. Rpcss is one
notable one. It shouldn't be necessary. It's remote
procedure call, which is only relevant to networked
computers. But MS has intertwined RPC with system
functionality and the whole thing will break if RPC is
disabled.

On the bright side, XP seems to have about 20 or
so less default services than Win7. :)

I can't think of anything offhand that's likely to mess
up your system just by being enabled, but I suppose it's
possible there could be incompatibilities as various
software/hardware adds services that aren't actually
necessary.


| > I wonder why you don't use Autoruns rather than
| >msconfig.
|
| Because I never heard of Autoruns! I'm going to get it now.
|

It was designed by Mark Russinovich, who now
works for MS. But MS has kept his utilities available.
The listing is grouped by Registry section. It includes
all sorts of things that you might not want to load.
For instance, I've never used Windows Messenger or
Media Player and never will, so I don't need those
loading. You can also see things like browser extensions
and BHOs that you might not want. Then there's
the list of startup software. It provides the file path
and an icon, to make the job easier. I find the biggest
bloat problem there is typically junkware (like ISP
"customer care enter" stuff) and unnecessary software
connected with hardware such as printers. (I disable
startup junk for my printer, sound card and graphics
driver. Not the drivers themselves, of course, but the
GUI utilities that I only use perhaps once per year and
don't need loaded with every boot.
But more recently the startup list is also becoming a
dump for "cloud" software that wants to run all the time,
like Skype. Apple's iTunes is one of the worst. I find friends
who had to go to iTunes for something that wasn't available
elsewhere. They've forgotten about it and have no plans
to ever use iTunes again, yet they've ended up with *four*
entries loading Apple crap at startup. (Some of which I
assume is Apple spyware. Apple seems to be far more
disrespectful of their customers than MS is.)

I think the startup list is like services, though. It's
best to understand what each thing is. Another guideline:
If it's in the systray and far lower right and it's not AV,
firewall, network icon or sound icon, it's probably bloat
loading at startup.

| > The latter is primitive and limited. The former
|
| I don't like it because it's in a limited size window (but maybe there
| are bigger reasons not to.) . IN win98, you could maximize the window.
| Why does MS make some windows small when they should be big?
|
Yes, I've noticed that too. They also tend to
overuse modal windows. So you get into your
network settings, 3 windows down, and you need
to go back a window or two in order to check
something, but it won't let you look at that window
until you close the one you're in! It's a cheap trick
to make programming the windows easier.
It seems that the more basic and techie the applet
is, the less conveniences there are in the windows.

I was just reading in the NYT this AM that Ford
is dumping MS for their car computer interfaces
(tackily named "MyFord Touch") in favor of Blackberry.
They decided the MS GUI was just too mixed up and
complicated. :)
 
Xy.
Were you really fat when you got out??? :) :)



HA!


The Army does not allow you to be fat.

When I was 22 it was all muscle.

At age 65 , I'm afraid my muscle to fat ratio has changed a bit...but
since I quite drinking over 20 years ago, I do not have the beer gut
that so many men my age have.
 
No, he is starving now. In the army food and accommodation was free
and now he has to "earn" for everything. Messing around with XP or
Linux doesn't give you a worthwhile job that earns you something.


I am not at all starving. I rarely go for more than four hours without
eating.
You should ask my wife.

On our very first date, when she got up to use the facilities,
when she came back, her entire meal was gone. For some odd reason she
still went out with me again.

The trick I found is in the diet.

No longer drinking (beer) has been a help.

Stopping the before bedtime snacks has also been a help.


Though I do a fair amount of computer work, I also do quite a bit of
physical labor and that is really important.


Because so many people now have smart-phones, I am doing less computer
repair and to keep it from slacking off totally, have also leaned how to
repair laptops.
Next thing I will need to tackle is taking those iMacs apart.


Though I do make some money from repair jobs, for the most part I do
volunteer work at a local NPO and have saved them thousands of dollars
over the years.
 
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