cleaning up files

[Guest]

I am trying helping a family member out to increase her computer's
performance. I ran disk clean up and found that her old compressed files
were over 1,000,000 KB! I'm pretty sure that is not a good thing. Is it
okay to delete these files? Her computer runs at a very slow rate. I
cleared up all the temp files and such as well as completing the disk
defragment, but her computer still is running a slow. Granted, it is about
2-3 years old...but I don't think it should be running at snail speed. Any
help would be great. I am looking into getting her more RAM, but her
computer is only fitted to have 1048 as the highest total RAM. I want to try
everything I can to increase the performance without spending any $$$, you
know. Thanks in advance

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Compressed files will only slow proceedings if they are accessed. I
would never delete files on the basis that they are compressed. You
need another reason.

How large is the hard disk and how much free disk space?

How much use is made of the pagefile? Graphics and camera related
programmes, especially where editing is done, generate hgh demands for
memory.

Use page file monitor to observe what is the peak usage. Start it to
run immediately after start-up and look at the log after a session of
video editing with another session without video editing. The log is
Pagefilelog.txt. If you right click on the file in Windows Explorer
and select Send to, Desktop (Create Shortcut). The same applies to
XP_PageFileMon.exe.

A small utility to monitor pagefile usage:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

Look in Event Viewer for Warnings / Error Reports in the System and
Applications logs and post copies.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you
should double click for further information. You can copy using copy
and paste. Often the link will, however, say there is no further
information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event Viewer.
Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of the
message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from Event
Viewer.

What are the anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall arrangements?


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I am trying helping a family member out to increase her computer's
performance. I ran disk clean up and found that her old compressed
files were over 1,000,000 KB! I'm pretty sure that is not a good
thing.

From a performance standpoint, it is neither a good thing nor a bad thing.
Only if she accesses the files will it make any difference, and depending on
what hardware she has, it may not make a big difference..

Is it okay to delete these files?

There's no way anyone can answer that question. We can't tell from here what
the files are or whether she needs them. Only she can make such a decision.

Certainly do not delete them just because they are old or because they are
compressed.

Her computer runs at a
very slow rate. I cleared up all the temp files and such as well as
completing the disk defragment, but her computer still is running a
slow. Granted, it is about 2-3 years old...but I don't think it
should be running at snail speed. Any help would be great. I am
looking into getting her more RAM, but her computer is only fitted to
have 1048 as the highest total RAM.

She presently has 1GB of RAM? That's probably already more RAM than she
needs, and adding more, even if you could, would be a waste of money.

Although many people will tell you that the more RAM the better, that is
*not* true. How much RAM you can make effective use of is *not* a
one-size-fits-all situation. You get good performance if the amount of RAM
you have keeps you from using the page file, and that depends on what apps
you run. Most people running a typical range of business applications find
that somewhere around 256-384MB works well, others need 512MB. Almost anyone
will see poor performance with less than 256MB. Some people, particularly
those doing things like editing large photographic images, can see a
performance boost by adding even more than 512MB--sometimes much more.

If you are currently using the page file significantly, more memory will
decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your performance. If you are
not using the page file significantly, more memory will do nothing for you.
Go to http://billsway.com/notes_public/winxp_tweaks/ and download
WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your pagefile usage. That should give you
a good idea of whether more memory can help, and if so, how much more.

Unless she runs memory-hungry applications, I doubt very much whether the
amount of RAM i sany issue for her.

I want to try everything I can
to increase the performance without spending any $$$, you know.

These days the most common cause for performance issues is malware
infestation. The first thing to do is always to be sure you are free of
malware. I recommend that you go to Malke's Malware Removal site at
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware and follow
the instructions there.