thexena1 said:
My computer always says it's memory is 100% used...
The subject line says "CPU usage at 100%." Here you say it's memory usage.
Which is at 100% These are two different things.
If it's memory you're talking about, there should be very little free
Wanting to minimize the amount of memory Windows uses is a counterproductive
desire. Windows is designed to use all, or nearly all, of your memory, all
the time, and that's good not bad. Free memory is wasted memory. You paid
for it all and shouldn't want to see any of it wasted.
Windows works hard to find a use for all the memory you have all the time.
For example if your apps don't need some of it, it will use that part for
caching, then give it back when your apps later need it. In this way Windows
keeps all your memory working for you all the time.
If it's CPU usage at 100%, where are you seeing this? Make sure that you are
not counting System Idle Process as part of that 100%.
If CPU usage is always at 100%, without counting System Idle Process, you
are very likely infected with malware. Read
here:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware
How do I keep
these applications from loading automatically? Other than msconfig
for boot?
What applications? On each program you don't want to start automatically,
check its Options to see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you
actually choose the option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon"
option). Many can easily and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't work,
run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the
programs you don't want to start automatically.
However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of running
the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell you, you
should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs you run, but
*which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but others have no
effect on performance.
Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do is
determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what the cost
in performance is of its running all the time. You can get more information
about these at
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it
there, try google searches and ask about specifics here.
Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.
