Vista and XP What dont we need?

[swany]

Been mulling this over, me I muddle my way through most things this one I need help.

When we buy PC's to run hoster what don't we need to run a show Karaoke and DJ?

What I'm talking is, I've got paint in my pc do I need that. Will my show run without it?

I have culled a lot of what I consider garbage for a KJ & DJ pc. I know enough to be very dangerous, but not enough to be safe. I am appealing to my knowledged bretheran to guide me. I notice a lot of problems concerning especially vista has to do with speed problems and I do know the less that pc has to do the easier it can handle hoster.

Anyone ever make a list of what we don't need and still run hoster.

I don't put my pc's online unless needed, I don't use paint, wordpad, notepad, ect. I use them for music.


What the heck can be deleted and still have a good operating system for hoster?

[marklwood]

It's not so important what is installed on your computer. What is more important is what is running in the background. Un-installing things like paint is still a good idea. It will save you hard drive space which can make a difference in the overall performance of the Window's swap file. It can also make a cleaner defrag. The biggie is services and unnecessary "helper" programs. These are the things to look out for.

[billyo]

sometime around last year, maybe around Nov. i posted somethings that you need to do on vista to make it run better,( according to PC world ) i think they were 12 of them, i will try to look for them and i will re-post it.

[muzicman144]

There is a rumor running on the internet that Microsoft is going to dump Vista. Does anyone have any reat data on this???
muzicman

[ddouglass]

They are supposed to come out with another SP for it soon to make it run "more like XP" and then in Jan 2010 they are going to release Windows 7. I would guess that means they will be dumping it next year. It was/is a total failure.

[mindonstrike]

I'm waiting for Mojave, that one sounds good.

Sam

[swany]

How about what can be removed from the systems we are using now, to free up space and operate better, not any future nightmares that may or may not be released?

[ddouglass]

If it isn't an integral part of the operating system then you can remove it, but your gain is probably not going to be enough to make a difference. As Marklwood said it isn't external programs that will help, but services and processes that run in the background. He has listed a site for Blackviper many times that can help you decide.

[swany]

I realize this and have many very good tips from Marklewood, my thing is. Say you are running a 160gb Gateway like I am on one laptop. I don't use, word, I don't use paint, I don't use a lot of stuff on that pc. I am not that knowledged to just start removing prgms and that is a simple enough thing to state. I do wish admin would make up something we could go by.

I thank all who help. Tweaks while gaining you speed, is a good thing. Gaining space and using less of it for stuff you don't need does seem like a good thing. I know after removing all the sample stuff and many other things that come with my pcs I gain usuable space for my music, kma and mp3.

So if I am sitting at a point where I'm using 50% of my hardrive giving me 80gb free and get rid of 40gb more of useless luggage I would think that would be helpful.

More so with a person running a 80gb laptop with the same excess baggage.

This is what I'm asking help with. I thank you and Marklewood for recent help and past. Again thank you. Ed

[marklwood]

Originally Posted by swany

Say you are running a 160gb Gateway like I am on one laptop. I don't use, word, I don't use paint, I don't use a lot of stuff on that pc.
This is what I'm asking help with. Ed

I will give you my current setup for XP. This is on my desktop that I use every day, not just my show machine.

Under Control Panel
Add/Remove Programs
Windows Components on the left pane
Uncheck all items except Networking and Windows Media Player
Under networking sub-menu the only check is on UPnP User Interface.

With the exception of Windows Updates and some hardware related programs, all other programs under the Add Remove programs are programs that I put there. All others must die.

[billyo]

if you want to make your xp to run faster, you might consider disabling Windows indexing service, from what i read this has a little practical value ( a system hog )..go to : control panel, administrative tools, services and scroll down to Indexing Service, double click it, and set startup type to disabled

[swany]

Originally Posted by billyo

if you want to make your xp to run faster, you might consider disabling Windows indexing service, from what i read this has a little practical value ( a system hog )..go to : control panel, administrative tools, services and scroll down to Indexing Service, double click it, and set startup type to disabled

Been there, done that.

Programs that are usesless to a KJ/DJ what can be deleted, to gain usuable space, for my music. I have never, opened paint in my show PCs, never used a calculator.

While it seems redundant what I'm saying, lot of folks on this site come here looking to make a small laptop operate better without snags.
Both XP and Vista are the most widely used system of a Hoster user.
That is why I headed this subject up with that. That background systems running are wasting your time and money when all you want to do is make music and run a trouble free show is appalling.

Them running systems turned off has help me and opened my eyes in the past couple of days. I am now up to speed.

I am going to be deleting a lot of prgms on my backup laptop today, hopefully I won't mess anything up.

I'm still wishing for the more learned to make a list of programs so the novice and techie alike.

Then maybe a lot of folks could gain usuable space.

Thanks to all that have helped. Marklewood, a very profound thank you.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by swany

I realize this and have many very good tips from Marklewood, my thing is. Say you are running a 160gb Gateway like I am on one laptop. I don't use, word, I don't use paint, I don't use a lot of stuff on that pc. I am not that knowledged to just start removing prgms and that is a simple enough thing to state. I do wish admin would make up something we could go by.

I thank all who help. Tweaks while gaining you speed, is a good thing. Gaining space and using less of it for stuff you don't need does seem like a good thing. I know after removing all the sample stuff and many other things that come with my pcs I gain usuable space for my music, kma and mp3.

So if I am sitting at a point where I'm using 50% of my hardrive giving me 80gb free and get rid of 40gb more of useless luggage I would think that would be helpful.

More so with a person running a 80gb laptop with the same excess baggage.

This is what I'm asking help with. I thank you and Marklewood for recent help and past. Again thank you. Ed

Swany, Mark and Billyo have given you ideas for increasing your processor speed but none of what they have said will increase your drive space.
You say you don't use Paint and you don't use Word, so uninstall them. Any program listed in your Start menu under programs should be uninstallable if you are not using them. Saving 40GB of space though isn't going to happen with program removal. Most programs (not all) will take up less than 10 - 15MB so you might gain in total maybe 0.5GB. When you are deleting just remember Hoster needs Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer and don't delete them.
You want to gain space clear out your Temporary Internet files, History files, cookies and all Temp directories.

[swany]

I do realize that most prgs don't use much, but like carrying disks as backup it is excess baggage. One I deleted was a photoshop prg that had over 12,000 pics in it. Hmm.

.5gb is after all around 100 kma files. Better that space used for that than microsoft works, on a entertainment pc.

Again I thank all who have helped on my quest, I may tackle the terrorist problem next. I have already attack six windmills today.

[billyo]

i think the best way you can do to gain more space was to clone/replace you hhd to a bigger drive,(250gb should be sufficient ) or put all your kma files to an ext. drive, like i did..and also this might cost a lot of money, but i have 4 laptops now i use 2, just mostly for hoster now, i removed all my itunes music ( 1 for show ,1 for back-up ) and the other 2 i used strictly for djing ( 1 mini laptop and an older dell inspiron 1000 ) with nothing in it except dj programs and i use my ipod ..

[swany]

That little gateway is my way of using my backup pc as an example. It does from time to time, I use it at home for testing music and once in a while for my primary show, the other a HP with 250GB will be at arms reach. So far the gateway had a few startup problems, this is what I was trying to resolve, most often once it did start proper ran without a hitch all night long. I'm now using all but 42gb, with the recommended services turned off. I deleted a bunch of prgs and it now starts a lot faster, THANKS MY FRIENDS. So my bantering has resolved a few doubts I had at removing prgs. I am going to use it as my primary for a couple of weeks and see how thing go. So far it has not failed me ever, just brings the blood pressure up when it don't start right away.

When I weigh into some of the problems folks have here and they sound like an echo of what I'm expieriencing and mayhaps resolved already it is usually my first Vista expierience the Gateway. I don't know how much read this will get in the future but hopefully along the way others will not have to go through the "hoops" Again thank you all. Ed

[billyo]

my first computer was a gateway ( 7 years old ) with a 60gb hhd space, still got the floppy disc slot in it,dual tray cd/dvd , 5 usb port, and it's an inhouse pc ( i wont let no one use my other pc's ) it became so slow that no one wanted to use it, even turning it on/off takes forever, so one day ,i just decided to removed everything, re-installed xp from scratched , now its running like it's brand new..and we use it just browsing the internet, and some other things..

[swany]

I hear you, I'm thinking about picking up a Wal Mart special with XP in it while their supplies last use it just for online use and take this one off line semi permanent. My first office pc an HP with xp is still working well for my daughter and her family.

[ddouglass]

All of the Microsoft operating systems tend to save a lot of junk in your login profile. When you sign in, it has to load that profile in with the system. I found one of the biggest start up speed savings was to take the all documents out of the profile and put them in another location. I never save anything to My Documents. The other thing is to keep the "Local Settings" temporary files down to minimum. This area is one of the biggest reasons computers tend to slow down the longer we use them. Stripping it and reloading the operating system is one way to fix it (drastic) since you escentially start over with a clean profile.
Of course the second biggest is stopping processes that are not needed such as the indexing.

[billyo]

Originally Posted by swany

I hear you, I'm thinking about picking up a Wal Mart special with XP in it while their supplies last use it just for online use and take this one off line semi permanent. My first office pc an HP with xp is still working well for my daughter and her family.

or you can use it as a host comp. just like i did, i have my modem and router connected to it for networking..