Tweak3D.net has a Windows XP 15 Minute Tune-Up that should benefit the majority of Windows users. I’m planing to look into CCleaner myself, but just for fun. Everything else the guide recommends is actually a regular practice for me:
- Turn off useless services - check!
- Start only essential programs (Real Player, Quicktime, MS Office and Adobe PDF fast start are NOT essential programs) check!
- Rid the system of spyware, or better still, prevent them from installing in the first place - check!
Having said that, I know that I run a lot of programs in the background, some of them are necessary evil. Background services for iTunes and Nokia PC Suite are the worst offenders. Nokia PC Suite not only runs 2 or 3 processes in the background but it also runs my IVT Bluesoleil software for me. And don’t think it’s easy to disable them too, killing them via the task manager won’t do. No, I’ll have to dig into the Services list and end them there for them to stay off. The worst part is that if I run Nokia PC Suite, every single background program runs again. This behaviour could be a bug though, the latest version of Nokia PC Suite seems to stay disabled if I kill it via the task manager.
Other resource hogs in my system include antivirus and firewall software. Like I said, necessary evil. It’s either I run these two, or have a dozen malware processes wreak havoc.
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