advice on optimizing win2k

[Evander]

Just installed win2k for the first time. The laptop is a duron 800 mhz, 128MB RAM and I'm looking for advice on optimizing/freeing system resources (sytem updates, service packs etc are already taken care of). Mostly it's RAM I'm looking to free up but extra cpu is always welcome.
haven't tried the advice yet what do you think of this article?:
http://www.pcmech.com/show/optimize/677/1/

I know how to use msconfig (though I don't what what most of the programs under "startup" do, I'll post a list if anyone is willing to look at it.

active desktop is disabled

tweakui- i disabled i bunch of the window/dialog animation crap. not sure what else to do

firewall is kerio 2.15, it's supposed to be least cpu intensive, but it's too annoying so I think I'll try version 4.0 with "easy mode" as suggested in the consolidated sec. thread

 

[n0cmonkey]

Buy more ram.

 

[spherrod]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Buy more ram.

Yep - more RAM will be the biggest tweak you can do and give you a huge performance increase. There's only so much you can do with the kind of tweaks they recommend in that article. From reading the first few pages, I doubt you'd notice a huge difference.

 

[Evander]

64MB is soldered, and there's only 1 other slot for RAM, so if bought more RAM that 64MB would go to waste. Besides, this sytem isn't meant for serious use (I've got a p4 desktop with 576MB for that), I just want to make the most of what I have without buying anything (besides, I already "spoiled" myself by getting a 60GB HD instead of using the 20gigger that was standard for this model)

 

[n0cmonkey]

I would have stuck with the 20GB hard drive and gotten something useful.

 

[borosp1]

CCLEANER
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.

ccleaner.com

 

[JackMDS]

With all the cleaning and the playing, you night end up that you would have (as an example) 20MB of clean working RAM or 40MB. Having 20 or 40 would Not make any difference it would be slowww on both.

With 800 proccessor you need about 256MB to be comfortable.

:sun:

 

[ValuedCustomer]

Originally posted by: Evander
I know how to use msconfig (though I don't what what most of the programs under "startup" do, I'll post a list if anyone is willing to look at it.

Did you copy/install msconfig.exe from an XP image or something? - 2000 doesn't come with that .exe, btw

 

[thecoolnessrune]

How the heck do you get 576MB of ram? :shocked:

 

[Nothinman]

64MB is soldered, and there's only 1 other slot for RAM, so if bought more RAM that 64MB would go to waste. Besides, this sytem isn't meant for serious use (I've got a p4 desktop with 576MB for that), I just want to make the most of what I have without buying anything (besides, I already "spoiled" myself by getting a 60GB HD instead of using the 20gigger that was standard for this model)

You made the wrong choice. I would throw away the 64M chip and get whatever is the largest it will take. With 128M you're not going to have a good time, no matter how much time you waste tweaking. Hell my mail client is currently using ~100M of memory here, if I only had 128M to work with I probably just turn the thing off and find something better to do.

How the heck do you get 576MB of ram?

512+64

 

[Evander]

The 60GB wasn't the wrong choice as the 20GB hard drive it came with was broken (but the laptop only cost me $60) replacing the same size drive cost about $40 but for double the price I got triple the capacity.
Battery on this 4 year old model is dead, I'll have to buy another for at least $50~$60
It's running fine as it is now, I can run winamp lite + another app (such WP app or web browsing) comfortably and like i said more serious multitasking will be done on the desktop. This is my first laptop (except a for a p75 which never leaves the house), I don't really need it- it's something of a toy for me. I want to make the most of the available resources and see how it goes before I decide whether or not to spend the extra money on a 256MB module.

And to answer the question, yes I did copy msconfig from my xp box over to 2k

 

[basslover1]

I've got a P1 233mhz lappy w/ 128 megs of ram and it runs Win2k as well as it can for what it's capable of doing.

Last night I had 4 word documents open (homework) and was still able to search the web reasonably well. The only issue I have is that something is eating up my CPU usage more than it should be...so I think i've got a worm to get rid of.

I think your biggest objective is to not complain too much when it's not as snappy as your desktop...I know mine is a cheap POS but like you I paid 60 bucks for it along with a cd and floppy, working Li-Ion battery and a VAG-Com cable (used for my Volkswagen)...it's good at going on ther internet and typing...but thats all I really need it for.

 

[hooflung]

I would buy a 128MB SODIMM. 196MB of memory will do windows 2k just fine. I would use Opera 8.5 on low memory machines as Mozilla uses a good amount. Use thunderbird to download all your mail when you first log in then use webmail if possible while surfing, then before shutting down run thunderbird again.