Black Viper Windows XP services guide...

[sulfurious]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Why would I want, regardless of how much memory I have, something running that is not needed?

Because if you're not using that service it's not taking up any resources, other than a process entry in the kernel's table but that's only a few bytes. Obviously there are exceptions, like the stupid indexing service but even that only indexes like 5 directories by default.

Umm, yeah. True enough. I think the people who use the likes of
Black Vipers or TweakHound or whomever, they are one of 2 types. The first type I think is out for all out performance. They know enough about thier computer to understand that they could possibly be going faster. Faster framerate, faster file transfer, whatever. So, they find that kind of info and play with it to see what they can do. Benchmark junkies and the like.

The second set are the paranoia's. Big brother is watching. Shut everything down that MS can use to track you or communicate with you, or about anything you can dig up on the net to believe.

While I firmly believe that MS does something along those lines I don't know exactly what. So, my quest, especially with XP, has been to eliminate all sense of "you don't have to do anything, windows will do it for you". Both in the guise of tweaking my machines to run at their optimum level (and that has included a LOT of different tweaks for pagefile setttings etc) and to control to whom and when my computer communicates with, including a network connection, or just stopping an app from doing something I don't like, such as logging or something.

I think that a lot of 'computer enthusiasts' dig playing with stuff like this. Helps to learn. But, hey, would I set up a button clickers rig like mine? No. They need the windows xp "I'll take care of everything" attitude to stay somewhat calm. You might also note, because the majority of computer users are satisfied to surf and read mail and do not really care to know technical stuff, that programs such as Norton make a really nice "do everything for you and then some" package. And from a tech point of view, they really bite. But, again, button clickers rule.

And as far as pagefile's and the like go. Putting it on the outside of the harddrive worked wonders for my laptop. A HUGE improvement. The size itself never really seemed to do much though.

And, with some reg tweaks (I think it was anyway) I once got my desktop to fill the ram before using the pagefile. Then I turned the pagefile off. I had 512ddr, and honestly, even playing games, I never noticed an improvement nor problem. Matter of fact, I decided that since nothing that I did along those lines really gave me a noticable difference, when I reinstalled I just ignored the whole issue.

Kind of the same thing that could be done with the services for some people. Heh.

Cheers
sul.

 

[Nothinman]

The second set are the paranoia's. Big brother is watching. Shut everything down that MS can use to track you or communicate with you, or about anything you can dig up on the net to believe.

Which is even stupider than the first group, MS wrote the OS, shutting down services isn't going to do jack. If you don't trust them, don't run their software.

While I firmly believe that MS does something along those lines I don't know exactly what

To put it bluntly, you're an idiot. A simple packet capture on a router or firewall will show you that they're not doing anything unsolicited. Hell the bug reports you send when an app crashes are even anonymous.

And as far as pagefile's and the like go. Putting it on the outside of the harddrive worked wonders for my laptop. A HUGE improvement. The size itself never really seemed to do much though.

Buying more memory would do even better.

And, with some reg tweaks (I think it was anyway) I once got my desktop to fill the ram before using the pagefile

There are no reg 'tweaks' for that, that's how it works by design.

 

[Link19]

I think disabling services is a good thing as long as you know what you are doing and know you don't need them. I disable services both to save resources and because there are ceratin things I want TO MAKE sure won't start because I absolutely hate them. Error reporting is one service I clearly disable. I go as far as disabling that service and using Registry tweaks just to make sure it won't start. I also hate Remote Assistance, so I disable the Remote Desktop Help Manager Service just to make extra sure it won't start. Those services seem more like spyware to me than anything else. In fact, I use nlite to strip lots of unneeded junk out of my Windows XP install, so I don't have to worry about disabling everything.

 

[forrestroche]

Originally posted by: werk
I think it's funny that you don't even know how to quantify the results you got from all that fiddling. I'm with the "why bother?" camp....

In my case all the quantifying I needed was this: without blackviper's tweaks XP ran like molasses on my laptop. Ok, so its an HP n3250 (475mhz K6-2, 64Mb, 6gb hdd), but now I have XP running fast as 98se did, and its much more stable. Before you all start with the "buy a new computer" stuff, I HAVE a fast desktop, but didn't see the point in buying a new laptop (or even upgrading mem) for a few of weeks of travel every year if it WASN'T NECESARY. I can check email with it or watch .avi's burned to dvd (98 doesn't read multisession) and that's ALL I need from this computer.

I agree that if your sys runs fine without tweaks and you can't tell the difference, than it is somewhat obsessive to spend lots of hours eeking a few (or even 20) seconds out of boot time, but hey, if that is fun for you, WHY NOT? - "Why bother?" Maybe the answer is "cause I WANT to." I could have bought more ram for cheap, but it was much more satisfying to me personally to research, experiment, tweak, screw up, ghost, tweak, benchmark, won't boot, ghost, and then finally have a system that has people saying "NO WAY!" (amaze your friends effect).

In the end I applied the most draconian service configuration that I could while still being able to surf, watch movies, and listen to music. Swap file on 512 mb 2nd partition (hardly ever need it), os and program files crammed into 2gb 1st partition. My docs on 3rd, Ghost files on 4th. I run sygate personal firewall, spybot s&d, spywareblaster, AVG for surfing, but on a separate services profile for movies I disable even those. I use BBlean - shell (explorer.exe) replacement, and my commit charge with the system idle stays under 30mb.

I am just an average user who followed the (often conflicting) advice of people like blackviper, and had fun going through the trial and error. And I have used the system with XP default configuration (click start and wait five minutes for menu), and now (navigate with speed that five years ago seemed pretty decent). That's all the quantifying I need. All from a laptop that if you bought it on ebay would cost more to ship than purchase (I bought it new in 99).

Forrest

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: forrestroche

Originally posted by: werk
I think it's funny that you don't even know how to quantify the results you got from all that fiddling. I'm with the "why bother?" camp....

In my case all the quantifying I needed was this: without blackviper's tweaks XP ran like molasses on my laptop. Ok, so its an HP n3250 (475mhz K6-2, 64Mb, 6gb hdd), but now I have XP running fast as 98se did, and its much more stable. Before you all start with the "buy a new computer" stuff, I HAVE a fast desktop, but didn't see the point in buying a new laptop (or even upgrading mem) for a few of weeks of travel every year if it WASN'T NECESARY. I can check email with it or watch .avi's burned to dvd (98 doesn't read multisession) and that's ALL I need from this computer.

I agree that if your sys runs fine without tweaks and you can't tell the difference, than it is somewhat obsessive to spend lots of hours eeking a few (or even 20) seconds out of boot time, but hey, if that is fun for you, WHY NOT? - "Why bother?" Maybe the answer is "cause I WANT to." I could have bought more ram for cheap, but it was much more satisfying to me personally to research, experiment, tweak, screw up, ghost, tweak, benchmark, won't boot, ghost, and then finally have a system that has people saying "NO WAY!" (amaze your friends effect).

In the end I applied the most draconian service configuration that I could while still being able to surf, watch movies, and listen to music. Swap file on 512 mb 2nd partition (hardly ever need it), os and program files crammed into 2gb 1st partition. My docs on 3rd, Ghost files on 4th. I run sygate personal firewall, spybot s&d, spywareblaster, AVG for surfing, but on a separate services profile for movies I disable even those. I use BBlean - shell (explorer.exe) replacement, and my commit charge with the system idle stays under 30mb.

I am just an average user who followed the (often conflicting) advice of people like blackviper, and had fun going through the trial and error. And I have used the system with XP default configuration (click start and wait five minutes for menu), and now (navigate with speed that five years ago seemed pretty decent). That's all the quantifying I need. All from a laptop that if you bought it on ebay would cost more to ship than purchase (I bought it new in 99).

Forrest

Good for you. However, your computer is just a bit different than his, considering he has 2GB of RAM.

 

[Link19]

Which is even stupider than the first group, MS wrote the OS, shutting down services isn't going to do jack. If you don't trust them, don't run their software.

Simply not true. Not everyone wnats to be in touch with MS when using their computer. Not everyone has a choice to just not use MS software because there are things people need to do with their PCs that they canonly do running a Microsoft OS. Microsoft can get away with spying on you when you use their services to commincate with MS servers, but it would be hard for them to get away with it if you weren't using services used to communicate with them. After all. when using their services to communicate with their servers, they can try to use the argument that they had to collect certain information to be able to successfully satisfy customer needs. However, if you are ust using the OS to be able to ruin Windows based applications, why would they have any need to clllect information if you aren't using their services, other than to be dishonest and spy on you. You see, there is a reason to shut eveyrthing down that MS can use to commuiate with you. I personally don't trust Microsoft, so I shut everything down that MS can use to communicate with you.

 

[Nothinman]

Simply not true. Not everyone wnats to be in touch with MS when using their computer

And you're not, the only communication with MS is done during activation and patch downloading. The patching is anonymous and I'm sure they get enough hits to that site that there's no way they're going to go digging through those logs just to see if you connected. And the activation information is anonymous and it's disgarded after 60 or 90 days anyway.

Not everyone has a choice to just not use MS software because there are things people need to do with their PCs that they canonly do running a Microsoft OS

Sucks to be you then.

Microsoft can get away with spying on you when you use their services to commincate with MS servers

And they want to spy on you, why?

However, if you are ust using the OS to be able to ruin Windows based applications, why would they have any need to clllect information if you aren't using their services, other than to be dishonest and spy on you.

They don't collect any information, no matter what you do. They simply have reason to.

You see, there is a reason to shut eveyrthing down that MS can use to commuiate with you. I personally don't trust Microsoft, so I shut everything down that MS can use to communicate with you.

Then how are you posting this? If you're connected to the Internet then MS can communicate with your machine, maybe they included a kernel-level driver to do the tracking, that way you can't shut it down so easily.

 

[videobruce]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
I hope it stays down so he can stop giving out bad advice to people.

Just exactly what/where is this "bad advice" ?

 

[Link19]

Then how are you posting this? If you're connected to the Internet then MS can communicate with your machine, maybe they included a kernel-level driver to do the tracking, that way you can't shut it down so easily.

Maybe they could, but they owuld get hit with a lawsuit for that kind of privacy violation. But it is different when using their services because they can more eaisl;y excuse themselves that if you are using their services, they have a right to collect that kind of information. Simply using their OS does not give them the right to collect information from your PC without your consent. When you use their services, it is different. I don't have to activate my Windows XP because I have access to a legal licensed version of the corporate edition from my work place. Thanks god, because activation is an utter PIA!!

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Mulaka

Originally posted by: KoolDrew2
^Exactly. On a home network there is no reason to disable default Windows services even for security reasons.

If you want to you can. Why do you assume people at home don't know what they are doing? That is a pretty arrogant statement.

Spend some time fixing computers and you'll get a better idea of how much the general public knows.

 

[wfn]

to each their own. i OC, therefore it's beneficial for me to stay with 2x512mb modules for obvious reasons. 1GB is not that much memory considering what I do with the box. Which happens to be a lot of video encoding and graphics work. I will tell you right now, that I would not bother to turn off of services on my pop's machine a gaming box or a general use system. On my video box however, I could use a small initial charge. With SP2 installed and all the crap running your initial will be almost 200MB. Now, I know what services and modules do and what I do want and don't want. So my charge is 70MB after I boot. I know I could get more conservative and get it down to 60 if I wanted to but I down care that much. IMO most power users will not benefit from: themes, indexing, autoupdate, system restore, computer browser, security center, fast user switching, messenger, alerter, netmeeting, pmsn, qos rsvp and a couple of others. But that's just me, call me obsessive compulsive.

 

[forrestroche]

Originally posted by: werk

Good for you. However, your computer is just a bit different than his, considering he has 2GB of RAM.

Sure it's different. He has 1984 (2048-64) more megabytes of RAM than I do. This number is no coincidence. George Orwell understood the dangers of the philosophy that I see being advanced in this thread in the guise of "advice" about disabling services. That is, that any one person, or even group of people, can hold a monopoly on "truth." There is no one "truth" and the more complex the system (political or operating), the more firmly this rule applies. Even Microsoft does not understand the "truth" behind the system they designed - it is too inherently complex for ANYONE to undersand it. Thus, you may ask a question in a tech forum, and from reasonable and intelligent people you will receive strikingly different answers. This is because to a brief post at best we can make a highly generalized reply which hopefully will throw its umbrella over the exact circumstances (systemic and personal) of the poster. I say generalized because no matter how specific, it must be generalized unless we are sitting in front of the poster's computer while simultaneously probing his mind for desires and goals. And the poster's desires (the "why") is usually supplanted by the "how," the "why" being precisely the thing we should be most interested in.

Hence my point that if someone wants to disable services for fun, or because they think it's cool to tweak their configuration even if it has little or no effect, not only will I not ridicule them, I will encourage them. Emerson said "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

A car to me is transportation. I change the oil, wash it, and if it won't start I take it to a garage. But some people spend thousands of hours modifying street cars in ways that can never be appreciated off-track. I could easily say FOOL, what do you need a 9 inch posi rear end for, or 10-1 compression, or a high-rise bump stick, or a gear drive, or a four barrell holley double pumper? All it does is make your car noisey, uncomfortable, and expensive to drive. They will give me all kinds of reasons, justifications, most likely forgetting the most important one: because they think it's COOL. And that, my friend, is all the reason I personally need to do ANYTHING.

You got 2gb RAM and want to shut off services? Just upped it to 4 gb dual channel? And you still got the itch to shut off QoS RSVP? Feel like doing without background intelligent transer service today? Want to nix COM+ just because you think it's UNCOOL? I say RIGHT ON MAN!!!! Ghost it and shut em' ALL off!!!! Just because you can, Just because it's cool, JUST BECAUSE THEY TOLD YOU NOT TO.

Forrest

P.S. Yes, I do know what happens when you shut em' ALL off. :shocked:

 

[Nothinman]

Maybe they could, but they owuld get hit with a lawsuit for that kind of privacy violation. But it is different when using their services because they can more eaisl;y excuse themselves that if you are using their services, they have a right to collect that kind of information. Simply using their OS does not give them the right to collect information from your PC without your consent. When you use their services, it is different. I don't have to activate my Windows XP because I have access to a legal licensed version of the corporate edition from my work place. Thanks god, because activation is an utter PIA!!

Did you read the license you agreed to when using Windows? If they really wanted to collect any information about you I'm sure they could put a disclaimer in the EULA since noone reads them. And activation isn't a PIA unless you change hardware all the time, you do it once and it never bothers you again.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: forrestroche

Originally posted by: werk

Good for you. However, your computer is just a bit different than his, considering he has 2GB of RAM.

Sure it's different. He has 1984 (2048-64) more megabytes of RAM than I do. This number is no coincidence. George Orwell understood the dangers of the philosophy that I see being advanced in this thread in the guise of "advice" about disabling services. That is, that any one person, or even group of people, can hold a monopoly on "truth." There is no one "truth" and the more complex the system (political or operating), the more firmly this rule applies. Even Microsoft does not understand the "truth" behind the system they designed - it is too inherently complex for ANYONE to undersand it. Thus, you may ask a question in a tech forum, and from reasonable and intelligent people you will receive strikingly different answers. This is because to a brief post at best we can make a highly generalized reply which hopefully will throw its umbrella over the exact circumstances (systemic and personal) of the poster. I say generalized because no matter how specific, it must be generalized unless we are sitting in front of the poster's computer while simultaneously probing his mind for desires and goals. And the poster's desires (the "why") is usually supplanted by the "how," the "why" being precisely the thing we should be most interested in.

Hence my point that if someone wants to disable services for fun, or because they think it's cool to tweak their configuration even if it has little or no effect, not only will I not ridicule them, I will encourage them. Emerson said "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

A car to me is transportation. I change the oil, wash it, and if it won't start I take it to a garage. But some people spend thousands of hours modifying street cars in ways that can never be appreciated off-track. I could easily say FOOL, what do you need a 9 inch posi rear end for, or 10-1 compression, or a high-rise bump stick, or a gear drive, or a four barrell holley double pumper? All it does is make your car noisey, uncomfortable, and expensive to drive. They will give me all kinds of reasons, justifications, most likely forgetting the most important one: because they think it's COOL. And that, my friend, is all the reason I personally need to do ANYTHING.

You got 2gb RAM and want to shut off services? Just upped it to 4 gb dual channel? And you still got the itch to shut off QoS RSVP? Feel like doing without background intelligent transer service today? Want to nix COM+ just because you think it's UNCOOL? I say RIGHT ON MAN!!!! Ghost it and shut em' ALL off!!!! Just because you can, Just because it's cool, JUST BECAUSE THEY TOLD YOU NOT TO.

Forrest

P.S. Yes, I do know what happens when you shut em' ALL off. :shocked:

Geez, lay off the crack.

 

[Link19]

Did you read the license you agreed to when using Windows? If they really wanted to collect any information about you I'm sure they could put a disclaimer in the EULA since noone reads them. And activation isn't a PIA unless you change hardware all the time, you do it once and it never bothers you again.

I haven't specifically read the whole EULA, but I have heard from others who read it that the EULA seems to indicate they collect information when using certain services that phone home to MS. They don't collect information when not using MS phone home services. Microsoft knows they can get people to accept that when you are using their services. MS knows people would have a fit if they were collecting information without your knowledge, so that is why they don't spy on you. If they could do it and get away with it, I'm sure they would do it. Microsoft does not have your best interests at heart. All they care about is power and greed to maintain their monopoly in the OS desktop market. They are a selfish corporate entity bent on making a profit at your expense. The only reason you can trust them somewhat and is because they have certain legal bounderies they must work within, and people would have a fit and not accept certain things if they went too far. Just read some of the scary things on Trusted COmputing that Microsoft wants to impose in the next version of Windows.

Activation is a PIA if you constantly change your hardware, which is something I do plenty of times. Activation is especially a PIA for an operating system which is what your computer needs to function. I don't mind activation on regular software applications, but for an OS, it is absolutely absurd and a PIA!!

 

[Nothinman]

I haven't specifically read the whole EULA, but I have heard from others who read it that the EULA seems to indicate they collect information when using certain services that phone home to MS. They don't collect information when not using MS phone home services.

But without knowing which services phone home, shutting down random services is pointless.

They are a selfish corporate entity bent on making a profit at your expense

Ummm, no sh!t. They are a for-profit organization.

Just read some of the scary things on Trusted COmputing that Microsoft wants to impose in the next version of Windows.

Actually most of the trusted computing hardware seems cool enough, it's basically a hardware crypto device that can be leveraged by the OS. The fact that MS wants to use it to determine whether you have a license to watch movie trailers is irrelevant to me.

Activation is a PIA if you constantly change your hardware, which is something I do plenty of times. Activation is especially a PIA for an operating system which is what your computer needs to function. I don't mind activation on regular software applications, but for an OS, it is absolutely absurd and a PIA!!

MS is one of the last commercial OS vendor to do activation, you should be thankful it took them this long. And from what I hear the call only takes ~5 minutes if you activate too many times, it probably takes longer to get the hardware actually working in Windows.

 

[forrestroche]

Originally posted by: werk
Geez, lay off the crack.

OH, yeah, ok...

 

[Link19]

But without knowing which services phone home, shutting down random services is pointless.

Actually, it is pretty obvious for the most part which services phone home. Do research on all of them and you will find out.

Actually most of the trusted computing hardware seems cool enough, it's basically a hardware crypto device that can be leveraged by the OS. The fact that MS wants to use it to determine whether you have a license to watch movie trailers is irrelevant to me.

So, you think it is ok and accepatble for "Big Brother to watch you just because you insists you have nothing to hide. Your rights to privacy are very important no matter what. It's that kind of attitude where you act as if you don't care you are watched in the privacy of your own home because you have nothing to hide that ultimately is one of the greatest threats to our civil liberties and privacy rights and a Global police state becoming a reality. What exactly does Microsoft intend to know with that information to determine whether you have a license to watch a movie or not?? Will they be able to uniquely identify you as an individual with it, or will they just be able to tell whether you have a license to watch it or not, but won't be able to trace it back to you? If they can trace it back to you, THAT is a step towards a police state!! It is nobody's business to monitor and watch what someone does on his/her own computer!! People have a right to privacy and THEY WILL NOT BE ENSLAVED by their corpoaret masters who want to wtach and track everything you do!!!

 

[Nothinman]

Actually, it is pretty obvious for the most part which services phone home. Do research on all of them and you will find out.

If you have to do research, it's not obvious.

So, you think it is ok and accepatble for "Big Brother to watch you just because you insists you have nothing to hide.

That's not even close to what I said. I said it was irrelevant to me what MS wants to use the crypto for and I can say that because I don't use Windows.

People have a right to privacy and THEY WILL NOT BE ENSLAVED by their corpoaret masters who want to wtach and track everything you do!!!

You're already MS' slave, you said it yourself that you're forced to use Windows.

 

[Link19]

If you have to do research, it's not obvious.

Well, maybe not obvious, but it's close enough and you can decide based on your own experience.

That's not even close to what I said. I said it was irrelevant to me what MS wants to use the crypto for and I can say that because I don't use Windows.

Well, hopefully by then, there will be a native Linux version of all the applications and games I play. Then, I won't be using Windows either.

You're already MS' slave, you said it yourself that you're forced to use Windows.

I never said I was forced to use Windows, rather what I meant is there are so many games and applications that the majority use that are only written to run on Windows. If you want to use many games and applications that are written only for Windows, you have no choice but to run Windows. that is what I meant by forced.

 

[Nothinman]

Even at work I do 99% of my job in Linux (coLinux rocks, btw), the only thing I actually need Windows for is Outlook and I could use Citrix for that if I wanted. The problem is that you have to be open to change before you can even think about ditching Windows and most people aren't willing to go through the work required to switch even to OS X. Ironically now that I've switched completely at home I find things are much simpler to get done in Linux, Windows puts a lot more restrictions and makes you jump through a lot more hoops to do things that should be simple.

And maybe it's me getting old but I think most games today are crap, they're just rehashed versions of older games and they're generally not that fun any more. I play ETF, but that's fun because I play online with friends. The last SP game I finished was HL2 which wasn't bad, but before that I don't even know.

 

[sulfurious]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

The second set are the paranoia's. Big brother is watching. Shut everything down that MS can use to track you or communicate with you, or about anything you can dig up on the net to believe.

Which is even stupider than the first group, MS wrote the OS, shutting down services isn't going to do jack. If you don't trust them, don't run their software.

You are wrong.

While I firmly believe that MS does something along those lines I don't know exactly what

To put it bluntly, you're an idiot. A simple packet capture on a router or firewall will show you that they're not doing anything unsolicited. Hell the bug reports you send when an app crashes are even anonymous.

I am an idiot? You mean because I prefer to believe something that you do not? I guess that would make you....well. Perhaps then you would like to tell me why media player 9 insists it must contact micrsoft, walmart and napster, among others? Oh wait, maybe it is the media guide portion. That I TRIED to turn off in the options, and it failed. Maybe they are trying to give me ads. Maybe they want to know what mp3's I listen to. Maybe they just want to know what my freakin media preferences are. I did not say they were spying on me to find my social security number. All I said is they are watching. Logging. What fool (ahem) would believe that in todays data gathering frenzy that microsoft does not also gather data. And who cares what it is? I sure don't. Is it not enough that I DON'T WANT THAT CRAP HAPPENING? Not to M$. Granted, that is whining about an rather insignificant issue, but the issue is still there. For me and lot's of others as well. So, whatever man.

And as far as pagefile's and the like go. Putting it on the outside of the harddrive worked wonders for my laptop. A HUGE improvement. The size itself never really seemed to do much though.

Buying more memory would do even better.

Fraid not bub. We are talking about disk access here, not freakin memory usage. My stupid 5400 rpm drive was struggling to keep up playing games the cpu and vid could handle. And with 512 of memory, there was some to spare. What I needed was to get that pagefile, which it used the crap out of, out of the general pool of fragmented files. And, using an older norton tool, disk doctor I believe, it did that. And it did help my performance quite a bit. And why did I think it was that to begin with? Because when they drive would start a R/W, the game would pause. Hmmm. After that fix, it did it rarely. Hmm.

And, with some reg tweaks (I think it was anyway) I once got my desktop to fill the ram before using the pagefile

There are no reg 'tweaks' for that, that's how it works by design.

Your are not batting .1000 here slugger. Now I am not guru by any means. And what little I know means nothing. But, I do know what task manager tells me. And maybe that means nothing, but I did do some reg work that stopped my pagefile from growing when lot's of memory was needed. And, you could watch the ram get used, almost to full, before that pagefile would grow. Now, maybe it is not doing what I thought it was. But, on a default system, it is not doing that by design. Well, it might be, but the task manager shows it differently then.

Oh, and you need a chill pill dude. These are only opinions, and no one is really right.

 

[Zucarita9000]

Wow... all of this just for disabling 5 services. BTW, nothing broke after disablging them.

 

[Nothinman]

You are wrong.

Nuh-uh, you are!

I am an idiot? You mean because I prefer to believe something that you do not?

Yes, because it's something that can be easily disproven.

Perhaps then you would like to tell me why media player 9 insists it must contact micrsoft, walmart and napster, among others?

If I'm not mistaken the topic was the core OS and the services MS enables by default, WMP9 is seperate from the OS and doesn't include any services last time I looked. And if it's trying to contact WalMart or Napster, you're either playing media that is licensed from them or it's simply trying to display ads from their servers, again something that can be easily verified with a packet capture or proxy log.

Is it not enough that I DON'T WANT THAT CRAP HAPPENING? Not to M$. Granted, that is whining about an rather insignificant issue, but the issue is still there. For me and lot's of others as well. So, whatever man.

So stop using their software, no one's forcing you to use WMP.

Fraid not bub. We are talking about disk access here, not freakin memory usage

Pagefile usage is directly related to memory usage, bub.

What I needed was to get that pagefile, which it used the crap out of, out of the general pool of fragmented files.

If you say so, but if you understood how the pagefile was used you would realize that if you still really had memory that wasn't being used the pagefile would hardly be used also.

And, using an older norton tool, disk doctor I believe, it did that.

Right, because a filesystem repair tool can now magically move files around.

Because when they drive would start a R/W, the game would pause. Hmmm. After that fix, it did it rarely. Hmm.

Again, if you have enough memory to contain the game and the OS at the same time the disk wouldn't have had to do any work other than loading new game data on new levels and crap.

Your are not batting .1000 here slugger.

Baseball sucks.

Now I am not guru by any means. And what little I know means nothing

That's apparent.

But, I do know what task manager tells me.

And then you should also know that taskmgr isn't a good gauge. VM accounting is very difficult and a lot of the memory numbers in taskmgr are exaggerated and in the case of "PF Usage" wrongly labled.

And maybe that means nothing, but I did do some reg work that stopped my pagefile from growing when lot's of memory was needed.

And you just so happen to not be able to remember what setting you changed?

Now, maybe it is not doing what I thought it was. But, on a default system, it is not doing that by design. Well, it might be, but the task manager shows it differently then.

That's more likely. By default the pagefile starts at 1.5x your physical memory size and it only grows when that is nearly used up, so the only time the pagefile would need to expand was if you had a commit charge of around 1.5G.

Oh, and you need a chill pill dude. These are only opinions, and no one is really right.

Computers are simple machines, everything about their actions can be proven or disproven. Whether data is being gathered, whether your pagefile is being used, etc can all be proven with a little research. The only thing that could be considered an opinion is how fast the machine 'feels' and if a registry setting placebo makes you feel better, I guess that's up to you.

 

[sulfurious]

(chuckles) I may have been wrong about you. My first impression was, probably because of the quick idiot labeling, an idiot yourself. Heh. I see your points tho.

But, I can always learn something new. You obviously know much, or at least give that impression.

First, I don't think anyone is an idiot for believing that a company such as M$ would like to gather data. And, while we are talking about services, and wmp is not involved in the service debate, that was merely to point out that, tho I don't particuarily want it to, mp is contacting places. As in an example that there is some data coming OR going. That may be all they do, ads and such, but it is still something I don't care for.

As for opinions, it is just that. Relating to the services issue anyway. You can say that nothing is really gained or that things can be proved/disproved, but still, shutting down a service can gain performance increases or stop security issues. Or, just turn something off that one does not like. To you they may be too small and trivial to matter, but maybe not to me.

And, the age old argument "no one is forcing you to use their product" is not entirely true. Yes, I have played with unix bases OS's, whether it be freebsd or suse or whatever. But, realistically, the windows platform has so much of the market share of products that it is, for me and the time I have allotted, easier to stick with that for now. Not that I could not do it in linux etc,. That being said, I still don't see why I should be stuck having to do things their way. Not that I mind the fact that they have it configured a certain way. That is, as long as there is a way for me to use a reg edit or stop a service to make it do what I want.

I understand that pagefile usage is related to memory usage, bub (chuckle again) You really do have a good sense of humor. Anyway, yes I know that. That did not matter for me tho. I could go 10 or 15 minutes without a R/W, and the memory was handling it all. But, invariably at some point that R/W would come, and a huge pause. All I can say is, that after a doing that pagefile thing, nearly all of that stopped. You tell me why it did it then.

I agree, baseball sux.

And yes, it is apparent that I am no guru. Hey, I just do this for a hobby. I am a home user. Who happens to like to mess with my OS. And while everything I read may not be true, at least I go beyond getting my email and surfing. And I can fix my own problems, which I usually create by tring some of this stuff. But, if I had not done it in the first place, maybe I would not know as much now as I do, and maybe my rig would be one of those infected zombie worm spreading machines that are so abundant. I bow down to greater knowledge, without a problem.

And sorry, I do not remember what setting I changed. However, I do remember one of the registry edits that let's me achieve a 99% utilization of my 100mb nic. Or, maybe task manager is lying to me. I can transfer a large file across my network at pretty much full speed. Now, if you got the knowledge, please disperse it, as I am curious. A sustained file transfer (copy/paste), where taskmanager says 99% througput, is that so. Or just another misinterpretation. Cause the few guys I know who manage a large corporate network for a living thought it was pretty cool. Anyway, if you really want it I am sure I could dig it out of the archives for that regtweak.

Really tho, you are pretty humerous.
Cheers to ya.
sul.