New mobo/cpu, RAM, case, power supply, Windows XP user here. Hard drive is a
few months old.
Windows XP seems slow when switching tasks on the internet. E.g. from
Outlook Express to my Fidelity account page to finance.yahoo.com pages.
It would be good to list the system components again... each
thread should be self-sufficient containing all potentially
relevant details.
Without this information, it could be something like
insufficient memory. Check Task Manager to see what the
memory load (Commit Charge, Total) is, and (Commit Charge,
Peak), then compare to the "Physical Memory, Total". An
ideally optimized system should have enough Physical Memory
to come very near (if not exceed) the Commit Charge Peak
value, and always more than the average (from checking Task
Manager several times) Commit Charge Total. A well-endowed
system, given today's reasonable memory prices, would do
even better, have at least a few hundred MB more Physical
Memory Total than the Commit Charge Peak, as additional
memory is used as a file cache which can significantly speed
up the system, especially after it had been running long
enough to cache many of the files on the HDD into main
memory.
Several folks at the microsoft.support newsgroup indicate the probability is
high my new computer setup is already chock full of viruses. They suggest
that the latest viruses in particular target Win XP. The net has some
support for these claims.
It is an overly generalized statement that could be true,
but not substantiated yet by any information you have
provided. Perhapas you have left out some of the info
posted to these groups so we cannot assess the validity of
their responses. If you have an unusually high Task Manager
memory load per the apps you're running, if your task
manager Processes list includes mysterious things that
shouldn't be running, or there is an unusual, unaccounted
for use of CPU time (task manager performance tab), these
questionable things should be given further scrutiny.
In general, some XP files are OS-related and should not be
disabled unless you are sure they can be (some will even
prevent system from booting or running) but with 3rd party
software/files, the ultimate goal is control over what is
running, not having anything running that you don't
specifically recognise and know the function of. This can
take some investigation, it is easier to note these things
when the system is newly installed and after further
applications are installed (such as antivirus or a printer,
whatever), then you can see the corresponding things each
installation adds to your list of Processes in Task Manager.
I am trying to understand what my computing life is going to be in the
coming years. I would like to know what folks here do daily and weekly to
maintain their computer in top running condition, particularly with regard
to virus protection.
Virus Protection is about keeping the vulnerabilities
patched and following safe computing practices. Don't open
unknown emails, especially with attachments.
Use more secure browser and email client instead of OE and
IE. Install an antivirus program and update it regularly.
Visit WindowsUpdate.com and get the latest patches.
Google for "online antivirus scan" and use some periodically
as a suppliment to your preferred realtime scanner- no
scanner is perfect and redundant use of mutliple scanners
may cath more things.
Periodically scan with spyware/malware/etc type scanners
such as Spyware Search & Destroy, Adaware, use other similar
tools such as Spyware Blaster, maintain a HOSTS list (Google
for some and directions), disable insecure browser features.
Maintain a full system backup, so in worst case scenarios
you do not depend on finding ALL viruses should you ever
become infected, rather than being able to wipe the drive
and restore to a known clean state. This can be made easier
by not installing everything on a single HDD partition but
rather segregating user data (and sometimes applications)
from the OS files on the boot partition. With some rare
exceptions (like MS Office viruses), usually a virus will
reside on the OS partition and if you can restore the OS
partition the data and applications on another partition
will not need this done... though your OS partition backup
would have to be made after the applications were installed
as so many these days depend on files placed on the OS
partition or at least Windows registry entries.
The above is not a comprehensive list, Google searching for
security related practices is a good start, and security is
a continually evolving set of practices that must adapt to
each new threat when seen in the context you made... over
time, years of use.
I have no virus protection software, because
-- I use a modem and I always thought the risk was lower with a modem
Due to lower bandwidth of the modem your risk is reduced,
but in general it is not a reduction in risks, you are as
vulnerable in many ways. Some common mistakes in user
configuration of yesteryear are now more often avoided (such
as being sure not to bind File & Printer Sharing to a
dial-up internet adapter) but being on dialup, you do still
have most of the potential infection points.
-- I am very careful about downloads. Nothing from email is downloaded. From
web sites, I download PDF files and now and then software that someone at a
computing newsgroup vouches for.
-- it seems to me that the virus protection software can monkey with my
settings and slow things down. So the sofware deals with one problem but
then causes another.
One of the more common modern threats is "drive-by"
hijacking of the browser. It can be reduced by not visiting
unknown or questionable websites, but even running a fully
patched version of Internet Explorer, it is quite possible
to become infected through simply browsing the web, not
choosing to install anything. At any given moment, there
are usually IE vulnerabilities as yet remaining unpatched
but known to crackers (I generally avoid the term "hackers"
as it has other non-nefarious meanings) who seek and
actively aim to use such exploits, as they are prime
candidates for exploit being as yet known as unplatched.
Even so, playing odds these are eventually added to
antivirus detection definitions and all security is based on
tradeoffs between security and system functionality.
In short, the topic is too broad to address here, and why
there are numerous websites devoted to such things.
I need a maintenance philosophy here. If I am stuck with having to spend an
hour each day maintaining my computer (or paying someone to do it), then
okay. But I want to know if that's where things are at with MS Windows,
internet use, pretty simple application software (MS Works Suite, Kodak
photo sharing software, Adobe, Java) and no gaming.
No an hour a day would be excessive for a general purpose,
even most systems. If you had an hour to spend I would
suggest using it to make incremental full systems backups.
Otherwise periodic scans for malware and a realtime
antivirus as well as periodically checking for windows
updates should be sufficient until you identify any specific
areas you need to focus on more based on your particular
usage of the system.
Also, can I take my 2001 Gateway system Win ME restore etc. diskettes and
use them to install Win ME on another hard drive for use with my new
mobo/cpu/RAM? I am getting the feeling Win ME may be preferable to Win XP,
though crashes will happen more with Win ME.
No you cannot install The Gateway system restore onto
another (different) system. The system restore (most
likely) checks the system bios so that it only installs on
one of a few select Gateway systems of that era. It might
technically be possible to plug-n-play migrate the
installation to another system but this is in breech of the
Eula, you are only licensed to use it on the original (or
evolved, as you make minor changes to the hardware) original
Gateway system.
WinME can be configured to be quite usable, with many of
the additional features (beyond what Win98SE has) disabled,
it becomes like a more-patched version of Win98SE, even with
similar stabilty (for better or worse- better than WinME
started out but worse still than Win2K or WinXP). However,
much of the instability comes down to drivers and software.
People all too often blame WinME or 98SE for faults in these
apps or drivers, when even Win2k or XP was subject to
problems with bad apps or drivers and just as Win2k or XP
got better with more modern apps and drivers,
ever-more-modern were the apps and drivers later for 98SE or
ME. Genearly speaking, use of 98SE or ME successfully
depends a lot on this, getting the most modern drivers and
apps available today. You still have most of the related
security issues though, and some limitations with ME such as
resources available. If you have ME running fine there is
no reason to switch but if a specifc reason presents itself,
it could be you need a more modern OS. Only you can make
that call, ME can be used fine within it's limits.
