slow start-up

[Colonel Sanders]

I'm pretty sure the PC in my sig should be able to run Win2K, and it can(sorta). I don't have much in my system tray(I think thats the right name for the all the icons right next to the clock). All I have is WinZip, display properties, my sound options and 2 McAfee icons soon to be deleted as soon as I setup a firewall. However, when I start my computer, everything appears to have loaded quickly(all icons are there, mouse no longer has hour glass...), but I have to wait about a minute before I can do anything, or else it, while, isn't pretty. Doesn't launch program and I get ingorant and eventually launch 20 copies of the program or lock up my PC(whicever comes first, usually the later). What should I do?

Logan

[Hpro]

Try this - Control Panel > System applet >Hardware Tab >Advanced > Performance Options and check the size of your Pagefile - set it to 64MB minimum and 128 Max if this is larger than this restart and try again.. let me know - but first deleted MACAFEE it's PIA....

[Terrorbyte]

and your PC consists of ???, some details may help find an answer.

[Colonel Sanders]

That helped a lot! What exactly did I do?

The second part which I haven't woried about because I didn't think it was cureable: The Windows start-up sound in the background is REALLY choppy and sounds horrible when it plays, and it still takes soem time to load everything(thankfully not as long). All that opens are the dispaly properties, win-zip, and volume controls. (is the system tray the right name for all the icons near the clock?) How do I get rid of the win-zip bit to speed things up some more. It upseting to see my computer(which I love and consider a GOD{OK, maybe not a god}) prefroming so poorly on startup.

BTW, I'm using my onboard AC97 audio, is that a good or bad?

Logan

[Terrorbyte]

I use the onboard sound, BUT only because I dont use it for listening to music, dvd's etc, all I want is sound, not sound perfection.

If you really want better sound, any Sound Blaster version will do the job better than the onboard will, and good amp/speakers go a long way there too.

I take it to mean win-zip starts with windows ? type msconfig in your run box and go to the startup tab, uncheck the win-zip.exe or what is there that relates to it, apply it, restart and it will be gone from the startup, but it will be still in your program list to use when needed.

BTW, while in the startup window, you can also remove (uncheck) any other items that you dont want to start when windows starts.

[Colonel Sanders]

msconfig isn't found when I type it in the run box, are you sure that should work for Win2K Pro? BTW, I'm hoping for a sound-blaster audigy for X-Mas:D.

Logan

[Terrorbyte]

Ok I have never used 2K but all the others are the same with the msconfig command.???
Try start, accessories, system tools, system information, and look in the tools menu.

[Hpro]

Logan ,
to answer your fisrt question what did you do - when resizing the PAGEFILE then Win2k will use more Memory than the Pagefile - this is a file written to your disk - as usual Memory is a lot faster and with 512 Mb there is no need to have a big Page file ...Look here - I had the Page file locked to 128 Mb MAX, and using only 192Mb RAM - so all it does it writes less to your disk..

Look Here (http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?threadid=22491&goto=newpost) about memory and PAGEFILE


To remove the Winzip from the Systemtray - do this..
START > RUN >type REGEDIT find this string and then in the run command on the right side you can delete the entry for Winzip below the Key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run or you can download this tiny program and this will make it possible to remove Winzip from start to SYSTEM TRAY wwith the click on the mouse button

You can Download this one Here (http://www.jv16.org/) and then Download REGCLEANER - But be somewhat carefull when using it - this instead of manually editing the REGISTRY - and you always have a backup option in there.. to get removed entries back again with a click on the mouse

As for the chopped sound of your Soundcard - first find out what KIND of SOUND MODULE you have AC98 is only a exstension of the Actula sound card - so you have to find in Control Panel >SYSTEM >HARDWARE > DEVICE MANAGER click SOUND ,VIDEO and Game Controllers nad look at he make - then install any drive which isn't WDM this will help it --

FOOT NOTE :
I dont' think that is because of Winzip that it still starts slow but rather you should download Diskeeper 7.0 from www.diskeeper.com and install it - this then run boot time defragment and you will see the improvement..

As for the firewal use www.zonalarm.com and get the Pro version 2.63 - works great under Win2k
Sorry for the long reply..

[Colonel Sanders]

In the registry editor folder you suggest, all I found was: (default), matrox, movienetwork, and synchronization. I'll start working on everything else.(I didn't know people had solutions for this stuff...) Thanks for your help.

Logan

[Hpro]

There are more keys to look at - all teh RUN keys ion the REGISTRY KEY place above - this would include RUN ONCE, RUN ONCE EX, or may here one more..
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\run then also START > PROGRAMS >START UP or in Win.ini (I actually don't believe this one) in the RUN line .. Winzip never did this on my Win2K nor WinXp configurations then also may you use the Options > Configurations > button in Winzip itself and look at the different settings..

What version of Winzip you are running?

[Terrorbyte]

I would be curious to know where the msconfig has gone to ? in your W2K, it is somewhat puzzling to have it even in XP but not in 2K, I can only guess that there are more serious problems within the operating system.
Might be worth a try to re-install the o/s and see what comes back.

However, if W2K is indeed different I would like to know before I offer any suggestions and advise incorrectly.

So how about it W2K users, is the msconfig run command not in w2k-o/s ??? or in the system tools/system information area ???

Removing the registry may remove the entire program, if I understand properly, all that is wanted was to remove it from the system tray so it does not start with windows.
Yes win-zip is unlikely to slow up the system startup times, that is only a fairly small program.
I would NOT recommend being in the registry unless you are familiar with it and know what your doing, Sorry Hpro, it is fair enuf to advise someone to remove/alter registry entries, but with beginners that are unfamiliar in there I would have to not advise it, one wrong click or edit and the whole deal may drop the ball and walk off the field of play.

[DrZaius]

Win2K doesn't come with msconfig for some reason. No worries though, Startup Control Panel (http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml) is almost exactly like msconfig only it works with every version Windows and you can remove, not only disable, programs from startup.

Theres no need to mess with the registry, just disable ("un-check") all of the non-essential programs from startup and renable them one by one to see if one of them was the problem.

[Hpro]

Using Regedit in Win2K and WinXp will not allow to delete SYSTEM CRITICAL ENTRIES - and if someone deletes something then he always has the chance to press F8 and select last good know configuration this will bring back the Registry which was backed up automatically by windows - so no harm is done..

Removing entries from the run command line in either the HKEYs will NOT REMOVE the program in anyway but will cause it not TO START - like it would be using MSCONFIG>> which in fact does exactly this..

There is though a other way to edit the REGISTRY in win2k As in WinXP where NO BACKUPis made so this one can and is hazarderous - if used the wrong way so I will not give the filename here as if as I said it can be very destructive -.. and all of those who do registry editing know the file anyway...

BTW Terrorbyte I gave him two choices to edit the strings there - as I'm aware of the follow ups of editing the registry - read my first post..

[mosquito]

But the safest is of course to export the keys you want to delete before you do it.