Does PC Booster Work?

[Garyboy]

Has anybody actually used PC Booster? Does it work? What were your tangible results. Have you benchmarked before and after running PC Booster? What are the numbers?

I have not used PC Booster and know little about optimizer programs. I'd like to hear about your experience with PC Booster, good or bad.

Here's my theory up front:

For users of well maintained PC's, there will be little or no detectable performance improvements.

For users of poorly maintained PC's, there will be moderate or substantial performance improvements.

[lil Jimmie]

I don't use it or any other "booster" program for the most part they just take valuable space on my HDD.

[Confused]

They enhance the bank account of the seller. So I guess you could say that in effect they do.
Chas

[mairving]

Here is my theory:
For users of well maintained PC's, there will be little or no detectable performance improvements.

For users of poorly maintained PC's, there will be little or no detectable performance improvements.

It is amazing that some people still buy these kinds of things. IMO, they went out with DOS. Waste of money.

[Garyboy]

ok guys,

I'm getting the impression that you are less than impressed with PC Booster and other optimizers. And I respect your opinions. But, let's get back to my original questions; Have you used PC Booster? What were your actual results?

Thanks,

GaryBoy

[Cricket]

Hi Garyboy,

I've never tried PC Booster but this is because I've learned a long time ago that any software that claims to make your PC work better or faster usually isn't worth installing on your system. The last time I tried one was way back in 1995 or 96 (I forget what it was called)...it screwed up my PC so bad that I vowed I'd never use that type of product again. I just keep things well maintained, use lots of RAM and run Windows lean (without many background applications).

:) Cricket

[Confused]

I haven't used PC Booster, but when I got my first PC about 4 years ago, I fell for one called Internet Boost. That education cost me $29.00.
Chas

[mairving]

I haven't had any experience with it either but it has been my experience that utilities like it do very little good and often times cause more problems than they cure. Here (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,16902,00.asp) is a review on it at PCMag.

[Garyboy]

Mairving,

Thanks for the link to the PC Magazine review. From the sounds of it, their test results were mixed, with some performance gains and some performance losses. They played up the tweeking potential, but I doubt that would appeal to most users. Thanks again.

Garyboy

[Garyboy]

Cricket,

You may be on to something with the lean, mean, and sparteen approach. I'm not sure I follow you on running windows lean. How exactly do you do that? I have windows 98 SE and it is one wallowing hog (ain't no lean on it).

Gary

[Confused]

How often do you scandisk and defrag? With WIN98 I ran disk cleanup, scandisk and defrag at least once a week.
Chas

[Garyboy]

I probably run scandisk and defrag once a month. Sometimes I notice a bit of a performance increase after I run these programs, other times I don't. I suppose I could run these programs more frequently.

[Kubie]

Garyboy,
I use this regimen once a month.
I run Easy Cleaner. The two functions are Unnecessary files and Clean Registry. It cleans out all stuff that are not used and point to nothing.
Disk Cleanup, Scandisk, Defrag, and then a C:\scanreg /fix from the Command Line.

Also, Win98 has a folder C:\Windows/tour. If you never use Tours, you can remove it and gain back up to 2.5meg of HDD space. HTH
Carl

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Garyboy
I'm not sure I follow you on running windows lean. How exactly do you do that? I have windows 98 SE and it is one wallowing hog (ain't no lean on it).Basically, I only run the background applications that are absolutely necessary, turn off all Windows Animations, keep the Windows Temp folder clean, set the Temporary Internet Files folder to 25MB, set the Recycle Bin to 5% of hard drive space and empty it daily, scan for viruses, trojans and spyware daily, install at least 256MB RAM and set the swap file up for minimal usage by putting the line "ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1" in [386Enh] section of system.ini., try to keep the Registry from becoming cluttered with dead keys, uninstall programs I don't use and resist the urge to install every little program I come across on-line (especially the ones that claim to enhance system performance).

:) Cricket

[lil Jimmie]

Wow all of this great info to enhance performance and it didn't cost a dime!

Hard to beat that!

[Garyboy]

Cricket & Kubie,

Thanks for the helpful tips. Both sound straight forward and easy enough to do. I'll give these a try and shorten my maintenance interval.

Garyboy

[Garyboy]

Cricket, Confused, and Kubie,

You guys all provided helpful suggestions so I thought I'd report back and tell you what I've been up to:

I didn't buy PC Booster. I did try as many of your suggestions as I could figure out how to do. I've been running scandisk, diskclean, and diskdefrag at least weekly. I have gotten rid of everything I wasn't using or didn't really need. My available diskspace and available memory have increased dramatically. Generally, my PC seems to be faster and crisper. I have no way of actually measuring speed, it's just feels faster.

I have been experiencing a couple of new problems though. Maybe I inadvertantly did something when I was tidying up my system. Here's the symptoms:

1) Everytime I boot up, the Scheduled Tasks window opens, an MGI PhotoSuite window opens with a particular jpg file showing, and the Dial-Up Connection window opens and then subsequntly opens my Home Page window. What have I done? How do I undo it?

2) After several hours of use, my system starts getting sluggish again and eventually locks up. When I hit Ctrl Alt Del, sometimes nothing happens. If I keep hitting Ctrl Alt Del I can usually end each task sequentially and finally shut down or restart my system. Sometimes though, there's no response to Ctrl Alt Del or shutdown or restart. My system just locks up. Again, what did I do and how do I undo it?

This really sucks. Any ideas?

[Kubie]

Garyboy,
Go to Start>Run> and Type "msconfig" without the quotes and click on the Startup tab. Each box that has a check mark is starting when you boot up.
Tell us what has checkmarks.
Carl

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Garyboy
I have been experiencing a couple of new problems though. Maybe I inadvertantly did something when I was tidying up my system. Here's the symptoms:

1) Everytime I boot up, the Scheduled Tasks window opens, an MGI PhotoSuite window opens with a particular jpg file showing, and the Dial-Up Connection window opens and then subsequntly opens my Home Page window. What have I done? How do I undo it?Check the Startup folder (c:\Windows \Start Menu \StartUp) and see if anything is in there that shouldn't be. You should also startup msconfig/Startup and uncheck anything you don't want starting up with Windows.Originally posted by Garyboy
2) After several hours of use, my system starts getting sluggish again and eventually locks up. When I hit Ctrl Alt Del, sometimes nothing happens. If I keep hitting Ctrl Alt Del I can usually end each task sequentially and finally shut down or restart my system. Sometimes though, there's no response to Ctrl Alt Del or shutdown or restart. My system just locks up. Again, what did I do and how do I undo it?
Unfortunately, this is normal for Win9x based OS's...after many hours of use and using many different programs, Windows system resources will slowly creep down until you reach the danger point and the system will lock up. While there isn't much you can do about the way Windows uses it resources, you can monitor the system and do something to prevent the lockups.

Putting the Resource Meter into System Tray (by the clock) will allow you to monitor your system. Start up the Windows Explorer and look for RSRCMTR.EXE file in the Windows directory and then place a shortcut or copy of it in the StartUp folder. After you reboot your computer, the meter will appear in the System Tray.

There are 4 bars in the monitor and when the system is doing well, the bars are all green. After using a bunch of different programs (or using one program for a really long time) you'll notice the meter turns yellow. At this point, you can save your work and close a few programs (no need to reboot the system yet). After doing this, you'll notice the meter turns green again (although not as many bars are filled). You can restart the programs and keep working for awhile longer. When the meter turns red, you're getting really low on system resources and should think about shutting down programs and reboot the system. You can then get back to work.

It's a nice little utility and I rely on it pretty heavily.

:) Cricket

[BURL]

no

[reboot]

Resource meter will tell you how much free RAM you have, but won't do anything about it, and it also takes RAM to run in the sytem tray. I prefer to run TClockEx, which gives you a super good clock, as well as a RAM usage line, and a CPU usage line.
Instead of rebooting the computer when you run out of free RAM, I have a one line .vbs thing I run in 98. When the system has been in use for a few hours and you're feeling that sluggishness coming on, I just click on it once. (I have it in the QuickLaunch bar).
What it does, is take everything possible out of RAM, and writes it to the swap file, leaving RAM empty for the next program you start. The stuff in the swap file is from previous programs that you've closed and will not ever need again, so it never gets accessed anyhow. Only takes a few seconds. Somewhere in the Tips and Tricks section, there's a complete post on it, but here's the basics:
Open notepad, and put this line in: FreeMem = Space(128000000)
Save it as "Freemem.vbs" including the quotes!
Save it somewhere that you can get to easily, (that's why I like the Quicklaunch bar).
Adjust the number within the brackets depending on how much RAM you have.
This way you can free up as much RAM as possible, <b>without restarting</b> the computer.
Even if you use 128000000, and you only have 128 meg, it won't free up any RAM that must be used, or is in use by Windows, or an open program, it will just take much longer to run. Usually only a couple of seconds, up to a minute or so.
There's also quite a few helpful articles in the Channels section of PCMech, on tweaking and speeding up Windows. Well worth reading.

[kittyfire]

If you're running active desktop, uncheck it. Just right click on any blank spot on your screen and uncheck view as webpage if it's checked. It masks the real desktop with a happy/pretty desktop that makes a sad/depressed pc. It slows you down and can make Windows 98 absolutely refuse to shut down. I've also seen the same thing in ME. That's one of my pet peeves... active desktop. Just wanna beat whoever came up with that one with a stick. Another pet peeve, Windows 98 and up comes with it's very own registry restory so all of those little programs that are supposed to help recover if you have problems are satan's imps disguised as software. I swear! And one day I hope to meet Norton in a dark alley. But I digress... Cricket's right on track, kill whatever isn't necessary, keep anything that caches clean and beware of utility programs.

[Garyboy]

Kubie,

Sorry it's taken so long to reply to your post. I got buried. At any rate, here's what's checked in msconfig. I hope you got all night to read this stuff (excuse any typos):

Under the General Tab:
normal startup, process autoexec.bat file, process system.ini file, process win.ini file, load startup group items

Under the AutoExec.bat Tab:
(c:\progra~1\norton~\navdx.exe/startup)
rem C:\windows\cwcdata\cwcdos.exe

Under the System.ini Tab:
boot description, rd, 386 wh, non windows app, power.drv, drivers, iccvid.drv, mciseq.drv, mci, vcache, password lists, drivers 32

Under the Win.ini Tab:
windows, desktop, intl, fonts, compatibility, compatibility 32, compatibility 95, module compatibility, true type, mci extensions, mci compatibility, mciavi, desktop shell, prscript.drv, ports, embedding, extensions, devices, printer ports, sounds, mci extension.bak, winfax, drawdib, avision scanner, twain, colors, winzip, vgm94, font substitutes, mail,miniscrn

Under the Startup Tab:
adaware bootup, scanregistry, task monitor, system tray, load power profile, ao tray, sound fusion, criticalupdate, realtray, ccapp, ccregvfy, cmesys, load power profile, machine debug manager, ccevtmgr, scriptblocking, true vector, minilog, zone alarm, microsoft office startup, billminder, scanner utilities, textbridge access ocr, g startup, offer companion

Hope this helps. Let me know if any of this needs to go.

Garyboy

[Garyboy]

Cricket,

Thanks for the tips. I will try them after I see Kubies next post.

Gary boy

[Garyboy]

Burl,

No what? This thread is so long I don't know what your refering to. Give me a hint.

Garyboy

[Garyboy]

Reboot,

Thanks for the tips. Where do you get TclockEx? Is it freeware, shareware, or moneyware?

Gary

[Garyboy]

Kittyfire,

I checked. I'm not running active desktop. I wish that was my problem. It would have been an easy fix. Thanks for trying to help me though.

Garyboy

[Streams]

Want to enhance performance? this thread will tell you how to do that. http://www.forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3410

[reboot]

TClockEx is on my site (I think the link still works), otherwise just do a search for it at any of the software houses (tucows.com, or hotfiles.com)
If you have a problem (I think it's still freeware), I have a copy I can email you, it's tiny.

[kittyfire]

What needs to go... Assuming this is a desktop computer. If not, leave the power profiles. CMESYS! GAH! Gator... ugh... get rid of it and pray it really goes away. I'd take adaware out, too, since it's supposed to be loading to catch adware while something for adware was loading in startup right along with it. Never get rid of scanreg. It's a lifesaver. The ones I'm not sure about, I left there, like soundfusion. Always leave the antivirus software like the Norton items you have. g startup? You got me there... I have no idea what that is so leave it unless you know and it's not necessary to run at startup.

Under the Startup Tab you should have:
scanreg, system ttray, sound fusion, ccapp, ccregvfy, cmesys, ccevtmgr, scriptblocking, true vector, minilog, zone alarm, g startup

Everything else can go...

[kittyfire]

I'm hearing g start is gator, too. Send it packing...

[glc]

You need to run some serious cleanups - offer companion, gator, stuff like that is spyware. Time to look through add/remove programs and uninstall crap like that, then run ad-aware at the very least. Realtray won't go away till you turn off the start center in Real Player's preferences.

AO Tray? You mean AOL Tray? There isn't a utility in the world that will improve AOL connections.

[Garyboy]

Streams - I checked out the thread you suggested. Sounds good. Will give it a try and let you know how it works for me later.

Reboot - Will try TClockEx if I can find it at tucows or hotfiles. If not will contact you.

Kittyfire and GLC - Will start cleaning up things first chance I get.

Thank you all for your help,

Garyboy

[Garyboy]

Kubie, Cricket, Reboot, Kittyfire, and Streams;

Just wanted to let you know that I've had some luck with my Windows 98 SE bootup problems. I uninstalled all the software I don't use anymore or was unaware of (spyware). I went through msconfig from one end to the other and deselected everything I don't need or don't want. Bootup is a little faster and cleaner now. I still have one application (dial up connection) that launches when I bootup. I've rechecked the startup folder and don't see anything there that should cause this problem. Is it possible that something else like Norton AntiVirus is launching the dial up connection? I think it frequently checks for online updates.

While I was cleaning things up I also found some corrupt system files. I think this happened the last time I did a Win 98 update. I've downloaded and reinstalled the updates and all seems to be ok now.

Regarding the memory/lockup problem, I'm looking into the suggested TClockEX and "freemem=space..." fixes. Will let you know how this works out after I've had a chance to use them for awhile.

Thanks for your help and suggestions,

Garyboy

[glc]

The latest version (3.1.395) of Zone Alarm is known to trigger the dialup no matter what you do (unless you set IE properties to never dial a connection) - it's an issue that they say will be fixed in the next update, whenever that is.

[Garyboy]

GLC,

Thanks for the heads up. I figured it was either Norton AV or Zone Alarm that was triggering the dial up.

Garyboy

[Garyboy]

Reboot,

OK, I installed TClockEx and am monitoring:

Available Ram (runs about 90-110 MB),
Memory Load (stays at about 42% most of the time),
CPU Usage (varies from 0% 80% but is usually around 26%).

What is this telling me?

There are also options for System Resources, User Resources, and GDI Resources. Is any of this useful? What would it tell me?

Your thoughts please,

Garyboy

[reboot]

Available RAM is what's free to use at any given time, in MB, and Load is what's being used, in %. 42% isn't bad.
CPU usage is great! It will fluctuate a lot, depending on what you're doing. At idle, does it stay around 26% or does it go down to 1-2%? If it stays ~26%, then there is some program running that is using the CPU constantly.
System resources is what is available for the system to use.
User resources is what's availble for apps to run.
GDI is what's available for Graphic Display, multiple windows, basically everything you see on the monitor.
So far it all looks well within acceptable tolerances.

[Garyboy]

Reboot,

Here's a little clarification for you, but basically you've answered my questions and I think I know how to interpret and use the system statistics now:

I have 256MB Ram on my PC to work with. After bootup, and with just my desktop showing (no apps running) available RAM is 128MB. As soon as I open an application, available ram drops to 90-110MB, depending on the application(s). Memory load, after bootup, and with just my desktop showing, is about 35%. Once I launch an application memory load increases to about 42% and pretty much stays there. After bootup with just my desktop showing, CPU usage runs about 1%-2%. When I launch an application it spikes momentarily between 80%-100% then settles way down around 25%. It also spikes briefly whenever I execute anything and then settles down. Right now it's around 25%-28% as I'm keying in this reply.

I think I have a good feel for how to use the statistics now. I'm going to continue to monitor the memory stat's when I have several apps open and when I'm working for extended periods of time. But since I cleaned up my system (msconfig/startup/temp files/cookies/etc), I've had no problems with running low or out of memory. Got my fingers crossed.

Gary

[glc]

Its not memory that's the issue with 98 - its resources. Put the resource meter in the startup and keep an eye on it - when it goes into the yellow start thinking about closing stuff down.

[Garyboy]

glc,

I'll keep and eye on resources. Any reason I shouldn't use the resources option in TClockEx instead of resource meter? This option was easy to enable but I'm unsure how to interpret the results. My system resource reading is currently about 74%. Does this mean that 74% of system resources are available or does this mean that 74% of system resources are being used?

Garyboy

[glc]

If you are monitoring resources with TClockEx, no need to run the M$ resource meter. That's 74% available. If any of the 3 resources drops below 20%, it's time to be concerned, shut down some apps and be prepared to reboot if necessary.