Windows XP Slow Startup Problems.

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As I have mentioned in previous articles as your PC gets older and older and you install more programs and data your PC gets progressively slower and slower. One reason could be because your hard disk is becoming more and more active. This hard disk activity may be in a lot of cases, unnecessary, often being caused by programs and the  system causing windows hard disk thrashing. I will show you how to determine where this activity is occurring and who is causing it.

Most people think that hard disk corruption or lack of disk space is the main cause of most system performance problems, but disk time and activity is just as much a performance factor. Disk time is a percentage of time that the hard disk is in use. If the hard disk is running at 80 percent of the time, you can be certain that PC performance being affected.

One other thing to consider is the average disk queue length. This refers to the number of processes that are waiting to use the hard disk. Using the disk time percentage and the disk queue length will tell you how much the hard disk is being used and also if heavy usage is causing a problem. If for example the disk time is running at 40 percent and the average disk queue length is two or less, then your hard disk is keeping up with the requests for access.

If the percentage of disk time is above 80 percent and the average disk queue length is two or more, it means that you PC processes are waiting for the hard disk to become available. If a process has to wait for any component to become available you will experience a drop in performance of your PC.

To determine if you have a windows hard disk thrashing problem, you need to measure the percentage of disk time and the average disk queue length.

Before you start this procedure you should perform a full disk defragmentation on all your hard disk partitions. This will ensure that all the files are contiguous and that the hard disk can perform optimum reads and writes of the files.

After you have performed the defragmentation run the Performance Monitor utility by going to

Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools and then Performance.

When the Performance Monitor opens there may be some monitor counters already running, (shown at bottom right), click on each in turn and then delete to remove them. As each counter uses some resources it is best to have as few running as possible to make the measurements more accurate.

In the Performance Monitor window perform the following:

• Click the + icon to open the Add Counters box.

• Click on the Performance Object dropdown list and select PhysicalDisk. This will bring up a list of physical disk counters.

• Select the %Disk Time counter from the list and click the All Instances button. This will ensure the system will measure the performance of all the hard drives.

• Click the Add button to add the counter to the Monitor.

• Select Avg. Disk Queue Length from the counter list, and again the All Instances button. Click the Add button then the Close button. The performance monitor will then begin analyzing the disk usage, as shown below.

Looking at the monitor results, you can see that the lines shown on the graph correspond to the counters that you have selected. In the example above, the pink line is predominant. The pink line is the average disk queue length for the drives C: and D: which are in this case partitions on hard drive Zero. A more accurate value can be obtained by selecting the counter that you want to see in more detail.

So how do you track down the process that is using all the disk resources?  The first thing you need to do is bring up the Windows Task Manager. You can do this by pressing -

[Ctrl][Alt][Delete]

on your keyboard holding each down in turn. The Windows task manager shows you the utilization of resources that all the processes running in the system use.

Windows task manager usually has some monitor counters selected as standard but disk usage may not be one of the them. You can select which counter you want to see as follows:

• Click on the “Processes” tab at the top. This will show a list of processes that are running on your PC.

• Click on “View” in the menu at the top then on the “Select Columns”.

• In the window that comes up deselect everything then select “I/O Read bytes” and “I/O Write Bytes” then “OK”

You should now only see these counters as show below.

You should now look to see if any of the counters against the processes are changing at a rapid rate. The counters should only change occasionally or not at all. If you see one that is constantly changing, then that the process may be the one that is hogging your PC’s disk resources.

To kill a process that is hogging a resource, right click on the process and then select “End Process” in the menu that appears.

If the particular process is a part of the Windows XP operating system, there’s a good chance that the high disk usage is caused by thrashing. High disk usage can be caused by “swapping and thrashing”

When the system moves memory blocks between physical and virtual memory (normally called Paging) this is swapping. This is a normal process in Windows XP. Virtual memory is space used on hard disk and as extra memory. This is done when another process requires “Real” memory and there is not enough empty space in real memory to place it. In this case the system will put a process that is in real memory down to the paging file on disk to create the space.

Windows hard disk thrashing is caused by high real physical and virtual memory swapping. This is one reason why it is recommended that as much real memory be installed on your PC as possible.

However, if the disk usage is traced to a non-Windows process, then you may have problems with an individual service/program.

If you eliminate a process you feel is causing excessive disk usage, processor time and memory will also be affected.

You can now see how you can track and identify a program or process that may be causing excessive disk time usage and how it degrades the system. Using the Performance Monitor to measure both disk time and average queue length, you can see if the hard disk is being excessively used by the system’s processes. Using the Widows Task Manager you can further determine which process that may be causing the problem.

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First for those who are a bit vague on what a “Firewall” is and why you need desktop firewall software, I will explain.

A firewall is a piece of software that helps to stop hackers, viruses, and worms that try to reach your computer over the Internet. If you are a home user or small-business user, using desktop firewall software is the most effective and important first step you can take to help protect your computer.

Without a firewall these malignant things can access your PC and cause havoc by altering programs, installing “keyboard loggers” that watch what you are typing in and sending it back to them and a host of other nasty things.

The desktop firewall software should stop entry to your PC and also stop outbound connections that you have not authorized from your PC. Unfortunately it is here where all desktop firewall software are not equal.

We should first have a look at the firewall that comes with Windows XP. The Windows XP firewall is standard with all windows versions. Windows XP Firewall does a reasonable job of blocking malicious inbound attacking traffic but does not stop outbound traffic. This means that if your PC has the nasties in it already it will not stop them connecting to external programs that have not been authorized. There are many ways other than through the Internet that these nasties can get into your computer. (Did your friend send you all those beautiful photo’s on a CD). Did you download that program you wanted in zip format?

Microsoft says that it is not in their purview to stop outbound traffic and that it is the responsibility of the owner of the PC. Did they forget that the vast majority of people owning PC’s with Windows installed are home users who know little or nothing how their PC works. They just want to use them “Microsoft” Just like they use their car.

But still having Windows XP firewall turned on is better than no firewall at all. Windows will tell you if it is not turned on when you startup your computer, usually by a balloon coming up warning you and giving you a chance to turn it on by clicking on it.

So how does desktop firewall software basically work?

The firewall monitors all traffic on the connections to the Internet for which it is enabled. The firewall keeps track of all communications that were started from your computer, and it prevents any unsolicited traffic from reaching your computer.

This means if you have, through your browser, accessed a website you have given explicit permission to receive stuff back from that website. If any other program tries to sent stuff back to you then the desktop firewall software says “hey” you have not been requested “shove off”

If necessary, the firewall itself will open ports and allow your computer to receive traffic that you have specifically requested, such as a Web page for which you have clicked the address.

A “port” is a networking term that identifies the point at which a type of network traffic reaches your computer. The exact ports that you open depend on the type of traffic you want to send and receive.

If you have desktop firewall software installed that does not allow “outbound” traffic that you have not initiated it will inform you and usually give you the opportunity to allow it. It will also allow you to enter it into an allowed database for future requests or into a not allowed database that will block it forever. All unsolicited outbound requests are managed in this manner.

So do you need a firewall that blocks all unsolicited inbound and outbound traffic. You certainly do I recommend this  Desktop Firewall Software that covers all aspects of protecting against those malicious beings out there trying to attack your computer. All recommendations I make come with a full money back guarantee.

Wilf Staton.

Technorati Tags: desktop firewall software, how do firewalls work, why do I need a firewall, windows firewall, windows xp firewall

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Fed up with Windows XP freezing. There you are using one of your programs on your PC or laptop and then suddenly it slows to a crawl or maybe stops altogether.

A lots of advice is given about windows xp freezing from all around good or bad to no avail. Eventually you may give up and reboot the PC maybe losing all your work. Unfortunately the computer industry lives on all the wrong advice and the just don’t know syndrome.

There are several things you can do to maybe stop your windows xp freezing or to get it going again, clear up your computer and get it back to its best performing position. Some I have written about in my blog that should be performed regularly but the ones I am going to describe below are those when you suddenly get windows xp freezing and hitting a slow spell on your PC.

First the windows operating system is getting more and more complex, multiple programs can be run simultaneously one that may be causing your computer to freeze up and slow down. So lets see how we can find these stuck programs and get rid of them.

On Windows XP (and Vista), press Ctrl+Shift+Esc, which will bring up the Windows xp Task Manager. It will normally come up with the “Applications” tab showing.  Under this tab you will find a list of all the programs you are running at this time. Select each one in turn (excepting the one you are working with that has slowed down) and at the bottom of the “Windows Task Manager” click the “end task” button. If the program fails to stop do not worry just go to each of the others and stop them. If they all close go back to the program you are using and see if it has got out of its malaise.

If your program is still slow or windows xp freezing is still evident go back to the “Windows XP Task Manager” and select the  “Processes” Tab. You will now see a list of all the programs running on your PC.  Click on the “CPU” column this will sort the CPU “usage” in descending order if it doesn’t click the CPU column again.

View the CPU usage column for a while and watch to see if any program is using a high percentage of CPU time. Basically if you are doing nothing the only high usage should be the System Idle Process”

If you find another program that is consistently using a high percentage of CPU time then it is possible that this is a hung program and is the one causing your windows xp freezing problem. It is also possible that it may be the program you are using.

Just click on the process that is using a high level of CPU time and then the “End Process” button at the bottom of the “Windows XP Task Manager” window. Note this will instantaneously shut down the application and you will not be able to save any files that may have been open.

Windows keeps a log of just about everything that happens on your computer and is a good way of possibly finding what programs constantly cause problems on your PC. You may not understand everything contained in the log but you may get some useful hints at what is causing you problems. It certainly may give some indication on what is causing your windows xp freezing problem.

To view the system log, go to Control Panel. (Start > settings > Control panel) If it says “switch to classic view” in the left column, click that. Then click “administrative tools” and then “event viewer”. When the event viewer opens, select “Application” or “System” from the column on the left. You can then scroll down the log and look for warnings (yellow exclamation mark) or errors (red cross). Double-clicking on one of these entries will show you the detail of the error. The contents may not mean much to you but you can search for the error wording on Google to find out what other people did to stop it from happening again.

Another area of slow downs of PC’s is “Free Apps” Some major computer makers love to load up their computers with “free” software. This free software can be most annoying as it keeps bothering you to subscribe to the full version and may slow your computer down if it auto-loads at startup. These free programs can even conflict with new programs you have installed, again causing your windows xp freezing problem. These are sometimes of such an annoyance that many specialized programs have been developed to help you delete free trials and other rubbish that comes on your computer.

Another annoyance are some security suites that really get their roots deep into the core of Windows XP. At least one is usually loaded as a free trial when you buy your new computer. If you have decided to use a different security suite (Virus, spyware etc) you need to get rid of the current one and preferably before you install your preferred one. Symantec makes a special tool to delete all versions of its Norton security suites (tinyurl.com/killnorton), as does McAfee (tinyurl.com/killmcafee) and Zone Alarm (download available at tinyurl.com/killzonealarm). You can find removal tools for other security suites by Googling the brand to find the removal tool”.

If your hard drive is almost full, although it may not actually cause the windows xp freezing problem it can dramatically slow down your computer, because when your computer runs out of its high-speed memory for running software, it has to start using the hard drive as memory. If the computer has plenty of free space, it can use large continuous blocks of space for this “swap” memory. However, if the hard drive is very full, the computer has to hunt for vacant blocks of space to use this can take some time slowing your PC.

Sometimes, there are huge amounts of space taken up on your hard drive by things like downloaded movies, MP3 music and so forth that you’ve watched, listened and forgotten about. Removing them can see great speed improvements. Disk space analyzers do a great job of showing the biggest files on your disk and helping you delete them (be careful what you delete). On Windows, WinDirStat works well doing this. You can download it free from: http://windirstat.info/

If you continue to have a windows xp freezing problem I suggest you read through all the other articles I have written on the windows slow problem on the rest of my blog.

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Have you ever thought about a desktop cleanup? If not why not. Have you a screen full of zillions of icons that makes you spend all day looking for that one you used a couple of weeks ago. Cannot see your loved one’s picture that you used as a background because of all those little square things called icons cluttering up her face (sorry or his).

Never mind I have a solution for you. Why don’t you group all similar program icons together and stick them into a folder that has an icon itself.  So all those photo folder shortcut icons you can put in a folder called “photos” and reduce the clutter.  Just follow me this way and I will show you how it’s done.

First you need a folder. “Simple” just find an empty space on your desktop (if you can find an empty space) and right click on it.  Up pops a window. In that window you will see a menu item called “new”. Put your mouse pointer over it and whey!! Up pops another window (gee this is fun) Left mouse click on the menu item called “folder”. Wadoyouknow, a new icon appears called “New Folder” on your desktop. Now, if you can find it, (It really does look like a folder, y’know like those you put in a filing cabinet.) you can change the name.

To change the name, just place your mouse pointer over the name and left click once. Then click again. Don’t double click fast or a bloody great window will open up in your face with nothing in it. Just click then pause then click again. The name will show blue with a white border. While it is like this just start typing in the new name. For this exercise we will use “photo’s”, then just hit enter, return, send or whatever they have decided to call it on your particular keyboard. (We will win one day against those developers who keep trying to confuse us).

Well that done so now we can start moving all those photo icons you have (“Fred’s photos” “our holiday snaps” or whatever into this new folder. I expect you have heard of “click and drag” There may be people who haven’t so I had better explain.

Find one of your photo icons and click on it with your left mouse button but keep holding the button down. Then move your mouse around while holding the button down. Wheee the photo icon moves around all over the place. You had better place it over the new “photo” and release the button before you lose it. God I’ve lost it! No you haven’t it has just gone inside the folder.

Just to ease your mind you can now double click on the folder and a window will come up and you will see the icon you have just put there. Thank goodness for that you thought, I thought I had lost Aunt Fanny’s photos.

Now that you feel comfortable about that, left click on the “x” (upper right corner of the window that opened) to close it. You can then “click and drag” all the other like icons into the new “photo” folder.

Before you get too excited and repeat this operation for other like minded icon groups we had better do something about the folder icon or you will end up with a whole lot of icons looking exactly the same. This may make it even harder to find what you want than before.

Let’s change the icon. Right click on the new “photo” folder. A window appears and right at the bottom left click on “properties” Another window will open, at the top menu click on “Customize” you will then see a button “Change Icon” left click on it. Up pops another window showing a whole heap of icons. You can now have lots of fun trying to figure out which one you would like to use. There are about 200 of them. When you have finally decided (might take you all day) just click on it with the left button to highlight it then click “OK” then click “OK” again. Hey presto the folder icon has now changed to the one you decided upon.

And that’s it folks you have started your desktop cleanup. All you have to do now is repeat for all the other groups of similar icons. Have fun.

By the way now you have got rid of a whole lot of icons from you desktop you may find that your PC may startup a bit faster. It doesn’t have to go looking for all those short cuts or whatever to sprinkle across the screen. Aren’t you glad you did a desktop cleanup.

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