[CCC News] Windows XP very slow to start last few weeks? Possible solution...

[Michael Kean]

G'day all :)

Just a quick note.

This last few weeks I've seen a fair few older Windows XP computers with 
limited memory that have suddenly become really slow to get going, 
possibly accompanied by lots of 'rattling' noises coming from the 
computer itself.

If you think this might be happening to you, an easy way to tell is to 
do a Ctrl + Alt + Delete on the keyboard, and then look on the 
"Performance" tab to see how high your "PF Usage" is.

If it's up over 500MB, and you don't have any other programs open, then 
there's a chance that your computer is suffering from this problem.

The problem happens because of an apparently unacknowledged problem with 
the "Microsoft Update" service.

The solution, for now at least, is to turn off Microsoft Update, and go 
back to using Windows Update instead.

To do this, go to http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate

Next, click on "Change Settings"

Scroll to the end of the page and choose "Disable Microsoft Update 
software and use Windows Update only."

Click Apply changes, then restart the computer.

Microsoft Update ensures that your office programs (Word, Excel, etc) 
are all up to date; but there appears to be a problem with this service 
and is uses up around 500 MB or more of memory, which older computers 
often don't have.

Turning it off is not a big risk because you still have you antivirus 
program to protect you. Windows itself is still protected.

I will write back if this problem is acknowledged by Microsoft.

Cheers, Mike

PS - a newsletter will be released soon...

-- 
Cool Country Consulting&  Auzzie Internet
http://www.auzzie.net/ccc
MSN: michael at auzzie.net
Tel: 02 6775 0239
Fax: 02 8212 9582
Mob: 0427 644 825
Skype: cccons
Yahoo: lispbourke

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://auzzie.net/pipermail/ccc-news_auzzie.net/attachments/20100902/88b5bb45/attachment.html>