Window Icons

jolynyk · Post by **jolynyk** » 28 Aug 2003 5:53 am

Another problem... Every so often when the computer is turned on, all the desk top icons aren't what they're supposed to be.. Many of them have little Microsoft flags in the box.. sometimes a lot have them, & sometimes just a few.. I have to reboot to restore the icons to what they should be... Thanks.. John

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 28 Aug 2003 10:06 am

Some time ago I got a virus on my computer and when I tried to click on an icon, they started dancing all over the monitor. I hope you don't have a virus!
Erv

jolynyk · Post by **jolynyk** » 28 Aug 2003 11:11 am

Erv, no they don't dance all over, but they kind of flicker when they change from the little flags to the proper icons, or vice versa..I do have Norton installed & upgraded, although once in awhile my server comes up with a pop up window and says that they detected a virus and removed it, I scanned my computer & it came up virus free..John

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 28 Aug 2003 1:35 pm

Do you have your computer kind of loaded up? It almost sounds like you are running out of memory. Do you ever do a "defag" on your computer or "disc scan". That might help.
Erv

jolynyk · Post by **jolynyk** » 28 Aug 2003 5:24 pm

Thanks Erv.. Yup, hate to admit it but it is getting loaded up, I did a defrag on it not too long ago, but will do a scan later tonite.. Is there a way of checking to see if I'm running out of memory?? John

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 1 Sep 2003 12:31 pm

Typically that's a symptom of a program that has a "resource leak".

Icons are resources, and any 16-bit Windows version only has 64K of space for resources. Properly written, well behaved programs allocate space for resources and then relinquish that space when they're done with it. Poorly written programs don't give back the space until you close the program.

In the worst cases, a program that autoloads at startup and never terminates will hog resources. I'd take a good look at what little "convenience" utility programs are running "automatically". One of them might be the culprit.

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/Officeb0b.gif" border="0"> Bobby Lee
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System Administrator

jolynyk · Post by **jolynyk** » 1 Sep 2003 9:56 pm

Thanks b0b, I'll go through & check them ..
John

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 2 Sep 2003 8:04 am

That's great for you computer experts. But How do I do a check or scan or defrag safely without destroying the programs and Data I want to keep. I have Norton anti-virus, 2002 and is seems to be working very well.I have 500mg of Ram memorey and 80 GB of hard disc storage. But I have a lot of songs and data on it.Thanks...al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

jolynyk · Post by **jolynyk** » 2 Sep 2003 9:34 am

Thanks Al, That was going to be my next question.... & b0b you said something about programs running & using my resources.. Is there an easy way for a layman to check which one is creating problems & either disable it or remove it??? thanks..... John

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 2 Sep 2003 10:01 am

The usual suspects are those programs that are represented at the right edge of the tray across the bottom of the screen. These programs start when you boot up and run as long as your computer is turned on. Your virus checker is one example.

Take a look at them. Right click each of them to see what its options are. Often you can disable them with no ill effects.

For example, right now I see Norton Ghost in the tray. I run Norton Ghost about once a month. It doesn't need to be in the tray - I can always run it from the Start menu. I could disable it and it wouldn't hurt a thing.

Also, look in the Start menu under Programs/Startup. Is there anything there that you really don't need? Sometimes a program will install itself there for no good reason. Software authors spend a year developing a program, and they don't understand that you might not want to use it every day.

The biggest culprits aren't things from Norton, Symantec, Adobe or Microsoft. The big software companies write things by the rules. It's the amateurs (share-ware) and the hardware companies who write the flakiest code. They don't think about resource allocation. They don't test for problems in that area. Heck, they may not test their software at all!

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/Officeb0b.gif" border="0"> Bobby Lee
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System Administrator

jolynyk · Post by **jolynyk** » 3 Sep 2003 8:36 pm

Thanks all for your help, John