XP user log in too slow

Pat Kelly · Post by **Pat Kelly** » 8 May 2004 10:04 am

I am running a pentium 3 machine withwindows XP. When first set up the start up and login and operating speed were all quiet satisfactory. Gradually thought the user login has taken longer and longer. Seems to be for all users. How can I clean this up.

John P. Phillips · Post by **John P. Phillips** » 8 May 2004 10:46 am

I had the same problem, then I realized that I hadn't cleaned out my machine in a while. Try dumping your temp files, and cookies. Oh, and have you defragged lately ? All basic stuff but it can slow you down. Hope this helps.

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JUST 'CAUSE I STEEL, DON'T MAKE ME A THIEF

Pat Kelly · Post by **Pat Kelly** » 8 May 2004 11:28 am

thanks John for your reply. I have defragged the hard drive and also deleted cookies. My suspicion is that various downloaded programs are automatically running update requests or whatever to their home web sites during the login. However I am only guessing here.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 8 May 2004 11:48 am

Have you run a scan with Ad-Aware or some other 'spyware' catcher? You might have some spyware running in the background, they can put a heavy burden on your machine.

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 8 May 2004 12:30 pm

Pat that is it. Over time you gain software or programs that start up when a user windows starts up and that will slow the bootup or log in, quite a bit.
I always go to the options or preferences of all the programs/software doing this and uncheck "Start up when windows starts" or something like that.
ricky[This message was edited by Ricky Davis on 08 May 2004 at 01:39 PM.]

Pat Kelly · Post by **Pat Kelly** » 8 May 2004 5:16 pm

thanks for the input everyone. I have since run the adware program which deleted a whole load of stuff but didn't make any noticeable difference to the login time. I'm getting about 10 consecutive hour glasses during the "loading personal settings" stage suggesting that there are that number of processes initialising. the earlier windows had a file called win.ini which could be inspected to reveal what was being loaded. I can't find the equivalent in XP (if there is one that is relevent to this problem.)

Thanks again to all

Pat K

Bobby Sparks · Post by **Bobby Sparks** » 8 May 2004 7:17 pm

Pat,

XP Pro has the same thing. I'm not sure about the home edition, but it probably works the same way. Click on the START button, then click on RUN. Type "sysedit" (without the quotes)in the box then click on OK and you will see win.ini along with system.ini, autoexec.bat and config.sys. Maybe this will help.

Bobby

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 9 May 2004 9:07 am

There are several utilities that will display a list of startup processes. One you may find useful is Spybot Search & Destroy, which also does some other handy things that will help speed bootup.

The nice thing about Sypbot S&D is that you can toggle the startup entries on/off without actually removing them from the registry. Then, if you make a mistake or discover you actually need the startup item you can get it back by selecting its checkbox in the startup list.

Pat Kelly · Post by **Pat Kelly** » 11 May 2004 7:17 am

thanks to all the above for their suggestions. I have downloaded the Spybot and seem to have got a significant improvement on running this pr0gram. The other suggestins are on file if needed.

Thanks again

Pat K

Gere Mullican · Post by **Gere Mullican** » 11 May 2004 3:59 pm

Pat, you might also want to try going to START, RUN, then type in msconfig and click run. A box will come up that has several tabs. I believe the one to the far right will show you all the programs that start everytime you start your computer or reboot it. Take the check mark out of the ones you dont want and then reboot. You can always run those programs from their icon on the desktop or going to PROGRAMS and running it. Hope this helps.By the way, you will also see the win.ini, sys.ini and autoexec.bat there.
Gere[This message was edited by Gere Mullican on 11 May 2004 at 05:00 PM.]

Pat Kelly · Post by **Pat Kelly** » 14 May 2004 6:02 am

yes indeed. Spybot trumped the lot. thanks to the other respondents and I will keep their suggestions in mind. However Spybot has cleaned my system back to virginal stage.
thanks to all.

b0b.....can shut this if you like problem solved!