New xp user - ex 98se

Greetings to all,

I am trying to make the transition from 98se to XP-home. Slow but sure ?
I am relatively experienced in 98se - but have a multitude of question.

One that bothers me most is:

1. There seems to be a lot of HDD activity with XP - when I am not involved in anything. Is this normal ?

Have many other questions but have not exhausted the wealth of info via the " search" feature.

thanks in advance

regards:captjlddavis

 

Congratulations! You are gonna LOVE XP!

What kind of hd activity? Right click in the taskbar and pull up the Task Mgr and see what's running. Fire away with the questions- we'll help any way we can.

Johanna

 

Johanna,
Running XP-Home - amd 1.8 - 512 mem

Thanks for the reply,

With minimum Applications running, ( only Mozilla ) - the HDD indicator flashes activity - There are a zillion "processes" running - most of which are foreign to me.
several svchost.exe
explorer.exe
spoolsv.exe
msmsgs.exe
utilman.exe
and those required for NAV, ZA
plus some others.

All information is greatly appreciated.

TIA

regards:capjtlddavis

 

utilman.exe caught my eye. There is a legit process from MS, but it's not in the start up by default. There is a bad guy with the same name here that could be causing the hd activity? Maybe? Check it out.

Thanks to Noahdfear for the links.

Johanna

 

Thanks,

I think that was pilot error, something to do with accessabilty settings ? I killed it and it is gone.

FWIW I have run full NAV scan - Spybot and AdAware. only thing found was DSO by spybot, but understand this is bug in spybot ?

Things are progressing slow but sure - I will be back

thanks

regards:captjlddavis

 

Of the several "processes" running:
Msmsg.exe
I understand this has to do with M$ messaging ? ( which I don't use or want)
Can I get rid of it onstartup ? if so how.

Please keep in mind that I am NEW to XP so some extra detail may be needed.

Thanks

regards:captjlddavis

 

http://www.windows-help.net/windowsxp/tune-05.htm

Johanna

 

Thanks again-

If I become a bother please let me know

regards:captjlddavis

 

If answering questions were a bother, this forum would have ceased to exist long ago. If you got them, ask them. Hopefully someone will know an answer.

The DSO thing is a bug. It is not a threat of any sort.

svchost.exe has been discussed on here a few times. It is sort of a 'wrapper' service. Does nothing itself but acts as host to other items that do need to run. Less system load that way. I usually have 4-6 of them running. My busiest one right now is
svchost.exe with PID (process ID) 684. It's hosting:
AudioSrv, BITS, Browser, CryptSvc, Dhcp, dmserver, ERSvc, EventSystem, helpsvc, lanmanserver, lanmanworkstation, Netman, Nla, RasMan, Schedule, seclogon, SENS, SharedAccess, ShellHWDetection, TapiSrv, Themes, TrkWks, W32Time, winmgmt, wscsvc, wuauserv, WZCSVC

 

captjlddavis
The only dumb question is the one that isn't asked. Relax, deep breath. XP is actually easier to use than any Win9X you have ever used. I'll keep an eye on this thread. We can play "see if you can stump the eXPert!" I can laugh about this because I know next to zero about Win 9X, so if I can work XP, then with your experience, you surely can!

(If you wanna play, good tweaks at Kellys-Korner. )

Johanna

 

Yes & No. But I agree once we learn how to control it and learrn how to shutdown things like Messenger and other things that Mr. Gates & company ASSUMME that we are going to use.

captjlddavis and any newcomer to XP.

As a suggestion. I would suggest that you make yourself familiar with and how to use System Restore.

Do not ASSUMME that it is going to do as it is supposed to. Learn how to check on it and learn how to make your own Restore Points.

And check to make sure there is a newer one BEFORE you go messing around making changes.

And this comes from a user that assummed one to many times and found out too late that XP had not done what it was supposed to.

BillyBob

 

captjlddavis--Good advice from Billy Bob about System Restore.
Back to the subject of what is running on boot, you should be aware of a function called Services. You access it from Start|Run|type services.msc|OK. I do not advise doing anything about it now, unless you have solved all other issues.
But when the day comes you can get some understanding from
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
There are several other sites on the subject, but eldergeek is fairly conservative and offers good explanation as to what each item does and when you need it and when you do not.

 

Welshjim,

Many thanks - hopefully I will get to know the strange working (IMHO) of XP with the assistance of those here.
I do appreciate all advice and assistance offered

regards:captjlddavis

Side note to moderator:

Do you think I should continue with this thread or start individual threads WHEN other questions come up ?

 

Hi captjlddavis...

Another great site for Services Configuration is Black Viper. This link goes to his SP2 page but if your still runing SP1 or SP1a use this page. Lots of good info on these pages. Actually his whole site is a wealth of information.

 

That is true.

But I have found the BEST SITE OF ALL to be right here.

Most ( if not all ) ideas come from actual users.

Now, I must says that if I am not around to reply to any post/replys that I have made it will not be because I am ignoring anything or anybody.

Right after I posted this AM I had to call the ambulance for my Wife. She is Home and feeling better but we have to contact different Doctors t get help for her.

BTW. Thank you Welshjim

BillyBob

PS.
We just got home about 30minutes ago.

BB

 

BillyBob --You are welcome. Well deserved.

 

Yes, I do.

Keep on with this one until your original need is met and it will sorta die on it's own when that has happened - no more questions, no more answers.

Then when you have new specific questions/problems, start a new topic.

This one is useful I think since you are not alone in moving from 9X/ME into the strange world of 2K/XP/2K3 and I suspect the thread will be read by lots of folks who had the same questions but for whatever reason, didn't post about them.

We run a gamut with the regulars here.

Johanna, as she indicated, pretty much started with newer OS versions but does tech support for a living.

BillyBob was and is a 9X guru but fairly recently made the move to XP and networking and is now pretty comfortable with both.

Welchjim is another very recent convert and should certainly understand your issues.

I've done every Microsoft OS since DOS x.x except for NT versions earlier than 3.51 (can't remember the first DOS version for sure but I moved there from VMS/Unix/CTOS and was totally lost).

Others will fall somewhere in among the above mix with various areas of expertise.

At a guess, any question you have, many of us had.

 

Thank you Newt,

I will keep on truckin' and ask when need arises - which I am sure it will.

regards:captjlddavis