New XP user

I have decided to dive in a buy a copy of XP pro for home use. Reading through these and other forums seems to indicate that XP contains spyware & hidden apps etc.

Are there any definitive lists of ways to stop everything running except for necessary processes?

Win98 had msconfig and I understand XP has something similar

I have read lots of stuff here in these forums about what processes XP runs, but I wondered if anyone has put all the information all in one place.

All I want is for my home computer to run at maximum efficiency(don't we all), no unwanted programmes or processes etc.

All information gratefully received

 

XP does not have "spyware ".
It does have automatic updates, and error reporting.
The Blackviper site will help you turn those off.
It also has Messenger, turn it off, or disable/uninstall it as well (this is NOT MSN Messenger!)
XP does have MSCONFIG, with a couple of extra tabs not found in 98.

 

Hi, Grunty ~

I am not sure how you came to the conclusion contains spyware, but there is certainly no truth to that whatsoever. Despite the woes of Windows fixes, XP is undoubtedly the most stable and secure WinOS so far.

Also, the apps to which you refer as 'hidden' are non existent. There are many applets, modules, control panels and the like buried within XP, but these are all there to accomplish a variety of complex tasks which increase performance, stability, security, and user friendliness.

MSCONFIG is easier to use in XP, but it is not the preferred method for unloading unneeded services/processes. The Microsoft Management Console in XP is comprehensive and the definitive means for accomplishing aforementioned tasks. Also, the Pro version enables you to wield a level of control with Group Policy Editor which is not available in the Home version.

Finally, as Christer pointed out, BlackViper is the one site that collectively explains and informs of selective startup processes for different types of user profiles.

Also, a fantastic collection of processes and defintions can be found at Answers That Work Tasklist Pages.

 

Many Thanks for all your replies. You have given me lots to think about.

When I said spyware, I was merely talking about things that run without me knowing. I am sure that Microsoft will not try to see what web sites I am visiting or steal my credit card details. I am more concerned with performance, and my kids accidentally leaving the machine attached to the internet without any firewall protection.

My machine is used as a home computer as well as VPN access to my place of work and up until now, I have been dual-booting between 98 for the kids and 2000 for work. My firm have kindly offered to buy me a copy of XP pro so I thought it was time to change and make admin of my home machine a little easier.

My family were starting to get annoyed with me as they watched me whizzing around the internet in windows 2000, while their windows 98 has been grinding to a halt and is generally full of errors. My wife said I was doing it on purpose.

Thanks again

 

Well Grunty here is something you might like.....

XPAntiSpy

http://www.webattack.com/get/xpantispy.shtml

The help is easy

If you clear the swap on shutown with this then clear the setting after reboot. You do not want to clear the swap every time you shut down. But only ocasionally.

After the first reboot after you run XPAntiSpy go back to XpAntiSpy and uncheck the clear Pagefile at shutdown, as we only want to clear it once.

Mike

 

Hi, Mike & Grunty ~

The swap/pagefile is extra RAM-like storage on your hard drive. It maintains its data even when your 'puter loses power unlike your actual RAM which loses all stored data.

The swap/pagefile can contain unencrypted passwords, sensitive data, and other personal ****. I personally prefer to purge this area since it is still a security risk whenever personal information exists on your drive. You can tell your 'puter to clear the swap/pagefile of all information before it shuts down with a simple registry edit:

• 'Start' > 'Run' > type regedit > enter
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management
• Modify or add the REG_DWORD entry ClearPageFileAtShutdown & set its value equal to 1

You must restart your 'puter for the changes to take effect.

 

XpAntiSpy does just this plus much more without a registry edit.
This is better for most everyday users.

I disagree it should be cleared each time on shut down, unless you do have a lot of extremely sensitive data.

Now if this computer is in a public place and/or used by many people then yes.

I reccomend clearing it once a month or so or at the first sign of trouble. Especially a page fault.

By clearing it everyday you lose some of the performance that it was designed to provide by staying on the disk thru a reboot.

So it is up to you Grunty!

Mike

 

Hi, Mike ~

This is not true. There is no performance gain whatsoever nor was it designed to do so by keeping swapped data on the HD once the unit is powered down. Suggestion is to avoid using the page file altogether if you have more than sufficient RAM. It is a performance degradation to force a page file read rather than from RAM. Data is only swapped to the page file when RAM is insufficient to hold queried data. This data is useless, never used and overwritten after power down.

 

Oh yes but it is true, but not for everyone. Depends on how much physical RAM they have and the type memory hog applications they have.

Unimportant for people with gigs of ram like myself (an who like me have set windows to use all available ram before going to swap) it is almost useless.

Even for those who don't have this ram it is a very small help (except if they use the big hog programs and keep several in memory).

Even MS by now would clear it on shutdown if it wasn't needed in many cases!

Clearing it every boot sure will not hurt most people. I could care less but most normal users should leave it!

Mike

 

You have company Grunty. My XP is quite new to me. I also only want my computer to turn on, not turn everything in it on. Here is the Windows XP Home page. Agreat place to start. Scads of really good and important info. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/default.asp. Here is the start up section of Windows XP info. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/techinfo/planning/performance/startup.asp. Here is a place I found that identifies items in the System Configuration Utility and tells you if it's safe to uncheck them to keep them from starting up. http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_a.htm?findthis=AcBtnMgr_Xxx.
Hope this is some help. Gene

 

Thanks for all your replies. I had a few problems with driver comapability and CD-Writer issues, but in general I am really happy with XP. I had 5 attempts at installing it to get it just right, but that was my own fault for tweaking where is wasn't needed and trying out driver and registry hacks without reading any documentation.

In the end, I disabled automatic updates & remote assistance. I also dowloaded Tweakui to switch off the annoying pop-up messages. I will read more about the swap file later on and perhaps take some of your advice.

I was impressed with the file compression, winzip is fine but it's nice to have it built in, and the picture/slideshow viewer. I used to have to get third party stuff to do that.

The only problem I have is that the "Back-up hard drive to CD" option in Easy-CD creator (V. 5.3) is greyed out, and I wondered if this was anything to do with NTFS partitions, but I am sure I will find the answer to that elsewhere in these forums.

Many Thanks