more re: new to sytem optimization

[nowornever]

I've been spending time at PCpitstop.com as suggested by JDT. My computer's slowness appears to be from low RAM (duh) (64K) and a bunch of software that runs all the time. One tip was to "delete or disable unneccesary software" or some such. How do I know whats not needed? Is there anyone out there willing to look at a list of what I have running and give me their thoughts?

[BipolarBill]

In a Run dialog, type MSCONFIG and then click OK.

Go to the Startup tab. The only things there that are critical are:

Explorer
Systray
Scanreg
...and your antivirus application.

The rest are all fluff. Check and uncheck at will!

[Philip1952]

While you are in msconfig. If you do not do any work in dos mode. Turn off config.sys and autoexec.bat files from loading at start up. You do that from the general tab. Put a check in the selective startup box. Then uncheck the two files I listed above. Only those two files.

[elroy]

If you have a factory built pc such as an HP, Compaq etc it is likely to be full of junk software that you don't need. Un-install any programs that you don't use. Use the control-alt-del command to open the task box and see what all is running in there. I've seen machines with 10-20 things running in the task box. The less the better, if you can get down to 6 or 8 that is good. Right click on the My Computer icon and select Properties> Performance and see what your system resources are immediately after boot-up. 90% is excellent, 80's is good, anything less and you need to get rid of some more ****.
Upgrade to 128mb of ram or 256mb if you can.

[JDT]

Here's a good site to bookmark.....

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm

You can learn all about those startup programs.

If you feel unsure, post them here and we can take a look.