Pics problem!

[Max]

That's one solution, but it means that you lose all your data since the last backup. Personally I prefer to reset to factory settings and get rid of all the cr*p. Then Windoze is much faster ... for a while anyway.

At least everything is now up and running again.

Also, I connected my HP printer to the Linux machine and it worked immediately without needing to load any drivers. You can print over the network from Windoze to Linux with minimal setting up (share the printer). On the Windoze box I have to load >50MB of software to get it working as just as a local printer !!

The easy solution to shared printers is a remote print server... you connect it over the network and the printer to it... then send to server any print job... it will print whatever you want, from whatever machine no matter of OS.

Windows OS are not made for such stuff... for e.g. compatibility with other systems or for share devices... anything you wanna do with windows costs you something, disk space, memory or cpu cycles much more than with OS like linux

Windows is never optimized, but it's much more focused on interface than actual horse power... at long it's high inefficient.

You can run an old linux today... no problems... put software, load new compilers etc in matter of few minutes and they work too... even if the linux box was made 3 or 5 years ago... not big problem.

But try to run e.g. some Office97 thing on Vista !

This is because MS don't wanna good systems and let them stay out for more years or recycle software... but wanna create slaves... who buy software and OS each 2-3 years... buy last office, buy their software and forget about user needs! It's business.

Linux isn't business and so it works the other way.

Kind regards,
Max

[Qiaozhi]

But try to run e.g. some Office97 thing on Vista !

This is because MS don't wanna good systems and let them stay out for more years or recycle software... but wanna create slaves... who buy software and OS each 2-3 years... buy last office, buy their software and forget about user needs! It's business.

That's very true!
Sometimes people complain that OpenOffice is not fully compatible with Microsoft Office, but it's usually just a case of adjusting the default formatting. Of course there are some problems with macros in the spreadsheet applications because the MS stuff is based on Visual Basic.
But then the MS office suites are not compatible with each other either. Have you ever tried exchanging data between MS Office and MS Works? And of course there's the new docx word processing format from MS. It is claimed that only MS applications can read this format! How wrong! OpenOffice can read docx with no problems at all.

[J_Player]

Hi all,
I recently had severe problems with Windows XP loading web pages really slow (1+ minute to load a simple page).
After putting off fixing the problem, I finally gave a serious go at fixing all that was wrong. But it took some time to figure out what was wrong. Prepare for a saga of eternal torment that led to final liberation from the Windows BS.

At first I figured the hard disk was infected, so I ran lots of virus detection programs that said no viruses present. So I started looking for other answers. I figured I must have lots of programs running in the background hogging up memory and processor time. After checking the task manager, I noticed a few processes were using most of the processor power, and my swap file was nearly a gigabyte. One big culprit that was hogging processor power was AVG antivirus. So I checked Gismos freeware reviews (http://www.techsupportalert.com/) to see what is the current recommendation. I ended up switching to their top recommended free Avira antivirus, and I also updated my firewall and adware remover to their current top recommendations. Then the task manager showed that the Windows Messenger Service was using bandwidth and memory, starting at boot time. So I reset it to never run unless I click to start it. My Windows was improving closer to normal speeds. But it still did not run fast like a new install. So I started researching how to make it faster.

I found a solution that came in 3 parts.
1. I uninstalled a lot of programs that I never used.
2. I cleaned up the registry manually to remove all traces of left-over registry entries from removed programs.
3. I disabled un-needed Windows services.

The result was my Windows is nearly as fast as Linux for web surfing. But maybe half speed for running Windows applications like office, etc. My solution is not for everyone, because you can destroy your Windows installation if you make mistakes in removing registry keys. And results will vary depending on the hardware and version of Windows you are using.

Here are some details:
This machine is an Asus P4P800 mainboard with P4 2.8 GHz and 2 GB ram
Asus V9999GT video card and Creative Audigy II Platinum sound card.
No printer connected, running an ASDL line from the on-board ethernet.

I spent 4 years of installing every cool free application I ran across on this machine. None of these had viruses, but they were clogging up the registry because I never use 90% of them. So I uninstalled them, and kept only my few favourite applications.
Then I spent an entire day cleaning out the remnants of these programs, starting with orphaned directories in the program files that still had data and software for some of these uninstalled programs. Then I checked online to see what registry entries these programs created, and I deleted these keys. Then I also checked Documents and Settings directory and found more folders with remnants of software that was uninstalled. So I deleted them.

You need to be careful what you do in the registry. You can wipe out a Windows installation if you remove parts of the Windows operating system. You can also disable some applications if you delete keys that they depend on. I was able to locate all the registry keys and dependencies online for my uninstalled software so I knew what is safe to delete. I used google to research this, and I used the old version 2.00 of Registrar Lite free edition to do my registry editing.

Next, I looked to remove the startup programs and un-needed Windows services that could slow down my machine. If you disable unneeded Windows services, you will reclaim some extra RAM and processing power. I had already disabled Windows Messenger Service. So I found a website that tells what other services I can remove or not. He tells you what each service is for, and what will happen if you disable it. See here for Windows XP: http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm He also has guides for Vista and Windows 7. See menus on main page: http://www.blackviper.com/

After reviewing all his recommendations, I ended up disabling only the printer, Windows Media Player, and maybe one or two other services. But it was well worth the read to know what you can safely disable. So now, my Windows machine runs about as fast as a new install of Windows. Note: SP3 is not BS. It is absolutely essential to avoid getting viruses that came up over the years. You cannot expect the methods I listed above to work if SP3 is not installed.


Some of the freeware I can't live without in Windows are listed below:

Irfanview Multimedia viewer/converter/editor http://majorgeeks.com/IrfanView_d4253.html
Irfanview plugins (allows viewing movies etc) http://majorgeeks.com/IrfanView_PlugIns_d4908.html
Registrar Lite Registry editor - much better than Windows Regedit http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/U...trar_Lite.html
SRWare Iron browser (this is the same as Google Chrome, except with the spy features removed: http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php
VLC media player for flash movies http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

There are lots of other top rated freeware you can use that are rated at Gizmos freeware reviews. See here to get your favourites: http://www.techsupportalert.com/
It seems the scheme they use to avoid viruses is working very well. They use an alternate DNS server like OpenDNS rather than their ISP DNS. This automatically blocks out most of the known malware websites. The also use "Sandbox" type browser quarantine areas to insulate the PC from what the browser sees. Then when the browser is done, all the "Sandboxed" downloaded data is deleted. See here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...on-utility.htm

They have an excellent guide that shows how to make your computer safe in less than an hour. See here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/cont...under-hour.htm

If you are running Linux, ignore all above. You will not have these problems.
One of the main reasons I run Windows is to use Irfanview for image manipulation. Linux has nothing this easy to take screenshots or to convert a BMP image into a JPG, colour corrections, etc. It seems like I waste a lot of time in Linux clicking menus or looking for the correct menu in Gimp, when the task would have been done in a few seconds using Irfanview. If they ever port Irfanview for Debian Linux, then Windows will be history on this machine. I still need my other Windows box to deal with business partners who have MS office and other interlocked MS products connected. Shame on you, Bill Gates!


Best wishes,
J_P

[Qiaozhi]

If you are running Linux, ignore all above. You will not have these problems.
One of the main reasons I run Windows is to use Irfanview for image manipulation. Linux has nothing this easy to take screenshots or to convert a BMP image into a JPG, colour corrections, etc. It seems like I waste a lot of time in Linux clicking menus or looking for the correct menu in Gimp, when the task would have been done in a few seconds using Irfanview. If they ever port Irfanview for Debian Linux, then Windows will be history on this machine. I still need my other Windows box to deal with business partners who have MS office and other interlocked MS products connected. Shame on you, Bill Gates!

Time for you to ditch Windows!!

Have a look here at these instructions -> http://www.boekhoff.info/?pid=linux&...-view-on-linux

I've just tried this and it works fine - see attached image showing part of my desktop.

I have also attached the DLL to save you copying it from Windoze or downloading from the internet.

[J_Player]

Time for you to ditch Windows!!

Have a look here at these instructions -> http://www.boekhoff.info/?pid=linux&...-view-on-linux

I've just tried this and it works fine - see attached image showing part of my desktop.

I have also attached the DLL to save you copying it from Windoze or downloading from the internet.

I installed wine and then installed Irfanview, and the Irfanview window opened just like you show on your desktop. But this installation of Irfanview does not work like the Irfanview running in Windows. It has limited functionality. The screenshot features don't work, nor do most of the other media file functions. The good news is it can load most common image files to manipulate them and save them. I even put an Irfanview icon on the top launcher bar to start it from the Linux desktop without using menus or a terminal. But with the limited functionality, no cigar.

So the Windows installation will remain as a dual boot option until Linux becomes more mature in its applications to allow better functions without using so many menus to perform common tasks that can be done simply in Windows.

Best wishes,
J_P

[Qiaozhi]

I installed wine and then installed Irfanview, and the Irfanview window opened just like you show on your desktop. But this installation of Irfanview does not work like the Irfanview running in Windows. It has limited functionality. The screenshot features don't work, nor do most of the other media file functions. The good news is it can load most common image files to manipulate them and save them. I even put an Irfanview icon on the top launcher bar to start it from the Linux desktop without using menus or a terminal. But with the limited functionality, no cigar.

So the Windows installation will remain as a dual boot option until Linux becomes more mature in its applications to allow better functions without using so many menus to perform common tasks that can be done simply in Windows.

Best wishes,
J_P

Personally I do not use InfranView. Instead I use Gimp and Picasa, and Gnome has a built-in facility to take snapshots (under Applications > Accessories > Take Screenshot.

[Max]

Personally I do not use InfranView. Instead I use Gimp and Picasa, and Gnome has a built-in facility to take snapshots (under Applications > Accessories > Take Screenshot.

Yes , GIMP is very nice... I use it from 10years maybe from time to time... nice piece of software!

Or 12 ??? There was some debian installed somewhere... I remember and was maybe 1997 when I used gimp first time!

But irfanview has a number of nice plugins that make it really a beast for some purposes... much better than other even fully commercial software!

As always, who made irfanview MADE really a big step ahead in such freewares...

[J_Player]

Yes , GIMP is very nice... I use it from 10years maybe from time to time... nice piece of software!

Or 12 ??? There was some debian installed somewhere... I remember and was maybe 1997 when I used gimp first time!

But irfanview has a number of nice plugins that make it really a beast for some purposes... much better than other even fully commercial software!

As always, who made irfanview MADE really a big step ahead in such freewares...

Yes, I have been using Gimp for over 8 years instead of photoshop. But it is not the best program to use if you want to edit a directory full of photos for a quick cropping, or to quickly change the lighting tint, or maybe to convert 1000 gif images to jpg images. Irfanview can make fast batch conversions and renaming, or it can take screenshots by simply hitting the assigned hotkey. Only Irfanview has proved to be as useful for production running of a lot of simple editing to a large database of photos. Xnview, which copied all the Irfanview coding and scripts for years does not work as well because you still need to slow down and click buttons and menus to do what Irfanview does. With irfanview, I can flip through an entire directory of photos by simply rolling the mouse wheel. In addition, Irfanview will play just about any music or video file if you have the plugin file installed. What other 430 KB application will do all that?

Of course, you need Gimp or Photoshop if you want to do some detailed custom image editing such as combining several photos with gradients etc. But suppose you just want to make a quick crop to all the photos in a directory full of simple photos, then convert them to gif images. No need to open Gimp and start clicking menus. No need to load a huge program into memory and hog up a lot of PC power. Irfanview will get the job done faster as well as use less resources. I have had editing sessions where I had over 10 Irfanview windows open manipulating images in different directories, with very small draw on the system resources. Only the installed RAM will limit how many images you can have active in Irfanview. When you are using all your RAM to hold many high res photos, the swap-file will start growing so opening more photos will take some time to write to the swap file. But very little overhead in the Irfanview software hogging processing power.

Anyway, to illustrate how well it works for fast simple operations, see below for a series of top secret schematics I intercepted from a mail server en route from South America to somewhere west of Spain. Note: These are full-size as sent in the top secret email:

[Qiaozhi]

I suppose it depends how much you want to dump Windoze.
You can also try ImageMagick if you want batch conversion ->

http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php

[J_Player]

I suppose it depends how much you want to dump Windoze.
You can also try ImageMagick if you want batch conversion ->
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php

I don't really care whether I dump Windows or not. I care about using easy ways to get the PC to do what I want. The reason I use Windows is because it can run a few of my favourite programs that work better than other programs, and because I need it to be able to read my business partners files like quickbooks, MS project, and a lot of other programs that are interlocked into MS office. Linux cannot run these things unless I spend the cash for a Windows emulator and install Windows to run in it. In that case I may as well run my dual boot or pure Windows machine without spending any money or dealing with decreased processor performance from running 2 OS at the same time.

There are a lot of freeware applications that will sort files or rename them or convert them to a different format. Also a lot of freeware applications that will allow simple image manipulation and play sound or video files. But does any of them do it all in a single program that is only 430 KB? The closest clone is XNView. But even XNView requires more mouse and menu work that is just plain simpler in Irfanveiw.

The menus for Irfanview are intuitive. I learned them in less than an hour just by trying them out. For Gimp, I had to read tutorials for several months before I understood the basics well. And I still need to look online occasionally to find ways to do tricky editing effects. Irfanview is easy and intuitive to accomplish most simple tasks very quickly by pressing a minimum of buttons. In order to get this much utility from other software, I would need to open several programs in overlapping windows, and I would be clicking a lot more menu buttons, and I would see a lot more system resources being used. So I will stay with Windows to run Irfanview and other Windows applications for now. When Irfanview is ported to Linux, maybe I will remove the Windows hard drive from this PC.

But back to the original topic, I did find a way to make Windows run well.
See my previous post for some tips: http://www.geotech1.com/forums/showp...&postcount=183

Best wishes,
J_P

[Qiaozhi]

There are four simple ways to speed up Windoze XP:

1. Disable the indexing services to stop disk thrashing:
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add / Remove Programs > Add Remove Windows Components
Uncheck the indexing service and click Next.

2. Optimize the display:
Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced Tab.
Click Performance settings and leave the following ticked:
Show shadows under menus.
Show shadows under mouse pointer.
Show translucent selection rectangle.
Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop.

3. Speed up folder browsing (makes a big difference):
My Computer > Tools menu > Folder Options > View Tab
Uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers. Select OK and reboot.

4. Disable performance counters (makes a big difference):
Download the Extensible Performance Counter (extrlst.exe) and put it in c:\Program Files\Resource Kit\extrlst.exe
Run the program and uncheck "Performane Counters Enabled" for each item in the list. Save settings.

Enjoy!

[ivconic]

I just figured out; i can see pics here only when i am not logged? Once i log in - i can't see pics on pages??
Same thing with Opera, Chrome and IE??
I just checked user cp and can't see anything suspicious...

[Max]

If the machine is old, no dubt, an old linux will solve any performance issue...

Windows OS are made for gigantic (when you buy) computer resources... memory, disk space... whatever

Waste of resource happens ALWAYS cause windows is not made to be too efficient (same apply to NT/XP stuff and others business oriented... waste resources and never completely stable).

Linux systems are more compact and more reliable even on old hardware and obsolete stuff...

You cannot even compare efficiency between an old linux and some new but weak windows (e.g. vista). Win 7 is much about big promises (as always) but this is the price you pay for nice interface and usability.... much dedicated software and user support at each step...

Linux is for real men, Windows is for people who wanna troubles.... cause like too much its look and feel.

Why I have to buy and install something that go crashes each time I open a stupid document (like some old office suite on vista... it's boring man!)

I put a linux inside, put openoffice and I'm done. No troubles, no pain, nothing.

And free.

I have to say that people must consider windows to use... but never say it's (really) a reliable product....

I use it too... and very often, but I prefer unix, I prefer linux systems, I prefer full control and somethign that works.

Kind regards,
Max

[ivconic]

Fu.k this sh.t!

[J_Player]

If the machine is old, no dubt, an old linux will solve any performance issue...

Windows OS are made for gigantic (when you buy) computer resources... memory, disk space... whatever

Waste of resource happens ALWAYS cause windows is not made to be too efficient (same apply to NT/XP stuff and others business oriented... waste resources and never completely stable).

Linux systems are more compact and more reliable even on old hardware and obsolete stuff...

This is true.
Many of the newer distributions of Linux will also run on antique equipment. I think Knoppix might work. It can be installed on a camera flash card to use as a hard drive for running linux at the USB port, while the real hard drive is used only as a data disk. Or it can be installed on the hard disk too. There are also other distributions that may work.

But if a person wanted to run Windows on antique hardware, then maybe Windows 98 would work. It was designed to run on 286, 386, and 486 computers. Maybe Windows 3.1 would be good too. These earlier windows versions were still resource hogs, but nothing near as bad as NT and later. They were made to work with limited memory and a weak processor without multi-threading. I remember running Windows 98 from a 486 PC / 128 MB ram and a 10 GB hard disk, and it was very stable. The real IE cache was accessible without hacking any hidden directories. It was my favourite version of Windows for a long time.
One good thing about using antique windows versions is hackers are not looking for new ways to exploit these versions or write new viruses for them. In that respect, they may be better than using XP, Vista or Windows 7. I suppose if someone installed Windows 98, it would be good to install an old version of Netscape for web surfing.

Funny... I have never bothered to install a firewall or anti-virus or adware remover on my Ubuntu or other Linux machines. And I never ever got a hint of web malware on Ubuntu. For now, Ubuntu is my favourite Linux because it is the easiest to use with fewest things to type and click. I can still open a terminal any time I want to do some serious control on the system, but when I'm in a hurry I can get things done fast like when Windows is working ok. Of course, other Linux distributions that don't have all the Ubuntu GUI features installed run faster, but who cares when the machine is running lightning fast?

Best wishes,
J_P