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Windows XP Clean Up Page

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Three things to remember when you are working with computers.

First thing is "YOU CAN DO IT".
Second take your time, a little mistake can cause a big problem.
Third all answers are only a question away.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

If you are experiencing computer Problems such as slowness, strange icons appearing, tool bars appearing, home page changing, please use one of the following links to check for a virus or trojan.

Panda Virus Free Online Virus Scan
AVG Anti-virus Program (FREE)
- AVG is a great "FREE" program and I used to keep a link to the download but they keep changing it all the time and I can't keep this link up to date so Google "Download AVG Free" to get the download link. SORRY!

Clean Up Your Harddrive

AOL Users Do the Following, Then Click Here For the Instructions on Cleaning Up AOL Files
Removing Programs From Windows XP Start up
Remove Services from startup
Remove programs from msconfig
Clean Up Prefetch
Modifying and Disabling Prefetch Settings

Before you edit the registry back it up! ! !

To back up the registry click on Start
Click on Run
Type in or copy and paste ]
Click on the OK button
When the registry edit window opens click on File
Click on export
Select where you want the back up copy to be saved.
If you make a mistake double click on the file you exported and the registry will be restored to the way it was.
After a few days if all is okay, then delete the file.
Startup Programs and what they are, the best composed list I have seen. PacMan's Portal server is at compactly most of the time and can't be accessed.

Removing Programs From Windows XP Start up

Windows XP has two separate Run policies:

Run at Startup

Legacy Run at Startup

Run at Startup Policy

Click Start
Click Run
In the Open box type
Click OK
On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in
Click Add.
Under Available Stand-alone Snap-ins, click Group Policy
Click Add
Click Finish
NOTE: If you do not want to edit the Local Computer policy, click Browse to locate the group policy object that you want. Supply your user name and password if prompted, and then click Finish when you return to the Select Group Policy Object dialog box.
- For more about Group Policy Settings click here
Click Close
In the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box click OK
In the left pane of the Group Policy snap-in, expand Local Computer Policy, expand Computer Configuration, and expand Administrative Templates
Expand the System object
Click the Logon object
In the right-pane, double-click Run these programs at user logon
Click Enabled
Click Show
Click Add
Type the name of the executable program (.exe) file or document that you want
Click OK
You must specify the path to the file unless it is located in the %Systemroot% folder.
Repeat steps above to add additional items to the Items to run at logon list.
Click OK twice.
The items that you added to the Items to run at logon list start automatically the next time that you log on to Windows on your computer. A list of these items is located in the following registry key:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
  Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\Run

Legacy Run at Startup Policy
- The legacy programs that are configured to start when you log on to your computer are listed in the following registry key:
  - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
    Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  - Many third-party programs, such as RealAudio, can be included in this category.
  - You can either enable or disable the legacy run list. You cannot modify it directly from within the Group Policy snap-in. If you want to add items to the list of programs that start automatically when you log on to your computer, see the "Run at Startup Policy" section of this article.
  - To specify whether you want to start the programs on the legacy run list when you log on to your computer, follow these steps:
    - Click Start, and then click Run.
    - In the Open box, type mmc, and then click OK.
    - On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in.
    - Click Add.
    - Under Available Stand-alone Snap-ins, click Group Policy, click Add, and then click Finish.
    - NOTE: If you do not want to edit the Local Computer policy, click Browse to locate the group policy object that you want. Supply your user name and password if prompted, and then click Finish when you return to the Select Group Policy Object dialog box.
    - Click Close, and then in the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box, click OK.
    - In the left pane of the Group Policy snap-in, expand Local Computer Policy, expand Computer Configuration, and then expand Administrative Templates.
  - To specify whether you want to start programs on the run-once list when you log on to your computer, follow the steps in the "Legacy Run at Startup Policy" section of this article. In this step, click Do not process the run once list, and then either enable or disable the policy.
    - Expand the System object, click the Logon object, and then in the right-pane, double-click Do not process the legacy run list.
    - Do one of the following:
      - Click Not Configured if you want to run legacy programs at startup.
        -or-
      - Click Enabled if you do not want to run legacy programs at startup.
        -or-
      - Click Disabled if you want to run legacy programs at startup.
      - NOTE: The legacy programs that are configured to start when you log on to your computer may also be listed in the following registry key:
        
        HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\
        Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
  - NOTE: To make the changes discussed in this article take effect, you must log off and then log back on to the system. Fast-user switching will not suffice (on a disjoined Windows XP computer).

Remove Services from startup.

Download the attached file. It is a registry edit. It will add information to the services.msc window to help you decide which ones you can safely disable.
Unzip the file
When the file is unzipped you will see 4 other zip files. Two are registry patches for each version of Windows and the two other are registry patches that will reset the registry to the default version again.
Install the registry patch for either XP Home Edition or the XP Pro Edition by double clicking on the .reg file for the version of Win XP you are using.
These registry patches add a description to the registry that better explains what the different services do so you can make a better decision as to keep them enabled or to disable them.
Click on start
Click on run
Select run from the bottom of the right column.
Then type services.msc in the box and click OK.
Once the services window has loaded we are ready to turn off unneeded services.
Right click and select Properties on each service listed.
About the middle of the Properties window is a smaller window that tells you what this service is and then the registry edit adds information here to help you make a more informed decision.
From the information supplied make a decision on what you want Windows to do with this service at start up, Disable, Enable….
Use the Start up type drop down box to set how Windows will handle this service on startup.
Then just click OK and the next time the computer starts the service will not be loaded.
Once you have finished this reboot.
On reboot you will get a message telling you that config system has changed, put a check in the box and tell it not to show this message again.

Remove programs from msconfig

Click on start
Click on run
Type in
click on the OK button
When the msconfig window opens:
- Click on the boot.ini tab and remove the check from all programs you do not want to start when the computer starts
- Click on the Service tab and do the same.
- Click on the start up tab and do the same.

Clean Up Prefetch

Taken From Microsoft Website:

Windows XP monitors the files that are used when the computer starts and when you start applications. By monitoring these files, Windows XP can prefetch them. Prefetching data is the process whereby data that is expected to be requested is read ahead into the cache. Prefetching boot files and applications decreases the time needed to start Windows XP and start applications.
This information is logged and stored on your hard drive taking up space and requiring a process to be kept running monitoring which applications are being run. This has a performance impact on your PC. Disabling the Prefetch function or at least only enabling it for the Boot Files will allow you to free up some system resources and preserve some disk space.

Modifying and Disabling Prefetch Settings

There are 4 ways to use the registry to set Prefetch
1. Disable
2. Application Launch Prefetch
3. Boot Prefetch
4. Prefetch everything
Changing the setting in the registry
- Click Start Button
- Click Run
- Type in
- The Registry Edit window will open\
- Scroll down to the following key
- In the right pane, look for the named EnablePrefetcher
- If it does not exist create a new DWord by Clicking on Edit, New, DWord
- Change the value of this to how you want prefecth to operate or not operate
  1. 0-Disable, keeps track of nothing
  2. 1-Application Launch Prefetch
  3. 2-Boot Prefetch
  4. 3-Prefetch everything
- To change the value, double-click the name EnablePrefetcher
- You'll then see the Edit DWORD Value screen
- Enter the value (number) representing how you want prefetch to operate

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