Windows sluggishness

[macgamesrule]

I'm liking my new comp a lot (planning a post on it today, if I have time). However, I have 2 problems with Windows:

1. Similar to another recent poster's problem, whenever I launch a program for the first time after booting the comp, my CPU usage spikes to 100% for a few seconds (like 4-15). The time is longer for "heavier" programs... modern games like Quake 4 and BF2, however it also occurs on programs like Firefox and iTunes. However once I have launched and closed the program the first time, successive launches are much faster, more like what I would expect from a high-end system. As soon as I restart the comp, I have to wait the longer launch time on each program's first launch again. Any ideas why this is happening/what I can do to speed up the initial launch? Something to do with prefetching, maybe? I was under the impression that prefetching was permanent, only occuring when you launch the program the first time, not every time you boot the comp.

2. Not as big of a problem, but when I start up the comp, my system tray icons are invisible. They take up space, but I can't see them nor click on them. I have to right-click on Properties and go to Customize Notifications... don't have to change anything, just open it and click OK and they show up again. Not much of an annoyance since I don't restart the comp *that* often, but I'd like to get rid of it if there's an easy way.

Thx in advance

 

[FarFarAway]

Have you tried adding "/Prefetch: 1" to the target of the bigger files you use?

 

[macgamesrule]

No, now that you mention it I was going to do that. But then I went looking on Google and found this:

Myth - "Adding the /Prefetch:1 Switch to the startup path of a program's shortcut will decrease the program's startup time."

Reality - All it does is change your hash number - the OS is doing exactly the same thing it did before, and just saving the prefetch pages to a different file. It does not improve performance in any way. Ryan Myers of Microsoft's Windows Client Performance Team writes: "The /prefetch:# flag is looked at by the OS when we create the process - however, it has one (and only one) purpose. We add the passed number to the hash. Why? WMP is a multipurpose application and may do many different things. The DLLs and code that it touches will be very different when playing a WMV than when playing a DVD, or when ripping a CD, or when listening to a Shoutcast stream, or any of the other things that WMP can do. If we only had one hash for WMP, then the prefetch would only be correct for one such use having incorrect prefetch data would not be a fatal error - it'd just load pages into memory that'd never get used, and then get swapped back out to disk as soon as possible. Still, it's counterproductive. By specifying a /prefetch:# flag with a different number for each "mode" that WMP can do, each mode gets its own separate hash file, and thus we properly prefetch. (This behavior isn't specific to WMP - it does the same for any app.) This flag is looked at when we create the first thread in the process, but it is not removed by CreateProcess from the command line, so any app that chokes on unrecognized command line parameters will not work with it. This is why so many people notice that Kazaa and other apps crash or otherwise refuse to start when it's added. Of course, WMP knows that it may be there, and just silently ignores its existence. I suspect that the "add /prefetch:1 to make rocket go now" urban legend will never die, though." - Source - Source 2

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html

If that's true then doing the /Prefetch:1 thing isn't going to help much.

 

[macgamesrule]

I found a faster workaround to fix the invis. icon bug... right click and Lock then Unlock the Taskbar.

 

[macgamesrule]

PROBLEM FIXED!11

I had the Task Manager opened when I launched a game this last time, and I had time to sort the processes list in decreasing CPU order. The program that was taking 99% was not the game, but rather mcshield.exe, part of McAfee Enterprise 7.1. I'm not sure what it's conflicting with, but after an update to Enterprise 8, I don't have that problem anymore, and programs launch with a much lower delay, as expected with a high-end system.

 

[Toxteth O'Grady]

The magical disappearing systray icons is a known and as yet unfixed bug in XP.

There is a weird workaround which is either to disable the UPnP service or go to Remove Windows Components and uninstall UPnP.



TOG