How do I get my computer running like it did when I first bought it?

Parnoc

Just because you are only running UO it doesn't mean that your computer is immune to other threats in other areas, you are still connected to the internet and hackers don't care what programs you are running, they'll try anyhow.

TimSt

Arron said:

TimSt said:

I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit on my main PC so if you need some step by step instructions I can easily give them to you.

Thanks TimSt. I will try to do the easy stuff first to see if that helps. I don't have  a lot of lag but do when I go to events. It is not bad in luna but I want to keep my computer humming along. I have the free McAfee AntiVirsus Program but it is expired. Also had Kasapersky and have not renewed it. Should I uninstall those programs?

If you have both anti-virus programs installed and running even if expired that will slow your computer down. Before uninstalling them you will want to install another antivirus program such as Microsoft Security Essentials then go ahead and uninstall them.  The Microsoft product is free and never expires and Microsoft has a vested interest in keeping your computer virus free so the virus protection is updated daily even on weekends and holidays.

To defrag my hard drives I use the free version of Disk Defrag by Auslogics. It has an option to defrag the paging file the next time the computer boots up.  A fragged paging file can make your computer slow. I skip the other products from Auslogics only because I don't need them.

Urge

 Arron said:

I was wondering if there are some things I could do to help make my computer run very efficently.  And please don't say buy a new computer lol. I am on a very tight budget. Any advice and assistance would be appreciated.

It helps the most if you stop visiting those unsavory websites.

Uninstall any antivirus you're not using. They should auto start after every reboot so unless you like turning them off everytime just uninstall. Uninstall anything you don't use and shut down any process that isn't necessary that you don't want to uninstall. ITunes causes the most lag for me so it's shut down while I play.

I run malwarebytes for a weekly check then turn it back off. I also use Security Essentials and have restore points. Norton has been known to quarantine and flag UO with a false positive for malware after patches while letting Trojans slip by.

Deleting cookies and browsing history helps as does a weekly defrag.

If all these options fail to improve performance, then it's time to look into financing.

Tim

Also watch what your hardware is doing. I junked a popular "gaming" keyboard when I started my system with the internet down. It wouldn't let me use it without an internet connection ????. So I checked into how much of my connection it was using just to run a dam keyboard. Now my keyboard and mice are from other companies and don't connect unless I tell them to. My system seem to run faster and I feel a lot more secure.

F--- big brother.

Captain_Lucky

Tim said:

Also watch what your hardware is doing. I junked a popular "gaming" keyboard when I started my system with the internet down. It wouldn't let me use it without an internet connection ????. So I checked into how much of my connection it was using just to run a dam keyboard. Now my keyboard and mice are from other companies and don't connect unless I tell them to. My system seem to run faster and I feel a lot more secure.

F--- big brother.

Yeah lol. I had a Logitech keyboard with a little lcd screen on it. One screen option was you could get news stories of the day in like 12 words lol It was always interesting how short they could make a story. But it had a ton of "G keys" on the left of the keyboard. I miss that.

JollyJade

Those with the defragging... just buy an SSD. Its 2019..

TimSt

I have SSD on three of my desktops and I still defrag them for a slight improvement in speed. 

JollyJade

TimSt said:

I have SSD on three of my desktops and I still defrag them for a slight improvement in speed. 

Your SSD has no moving parts in it, no seek time, no rotational latency. Unlike your old spinning disks, your SSD does not have to move some physical part to some physical area for reading data. Your "slight improvement" is just placebo.

TimSt

JollyJade said:

TimSt said:

I have SSD on three of my desktops and I still defrag them for a slight improvement in speed. 

Your SSD has no moving parts in it, no seek time, no rotational latency. Unlike your old spinning disks, your SSD does not have to move some physical part to some physical area for reading data. Your "slight improvement" is just placebo.

The speed improvement I am talking about is not from the hardware but from the software. For 64k of contiguous sectors only 1 command needs to be sent to the controller. For non-contiguous sectors multiple commands need to be sent to the controller. Each command sent takes time to process. I am referring to the read sector command of the sata protocol. For a heavily fragmented file you could end up calling read sector 64k times instead of just once. Calling a function 64k times is going to be slower than just calling it once.

JollyJade

TimSt said:

JollyJade said:

TimSt said:

I have SSD on three of my desktops and I still defrag them for a slight improvement in speed. 

Your SSD has no moving parts in it, no seek time, no rotational latency. Unlike your old spinning disks, your SSD does not have to move some physical part to some physical area for reading data. Your "slight improvement" is just placebo.

The speed improvement I am talking about is not from the hardware but from the software. For 64k of contiguous sectors only 1 command needs to be sent to the controller. For non-contiguous sectors multiple commands need to be sent to the controller. Each command sent takes time to process. I am referring to the read sector command of the sata protocol. For a heavily fragmented file you could end up calling read sector 64k times instead of just once. Calling a function 64k times is going to be slower than just calling it once.

Indeed, point taken. Just we are talking like nanoseconds here? Already magnitudes lower than what we used to have with spinning disks. If your UO is running slow, I highly doubt its due to disk performance as long as you dont have an HDD from 10 years ago. So I still say defrag is mostly snakeoil..

Still better than deleting cookies though