Windoze help, plz.

[dando]

I'm usually able to fix my own Windoze issues, as well as help others, but this problem has me baffled. Recently my PC started to take forever to load once Windoze has started. However, it's only happening on my account, and not my wife's account. If done the usual needful and run the various checkers and scans, removed recent updates, etc. (nothing new was installed prior to the issue beginning to occur). When I check the task manager, no applications are running, and only the usual processes appear to be running. ANYTHING using explorer.exe takes forever to load/process for about 30 minutes after startup or user switch. Thoughts? I have backups via Acronis, but I'm holding off as a last resort. :irked:

-Kevin

[Sean Malone]

Your profile is slow, wife's isn't. I gues she's not visiting the same website eh?;) :D

[dando]

Your profile is slow, wife's isn't. I gues she's not visiting the same website eh?;) :D

Well, this is the desktop machine I use(d) for work, so not so much other surfing than internal sites and the bug tracking system, etc. *sigh* I surf the OC on this here laptop, which is performing great, yo. :)

-Kevin

[trish]

I'm usually able to fix my own Windoze issues, as well as help others, but this problem has me baffled. Recently my PC started to take forever to load once Windoze has started. However, it's only happening on my account, and not my wife's account. If done the usual needful and run the various checkers and scans, removed recent updates, etc. (nothing new was installed prior to the issue beginning to occur). When I check the task manager, no applications are running, and only the usual processes appear to be running. ANYTHING using explorer.exe takes forever to load/process for about 30 minutes after startup or user switch. Thoughts? I have backups via Acronis, but I'm holding off as a last resort. :irked:

-KevinWhat version are you running? What's the difference between your account and your wife's?

[FTG]

Your profile is slow, wife's isn't. I gues she's not visiting the same website eh?;) :D

Is there a 12-18 year old male in the house who occasionally uses your computer?

[Methanolandbrats]

Subscribe to Spysweeper with Antivirus.................it will give your puter an enema and remove all the spyware, trojans and virus'. GREAT product. Two year license for multiple machines is about $60.

[dando]

What version are you running? What's the difference between your account and your wife's?

XP Pro. No difference on accounts. I setup both accounts as admins.

-Kevin

[trish]

None. I set her and my account as admins.

-Kevin

XP, VIsta????

[Indy]

There should be a website with nothing but answers to these sorts of questions, a FAQ, if you will, so that when those who are dumb enough to run Windows ask them, a simple link can be posted.

Then, instead of allowing Bill Gates to eventually die, we could lock him in some sort of permanent physical stasis, capture his soul, and force him to read all 847,932 pages of the "Windows Sucks FAQ" over and over for eternity.

[dando]

Is there a 12-18 year old male in the house who occasionally uses your computer?

Nope. Just me fits that bill. ;)

-Kevin

[trish]

Maybe they can help you here

http://www.microsuck.com/forums/index.php?


And Microsoft support has a document on Zone Alarm slowing down load time. If you're running it you should get the latest version. Maybe it doesn't apply to you, but... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/259787/en-us

[indyfan31]

Did you try creating a new profile for yourself? If it runs normally copy only the files you need to your new profile, then toss the original one.
Then create a new ADMIN account and remove the admin priviledges from all other accounts, that's one of the easiest ways to "catch" something you don't want.

[Warlock!]

Is there a 12-68 year old male in the house who occasionally uses your computer?
Fixed that for ya

[TKGAngel]

I have a question, and it may sound stupid, but please bear with me.

When I go to the "Add/Remove Programs" menu, the list that comes up contains not only all of the programs on my computer (Word, Firefox,etc), but also all of the Windows Updates that have downloaded since I got my computer 6 years ago (labeled "Windows XP Hotfix"). Its a pretty lengthy list. Will removing these negate any updates that have been installed?

Thanks!

[Sean Malone]

I have a question, and it may sound stupid, but please bear with me.

When I go to the "Add/Remove Programs" menu, the list that comes up contains not only all of the programs on my computer (Word, Firefox,etc), but also all of the Windows Updates that have downloaded since I got my computer 6 years ago (labeled "Windows XP Hotfix"). Its a pretty lengthy list. Will removing these negate any updates that have been installed?

Thanks!

Yes.

[TKGAngel]

Yes.

Thank you.

[Insomniac]

I have a question, and it may sound stupid, but please bear with me.

When I go to the "Add/Remove Programs" menu, the list that comes up contains not only all of the programs on my computer (Word, Firefox,etc), but also all of the Windows Updates that have downloaded since I got my computer 6 years ago (labeled "Windows XP Hotfix"). Its a pretty lengthy list. Will removing these negate any updates that have been installed?

Thanks!

You can uncheck the "Show Updates" checkbox at the top so they don't show up in the list at least.

[ChampcarShark]

Where's wabbit when you need him??????

I had the same problem, tried everything, scans spybots, virus, root thingis etc... had to restore at the end. (after two days of trying different stuff)

[FTG]

Nope. Just me fits that bill. ;)

-Kevin

My friend's nephew got busted by the Geek Squad. It cost dad a 100 bucks to get the system up to speed. Dad didn't know what was wrong, until the geek discovered the kid's porn.

[Cam]

Couple of thoughts here. MSO Fastfind running? Also did you have any work specific apps that you ran? A lot of them like ACad use a fast startup that can hog RAM and slow things to a snails pace. What happens id you pull the network cable? (Wondering if it may be trying to find something network related in your profile.)

[dando]

Couple of thoughts here. MSO Fastfind running? Also did you have any work specific apps that you ran? A lot of them like ACad use a fast startup that can hog RAM and slow things to a snails pace. What happens id you pull the network cable? (Wondering if it may be trying to find something network related in your profile.)

Thanks, Cam. Well the only work-related apps running would be SERA 3 and my AV software (corporate version of Macafee). Everything else we use are browser-based tools. I'll hafta check on Fastfind and the network cable. I did remove Google Desktop in case it was hogging memory collecting data. One odd thing I did notice while investigating this issue is that my wife's account (also and admin) can't access some files on the computer (those in my document & settings share and some of the pics I have stored in the My Pictures share off the root). She can see most of the pics, but not all of them. :irked:

-Kevin

[Insomniac]

Did you try indyfan31's recommendation? Create a new account instead of trying to fix one that is messed up in a way you can't figure out.

[Warlock!]

Change the DNS settings... works every time

:gomer:

[dando]

Did you try indyfan31's recommendation? Create a new account instead of trying to fix one that is messed up in a way you can't figure out.

I did, but it can't access the files in the horked profile. I have two other admin accounts on the machine that can't access those files under documents & settings. Nor can they see all the files in the My Pictures folder, which is off the root. Those were downloaded from our camera by my account. :(

Now here's a question...if I remove the user account from the machine, will the files under documents & settings go away? I was thinking that I might try removing the account and then re-establish it to see if that fixes the problem.

-Kevin

[Insomniac]

I did, but it can't access the files in the horked profile. I have two other admin accounts on the machine that can't access those files under documents & settings. Nor can they see all the files in the My Pictures folder, which is off the root. Those were downloaded from our camera by my account. :(

Now here's a question...if I remove the user account from the machine, will the files under documents & settings go away? I was thinking that I might try removing the account and then re-establish it to see if that fixes the problem.

-Kevin

Have you done anything with sharing folders? I wonder if somehow the default access to the folder has changed.

I'm not sure whether the entire profile is wiped out or not if you delete it.

Was your new profile working normally? Perhaps you can move all the files to a new folder and then to the new profile?

[Ferdman]

Dando, don't delete the profile just yet. Deleting it will indeed also delete the files that you do need.

First, log in to your old slow account and then export out/move/drag and drop the files that you do need to another known/designated location.

If you're using Outlook as your mail tool, start up Outlook and see if you have a folder or folders called Personal Folders or Archive Folders. If so you also have one or more .pst file in your profile that Microsoft puts in there by default that you have to move as well. You don't want to lose all your e-mail do you? If you do, you'll have to move or copy those out to another location. The quick way to do that is to search for any .pst files by putting "*.pst" in the search field. Don't use the quotation marks. Once the search finds them, copy them to another location outside the old profile. The other way is to change the explorer view to show hidden files, but that's a longer process and you'll have to know exactly where Microsoft puts them to be able to move them out.

After you're done moving all the files out, then login to the new account, which I'll assume has admin rights to the machine. To be safe, reboot before you login to the new account as the old one might have some processes running in the background tying up the system and the ability to delete it. Once logged in to the new account, move the data into the same folder locations as the old profile.

Rather than just deleting the old profile, move it to another folder outside of Documents and Settings. You might find that there are other files that you might need that other programs also put in your profile. It's better to have it available just in case you missed something. Once you're absolutely sure you have everything, then delete it.

Hope this helps.

[dando]

Have you done anything with sharing folders? I wonder if somehow the default access to the folder has changed.

I'm not sure whether the entire profile is wiped out or not if you delete it.

Was your new profile working normally? Perhaps you can move all the files to a new folder and then to the new profile?

I prolly have a share so I can access the desktop PC from my laptop, but nothing changed recently. Sharing has so been problematic that I stopped buggering with it years ago. And I can't move the files to another folder since I can't access them. :gomer: :p It's odd that admin accounts can't access other files on the PC. I might try changing user levels to see if that fixes permission issues, etc.

-Kevin

[Insomniac]

I prolly have a share so I can access the desktop PC from my laptop, but nothing changed recently. Sharing has so been problematic that I stopped buggering with it years ago. And I can't move the files to another folder since I can't access them. :gomer: :p It's odd that admin accounts can't access other files on the PC. I might try changing user levels to see if that fixes permission issues, etc.

-Kevin

I remember once locking myself out of a partition I was sharing. I had to fix it through the Computer Management utility (System Tools, Shared Folders, Shares).

[Cam]

I did, but it can't access the files in the horked profile. I have two other admin accounts on the machine that can't access those files under documents & settings. Nor can they see all the files in the My Pictures folder, which is off the root. Those were downloaded from our camera by my account. :(

Now here's a question...if I remove the user account from the machine, will the files under documents & settings go away? I was thinking that I might try removing the account and then re-establish it to see if that fixes the problem.

-Kevin

When you delete an account you are given the option to delete the files or leave them. But if you can't get at them from other admin accounts that's not really gonna help anyway.

Here's a suggestion. Try d/ling a live linux distro CD and see if you can get at things that way.

Fedora (http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/8/Live/i686/Fedora-8-Live-i686.iso)

[Cam]

DP

[dando]

When you delete an account you are given the option to delete the files or leave them. But if you can't get at them from other admin accounts that's not really gonna help anyway.

Here's a suggestion. Try d/ling a live linux distro CD and see if you can get at things that way.

Fedora (http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/8/Live/i686/Fedora-8-Live-i686.iso)
Ya think Ubuntu work? I have a copy of that from an evaluation install I did earlier this year.

-Kevin

[Cam]

Ya think Ubuntu work? I have a copy of that from an evaluation install I did earlier this year.

-Kevin

Yes.

[grungex]

When you delete an account you are given the option to delete the files or leave them. But if you can't get at them from other admin accounts that's not really gonna help anyway.

Shouldn't he be able to use one of the other admin accounts to take ownership of the folders, thus giving access to the files?

[dando]

Shouldn't he be able to use one of the other admin accounts to take ownership of the folders, thus giving access to the files?

Yes, I should, but I can't since Windoze won't allow me to access them with the other admin accounts. Hence why this is so troubling. Gonna boot up with Ubuntu later today. Something is obviously mangled in the registry.

-Kevin

[grungex]

Can you disable or uninstall McAfee? 99% of of all that is evil in Windoze is caused by McAfee or Norton. IMO.

[dando]

UPDATE: after several failed attempts to get Ubuntu to load (the desktop apparently didn't like the version burned on my laptop), I finally gained access to my files, and am dumping them to my backup drive now. My profile appears to be totally horked, so the only recourse is to delete it and create a new profile.

Also, when deleting a profile, Windoze does prompt whether to remove or keep files in that user's profile. I didn't want to try that option initially, as I wasn't sure whether files would be removed, or if the file permissions issue wouldn't carry over.

Next step is to setup an online backup option in addition to the backup drive. Thanks to all that chimed in on this rather frustrating issue. :thumbup:

-Kevin