Okay...my desktop is six years old, and I've got no plans to replace it anytime soon, 'cuz moneys are tight and there are higher priorities right now.

Athlon XP (Socket A) running at 1.73 GHz, 768MB ram, blahblahblah. I'd like to trim the fat out of XP, but don't know exactly how much further to go. Removed just about all the Windows components I'll never use, and have uninstalled lots of programs that I just don't use anymore. Most of my live updates have been turned off. Removed as many things in the start menu that I can. Running Avast! AV, and on occasion, I scan with Spybot. I'm trying to get rid of as many background processes as possible.

I've got at least 5 svchost processes running; one is for Hamachi, one for my wireless networking, and whatever else I have that's chatting via network.

What else am I safe getting rid of? I can't take a screenshot right now because I'm at work, but I will when I get home. Enlighten a fool.

Oh...and is it very safe removing registry entries for software packages that I have deleted long ago? It frustrates the hell out of me looking thru the registry and seeing keys for shit that hasn't been there in years.

6/24/2009 10:19:42 AM

Not trolling: Why are you sticking with XP at all? If you just want basic Web browsing, word processing, chat, and all that kind of lightweight stuff, you could switch over to a trim Linux installation.

6/24/2009 10:27:10 AM

You shouldn't need to run Spybot since you've just formatted and reinstalled the operating system. Because I'm going to assume that's what you've just done, because you're not retarded, and I'm not a smartass.

6/24/2009 10:29:05 AM

are you willing to reinstall?

use nLite to create a slim install image, so you never have a lot of junk in XP to begin with
http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html

6/24/2009 10:56:39 AM

I've used this site in the past. I trimmed Windows XP down to around 80MB of RAM usage. Seemed decent.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

6/24/2009 11:43:45 AM

Quote :

"Not trolling: Why are you sticking with XP at all? If you just want basic Web browsing, word processing, chat, and all that kind of lightweight stuff, you could switch over to a trim Linux installation."

Well, I guess I've been really short on time...and that's been the clincher. I actually was set up to dual boot, with SUSE on a second hard drive. I did really like KDE, but the biggest problem came from my wonky-ass D-Link wireless card...no matter what modules I installed, I could never get it to work. Really, also, there was way too much shit in the compiled kernel...lots of stuff I really didn't need, and my Linux/UNIX experience is pretty old school...mainly from way back in '91 to '93, when we ran strictly DEC's Ultrix on DECstations with a paltry 12.5 MHz processor and 2 bit dithered display. Was about as stripped down as you could get, with the exception of running X-Windows. Quite a lot was done via command line, and as all hardware was proprietary, no worries about configging for 3rd party hardware, etc. Now, I find myself a little bit out of my element. So many levels of module dependency...and of course, the same is true for XP and other flavors of Windows, but you never really get to see it.

Maybe I'll give Fedora or Ubuntu a whirl and try to strip down the kernel as much as possible. Thinking also about doing NBR on my Acer Aspire One.

6/25/2009 10:00:01 AM

Quote :

"the biggest problem came from my wonky-ass D-Link wireless card...no matter what modules I installed, I could never get it to work."

This is a ridiculously common complaint, I really don't understand why there is such shitty support for wireless adapters.

It took a long, long time and two adapters before I got wireless running with Ubuntu.

6/25/2009 10:20:33 AM

because linux is garbage for the average consumer

6/25/2009 1:44:54 PM

I encourage you and Neon to give Ubuntu a try when you have time. I've been using it on my laptop for months now, and it's been great.

6/25/2009 4:36:03 PM

I'd personally throw another 1GB stick of ram in there. Did wonders for my dad's aging machine, with near similar specs.

6/25/2009 7:22:20 PM

Definitely thought about throwing another stick in 'er...it just chaps my ass that DDR sticks are ridiculously expensive compared to DDR2 and DDR3. And I hate throwing money into this box right now, when I could really use the jack to put gas in my tank or eat.

Of course, pity donations are welcome...

6/25/2009 8:32:12 PM