What to Disable in Task Manager???

[tiny toad]

Hi Apolyton
Still managing to play Civ4 and the more i play , the more i love it ( even with my many crashes and unknown re-boots)
In trying to see if disabling programs in task manager help the crash issues what is the minimum applications i can have running in task manager running XP home service pack 2???
anybody know??????

[marvinkosh]

It will vary depending on your configuration. Some processes can't be stopped anyway (otherwise your system would cease functioning) so you really only need to look at those which are running under your username.

Of these, closing explorer.exe will usually result in the taskbar reloading itself, so no point really. As for the rest, well you have to figure out first what the process is (a Google search is usually illuminating) and whether you can live without it temporarily. Also, you an choose more columns to view in the list of processes, so that you can see how much virtual memory the proccess takes up as well as physical memory. If you're only going to save a miniscule amount of memory then it probably isn't worth it.

For a more permanent trimming-down of the fluff, choose Run... from your start menu and type msconfig. The far right tab, Startup, lists what is executed when Windows loads. You can uncheck what you don't need to load, once you hit okay you have the option to restart with the new slimmer loadout then and there, or later on.

[Stuie]

I found the tool available here to be helpful:

http://www.kensalter.com/fsautostart/

[tiny toad]

Many thanks people..
I`ll try these suggestions tonight...
I`m hoping it might stop or even cut down on these reboots that I and a few other people get.
I`ll drop a report in when its done to see if it helps
Once again thanks

[Stuie]

Another thing someone mentioned that appears to have helped my reboot/crashing issues (helped mind you, not eliminated) was installing the .net framework from Microsoft. It's available through Windows Update.

[Dis]

I must be the only person the game has not crashed on.

I just want to speed up the game.

What I did was write down what processes were running after a clean install of windows. I figured windows needed those. Then I also wrote down what was running after installing my drivers. I figured anything installed after that doesn't need running.

I'm thinking about disconnecting my cable from my cable modem and disabling zone alarm as well. See if I get any better performance. This of course wouldn't work in multiplayer games .

[Stuie]

Something else that might help (did wonders for me!):

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143958

[alva]

Something else you can do, is empty the prefetch folder.
No risk involved, all that will happen, is that other programs will start a little slower as the need to be loaded completely again (hence the name 'prefetch'. ).

C:\Windows\prefetch

[Aro]

Originally posted by Dis
I must be the only person the game has not crashed on.

Me too! (knocking on the wood, just in case... )

At least, the game never has crashed in my desktop (crashed once in my notebook - blue screen of death, running XP! I never seen it before).

[Stormhound]

Originally posted by Aro

Me too! (knocking on the wood, just in case... )

At least, the game never has crashed in my desktop (crashed once in my notebook - blue screen of death, running XP! I never seen it before).

I've had the game drop (NOT crash) to desktop a few times, when some other process demanded attention, but I was always able to Alt-Tab back in and carry on without problem.

One other thing that has helped my performance slightly is to put my WinXP pagefile on my second HD, leaving only a minimal one on the boot drive. It'd be even more of an improvement if I had that drive on its own controller, but as is it has cut way down on the "rattle syndrome" on my main HD. If you don't have tons of memory (I've only got 512 Mb), then your pagefile sees extensive use with Civ4, so enlarging it can also help.

[Aileron]

Three places to look for things that start automatically when you boot:

1. C:\Documents and Settings\your login\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. Also, in addition to "your login" substitute "All Users", "Default User", "Administrator".

2. Registry key \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Cur rentVersion\Run.

3. Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Services.

BE CAREFUL removing/disabling anything! Google it to see what it is first. Also, I'm talking about WinXP Pro, don't know how Home differs.

Originally posted by alva
Something else you can do, is empty the prefetch folder.
No risk involved, all that will happen, is that other programs will start a little slower as the need to be loaded completely again (hence the name 'prefetch'. ).

C:\Windows\prefetch

Interesting... I never knew that was there. Any idea what data it's pre-fetching, oh immortal one?

[alva]

Interesting... I never knew that was there. Any idea what data it's pre-fetching, oh immortal one?

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-5165773.html

[Aileron]

Originally posted by alva
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-5165773.html

Truly bizarre, how do you use only part of an exe? Thanks for the link.

[Fidel]

Originally posted by Dis
I must be the only person the game has not crashed on.

5 games, no crashes. sometimes even two games in a row.