Replies

oh, forgot the link to the KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833330/EN-US

Hi,
I got the same msg from Secunia. This is an old Microsoft tool that’s either been installed with a monthly update or with Windows itself (I’ve found a copy on my SP2 installation CD) and has since been replaced by the “Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool”. There is a KB article about it, which also contains instructions for uninstalling it.
HTH

I upgraded two SP2 systems to SP3 about a year ago with no problems at all. In fact, one of the systems was limping badly after a program install and subsequent restore point restore failed (several programs, including SQL Server and IE8 failed to install after that disaster). Having had no problems with the SP3 upgrade on healthy system, I tried it with the corrupted installation, expecting it to either kill it altogether or fix the problems. Much to my relief, the latter happened and the problems were gone completely.

Hi Judy,

I second you: great forum.

My approach to user folders (albeit currently in Vista) is to do what I have always done since WIndows 95, which is to ignore the default Windows folder structure and create my own Documents folder, usually on a separate partition. That avoids the risk of data loss when reinstalling Windows and has the added advantage that my documents folder does not get cluttered with folders that some programs insist on putting there and that I never use – My Scans, My Playlists, Adobe, etc.

For programs that default to a defined Windows folder, e.g. for saving and opening files, I put a shortcut from there to my preferred folder. The combination of folder shortcuts within folders and start menu shortcuts to my most frequently used folders means that I am rarely more than two or three clicks or keystrokes away from any folder.

Cheers
Dominik

I have had this problem a couple of times and in both cases the culprit was a startup program that tried and failed to start before timing out. In one case an autostart program was, for some reason, not removed when I uninstalled the associated application and tried to start a service that was no longer there, in the other it was a buggy OEM program (Toshiba TEMPRO[/u] on a Toshiba Satellite notebook, albeit running Vista). In the latter case, updating Tempro solved the startup problem. I subsequently disabled it altogether and have not noticed any performance difference.

Most startup programs, including TEMPRO, are not contained in the Startup folder but hidden in the Registry. There are several free utilities (e.g. http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml) that list and let you view and selectively and temporarily disable autostart programs. If Tempro is not to blame, it maybe worth checking whether any others are causing the slow startup.

Which brings me to a question: In Win 95 days I had a utility that analysed the Windows startup log for processes that slowed down Windows startups. Is there anything like that for XP/Vista/7?

Dominik