XP Myths

[Specter 0]

The myth quote below was posted over at our site, Red Sector Inc., and I thought I'd share it here.

In the quote box is the original post. I don't know if any of you have seen it yet.

Below the quote boxe is my response to what I read at the myth site.

I hope it helps some of you.

Myth (Definition) - A fiction or half-truth, especially one that forms part of an ideology. There are numerous Myths floating around the Internet regarding Windows XP, especially relating to Optimizations and Security.

Hopefully this site will debunk some of these. good.gif

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html

QoS requires that whoever or whever you are downloading from use that protocol as well.

I have, however, seen it cause some problems while downloading for people that either enabled it after reading the hype about it, or it was enabled when they bought the machine and they didn't know a thing about it.

I have also seen it interfere with some broadband modems and services, such as those offerend by AOL, MSN, and Comcast.

The myth he debunked about system requirements is true. You can run XP on a lowend system, even as low as he stated. But you wouldn't want to. Way to slow. And I'm sorry, but to truly effectively run XP, you want nothing less than a P3 500Mhz+, 256 MBRAM+, and at least a 16 MB video card.

What he says about clearing the Prefetch folder is aslo true.

BUT...There are times when it's necessary to do so, such as when eliminating a troublesome spyware program, firewall, Norton utility programs, or drivers you don't want, and many others. Because certain files are loaded in the prefetch file, they won't always show up in the Task manager as running, but because they are in use in the prefetch until the PC is rebooted, and depending on the program, they are loaded automatically, you may not be able to end that file's use to uninstall it, delete it, or rename it.

What he says about the pagefile is also true...to a point. In fact, disabling the paging file, even with loads of RAM in your machine, can hamper game and app performance, as they are written to utilize a Paging File, and for good reason.

BUT....Limiting the size of the page File, and even setting it on a drive other than the "C" drive can improve performance.

What he writes about FAT32 vs. NTFS is also true. The one myth about MTFS that is NOT true, however is the myth that says that NTFS doesn't fragment as often or as badly as FAT32, especially by hi volume users and gamers is completely false. NTFS fragments like a son-of-a-gun. True, with the NEW NTFS filesystem, not that piece of ###### the called a filesystem with NT4, it is more secure, provides true file level security, is more redundant, and efficient, for the most part.

But, for those that like to dabble in Linux or other *.nix OS's, it is recommended to keep a 30-50GB FAT32 filesystem for sharing files between OS's. Corporations and such have ways to overcome this. But right now, thanks to good ol' Uncle Bill, *.nix OS's can't reliably write files to NTFS. They can read them, but can't write to them.

He is also correct about the IRQ priority level tweak.

HOWEVER, what he didn't mention is, and this does effect performance in a very big way, especially for gamers, the office guy or Graphics renderer would never even notice-along with handling this all very efficiently, and XP does, except for one thing-it tries to automatically assign hardware latency times as well. And it does this badly in some cases, especially with video. I found this to be especially true with games like Far Cry, HL2, and BF2. The video card is usually assigned a high latency time unnecessarily, along with the NIC card. This can be corrected with a program called Latency Configurator. If you cna't find it, let me know, and I will upload to my webspace and make it available to everyone here.

He is also correct about RAM Optimizers. The most common problem these nasty little buggers create, is trying to assign memory addresses which the games and apps are already pre-coded to assign. And in alot of cases these littel programs will try to assign a memory address to a program that is already in use by another program, thus locking up your machine, creating an error running the app, and in some cases, even BSOD.

I also disagree with what he says about registry cleaners. HOWEVER, they should only be used with extreme caution, after a complete copy of the registry has been exported to a safe place in case of Murphy's law deciding to pick on you that day.

When changing drivers, hardware brands, or eliminating programs, especially programs like ATI drivers, Nvidia Drivers(although be careful if you are running a mobo with an Nvidia chipset), firewalls, spyware, malware, adware, and firewalls, these programs are absolutely invaluable, especially if you aren't familiar with old school, manual registry cleaning(the way I do it.).

Do not be afraid to use them. BUT DO understand what you are doing with it, and like with AdAware or Hijack this, read everything in the list that it finds. DO NOT just randomly check everything in the list for deletion, assuming because it showed up, it's bad. This is NOT the case. A good reg cleaner will turn up everything in the registry, and just list it in an easier to read format that people can understand, which is what gained these little programs their popularity.

What he says about reliability between XP, ME, and 98 is also true, to a point.

It's hard to even compare them because they are nothing alike at all.

Also, WinXP is not based on Win2000, although it has alot of similarities, and does indeed have SOME roots in 2K. For one, it uses a different version of NTFS than 2K does. It also use the HAL differently than 2K does. Which is why some 2K drivers will work with XP and vice versa, but not all. So don't fall into the trap that XP and 2K are the same. They aren't. XP is in fact the next gen OS up from 2K.

What he says about securing against spyware and viruses is true, to a point. I don't even use online scanners.

I too get incfected with nothing, unless, as Zebb knows, and Crowie also, that I go looking for ahem..."certain things" on the internet.

There is really no way to completely secure a machine from spyware...but there are things you can do.

-Use an alternate browser such as Firefox or Opera(I prefer Firefox), that does not depend on ActiveX, and depends very little on Java.

-Mind where you surf. Know that alot of advertisements are going to set cookies and spyware on your machine if you click on them. There are reasons that places such as porn sites, bargain sites, and contest sites pay other webmasters to host their banners.

-Mind the email you open. If it isn't from a source that you are familiar with, or from someone you know, automatically delete it.

Do not open or click on emails that appear to be empty, or contain a random set of characters, or have stupid sayings in them from people you don't know.

-And as corporate users and home ofice users alike found out the hard way, DO NOT accept any MS Office files from unknown sources, as the macros can contain viruses.

-USE A ROUTER with NAT(Network Address Translation). This is a good explanation of the term, and this site an excellent site for definitions and explanations of IT related terms and technology.

When using a router, keep yourself out of the DMZ. This unhides your PC from the internet, and everyone and their brother can see you. I myself run in the DMZ for a whole host of reasons, but I have still never been infected with anything.

Configure your router to close all unused ports. There are 65,000 ports to access your PC with form outside of it. That is 65,000 doorways into your system and network.

Go to this site and run a Shields up scan, and learn which of the ports available are allowing access to your PC. Then use the site's instructions to shut them down.

If you want or need help configuring your router, ASK, and ye shall recieve.

When choosing a router, choose a reliable brand, such as Linksys or Cisco. Other, cheaper brands such as Netgear, D-Link, and other off the wall brands are cheaper for a reason. Those reasons can include compatability, ease of use, and lack of features. Do your research, or ask your buddies that know.

The best way to secure your PC and avoid Viruses, malware, adware, and other things is simple common sense.

All that other expensive stuff, such as firewalls and anti-virus programs are simply unnecessary, in some cases, difficult to configure, can cause certain games and programs not to install because they want to access the internet, or they require constant monitoring and maintenance. And we all know that fragging is more important than any of that crap.

So concludes advice on this matter from Sam's World of Computing.

even in computing guys, KISS(Keep It Simple Stupid) is often the best and most effective way to keep your PC up and running. thumbsupsmileyanim.gif