O/T Windows Questions

[bayhli]

Off topic but I hope members will tolerate a couple of computer questions - best place for expertise! Windows XP

I'm worried about having too many things running in the background using up memory. Have had a couple of freezes recently which never happens usually.

Start Menu - only a handful of programs that auto-open but there is a "processes tab" that is loaded - I don't recognize most of them.
Does this mean that the processes listed would be always running in the background when Windows is open, or just when I actually use applications?

Task Bar at the bottom. Are the applications related to the icons on the task bar actually "open" programs, meaning they are using memory all of the time?

Any shortcuts I place on the desktop are not "open" - correct? i.e. they are not using memory resources until I actually open the application via the shortcut.

One other question I have is about email messages - I'd like to save some of them in a separate file, out of the email program. Where do I find the email folder in the directory? I'm wanting to clear the email folders in the application by transferring the messages to a separate folder on a CD to get them out of my hard drive.

Thanks so much for any advice - the New Year coming means "get organized" :eek:

[GaryK]

Hi Pat

I'll try my best to answer some of your questions. Hopefully I am correct.

If by the taskbar on the bottom, you mean on the right hand side beside the clock .. they are running programs. Depending on what they are doing, they will take up various amounts of memory as well as cpu power. If you mean the ones more on the left side of the taskbar then those are just shortcuts ...no problem.

The start menu programs are not auto loaded, unless they are in the startup part of the menu. Unless you have a need for something in the startup part, I would drag it out so it won't start.

Desktop shortcuts are just shortcuts and don't run.

I hate to have "extra" stuff running (thats just me) so I have minimal startup programs. Right now I think adobe gamma is the only startup program running.

There are processes that need to run (most are not readilly available) and if you are adventurous you can shut them off... but not advisable if you not comfortable with windows not booting or doing some wierd stuff.:)

[bayhli]

Many thanks for helping me sort that out Gary.

With the exception of the Norton security programs and Spyware, I'll clean some out of the right side task bar. I won't mess with the processes working in the background. I used to think it was neat to have everthing so available but I've learned the sense of limiting what I have on the desk top.

Now I just have to find the email folder in the directory - Windows XP does not make it easy to find nor user-friendly to quickly copy email messages.

[Carbone]

Pat,

I second all what Gary said. As for the little icons near the clock, some of them have a configuration mode (like right-click on them and choose parameters or setup or something similar) and can be disabled.

Stuff like Quicktime, RealPlayer, Mad Cow Disease Detector, etc. can all be deactivated. Unless you watch a lot of Quicktime movie AND have a very slow computer, you've no need to have a Quicktime Prestarting module (same for all of them).

Memory: If you want to see how much memory your system is using, do the following.. Right click on an empty space on the task bar and choose Task Manager. Then, in the Task Manager, choose the Performance Tab. There, at the bottom, you'll see four blocks on information. The one you're concerned is the Physical memory. If the Available memory is close to nothing, then yes, you have to be worried.

System freezes are rare but not uncommon. Perhaps there is a different set of circumstances in your system, other than memory, which caused it to freeze. Next time this happens, write down what was running, what you were doing, etc. Also, and this is not Windows bashing, sometimes, an application kind of freeze the screen because it's waiting for something specific. You can feel like your system is dead but it's not. Give it some time, it'll eventually get back. Some times. At work, this happens all the time when I launch a query on a big, humongous database and it takes 10 minutes for my query to return data. If I switch away from the screen and come back to check on it before the query is completed, my system will appear frozen, but it's not.

Hope this helps!

Ray
P.S. Don't tell anyone I did Windows support, otherwise I'm gonna get banned from the Mac community :D

[Chuck S.]

Ray, it looks like you're starting to make your way back to the comfort and safety of the Windows World!!

:D :eek: :p

[Carbone]

Forgot to ask... what e-mail software are you using.. Outlook Express? Let me know, I'll check how to export your mail messages.

Ray

[Carbone]

We're not suppose to say never again.. but in this particular case, not until I am forcefully forced to.. I flew this and I'm not getting back to it :

http://homepage.mac.com/carbmac/captures/bugs.gif

Ray

[TonyW]

If you're using Outlook Express you need to compact the folder (File/Folder/Compact) Then do a search for a *.dbx file with the name of the folder. It's easier to do a search to find them than to describe where they are as they are buried deep and if you have multiple identities you need to find the right one. I recently did it to transfer email messages to a new computer and it works fine.

Tony

[Carbone]

Tony, she wants to save only a few messages, not an entire folder of messages. Your method will save the file containing all the messages, wanted or not.

Ray

[TonyW]

Ray: Thanks - I missed that. What I do is move the messages I want to keep to a new folder, compact it and then move the resultant .dbx file off my hard drive. So at least I know I have them somewhere should I ever want to retrieve them. Usually I think of it about every 6 months so dump the messages I want to keep into a folder called eg Jun_Dec_2005 and save that somewhere. Very ocassionally I do want to retrieve an old message and so far it's worked as long as I can remember roughly when it was :)

Tony

[bayhli]

Thanks Ray & Tony - I do use Outlook Express.

Every 6-12 months I get a computer fellow to clean out my hard drive and then start fresh and I usually save the files I want beforehand. He told me the email folder was hard to find so he did it, which didn't help me when I want to clean up.

I have so many that it will be faster to pick out what I want to save and then delete the rest - you can't lasso all the mssgs in Express which is really idiotic, so to save files or delete files is so tedious and time consuming when they build up. :twisted: You have to sit there and select each one - I was hoping there was a simpler method. I just may search for the folder and for this time save the whole works in case I need something - and then TRY to keep on top of them!

Thanks again everyone - I really really appreciate the info :)

[TonyW]

The folder files aren't that hard to find - start a search for *.dbx in the Documents and Settings folder and they'll show up pretty quickly (but they're about 6 levels deep)

One way to grab all the messages you want to keep is to flag them and then click on the top of the flag column and all the flagged ones will group together. Click on the first and shift click on the last and that selects them all - you can then move the whole lot into a new folder.

Tony

[CarolLHB]

Never happen Ray...we got you and we ain't never lettin' you go back!
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/3537/untitled16vc.th.jpg (http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=untitled16vc.jpg)
http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/yay.gif (http://www.millan.net)

[Wendy]

Carol ...

Ray is total convert ... now Chuck Ummm well I know that he really longs to have a Mac.

You should ask him about the day he visited the Apple store !!


Wendy

[GaryK]

Pat

Tony has s good idea. Why not make a new "SAVED" folder in OE and move all your files you want to save in that one. Then find the .dbx with your saved emails. That way you only have one folder to worry about.:)

[CarolLHB]

Ok, Chuck...tell us the story!

[Carbone]

I've been wanting a Mac since '98... I'm not going to change back after 6 years of waiting (got it in '04).. :D

Ray