Okay guys, have we defraged our hard drives lately? (Do a simple scan disk first).and then.....

Go to start/programs/accessories/system tools and look at all the neat stuff...

1) system monitor: go there and mess around, can't hurt anything and it's a good way to monitor everything that's going on in your computer... this is where you find out what your exact available memory is...It's under" memory manager"... unused physical memory. click around!

2) system information: go there to find out what your system resources are, (which are also in the system monitor) they say anything under 50 percent is dangerous, I'm showing 27 percent... "system resources" is the amount of memory available for Windows system files... don't know why my computer is still working. (That number does not represent the amount of total memory available)

3) system resource meter: puts a little thing in your system tray next to your clock showing you how much user memory you have, how much system memory you have, and some graphical user interface stuff... but remember the system resource meter takes memory.

STARTUP MENU... THIS IS WHERE IT'S AT, THIS IS WHERE MANY PROBLEMS LIE. (I am not talking about the"start menu")

HOW TO GET CONTROL OF YOUR STARTUP MENU:

Go to start/programs/accessories/system tools/system information... at the top click "tools" then select

"system configuration utility"... at the top of that page click "Startup" tab and from here you can select which programs you do not want starting automatically... look at all that crap! Are a lot of yours checked?, none of mine are. The only things that starts on my computer is Windows pertinent files, ones which we have no power over... but yet we do..... been there, done that, catastrophic! Now there is a catch...

Back at the system configuration utility general tab, you see several choices how your computer starts...

normal Startup- diagnostic Startup-selective Startup... you have to select "selective Startup" in order to have control over the Startup menu... now, if your computer isn't set on" selective Startup" you have to have the guts to reset that. You then will have the choice of processing or not processing your auto exec.bat file (batch files) config.sys file (which has to start)Syst ini. Files and Win.ini files..... I'd start them all. (If your computer is already set for selective Startup you be cool...) Then finally at the bottom there is"load Startup group items" click that off and your computer starts with nothing except Windows system files and a few pesky ones that seem to have a mind of their own or you can pick and choose on the startup tab page (And of course that window pops up asking you if you would like to restart your computer, I always click no then shut everything down myself then restart)

I hope I made sense, got kids over here bouncing off the walls... I know ways to make your computer do things that will make you look real smart.

next stop most likely will be: start/settings/control panel/system... go there and click around, click on anything...  but always always always click cancel when you are done.check your hardware accelerator, typical role of your computer (which should be network server)Write behind caching etc. etc.