WinXP Help

[rexrobinson]

Since you have already tried Defragging and completed virus checking,

Another possible reason this is happening is that your hard drive is full and you do not have suffecient RAM to complete SWAP file processes. This is not usually what causes client side lag but there is always a chance this is happening and I have seen it several times.

You might want to check the free space on your drive. Your hard drive may also be on the fritz and spinning slower than it should.

I would also run a registry checker. Some viruses like to put a massive amount of duplicates and useless information into Windows registry in order to bog the system down and Norton/McAffe sometimes wont clean it all up.

there are some good registry cleaners free on the internet, but it is best to use one that you pay for.

 

[Encore]

Thanks Rex. It's worth the try.

I have a P4 3.0, 1GB Ram, 100GB HD.

See if the Registery needs some work. I'm DL a decent free one right now.

 

[rexrobinson]

Here is another version of what was posted earlier

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

they have the cause and solution for what you have but for a novice user, especially in the registry this is not easy. You should use your backup and restore option before you do anything they suggest in the link. You could also back up and just reformat your hardrive and reinstall windows if you want a very quick and easy way to fix your problem. Just make sure you have all the programs you need on a disk and backup any files you want to keep.

What they claim as the cause is some programs install stuff on your right click menu when you install it (such as "Scan with Norton Antivirus" or something that says, open with "XWZ" program) caused a conflict with windows ability to handle that code.

 

[GTaylor]

Apologies for taking so long to respond.

Looking at your hi-jack this results the good news is that I don't see any virus/trojans or spyware related items. Now the bad news, you've got an awful lot of stuff that some would consider spyware, realplayer being the worst. There is a program called realalternative that I use link, besides being a RAM hog real is always trying to phone home, a big no-no to a paranoid security-guy like myself

As Brain mentioned earlier, the Norton bundle by itself is horrible. If I remember it correctly the bundle was taking up almost 40 megs of space, far too much, plus Norton wants to run your entire PC. AVG is a free alternative and usually only uses about 7-10 megs, another one is Avast, another free alternative. Myself I use AVG but any of the two would work well.

ITunes - I would turn off this on your startup (msconfig), the only thing that happens when you do this is that ITunes will not automatically start up when you plug in your ipod (You'll have to manually double-click ITunes)

You also have a lot of chat clients, AIM, Yahoo - I'm going to admit my stupidity in that it's been forever since I've used chat programs (2003), but back then Trillian was the best as it was a chat program that would allow you to work through Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, etc. Again, I'm not familiar with the chat scene nowadays but if you can have one app running instead of two that would be easier on your resources.

Also Party Poker - is this something you need running or would you rather have it run when you want it to, if your answer is the second than disable this on startup (msconfig)

Most important - turn off Messenger (No, this isn't related to MSN's Messenger), start, run, services.msc - find msmsgs.exe and change it to disasbled). This is a feature that allows admins to communicate to other employees "We're doing maintenance at 7pm, all users log off before then, blah blah blah". Problem is spammers were abusing this to hit you with spam, no filters, nothing except your firewall stops them...speaking of this - where's yours?? Unless I overlooked it you're surfing the net naked. ZoneAlarm has a free firewall, highly reccomend you download it.

Agreed with Princess - turn off Limewire, another app you don't need running unless you want to run it (Better yet, ditch P2P and go with Newsgroups - besides being in danger of the RIAA, MPAA suing you, Newsgroups gives you better quality mp3s, movies (Most are Hi-Def), etc. I've got a newsgroup tutorial for mp3s if you want a copy. I'm currently creating one for movies, apps, etc.)

In startup:

qttask - Turn this off, when you want to run Quicktime files you can open it manually.
nwiz - See qttask
jusched - Java, I never have this checked (In fact I hate java, like the app but it's been so abused I hardly ever use it)
Nerocheck - see qttask
nvcpl - Norton, you need this, keep checked
nvmctray - Same as nvcpl
winamp - If this is in your startup, go ahead and uncheck it (I only mention this because I'm not sure if it's in startup or not)
Adobe - Same here

If you want to, you can send a screenshot of your startup and we can see which needs to be unchecked. To get a screenshot, start, run, msconfig, then select the last tab (I believe it's startup). Then while it's highlighted hold down Alt and hit Print Screen, then open MS Paint, and paste. Save as a picture then you can either upload it to your host or you can e-mail it to me and I'll host it for you, e-mail is [email protected] (Note - there are no numbers in my e-mail address, it's on here to throw off spammer harvesting programs).

Hope this helps, again sorry for taking so long.

 

[GTaylor]

I'm always impressed with the folk that can read this.

Beats working for a living - Also you can talk down to the PCs and they won't tell on you.

 

[JakeCamp12]

If worst comes to worst, backup all of your datafiles and do a reformat and clean install. I try and do one every 6 months as XP and IE 6.x get hosed up from all of the spyware and other junk on the net...

 

[Yeagermeister]

C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscntfy.exe

C:\Excursion9.5\mIRC.ExCurSioN.exe

These are the two that I see that would worry me. Anytime I see mIRC I get rid of it and the other one looks like spyware to me.

 

[rexrobinson]

I do want to remind you that the main reason your right click menu takes long to come up is due to a conflict with Windows object handler and some program that is trying to make use of your right click menu.

It could be Norton AV. Norton adds a customized menu in your right click menu and sometimes this data can create an error or an error in the registry that confuses the Windows Object Handler and causes a delay when you right click to look up the information to plug into the spot reserved for Nortons customized menu.

That link I provided should help you go through the registry and delete the problem, but like I said its tough to do as a novice user.

 

[Encore]

Everyone, Thank you for the help.

GTaylor, I'm amazed but your knowledge, and I'll have to email you with that, plus questions, I'm sure.

I'll disable all of this as well.

I'll give an update with my results on Thurs/Fri

Thanks again all..

Oddly, one thing I've notice is when ... I'd left click and drag on my desktop then I'd let go. Right away I'd right click and drag and there wouldn't be a delay. But, I'll follow what everyone has said and get back to you all.

 

[Gibby!]

I was going to post most of the exact thing that GTaylor did, but wasn't sure if you wanted to go through all that .

Also, Get the Quick Time Alternative as well.

There's nothing wrong per say with mIRC, Internet Relay Chat has been around for more than while now. The problem comes from the channels you hang out in and DCC's that you accept.

Trillian is really the best all in one chat program out there right now. The free version only lacks Video/Audio Chat (and maybe dcc to but can't remember as I don't often send files that way).

I would also be carefull about turning off the "messenger" service. I use an Anti-Virus program called NOD32, one of the ways to notify you of a problem is to send you a "pop-up" message. Just something to think about. It won't hurt anything at all to turn it off.

How many toolbars do you have installed?

Also:

Process name: Security Center

Product: Windows XP SP2

Company: Microsoft

File: wscntfy.exe

Security Rating:

"wscntfy.exe" is the Windows Security Center, introduced in Service Pack 2. It displays a tray icon indicating the status of updates, virus protection, and firewall.

wscntfy.exe can be disabled by going in to "Services" and disabling Security Center (not recommented).

Note: The wscntfy.exe file is located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder. In other cases, wscntfy.exe is a virus, spyware, trojan or worm! Check this with Security Task Manager.

So scan that file .