I have an always on internet connection

I thought you question was a good one. I'm interested in this as well...not that it makes much difference to me, as long as my SH4 doesn't crash so much etc I'll risk a few trojans and their adware...

You can't get a virus or unwanted software unless you visit a dodgey site. By playing a game you aren't visiting a web site so you don't need to worry about it.

dont some malware activly search for targets of opportunity? Without my firewall up couldnt one of these guys slip through some unknown backdoor that seems to always pop periodically requiring a new fix.

I play several games online an do this an it doesn't stop my firewall.

If you want better security when playing games on/off line with ur internet connection always on turn OFF java an activeX, turn it back on when done playing....

I only turn JAVA on IF an ONLY IF i need to, like going to one of my manufacturer wed sites to DL drivers but I have most of there FTP sites.

good to know

Another thing to do is to D/L a simple program called: FS AutoStart. I originaly found out about this from my flight sim forums. This program lets you shut down all background programs, as well as XP services, befor launching the sim for you!

You could also set it up so it will defrag your memory befor launching the sim. All programs and services could be set to be restarted automaticly upon exiting the sim. Helps tremendously! This little utility IMO is as vital as the JSGME!

If anyone is interested I found a place to get FS Autostart....here's da link....
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/S...utoStart.shtml

tried it, works great! thanks for the tip.

also:

make sure your virtual memory is turned on, or up. i just checked mine for the first time in a while the other day, and somehow it had been reset to zero!

go to:

start>control panel>system>advanced tab>click "settings" under the performance section then click the "advanced" tab again. it'll be down at the bottom.

this works by taking a portion of your hard drive for windows to use as a sort of RAM. although, it's not nearly as fast as RAM, it'll make a big difference.

thanks for the info i will give it a go :up:

For XP users .
Make the paging file size min = 1.5x max=3x
Go to RUN and type in MSCONFIG and go to startup . Google to find out what the services are . Untick what you dont need .
Click on start/ control panel/system/advanced/performance settings/untick all the boxs except for the bottom two then press ok.
Download and clean harddrive with this
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
Use the xp disk cleanup .
Defrag the harddrive .

To all those asking about whether or not stopping the explorer.exe process affects your firewall or makes your system more suspectable to hacker attacks, the answer is no. Explorer.exe is the just GUI (graphical user interface) for the Windows operating system. Meaning, it's the process that displays the objects you can see and click on. Hope this explanation makes sense and helps. :know:

Take a look at this site: www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicefg.htm. Everything you wanted to know about your OS, as well as the services running in the background. The info here is what was used in FS AutoStart with regards to services descriptions. Also has guide on how to configure your system to different applications (such as gameing), and which services should be shut for max performance. Great site!

I'm following this thread and I think this topic is getting too much attention.

Explorer does very little when it's not focused and being used. If you really want to speed up your system, whatever tweaks will have the most effect will be specific to your system and the stuff you have installed. Sure, removing stuff from startup helps but it's such a small part of the overall puzzle.

I'd highly suggest you download AMD CodeAnalyst (for AMD processors) or Intel VTune for Intel processors. These are professional tuning applications that can precisely measure the amount of resources consumed at an EXE level and a DLL level, and even deeper than that (it can sometimes tell you which function within a DLL is responsible for using the most cycles.) If you're serious about cleaning up, that's a great way to find out what's using most of the time on your system. Unfortunately VTune isn't free, but CodeAnalyst is (hell it might even work on Intel.)

As I mentioned before, FileMon from SysInternals is a great way to measure real-time filesystem accesses and find out what's pounding your hard disk. Given that the disk is the slowest common denominator, most improvement comes from stopping anything from unnecessary disk access. Search Indexers are the worst, such as Google Desktop Search, X1, Yahoo Desktop Search, and the downloadable Windows Desktop Search.

Another seldom analyzed part of the system that is often filled with trash is the Non Plug and Play section of Device Manager. This gradually fills up with junk over time especially if you install a lot of games. SecuROM and other hidden device drivers lie here and are very, very hard to notice. They can access all kinds of resources and not show up in the Task Manager, only the PerfMon utility can show any activity there and only if you know how to use it. I tried Norton for a while and fully uninstalled it, yet there was a driver still in there that was terribly killing a particular game that did many file accesses, because it was intercepting each one, and only CodeAnalyst told me that it was responsible.

Tried last night, very good indeed. The game do not suffered the same slowdown's that use to have. :up:

Nice thread...

I used the FSauto stop program offered up a few post back. It is a nice little program. I actually gained about 2 more FPS and the game seems to run just a bit smoother. May not sound like a lot of gain but for 1/2 hour of installing the program and setting it up, it was worth it. 2 more FPS can be the difference between this game sucks to WOW, this is very nice now.

Glad you're enjoying it AVG.:up: I've been useing this little utility for quite some time now. I know its helped me a bunch!

It took me a minute or two to figure it out but then I read the directs:roll:. It is quick about shutting down my programs and fires them up quickly when I done playing. Nice little utility.

I use "End it All".


Automatically goes through all running processes and shuts down everything unnecesary. Before I run it there might be 24 or more processes running in the background. End it all gets it down to 4 or so. And I don't need to worry about "what's that one?" and "what's this one?"; it knows.

http://www.docsdownloads.com/Tier1/enditall.htm

If you try it, just make sure you follow the instructions, and click the Double XX to end programs, not the skulls icon. You'll see them.

I've used it for awhile and never had a single problem with it, or from anything it shuts down.