Total posts : 45366
I can understand why an operating system supplier would want to make the system operate with as little user intervention as possible and this is no doubt a good approach to address the needs of many users but in doing so it seems that we are forced to accept “common denominator” features which may not be to our liking.
There are many annoyances in XP and Win7 that I just want to make go away such as the constant nagging via the balloon tips that updates are needed and the ridiculous auto play which pops up every time removable media is inserted. These features can be turned off via registry edits and obscure system configuration selections and I have applied at least two dozen such tweaks so the operating system will leave me alone while I do my tasks. It is irritating to discover that many of the updates undo these changes.
The Windows Task Monitor showed over 60 tasks running after a clean OS and program install and I went through the list one by one and disabled those which were not needed and the list is now down to 36 and the system start up and shut down are a lot faster. One major slow down I found was that XP installs updates during shutdown. Maybe the start and stop speed doesn’t matter to most but I prefer a responsive system, not one in which the tubes have to warm up in order to operate, and one which is not constantly nagging me about something.
After much effort the XP system is working to my satisfaction.
Neil
