vitek Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 I heard a myth that if you have a cluttered desktop (i.e. .doc, .xls and other files - not shortcuts) or a large desktop overall (i.e. 50MB of data or more) that it will affect the performance of the computer. Does any body have any opinions on this? I have tried booting PC with a desktop less that 1MB and then with 1GB of data on it, and I didn’t notice any difference in boot time nor memory usage. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 I have never heard that myth, but it must be one. The desktop is just a folder that is spread out on your... well... desktop, as Windows initializes. If you have a lot on your desktop, it may take a few milliseconds longer to complete.I have probably the most cluttered desktop in the universe, but my startup is fairly quick.However, what you have in your startup items may make a big difference in startup time, as well as overall performance. Check it out with Startup Inspector. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 I am quite happy with my computer booting up in about 1 minute and 40 seconds. It has 71 shortcut icons on it. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanHo Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 My Vista computer boots up in 1 minute 25 seconds. I have 76 desktop icons - but many are contained within folders according to type (graphics, Financial, Forums etc). Hence there are only 26 icons visible.Looking in Explorer reveals that my Desktop folder occupies 1.48 MB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarthy © ® ™ Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 I have noticed the "dramatic change" from a newly formatted comp, to the same comp once AV/FW software is installed ! It's shocking in use and startup/shutdown procedures !I have never heard the myth about desktop clutter. One of the biggest things I have noticed is how "deleting the contents of the prefetch folder", can increase your performance slightly. CrapCleaner does this for you and I find it a necessary addition to my comp, since it's launch. Comps are messy and leave alot of 'Crap' to be cleaned from time to time. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 My Vista computer boots up in 1 minute 25 seconds. I have 76 desktop icons - but many are contained within folders according to type (graphics, Financial, Forums etc). Hence there are only 26 icons visible.Looking in Explorer reveals that my Desktop folder occupies 1.48 MB.Right clicking and selecting properties on Desktop in Windows Explorer for me just shows the Display properties window???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 ... One of the biggest things I have noticed is how "deleting the contents of the prefetch folder", can increase your performance slightly. CrapCleaner does this for you and I find it a necessary addition to my comp, since it's launch. Comps are messy and leave alot of 'Crap' to be cleaned from time to time. :)No, no, no, no, no - this is a myth! Deleting the contents of the Prefetch folder will definitely decrease your performance, until the Prefetch folder has refilled itself.The Prefetch folder can hold a maximum of 256 entries, and therefore needs to be cleaned up from time to time. But not by deleting its entire content, but rather selected items. CCleaner does that by deleting items that are older than XX days (don't remember how many), and Windows does it by deleting half of the entries when it reaches 256.There is an ongoing debate which method is better (I prefer the CCleaner method), but deleting the entire contents is definitely a no-no! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitek Posted November 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 Thanks for the input guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 Defragmenting the preftech file seems to speed things up.. The following advice was either on here or another forum recently..Faster Windows startups Defragmenting your hard disk to free up blocks of memory can boost speed, but it's not the only thing you can defrag. The prefetch file can be defragged too. Go to Start, Run, Enter and type in defrag c: -b followed by Enter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panarchy Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 I heard a myth that if you have a cluttered desktop (i.e. .doc, .xls and other files - not shortcuts) or a large desktop overall (i.e. 50MB of data or more) that it will affect the performance of the computer. Does any body have any opinions on this? I have tried booting PC with a desktop less that 1MB and then with 1GB of data on it, and I didn’t notice any difference in boot time nor memory usage. Any thoughts?They myth is pretty much true...When you login, startup takes longer, if you have a larger amount of data... aka 1GB (I had 30GB)Panarchy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 I heard a myth that if you have a cluttered desktop (i.e. .doc, .xls and other files - not shortcuts) or a large desktop overall (i.e. 50MB of data or more) that it will affect the performance of the computer. Does any body have any opinions on this? I have tried booting PC with a desktop less that 1MB and then with 1GB of data on it, and I didn’t notice any difference in boot time nor memory usage. Any thoughts?They myth is pretty much true...When you login, startup takes longer, if you have a larger amount of data... aka 1GB (I had 30GB)PanarchyAh - now there we have something I had never thought about! My desktop is less than 100KB; I never store anything but shortcuts to documents, programs, or websites. That's what the desktop is for.Yes, there are people who actually store downloads on their desktop. That, IMHO, is something stupid! 30GB!!! :0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanHo Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 Right clicking and selecting properties on Desktop in Windows Explorer for me just shows the Display properties window????When I right click in Explorer on the desktop folder it opens a window with Properties at the bottomClick in properties and a window opens with several tabs.Click on the General tab and it will show you the size of the folder.Following Pat Willener's comment about the size of his desktop I took a more detailed look and found that Flash Player installer had left a file on my desktop which I had not noticed. Deleted this file and my desktop now occupies 376 KB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 I cannot bear to have an untidy desktop. My main machine has 28 icons on it that link to programs I use most frequently and that's it. All my downloads and similar things are written to a dedicated hard drive so that I can decide later what to do with them (and scan for anything that I would rather not have).This may not be the "correct" way to do things but it's what I'm used to and happy with. I'm too old to change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 I cannot bear to have an untidy desktop. My main machine has 28 icons on it that link to programs I use most frequently and that's it. All my downloads and similar things are written to a dedicated hard drive so that I can decide later what to do with them (and scan for anything that I would rather not have).I'm the same. I have twenty icons (14.5 KB (14,927 bytes)), and a folder set up to receive all downloads, some of which are then moved to storage folders others simply zapped. I've never downloaded to desktop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 Right clicking and selecting properties on Desktop in Windows Explorer for me just shows the Display properties window????When I right click in Explorer on the desktop folder it opens a window with Properties at the bottomClick in properties and a window opens with several tabs.Click on the General tab and it will show you the size of the folder.Following Pat Willener's comment about the size of his desktop I took a more detailed look and found that Flash Player installer had left a file on my desktop which I had not noticed. Deleted this file and my desktop now occupies 376 KB.This is what I see when I right click Desktop in Windows Explorer, and select Properties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 Here is where I right click in the above post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 When I right click in Explorer on the desktop folder it opens a window with Properties at the bottomClick in properties and a window opens with several tabs.Click on the General tab and it will show you the size of the folder.Like Andsome, I don't have a 'General' tab on my Desktop Properties... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarthy © ® ™ Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 ... One of the biggest things I have noticed is how "deleting the contents of the prefetch folder", can increase your performance slightly. CrapCleaner does this for you and I find it a necessary addition to my comp, since it's launch. Comps are messy and leave alot of 'Crap' to be cleaned from time to time. :)No, no, no, no, no - this is a myth! Deleting the contents of the Prefetch folder will definitely decrease your performance, until the Prefetch folder has refilled itself.The Prefetch folder can hold a maximum of 256 entries, and therefore needs to be cleaned up from time to time. But not by deleting its entire content, but rather selected items. CCleaner does that by deleting items that are older than XX days (don't remember how many), and Windows does it by deleting half of the entries when it reaches 256.There is an ongoing debate which method is better (I prefer the CCleaner method), but deleting the entire contents is definitely a no-no!Oh? ThanX 4 the info PW ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogervansteeden Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 I am quite happy with my computer booting up in about 1 minute and 40 seconds. It has 71 shortcut icons on it. :Di have only 13 icons on mine but i just restarted my pc and it took 3 minutes i have defragged my hard drive and run disk error deleted temp files what else can i do as i have a high spec pc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 I am quite happy with my computer booting up in about 1 minute and 40 seconds. It has 71 shortcut icons on it. :Di have only 13 icons on mine but i just restarted my pc and it took 3 minutes i have defragged my hard drive and run disk error deleted temp files what else can i do as i have a high spec pc?Try a scan with Ccleaner click here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 I am quite happy with my computer booting up in about 1 minute and 40 seconds. It has 71 shortcut icons on it. :Di have only 13 icons on mine but i just restarted my pc and it took 3 minutes i have defragged my hard drive and run disk error deleted temp files what else can i do as i have a high spec pc?Try a scan with Ccleaner click here.Here here, I use it every day, it only takes seconds. I recently installed it on my daughters computer. It must have scanned across twenty or more times sorting out all the crap. The difference in operating speed was amazing. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanHo Posted November 2, 2007 Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 Like Andsome, I don't have a 'General' tab on my Desktop Properties...I just tried my XP laptop.If I right click directly on the desktop, then click on properties, I get the same window open as andsome.However - if I open Windows Explorernavigate C: Docs and Settings > Main userThen right click on DesktopA window opens with three tabs marked General, Sharing, CustomiseClick on General tab and it shows the the desktop size on disc (Mine is 164 KB) and number of files (Mine is 41 files)NOTE : The route may differ slightly between computers depending on how the user accounts are set up and named :- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panarchy Posted November 3, 2007 Report Share Posted November 3, 2007 I heard a myth that if you have a cluttered desktop (i.e. .doc, .xls and other files - not shortcuts) or a large desktop overall (i.e. 50MB of data or more) that it will affect the performance of the computer. Does any body have any opinions on this? I have tried booting PC with a desktop less that 1MB and then with 1GB of data on it, and I didn’t notice any difference in boot time nor memory usage. Any thoughts?They myth is pretty much true...When you login, startup takes longer, if you have a larger amount of data... aka 1GB (I had 30GB)PanarchyAh - now there we have something I had never thought about! My desktop is less than 100KB; I never store anything but shortcuts to documents, programs, or websites. That's what the desktop is for.Yes, there are people who actually store downloads on their desktop. That, IMHO, is something stupid! 30GB!!! :0Hehehehheeehehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted November 3, 2007 Report Share Posted November 3, 2007 I am quite happy with my computer booting up in about 1 minute and 40 seconds. It has 71 shortcut icons on it. :Di have only 13 icons on mine but i just restarted my pc and it took 3 minutes i have defragged my hard drive and run disk error deleted temp files what else can i do as i have a high spec pc?Clean up your startup items with Startup Inspector. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted November 3, 2007 Report Share Posted November 3, 2007 Panarchy.......since you have decided to abandon the "Government" thread you started.......... :lol: Could you tell us how your 'government free' "Country" would survive? B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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