So I don't want MSE on my system?

How do you do that in IE and Firefox?

iTunes is using 12K lately when playing a song. Far from a resource hog. I use an older version of iTunes.

Exactly!! This machine flies when no updates are applied.

No other programs running in the background except MSE. There is over 10 scvhost.exe programs running. Not sure if that's an issue. And I have four tabs open in IE, but they are not updating until I tell them to. The four tabs are Gmail, Facebook, MTBR, and Wincustomize.

Win7, 2gig RAM, 160gig drive - Hard drive could be struggling to read the music files while it's trying to manage the dynamic swap file.

Try defragging the hard drive and see if that helps, especially if you haven't done that since installing all the updates.

Set your swap file size to a fixed size if you can on Win7.  Don't know exactly how to do that on 7 and don't know how big to tell you to make it.

It's not going to make it an i7 but it might help.

The disk is 2 percent fragmented. I will defragment the drive, I doubt it helps.

Anyone know how to do that?

No. It's practically worthless.

http://www.alanwood.net/demos/enabling-javascript.html

The two above who claim things slowed down are both on XP.

Irrelevant input.

The Winamp I use is v 2.9x .....because I skin it.

...and it's before it went to poo.

So what should I use? I want the lightest on resources free AV solution. I used AVG for years, it has become way to bloated. Avast is getting that way.

By the way Doc - those instructions do not work to disable Javascript in Firefox 24. There is no option under content to disable anything. After a quick Google search it looks like Mozilla has removed the option to disable Javascript.

I really don't know what people have against MSE, I have been using it since it first came out and have never had a virus or anything else on my PC.  It is also the only thing I use, nothing else.

Oh, and the results companies publish about anti-virus software and which is best, well lets just say I don't believe in them.

Agreed.  Some of those 'results' can be subjective not to mention that things change from month-to-month constantly.  While I will concede that certain iterations of the MSE client have been better/worse than others MS keeps updating the client software making it better.  The latest update to the MSE client came out just a few weeks ago.

For 'daily-driver protection' I too use MSE almost exclusively in conjunction with all MS published OS updates, the MS monthly "malware removal tool' as well as system-wide least privilege and only use tools such as my fovourite fast-scan cloud antimalware (Hitman Pro www.surfright.nl) and the heavy-hitting all purpose scanner from Emsisoft (www.emsisoft.com) as needed.

If at all possible can you start with a fresh OS install? It will take some time but install updates one at a time and test. Don't install any other software besides the OS.

Eventually ( if at all ) you will find the culprit. From there, do some research and see what the ramifications of not using that update will bring. I think you may be chasing ghosts if you don't.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/whats-the-best-size-for-the-pagefilesys-gigantic/d6b56634-c68a-47da-b8e8-eaecec820f3e?auth=1

With only 2 gig of RAM I guess I'd set it at 4 gig (4096 in both fields) but that's admittedly not a Win7-educated guess.

This is a fresh install, only a few days old, the only software installed is Firefox, Thunderbird, and iTunes. I guess I will try your suggestion, maybe this weekend.

I did set the paging file to 4 GB, but right now it's only using 1786 MB.

I would think with these numbers this system would be OK...

based upon the windows score of the components, I would suggest turning OFF the windows aero.

harpo

I would think so too, Kona. Something is wrong there.

I might look into turning off Aero. It has a PCI Express slot for a low profile card. I'm just not sure what card to put in there. Any recommendations? Something low end that can handle Aero and cheap?

just about ANY of the pciexpress low profile vga cards should be a significant improvement eg an ati 5450 or geforce 620 would be suitable and give the entire system a boost due to the shared ram buss effect for the onboard videos.

harpo

Yeah but I don't want to buy a PCI Express 2.0 only to find out the slot only takes a 1.0. I need to know what this system can take.

the best advice I could give is to go to the motherboard maufacturer's website and check the motherboard manual. the best ways to find the motherboard brand and model is

1 open the case and look at the motherboard (largest board in the case) for the brand and model,

or

2  download and install CPUZ, then run CPUZ, click on the motherboard tab, and note the brand and model,

or IF you have an itemised invoice from the computer build(assuming it was a custom build), then look in the invoice

hope this helps

harpo

Not quite.

There are two ways:

• From Firefox 24 on, web developers have the option to turn off JavaScript temporarily. Open the Web Console via the menu or the Ctrl-Shift-K shortcut and click on the preferences icon there. Here you find disable JavaScript under advanced settings. This disables it only for the current session though.
• Install the powerful NoScript Security Suite to turn JavaScript off for all sites by default, but with options to turn it on temporarily or permanently for select websites.

Read this article: http://www.ghacks.net/2013/07/30/how-to-disable-javascript-in-firefox/

Firefox 24 might just have "a mind of its own" and turn javascript on willy nilly. 

If you add the NoScript, I believe it should solve the problem of vulnerability through infected javascript applets.

You're stuck between a rock and a hard place: Either a good, proactive security suite (which might not prevent infection as their definitions 'lag'), or the browser option. Or, you could get a more modern machine and ditch Vista/XP (sorry) for a more modern and secure OS:

 "Important notice for users of Windows XP: To continue receiving security updates for Windows, make sure that you're running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). The support for Windows XP with Service Pack 3 ends April 8, 2014. If you’re running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3) after support ends, to ensure that you will receive all important security updates for Windows, you need to upgrade to a later version, such as Windows 8."-MS

Good luck, either way.

You have the system.  Assuming you can read you can locate each and every part make and model...and then Google for specifications.

In 'theory' you are far better placed to solve your own question than anyone else...

i was under the impression that all (pcie) cards will fit into the slot. they just won't take advantage of the extra bandwidth.

my motherboard has pcie 1.1 (it's that old...).. and i've stuck a 7770 on it... which is pcie 3.0 (only because i somehow killed the old 5770 when air dusting it or something.... not exactly sure how... wasn't cooled properly? wrong kind of air? )

aside from cpuz there's gpuz...  which gives more info gfx-wise... not sure if it only works when a card is in the slot though... because it's reporting what the card is doing, not the slot.