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Topic: Icons |
Joe Delaronde
From:
Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada
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Posted 23 Apr 2000 2:43 pm |
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Does the number of icons I have on my desktop slow my computer down????
If so can I move several icons to a single folder to better it?????
Thanks Joe |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 23 Apr 2000 3:04 pm
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Although someone mentioned that once, I've never been able to confirm it. However, I do have my icons into groups (the ones I use the most) e.g. appls (applications such as Quicken, MSWorks, Fax, graphics, etc), Untilities, Internet Appls, etc. Makes them easier to access and keeps the "desktop" from getting cluttered. Everything else is accesed via the start/programs.
One thing to do, to speed up things and free up resources is to minimize the startup programs and items in the system tray at the lower right of the task bar. Many programs either automatically put things in the startup and system tray or give you the option to do it (I hate programs that automatically do it as I have to go back and manually take them out). Most are unnecessary, e.g. AOL, RealPlayer, Office startup, etc., etc. My Compaq Presario runs 87% free at start up, and I only have McAfee Vshield, Task Scheduler (which probably could be eliminated), Volume (speaker icon), Adaptec CD Wizard (detects CDR/RW's) and Compaq Easy Access Keyboard Buttons (which I'm thinking of deleting).
As far as system programs that startup, leave them alone. If you have over 80% resources free at startup you're probably in good shape.
My Compaq, as configured at the factory, only had 67% free when I got it and the benchmark, using Wintune98, was way down until I got rid of the unnecessary crap. It's now in line with other PII 350Mhz systems.
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RickRichtmyer
From:
Beautiful Adamstown, MD
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Posted 24 Apr 2000 4:42 am
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It's probably worth mentioning that MSCONFIG is the program that allows you to turn these system tray items on and off.
------------------
Rick Richtmyer
Good News
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 29 Apr 2000 4:28 pm
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Well Joe,
I don't think the number of icons on the desktop will slow you down, except at startup. What usually slows the thing down is having too many applications open (on the taskbar) at one time, or having the "cache" folders loaded up with files. Check the folders named "cache" (especially if you use Netscape) and delete the files frequently. Some cache folders are wiped clean on shutdown, but some will remain full. Also, the more files you have on the hard drive, the slower the computer gets. Ever notice how "fast" a new computer is? But when it gets 10, 20, or 30 thousand files in it, things don't seem so speedy! Get the useless stuff off the hard drive, and things will improve.
Also, I can't understate the importance of memory (RAM). Anything under 128 Megs. these days just doesn't cut it. |
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Rich Paton
From:
Santa Maria, CA.,
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Posted 29 Apr 2000 7:29 pm
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Joe, I once put a very high resolution, beautiful JPG on my desktop as a background, and it definitely slowed everything down, as I think the desktop must be redrawn by the video system even though it was not displayed
while an app was in the "foreground".
I currently have 33 shortcut icons on my desktop, on a standard grey background. This does not appear to slow it down much.
Please bear in mind that to answer this type question, we need some idea of your hardware
and software configuration to make an educated guess compared to experiences with other machines.
So far the most significant "speed" improvement I've found was to implement the hard drive tips at this site:
http://www.geocities.com/~budallen/
FIC VA-503+Mainboard/ 96Mbyte PC-100 SDRam/
Diamond Stealth III S540 32 Mbyte Video Card/ AMD K6-2 350 Mhz processor/ Western Digital UDMA-33 6 Gbyte HDD/ 3COMM/US Robotics Sportster Voice/FAX ISA V90 Dial-up
modem/ Ancient 386 case & 250W power supply
Win98 SE / Netscape Communicator 4.7
Video Mode= 800 x 600, 32 bit true color[This message was edited by Rich Paton on 29 April 2000 at 08:30 PM.] |
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