Sorry I have W2000 but there should be a similar option somewhere. The Help function in Windows while normally useless should actually be of use here.

TP re paswords, go to user accounts click on user name, that will open up the list on passwords on XP, alter from there. Hope that helps.
opto

Opt

" click on user name, that will open up the list on passwords on XP,"

Sadly not in my version of XP Pro.

I get the three user names. My own, guest and asp.net.

If I click on my own I can alter my password - which I have left blank anyway - but there is no direction towards altering the login screen....

K.

"The Help function in Windows "

Yes this was what made me think I could not have a third user. I have that ASP.NET and I can't remove it even if it was safe to do so as it is password protected and I think MS put it there in an upgrade.

TP

TP

I've just had another look but can't find the option yet. As a work around, you could put the computer into hibernate mode rather than shuting down. This makes restarting much quicker.

Opt,

" you could put the computer into hibernate mode rather than shuting down."

Brilliant. Why didn't I think of that.

But that's why I am here. Not to make money - never have. But my PC works wonderfully with all your help.

TP

.

I might even learn how not to triple post!!!

TP. I use Hibernate & can confirm that it is quicker to boot up - But - (there's always a 'but' isn't there) I have a feeling that someone posted on this thread some time ago that Hibernate creates a lot of fragmentation issues.
Or did I dream it ? :-)

Edit: Or should I have said might create fragmentation issues

I've not heard of it causing defrag problems, but the hibernate routine does create a file the same size as the installed RAM. These days, that may well be 1GB or more so that size of file could make defragmentation difficult. You could always delete c:\hiberfil.sys before defragmentation.

B & O,

You are right about that hiberfil.sys file needing to be removed to get a total defrag. I had that problem when I first installed Diskeeper and had to remove it to get a full defrag.

Having said that I have just come out of Hibernation and a Search did not find that file. Maybe Diskeeper can deal with it once installed without it being there.

What I have heard is that you need a full re-boot from time to time to give XP a chance to tidy up its registry etc. With that in mind I'd use Hibernate normally and a full close down every few days.

TP

Although rebooting does clean up things best, I find that logging off the user and then logging on again is almost as good and quicker.

TP

You can remove the need for logon access and let XP automatically log you on as follows:


The "quick" Welcome screen must be available - check in User Accounts that the conventional logon is NOT used

Guest account access must be turned off - again in User Accounts

There must be only one user account on the computer and that user account must not have a password


All these conditions can be set using Control Panel > User Accounts, as long as your account has Computer Administrator status.

If you can live without passwords, this can speed things up at boot time.

Alfa.

Alfa,

My problem, see above, is that I have been given a third user. What I said was:-

"a third user. I have that ASP.NET and I can't remove it even if it was safe to do so as it is password protected and I think MS put it there in an upgrade."

Have you any idea whether I need ASP.NET and, if not, how I get rid of it when I don't know what its password is?

In the meantime I am using Hibernation and it is proving so much faster.

Have a good week.

TP

TP

ASP.NET is not required - it is a utility for website development that is is not considered malicious and which is installed as part of the Microsoft.NET framework - unless you need it to use this framework of course !

You can easily delete this and any account from User Accounts. Logon to the computer as yourself and then just select the account you wish to delete from the list provided (in your case, it sounds like your own, Guest and ASP.NET).

If you click on ASP.NET, there will be an option to delete that account, regardless of password protection.


Alternatively, you can define the auto-logon account (fully reversibly) as follows.


1. Give your own account a password first from Control Panel > User Accounts and close those windows.

2. Then click Start, Run and type in control userpasswords2

A list of user accounts will appear.

3. Untick the box saying "users must enter a password to logon etc."

You will be asked for the username and password of the account you wish to use for auto-logon.

Good luck.

Alfa.

Alfa,

Thanks for that.

I have a web site, but do nothing more than upload browser folders to it using Cute. My 'development' is restrained to some crude page editing, on my home PC prior to uploading, using MS Frontpage.

I'm assuming that getting rid of ASP.NET will not have any effect on my limited work on the web.

In which case my simpler solution is to get rid of guest and asp and follow your suggestion in 5972.

TP

TP,

Removing the ASP.NET account should have no effect on your work - as far as I can judge.

Solutions in 5972 or 5974 are equally simple and do the same job.

5972 gives you only a single account. 5974 lets you have as many accounts as you wish.

Alfa.

Thanks alfa,

I'll get on with it shortly.

TP

Quick update on my graphics card problem. Bunged an extra card to take the load off my existing one and it's only made a marginal improvement.

Am now pretty sure it's my cpu that can't keep up.

CC

Just a shot in the dark, I think you said that you said you had 3 GB RAM, it may be worth reducing this to 1.5 or 2 GB to see what happens.

My reasoning, with previous operating systems, although the maxim 'the more RAM the better' was generally true, there was always a point where more RAM became counter productive. Win XP is supposed to have fixed this, but you never know.

I'm about to order some stuff off an American website - my concern is that on the page where I am asked to enter address and Credit Card details, I do not see the familiar padlock sign (using Opera) on the address bar (although the address does begin with "https://"). However, there is a padlock sign in the section where the Card details are required. There's also a link next to that and it displays security information (along with a padlock on the address bar). Am I right to be concerned? Any thoughts appreciated....