Hi, When using Poser 4 or 5 do any of you find your computer slow or lacking resources? I believe if you killed (stopped) some of the windows services, you can free up resources which would result in those resource being available to poser, making posing and rendering faster. Is there a safe way of doing this? If so can you do it in a batch file? When I start poser, I want to automate killing of some of the unnecessary services. I appreciate any and all feed back. artist with slow computer (PIII 1.13 GHz, WinXP). p.s. administrator/facilitator, if this post is in the wrong forum, please feel free to move it to the correct location.

Attached Link: http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/best_of/msconfig.htm

Yes, you can free up some resources that way. Some are unnecessary and some like Messenger can be a security hole as well. Most likely, you can just turn them off and leave them that way so a batch file shouldn't be necessary. Here are links to some of resources that may help. Do backup your registry first as a precaution. http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,111121,00.asp http://www.henrique.bucher.com/windows_services.htm http://www.uksecurityonline.com/husdg/windowsxp/disableservices.htm http://www.uksecurityonline.com/husdg/windows2000/disableservices.htm

I turn off EVERYTHING. Remove everything from your start up Except XP's backup services and reg scan (they are valuable tools that don't hurt performance) Turn off Active Desktop, firewalls, antiviruses, funny animations like that nekkid Vicky dancing on the taskbar, Windows in general don't need anything but Explorer and Systray running. Now I am still on Win98, there are a few other items to take in consideration with the NT engine so I would check in the Poser Technical forum for more specifics before going all willy-nilly!

oops, cross posted; GOOD links lmckenzie!

Attached Link: eradicating Content Paradise

If you're using Poser 5, you might try removing Content Paradise. Instructions in the link. My file was a little different from his, but I basically deleted everything that mentioned the word "content." Poser works fine, that annoying Content Parasite tab is now gone, and it loads faster.

Turn off your firewalls and antiviruses and you won't have to worry about anything soon since your system will probably be trashed :-) Sorry Igohigh but telling someone to turn off those functions is just not right. I've gotten notification of half a dozen Gibe.C.1 virus infected messages in just the last couple of hours. My ISP caught them but you can bet I have my antivirus and firewall running. If you're on dial-up you could shutdown the firewall when you're not online but make sure you restart it it before you initiate an internet connection. If you need more resources, it's ultimately cheaper to buy more memory a better OS or even a new processor than to lose everything, but it's your call.

I am running a 500 Mhz AMD K7 with 384 MB memory and a Voodoo 3 with Windoze XP and everything running in the background and have no probs using PPP and other modelling progs all at the same time. Render times don't seem all that slow to me either. ziggie

it never hurts to optimize things..and winXP is a hog :) this is the best page i've found for finding out what all these services do and which you can safely kill to take some of the load off of your computer... http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

lmckenzie, igohigh, randym77, ziggie and rodzilla... Thank you very, very much for replying! I didn't expect this many replies in such a short time. I will go ahead and start reading all the links you guys provided. This community rocks! :) I'll follow all the links and read up on everything. Thank you again.

That link that rodzilla gave you for BlackViper is really one of the best...use the "safe mode" settings he gives. Also do a search for "XP-anti spy".That's a small free program that's worth it's weight in gold. When you run XP-antispy you get a long list of options you can turn off that you won't get in WinXP.It lets you get rid of the pop-up ballons,messager service,Win auto updates,Windows regestration service,and most important the Alexis regesitry. That last comes with XP,and has been found to be nothing but spy wear. Please note...turning off the "auto updates" does not stop you from manuely useing Win updater ..patch early and patch often. Following the above(BlackViper settings and XP-antispy)and running ZoneAlarm firewall,not only did I get rid of A LOT of things running in the background....but I've had my computer tested on three sites,and found it is locked down really tight(security wise). SWAMP

Just a note to anyone who isn't aware, don't open any email with an attachment saying that it is from Microsoft security. I've somehow never gotten caught in any of the previous email virus waves but I've gotten at least a dozen or more of the Gibe.C.1 (masquerades as MS Security) messages blocked by my ISP today. I subscribe to the MS security bulletin service but they NEVER send attatchments with "fixes" via email. Obviously someone with me in their address book is infected. Be careful out there.

Oh, just as a notification, WinXP Lite has gone gold! Hop over to www.litepc.com and take a look at what you can yank out of XP by the roots. It also works for Win2k.... Seems Unca Bill lied again about what is 'needed' for Windows to run.... :

I was going to add a great link I found, but when I checked it, I discovered it was the BlackViper link given above. Anyway, that's a great link for anyone who wants to force windows to behave properly and not hog every resource available. Highly recommended. mac

Also do a search for "XP-anti spy". >> Thanks for the tip, I just did. (I never knew about Alexa. Spybot let me down.) Anyway, I want to post a warning. When you search for "XP-anti spy," the first links to come up lead to: www.xp-antispy.de Do not download the software they offer. It's some kind of dialing software, probably malicious. PCWorld and many other sites point to www.xp-antispy.de, because that used to be the site you could DL XP Anti-Spy from. The domain was apparently hijacked or something. The real XP Anti-Spy site is now: www.xp-antispy.org

Attached Link: http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm

'I never knew about Alexa' Neither did I, and AdAware keeps finding it on my system. So I did a Google and found this link. Interesting reading. It gives the full scoop on Alexa/MSN, how to kill it, modify it, etc. mac

'It's some kind of dialing software, probably malicious' Re dialers - There's no other kind of dialer except malicious. Dialers used to be auto-installed on your system mainly through porn sites. Used to be. They're now becoming a LOT more common, turning up on games sites, music sites, etc. A friend of mine got it dumped on her through her daughter's surfing - and got a HUGE phone bill. It installs itself and re-routes your connection to one in Singapore or the North Pole, and as soon as it does, you start paying $10 a second or whatever. Basic rules to avoid getting $1000 phone bills are.... 1. Keep a firewall (zone alarm is good) on all the time. It will (mostly) ask you if the dialer can access the net. 2. Keep the modem volume high so you can hear any new dialing activity. 3. Do a search regularly in your Windows folder for DDialer.exe, dialer.exe, loader.exe or dctl.exe. I do it once a week specifying 'files modified in the last 7 days' 4. Frequently check the properties of your dial-up connections to make sure there are no new ones and that the numbers haven't been changed on the ones you use. Boy, the net is like a f**king jungle these days! mac

You can also shut down Explorerm I do it all the time. When you want it back just do a 'Ctrl/Alt/Del' and launch it from the Applications window (New Task) It will take it's place as a process once it restarts. and Never turn off your Firewall,,,even on dial up. It's pretty easy to forget something and connect, then BANG...your screwed. I'm on broadband, so I can't shut mine down...ever.