oh yah i don’t see how opening wmp will speed it up but there are a few tricks also 2 try u could open task manager and close explorer and then go through the run new task on task manager and open wow then to open explorer just go to task manager and click run new task and type explorer and hit enter or ok
you could also just make sure ur wimdows defender (vista-) and firewalla allow wow

hopefully this helps i know it was alot and to a few users i may have confused you

good luck and be safe
im not reliable for any thing users do to there computers even though it would take a retard to fuck up there computer doing what i said

Also the guy who posted this seems intelligent, I’m pretty sure he either already ran a virus scan or that his PC does not seem to be infected.

I never would have thought abut cleaning the dust out, that’s a great idea because the layers of dust will just make the computer have to exert more physical force in it’s hardware in order to get through them. But I’m going to guess you probably don’t have to do it once a month, it probably doesn’t get thick enough by then unless your home or other frequented area is very dirty. But here is my question: How do you clean out a laptop without unscrewing anything? My computer has a 1.4Mhz processor!!

The most common thing you need to run WoW or any other game is RAM and processing speed, assuming your internet connection is fast enough. The game runs better on my mother’s dialup computer then it does at one of the hotels I go to to play. The dialup really only causes lag when is you enter an area where a bunch of people are sitting around dueling. And on EQ it doesn’t cause any lags at all! But you don’t need 2G of RAM, you only need 1G, and a 1.8ghz processor. At the two different places where WoW runs absolutely phenonmonally, that is what the specs for processor and RAM are. (One of those places also has the highest connection possible, I think it’s called an O or something, but it’s higher then T3). The only thing that creates any problems at one of these two locations is the graphics card. If you want to find out if your graphics card is causing any problems, there is an easy way to do it – just go near water. On the computer I previously mentioned, everything works great, but if I go near water, everything turns into polygons. For some reason water messes up graphics cards in WoW.

As for processer vs. RAM: If your computer is extremely slow at switching windows when you have WoW open with internet windows, and or causes it to tempoarily say one of the programs is not responding, or causes WoW to disconnect while your computer is in the process of switching tasks, you probably want to upgrade the processor first. Or if you loading screen bar fills up, but it still takes longer then it should before actually showing your character and the game. If this doesn’t happen as much, but the loading bar itself takes a long time to fill up, or if your internet browser loading speed down more then it does on other computers with the same connetion speed while you are running WoW, then your should try upgrading RAM first – unless of course your system already has 1G RAM and/or 1.8ghz processor but not other one doesn’t meet that standard.

Everyone in tech will say “You need such and such requirement or even such and such operating system in order to run this program”… it’s usually not true. I have had at least 3 people tell me I need 2G RAM if I wan WoW and EQ to load fast but as I said the best-performing computer I have run into only has 1G.

I get better performance in Linux (amd64) running through wine than I do running it natively in WinBlows.

I wrote this a while back. With the increase in Malware since the new year, and the majority of work I’ve been doing lately related to users downloading bogus (that’s a good word) AntiVirus/Spyware programs, I thought I’d post this here.

———————————————————————————–

As some of you know, I’m one of the not so common, lesser-boobied technicians. And due to utter boredom, the boss throwing a sickie and work being incredibly quiet, I’m scribbling a quick PC Health..anti virus.. antispyware..what not to do..sort of guide.

The most common, and sometimes expensive problem we seem to get in the shop is virus infected PCs. Often, the viruses themselves have been downloaded accidently by an overly eager user, who, having heard about the latest virus/spyware on the news, has decided to take things into his own hands. The problem is, for virus/spyware creators, these people are easy targets. They create software that sneaks into the system, installs itself, throws up a notice claiming that the system is infected (which, of course it is, but not in the way you’d guess) with a nasty virus, and if you send them money, they’ll remove it. The most common, and hated of these is Winfixer. This program will throw up notice after notice, interrupting your browsing, slowing your PC to a crawl, until you a) Pay to remove it, b) Fix it yourself or c) Reinstall Windows. Another common program that works like this is Virus Burster, which not only tells you that you have a virus, but springs up porn popups for authenticity.
Virus removal currently starts at £35 in the shop that I work at, and goes from there. A format and reinstall is £45, and sometimes it’s not worth fixing. It’s an expensive lesson to learn, that some programs are bad, and do not do what they say on the tin, but the complete opposite. I generally suggest that customers research software on google or the like, before installing anything.

This is what I use to keep machines healthy, it’s all free, and I advise you do the same.

Step 1
Download CleanUp. This program is a nifty little utility which deletes temporary files, including things like cookies created during surfing. In deleting these files, it also removes ‘tracking cookies’, which are generally used to spy on you. It also saves a massive amount of diskspace, keeping your system running relatively smoothly.

Step 2
Download and install a free, legit. antivirus program. We like to use:

a) AVG, available at AVG, by Grisoft.
b) Avast, available at Avast, by Alwil software. Do not be put off by their mention of purchasing software. They DO provide a free version for home users, and this does require you to sign up and register.
c) AntiVir, available at Antivir, by Avira.

Download only one of these programs. Having more than one AntiVirus software installed can cause nasty conflicts and scary errors

Step 3

Download and install AdAware. I’ll be honest, I don’t trust other seemingly legit programs, e.g. Spybot. I haven’t needed to use them, AdAware has always dealt with my spyware issues with no problems. It’s easy to set up, configure and use, and most importantly, free.
Download Adaware here. Run this every two or three weeks to keep your system clean.

Step 4

Every system gets a little untidy as files are constantly written to the hard drive. Defragging your drive can speed it up a lot. Windows has a built in defragger, which you can access by:

Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools.

Some people suggest using Diskeeper, available at Diskeeper.com, but I haven’t any personal experience with it, so I can’t tell you if it works as well as the Windows Defragmenter, or if it’s free. The Windows defragger has always been enough for me.

It’s also advisable to run a checkdisk every few months, to fix any gremlins that have got into your drive. This is easy enough to do, although can take a while for larger drives.
Open My Computer. Right click on your hard drive, and click Properties. Click the Tools tab, and under Error Checking, select Check Now. I suggest ticking both boxes, and waiting through the possible reboot. Like defragmenting, this may take a while.

It’s as easy as that really. Clean up, run antivirus, antispyware and defrag and checkdisk regularly. And it’s great because it’s all free.

Just be wary of what antivirus and antispyware programs you install, research everything thoroughly before installing it. Better to spend a little extra time reading up on it, than forty odd quid having it all fixed because you didn’t.