Is it time to buy a new computer?

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Highly recommended" by whom? For what purpose? Please, if you can, provide
some
cites. I could probably come up with various reasons for doing so, mostly to
deal with hardware limitations or very mission-specific requirements, but not
as
any kind of "general rule" for desktop users.

I realize that sounds like a somewhat belligerent challenge, but it's not
meant
to be. I really
want to discuss this in more depth and it would be easier if we had some
existing recommendations and reasoning to work from.


I'll research it and post back. I believe then,that 'even' you will start
recommending it for Win98.

Four or five years ago, MVP Ron Badour posted this info about those settings, in
win95.general.discussion:

quote
Under normal circumstances, I don't believe there is any benefit to be gained by
using the server setting. I tried it with W95, W95A and W95B on two computers with
16/32 mb in one and 32 mb in the other and I saw no difference. Raymond Chen of MS
stated in a newsgroup post that the only time you could expect to see a tiny amount
of improved performance was if the computer was actually performing server type
tasks. It seems that under normal conditions, the amount of ram required for the
additional caching offsets what little advantage that additional caching would give.

Since this information was formulated back in the days of SLOW hard drives, little
amounts of ram and so on, I don't know if the tip has any relevance for today's
machines.
/quote


And, from the Win98 Resource Kit:

quote
Configuring the File System for Different Roles

Because computers can be optimized for different roles, including network
performance, Windows 98 configures certain performance-related file system
parameters according to the role the computer is expected to play. You can
improve the performance of your computer (and therefore troubleshoot poor
system performance) by ensuring that the computer is configured for a role
that is consistent with its actual use. You can define the computer's role
in the Hard Disk tab of the File System Properties dialog box (refer to
Figure 8.17). The three possible configurations available under File System
Properties are as follows:

Desktop computer
Mobile or docking system
Network server

You'll find Registry settings relevant to file system role in the Registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \FS Templates

The following parameters are important to the file system role configuration:

PathCache
The size of the cache VFAT uses to track most recently accessed
folders. This affects performance by limiting the number of times the file
system accesses the file allocation table to search for directory paths. The
setting is 32 paths for a desktop, 16 for a laptop, and 64 for the server
profile.

NameCache
Stores the most recently accessed filenames. The setting is 8KB
(or about 677 filenames) for a desktop, 4KB (or about 337 names) for a
mobile system, and 16KB (or about 2,729 names) for a server profile.
/quote
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Highly recommended" by whom? For what purpose? Please, if you can, provide some
cites. I could probably come up with various reasons for doing so, mostly to
deal with hardware limitations or very mission-specific requirements, but not as
any kind of "general rule" for desktop users.

I realize that sounds like a somewhat belligerent challenge, but it's not meant
to be. I really
want to discuss this in more depth and it would be easier if we had some
existing recommendations and reasoning to work from.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Buffalo" wrote in message
...

"Lil' Dave" wrote in message
...
[snip]
Also, I forget where the setting is
that you probably changed where you choose between best performance for
Server or Programs, but be sure to change it back to Programs.
[snip]

If what you're talking about is located in the Performance (My
Computer,Properties), File System tab and lableled Hard Disks, why would you
want "Typical role of computer" set to Desktop rather than Network Server?
It used to be highly recommended to set it to Network Server. Has this
changed?
Thanks

Four or five years ago, MVP Ron Badour posted this info about those settings, in
win95.general.discussion:

quote
Under normal circumstances, I don't believe there is any benefit to be gained by
using the server setting. I tried it with W95, W95A and W95B on two computers with
16/32 mb in one and 32 mb in the other and I saw no difference. Raymond Chen of MS
stated in a newsgroup post that the only time you could expect to see a tiny amount
of improved performance was if the computer was actually performing server type
tasks. It seems that under normal conditions, the amount of ram required for the
additional caching offsets what little advantage that additional caching would give.

Since this information was formulated back in the days of SLOW hard drives, little
amounts of ram and so on, I don't know if the tip has any relevance for today's
machines.
/quote


And, from the Win98 Resource Kit:

quote
Configuring the File System for Different Roles

Because computers can be optimized for different roles, including network
performance, Windows 98 configures certain performance-related file system
parameters according to the role the computer is expected to play. You can
improve the performance of your computer (and therefore troubleshoot poor
system performance) by ensuring that the computer is configured for a role
that is consistent with its actual use. You can define the computer's role
in the Hard Disk tab of the File System Properties dialog box (refer to
Figure 8.17). The three possible configurations available under File System
Properties are as follows:

Desktop computer
Mobile or docking system
Network server

You'll find Registry settings relevant to file system role in the Registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \FS Templates

The following parameters are important to the file system role configuration:

PathCache
The size of the cache VFAT uses to track most recently accessed
folders. This affects performance by limiting the number of times the file
system accesses the file allocation table to search for directory paths. The
setting is 32 paths for a desktop, 16 for a laptop, and 64 for the server
profile.

NameCache
Stores the most recently accessed filenames. The setting is 8KB
(or about 677 filenames) for a desktop, 4KB (or about 337 names) for a
mobile system, and 16KB (or about 2,729 names) for a server profile.
/quote
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Highly recommended" by whom? For what purpose? Please, if you can, provide some
cites. I could probably come up with various reasons for doing so, mostly to
deal with hardware limitations or very mission-specific requirements, but not as
any kind of "general rule" for desktop users.

I realize that sounds like a somewhat belligerent challenge, but it's not meant
to be. I really
want to discuss this in more depth and it would be easier if we had some
existing recommendations and reasoning to work from.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Buffalo" wrote in message
...

"Lil' Dave" wrote in message
...
[snip]
Also, I forget where the setting is
that you probably changed where you choose between best performance for
Server or Programs, but be sure to change it back to Programs.
[snip]

If what you're talking about is located in the Performance (My
Computer,Properties), File System tab and lableled Hard Disks, why would you
want "Typical role of computer" set to Desktop rather than Network Server?
It used to be highly recommended to set it to Network Server. Has this
changed?
Thanks

OK, thanks. I do remember some of those discussions, though not in any detail.
Regardless, I can't see this making more than a smidgen of difference, possibly
a positive difference, possibly not, in the machine in question. I can also see
it leading to problems that the OP doesn't need.

Kinda like the bigger, newer hard drive argument. Possible improvement in seek
time (provided it was *very* regularly defragged to keep data from being spread
over the entire drive, but the potential for the larger drive to actually slow
things down is significant, particularly if it wasn't partitioned into several
smaller partitions.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"glee" wrote in message
...
Four or five years ago, MVP Ron Badour posted this info about those settings,
in
win95.general.discussion:

quote
Under normal circumstances, I don't believe there is any benefit to be gained
by
using the server setting. I tried it with W95, W95A and W95B on two computers
with
16/32 mb in one and 32 mb in the other and I saw no difference. Raymond Chen
of MS
stated in a newsgroup post that the only time you could expect to see a tiny
amount
of improved performance was if the computer was actually performing server
type
tasks. It seems that under normal conditions, the amount of ram required for
the
additional caching offsets what little advantage that additional caching would
give.

Since this information was formulated back in the days of SLOW hard drives,
little
amounts of ram and so on, I don't know if the tip has any relevance for
today's
machines.
/quote


And, from the Win98 Resource Kit:

quote
Configuring the File System for Different Roles

Because computers can be optimized for different roles, including network
performance, Windows 98 configures certain performance-related file system
parameters according to the role the computer is expected to play. You can
improve the performance of your computer (and therefore troubleshoot poor
system performance) by ensuring that the computer is configured for a role
that is consistent with its actual use. You can define the computer's role
in the Hard Disk tab of the File System Properties dialog box (refer to
Figure 8.17). The three possible configurations available under File System
Properties are as follows:

Desktop computer
Mobile or docking system
Network server

You'll find Registry settings relevant to file system role in the Registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \FS Templates

The following parameters are important to the file system role configuration:

PathCache
The size of the cache VFAT uses to track most recently accessed
folders. This affects performance by limiting the number of times the file
system accesses the file allocation table to search for directory paths. The
setting is 32 paths for a desktop, 16 for a laptop, and 64 for the server
profile.

NameCache
Stores the most recently accessed filenames. The setting is 8KB
(or about 677 filenames) for a desktop, 4KB (or about 337 names) for a
mobile system, and 16KB (or about 2,729 names) for a server profile.
/quote
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Highly recommended" by whom? For what purpose? Please, if you can, provide
some
cites. I could probably come up with various reasons for doing so, mostly to
deal with hardware limitations or very mission-specific requirements, but not
as
any kind of "general rule" for desktop users.

I realize that sounds like a somewhat belligerent challenge, but it's not
meant
to be. I really
want to discuss this in more depth and it would be easier if we had some
existing recommendations and reasoning to work from.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Buffalo" wrote in message
...

"Lil' Dave" wrote in message
...
[snip]
Also, I forget where the setting is
that you probably changed where you choose between best performance for
Server or Programs, but be sure to change it back to Programs.
[snip]

If what you're talking about is located in the Performance (My
Computer,Properties), File System tab and lableled Hard Disks, why would
you
want "Typical role of computer" set to Desktop rather than Network Server?
It used to be highly recommended to set it to Network Server. Has this
changed?
Thanks

OK, thanks. I do remember some of those discussions, though not in any detail.
Regardless, I can't see this making more than a smidgen of difference, possibly
a positive difference, possibly not, in the machine in question. I can also see
it leading to problems that the OP doesn't need.

Kinda like the bigger, newer hard drive argument. Possible improvement in seek
time (provided it was *very* regularly defragged to keep data from being spread
over the entire drive, but the potential for the larger drive to actually slow
things down is significant, particularly if it wasn't partitioned into several
smaller partitions.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"glee" wrote in message
...
Four or five years ago, MVP Ron Badour posted this info about those settings,
in
win95.general.discussion:

quote
Under normal circumstances, I don't believe there is any benefit to be gained
by
using the server setting. I tried it with W95, W95A and W95B on two computers
with
16/32 mb in one and 32 mb in the other and I saw no difference. Raymond Chen
of MS
stated in a newsgroup post that the only time you could expect to see a tiny
amount
of improved performance was if the computer was actually performing server
type
tasks. It seems that under normal conditions, the amount of ram required for
the
additional caching offsets what little advantage that additional caching would
give.

Since this information was formulated back in the days of SLOW hard drives,
little
amounts of ram and so on, I don't know if the tip has any relevance for
today's
machines.
/quote


And, from the Win98 Resource Kit:

quote
Configuring the File System for Different Roles

Because computers can be optimized for different roles, including network
performance, Windows 98 configures certain performance-related file system
parameters according to the role the computer is expected to play. You can
improve the performance of your computer (and therefore troubleshoot poor
system performance) by ensuring that the computer is configured for a role
that is consistent with its actual use. You can define the computer's role
in the Hard Disk tab of the File System Properties dialog box (refer to
Figure 8.17). The three possible configurations available under File System
Properties are as follows:

Desktop computer
Mobile or docking system
Network server

You'll find Registry settings relevant to file system role in the Registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \FS Templates

The following parameters are important to the file system role configuration:

PathCache
The size of the cache VFAT uses to track most recently accessed
folders. This affects performance by limiting the number of times the file
system accesses the file allocation table to search for directory paths. The
setting is 32 paths for a desktop, 16 for a laptop, and 64 for the server
profile.

NameCache
Stores the most recently accessed filenames. The setting is 8KB
(or about 677 filenames) for a desktop, 4KB (or about 337 names) for a
mobile system, and 16KB (or about 2,729 names) for a server profile.
/quote
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Highly recommended" by whom? For what purpose? Please, if you can, provide
some
cites. I could probably come up with various reasons for doing so, mostly to
deal with hardware limitations or very mission-specific requirements, but not
as
any kind of "general rule" for desktop users.

I realize that sounds like a somewhat belligerent challenge, but it's not
meant
to be. I really
want to discuss this in more depth and it would be easier if we had some
existing recommendations and reasoning to work from.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Buffalo" wrote in message
...

"Lil' Dave" wrote in message
...
[snip]
Also, I forget where the setting is
that you probably changed where you choose between best performance for
Server or Programs, but be sure to change it back to Programs.
[snip]

If what you're talking about is located in the Performance (My
Computer,Properties), File System tab and lableled Hard Disks, why would
you
want "Typical role of computer" set to Desktop rather than Network Server?
It used to be highly recommended to set it to Network Server. Has this
changed?
Thanks

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Highly recommended" by whom? For what purpose? Please, if you can, provide
some
cites. I could probably come up with various reasons for doing so, mostly to
deal with hardware limitations or very mission-specific requirements, but not
as
any kind of "general rule" for desktop users.

I realize that sounds like a somewhat belligerent challenge, but it's not
meant
to be. I really
want to discuss this in more depth and it would be easier if we had some
existing recommendations and reasoning to work from.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Buffalo" wrote in message
...

"Lil' Dave" wrote in message
...
[snip]
Also, I forget where the setting is
that you probably changed where you choose between best performance for
Server or Programs, but be sure to change it back to Programs.
[snip]

If what you're talking about is located in the Performance (My
Computer,Properties), File System tab and lableled Hard Disks, why would you
want "Typical role of computer" set to Desktop rather than Network Server?
It used to be highly recommended to set it to Network Server. Has this
changed?
Thanks

One of the reasons I recall was that it increases the number of files that
windows caches and allocates more memory to the windows file cache, thus in most
cases increases performance slightly. I even remember putting in a tweak called
PowerfulPC (from a member of Virtual Doctor) that increased it even more than
the Network Server setting did.
I believe that you were to have more than 128MB of ram to use it.

I believe the following was from *WhitPhil*

"Typical Role Defaults
Desktop - 32 Folders, 677 files, uses about 10K memory
Mobile - 16 folders, 337 files, uses about 5K
Server - 64 folders, 2729 files, uses about 40K
PowerfulPC - 128 folders, 4000 files, uses about 60K(extrapolated)
PathCache specifies the size of the cache that the virtual file allocation table
(VFAT) can use to save the locations of the most recently accessed directory
paths. This cache improves performance by reducing the number of times the file
system must seek paths by searching the file allocation table.
NameCache stores the locations of the most recently accessed file names.
The combined use of PathCache and NameCache means that VFAT never searches the
disk for the location of cached file names. (VFAT Cache)
Both PathCache and NameCache use memory out of the general system heap.
NOTE: This is not, and does not have anything to do with VCache."

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Highly recommended" by whom? For what purpose? Please, if you can, provide
some
cites. I could probably come up with various reasons for doing so, mostly to
deal with hardware limitations or very mission-specific requirements, but not
as
any kind of "general rule" for desktop users.

I realize that sounds like a somewhat belligerent challenge, but it's not
meant
to be. I really
want to discuss this in more depth and it would be easier if we had some
existing recommendations and reasoning to work from.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Buffalo" wrote in message
...

"Lil' Dave" wrote in message
...
[snip]
Also, I forget where the setting is
that you probably changed where you choose between best performance for
Server or Programs, but be sure to change it back to Programs.
[snip]

If what you're talking about is located in the Performance (My
Computer,Properties), File System tab and lableled Hard Disks, why would you
want "Typical role of computer" set to Desktop rather than Network Server?
It used to be highly recommended to set it to Network Server. Has this
changed?
Thanks

One of the reasons I recall was that it increases the number of files that
windows caches and allocates more memory to the windows file cache, thus in most
cases increases performance slightly. I even remember putting in a tweak called
PowerfulPC (from a member of Virtual Doctor) that increased it even more than
the Network Server setting did.
I believe that you were to have more than 128MB of ram to use it.

I believe the following was from *WhitPhil*

"Typical Role Defaults
Desktop - 32 Folders, 677 files, uses about 10K memory
Mobile - 16 folders, 337 files, uses about 5K
Server - 64 folders, 2729 files, uses about 40K
PowerfulPC - 128 folders, 4000 files, uses about 60K(extrapolated)
PathCache specifies the size of the cache that the virtual file allocation table
(VFAT) can use to save the locations of the most recently accessed directory
paths. This cache improves performance by reducing the number of times the file
system must seek paths by searching the file allocation table.
NameCache stores the locations of the most recently accessed file names.
The combined use of PathCache and NameCache means that VFAT never searches the
disk for the location of cached file names. (VFAT Cache)
Both PathCache and NameCache use memory out of the general system heap.
NOTE: This is not, and does not have anything to do with VCache."

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Highly recommended" by whom? For what purpose? Please, if you can, provide
some
cites. I could probably come up with various reasons for doing so, mostly to
deal with hardware limitations or very mission-specific requirements, but not
as
any kind of "general rule" for desktop users.

I realize that sounds like a somewhat belligerent challenge, but it's not
meant
to be. I really
want to discuss this in more depth and it would be easier if we had some
existing recommendations and reasoning to work from.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Buffalo" wrote in message
...

"Lil' Dave" wrote in message
...
[snip]
Also, I forget where the setting is
that you probably changed where you choose between best performance for
Server or Programs, but be sure to change it back to Programs.
[snip]

If what you're talking about is located in the Performance (My
Computer,Properties), File System tab and lableled Hard Disks, why would you
want "Typical role of computer" set to Desktop rather than Network Server?
It used to be highly recommended to set it to Network Server. Has this
changed?
Thanks


Taken from http://www.maximumcomputer.com/august02.htm
"When Windows 9x was originally designed very few systems had lots of memory. MS
assumed the only Windows systems that had 32 MB of RAM would be servers on the
network. This is why MS set up the role of server as the only one that utilized
a proper cache for the files and directories. The cache is a temporary storage
in memory to hold recently accessed data from the hard disk. That way the drive
does not have to be read again to obtain that data. Using a bigger cache will
allow more data to be held in memory for quicker access.

Changing the Typical Role of this machine to Network Server can give you a small
but significant increase in speed when accessing information of the hard drive."

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Highly recommended" by whom? For what purpose? Please, if you can, provide
some
cites. I could probably come up with various reasons for doing so, mostly to
deal with hardware limitations or very mission-specific requirements, but not
as
any kind of "general rule" for desktop users.

I realize that sounds like a somewhat belligerent challenge, but it's not
meant
to be. I really
want to discuss this in more depth and it would be easier if we had some
existing recommendations and reasoning to work from.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Buffalo" wrote in message
...

"Lil' Dave" wrote in message
...
[snip]
Also, I forget where the setting is
that you probably changed where you choose between best performance for
Server or Programs, but be sure to change it back to Programs.
[snip]

If what you're talking about is located in the Performance (My
Computer,Properties), File System tab and lableled Hard Disks, why would you
want "Typical role of computer" set to Desktop rather than Network Server?
It used to be highly recommended to set it to Network Server. Has this
changed?
Thanks


Taken from http://www.maximumcomputer.com/august02.htm
"When Windows 9x was originally designed very few systems had lots of memory. MS
assumed the only Windows systems that had 32 MB of RAM would be servers on the
network. This is why MS set up the role of server as the only one that utilized
a proper cache for the files and directories. The cache is a temporary storage
in memory to hold recently accessed data from the hard disk. That way the drive
does not have to be read again to obtain that data. Using a bigger cache will
allow more data to be held in memory for quicker access.

Changing the Typical Role of this machine to Network Server can give you a small
but significant increase in speed when accessing information of the hard drive."

Well, I reversed all the tweaks that I made to my computer: back to
normal startup; selected home computer instead of network server; back
to the default virtual memory. I also download Ad-aware and SpyBot
and ran both and did discover some stuff from both, which I deleted.

Based on your comments startup list there really wasn't much to
delete. I didn't remove the mdac_runonce because I don't want to
inadvertantly screw up the Registry and since you said it wasn't any
big deal to leave it, I decided to leave it.

After scandisk/defrag my computer is still exhibiting the intermittent
slowness/hesitation. Mouse goes along then stalls then starts;
sometimes I type text and it doesn't appear for a few seconds;
sometimes computer won't shut down (gets stuck at "windows is shutting
down") - this happens on average about once a week. Could the hard
drive be failing? How would I know?

Also I've noticed that when I start my computer the system resources
are generally between 70-78% and now in IE it's at 64%. Does this mean
anything?