My PC is Running Off and I Don't Know What Caused it!

Filemon is the utility that I use when I can see that my system's CPU isn't stressed and the memory looks available but my system is really slow or it seems like it is always running a lot. Besides CPU and Memory there is another thing that you should take a look at and that is what files are opening and closing on your disk. One time I had installed one of the popular antivirus software packages and I couldn't figure out why my system was slow when both my memory and CPU looked like they had plenty of availability. So I booted up Filemon and I immediately found out what was going on. I couldn't believe the amount of file open and close commands SpySweeper was initiating. It brought my system to it's knees. I don't want you to think that I have a total dog of a system. It's an average system that someone would buy, maybe a little light on RAM with only 512k and I do run more things at once on my machine than the average user but SpySweeper was killing my system with disk accesses and I didn't know what was going on until I ran Filemon. Now I use Filemon every time I see my system running amok and I can always get the answer from the utilities I run. Filemon is the probably the best way to tell what is happening to your system. It gives you a window that shows exactly what files are accessed and by what program.

Everyone should keep Filemon on hand, just in case you feel like your system is on a runaway mission and you don't know what caused it. Filemon is a small program that doesn't even require an installation. Just download the file, unzip it, and run 'filemon.exe' and the secrets will be revealed!

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Utilities/Filemon.mspx

What Starts When I Turn My System On?

So many applications now automatically assign themselves to your start directory so they are get executed while your system is booted up. Eventually this creates a backlog of processes that unnecessarily lengthen the amount of time it takes to turn your computer on. Another problem is that most of these programs don't just have their .exe or .lnk files executing but they also have .dll files loading and other changes to your registry. It gets to be a sloppy mess if you don't go in and delete the things that you don't need once in awhile. Today, everyone needs some kind of tool that will allow you to look in your start menu and see what is listed. The problem is that it's not just in one place. Windows has at least a dozen places where files can be input to execute on start-up and they also have a number of places where .dll files can be saved so that they load when your system executes. There are a number of tools out there that will tell you what is in the start menu but none of them do the job that the Systernals Autorun program does. It lists everything and allows you to deselect any of the files that load on startup. It also allows you to save the file off and then compare it at a later date.

There are other tools that have a nicer GUI and I use those sometimes but when I really need to pin things down this is the 'goto' program. Sadly, everyone needs to have this program loaded on their PC and they have to be familiar with running it. Otherwise, it's going to take you a long time to boot and you are going to waste a lot of resources. So download this file, run it, and be amazed at all the junk that starts when you boot your system. One word of warning... Don't shut off a bunch of the Windows services the first time you look at things. Just close the things you are sure you put on the system and no longer need. Eventually you'll get more knowledgeable and you'll know what items it makes sense to turn off. Also, after you first run of the program, save the file off somewhere. Then you'll always know that your system requires only what is listed in that first file you saved.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Utilities/Autoruns.mspx