Tech Tips
September 1, 2007
Two new articles by NYACC members.
- How to Speed up your system by Hank Kee.
- Organizing Your Files and Folders by Fred Kahn.
July 20, 2007
Our webmaster, Michael Horowitz, has a Defensive Computing blog at CNET with assorted tech tips.
June 1, 2007
Some Windows XP users have been experiencing a very slow running system. It has
been discovered that the windows automatic update service is causing the problem.
Some of the applications that use windows installer include microsoft office 2003, microsoft office xp, and windows defender. They may cause cpu usage of 100 percent during update detection or update installation. Task Manager will show that one of the svchost.exe processes is using 99% of the processor. Svchost.exe cannot be turned off as it is used by many other windows services.
On may 22, 2007 hotfix 916089 was released by Microsoft to resolve the bug in the automatic update service. However, it does not fully resolve the problem. Note from microsoft: although this solution should resolve the computer unresponsiveness and reduce the time that you experience high cpu usage, this solution does not completely eliminate high cpu usage.
Recommendation: the automatic updates service should normally be disabled. To do so: Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. Turn it back on periodically to check for new patches at the windows update website. This involves both setting it to an Automatic startup and then manually starting the service. After installing new patches, stop and disable the automatic updates service.
Some of the applications that use windows installer include microsoft office 2003, microsoft office xp, and windows defender. They may cause cpu usage of 100 percent during update detection or update installation. Task Manager will show that one of the svchost.exe processes is using 99% of the processor. Svchost.exe cannot be turned off as it is used by many other windows services.
On may 22, 2007 hotfix 916089 was released by Microsoft to resolve the bug in the automatic update service. However, it does not fully resolve the problem. Note from microsoft: although this solution should resolve the computer unresponsiveness and reduce the time that you experience high cpu usage, this solution does not completely eliminate high cpu usage.
Recommendation: the automatic updates service should normally be disabled. To do so: Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. Turn it back on periodically to check for new patches at the windows update website. This involves both setting it to an Automatic startup and then manually starting the service. After installing new patches, stop and disable the automatic updates service.