Tell me WHY? (different speeds for different users)

[Ext User(jim)]

Hello... I have XPSP2....

when I log on to my main account it is slow to start, much hard disk
thrashing and
sometimes (I hate this) the tray icons do not appear (although the
applications are indeed running as I can see in the task manager).

I made a new user account, and made it default (using userpasswords2). Now
when
the PC loads in that account it is fast, and all tray icons load!

Here is the info:
- The applications that start in the tray are exactly the same in both
accounts, I have carefully checked all startup items on both accounts with a
program called autoruns.
- The start menu items are exactly the same...

Both accounts are set to CLASSIC theme with no wallpaper....

the ONLY things I can think of that might be slowing it down are:

The icon cache and the .dat file that contains the registry of the current
user. but this is only a hunch...

This is a mystery.. does anyone have ANY idea what may be causing the
difference in speed? (I MUST ADD>>> this is not some problem on THIS
computer, I have seen this phenomena again and again on various computers).
I want to understand what might be causing the delay .. so I can optimize
the load times of my main account...

So basically out of observation I have seen a strange phenomena I cannot
fully explain... this phenomena is leading me to a discovery of how to
optimize the pc...

any assistance would be great.. I know this is a question for the experts
:-)

thanks in advance

[Ext User(lurker)]

jim wrote:
> Hello... I have XPSP2....
>
> when I log on to my main account it is slow to start, much hard disk
> thrashing and
> sometimes (I hate this) the tray icons do not appear (although the
> applications are indeed running as I can see in the task manager).
>
> I made a new user account, and made it default (using userpasswords2). Now
> when
> the PC loads in that account it is fast, and all tray icons load!
>
> Here is the info:
> - The applications that start in the tray are exactly the same in both
> accounts, I have carefully checked all startup items on both accounts with a
> program called autoruns.
> - The start menu items are exactly the same...
>
> Both accounts are set to CLASSIC theme with no wallpaper....
>
> the ONLY things I can think of that might be slowing it down are:
>
> The icon cache and the .dat file that contains the registry of the current
> user. but this is only a hunch...
>
> This is a mystery.. does anyone have ANY idea what may be causing the
> difference in speed? (I MUST ADD>>> this is not some problem on THIS
> computer, I have seen this phenomena again and again on various computers).
> I want to understand what might be causing the delay .. so I can optimize
> the load times of my main account...
>
> So basically out of observation I have seen a strange phenomena I cannot
> fully explain... this phenomena is leading me to a discovery of how to
> optimize the pc...
>
> any assistance would be great.. I know this is a question for the experts
> :-)
>
> thanks in advance
>
>
Most likely, you have adware / spyware / trojans located in the respective users profiles (Documents and Settings.)
It was installed respective of the user that was online at the time. It runs only when that user logs on.
Carl

[Ext User(Rock)]

"jim" <1@1.1> wrote

> Hello... I have XPSP2....
>
> when I log on to my main account it is slow to start, much hard disk
> thrashing and
> sometimes (I hate this) the tray icons do not appear (although the
> applications are indeed running as I can see in the task manager).
>
> I made a new user account, and made it default (using userpasswords2). Now
> when
> the PC loads in that account it is fast, and all tray icons load!
>
> Here is the info:
> - The applications that start in the tray are exactly the same in both
> accounts, I have carefully checked all startup items on both accounts with
> a program called autoruns.
> - The start menu items are exactly the same...
>
> Both accounts are set to CLASSIC theme with no wallpaper....
>
> the ONLY things I can think of that might be slowing it down are:
>
> The icon cache and the .dat file that contains the registry of the current
> user. but this is only a hunch...
>
> This is a mystery.. does anyone have ANY idea what may be causing the
> difference in speed? (I MUST ADD>>> this is not some problem on THIS
> computer, I have seen this phenomena again and again on various
> computers). I want to understand what might be causing the delay .. so I
> can optimize the load times of my main account...
>
> So basically out of observation I have seen a strange phenomena I cannot
> fully explain... this phenomena is leading me to a discovery of how to
> optimize the pc...


When a notification area (commonly called the systray) icon does not appear
one fix is to disable one or both of these two services, SSDP Discovery
Service, and UPnP service from Start | run | services.msc

You could do some clean boot troubleshooting to see what's causing the lag.

Clean Boot Troubleshooting

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=316434

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310353

--
Rock [MVP - User/Shell]