Related
OK, I got my Sprint TP2 yesterday and was playing around with it. I installed my SD card that had some files on it and when I tapped on one document file by mistake it "unzipped" it to the internal storage completely filling it.
I've looked all over but cannot seem to locate the internal storage memeory on the phone.
HELP!
Thanks in Advance.
OK, never mind. But.....
OK, after I opened it back up today I started looking at it like my old PDA and found the file and deleted it.
But..
I'd like to free up more internal memory as it shows I only have 158MB free. And only 59MB free for program memory. I'll be getting a 16GB card soon to replace my 2GB I have but I'd like to have more internal memory.
What programs/files can I delete safely from my Sprint TP2 to free up more space?
JohnMcD348 said:
I'd like to free up more internal memory as it shows I only have 158MB free. And only 59MB free for program memory. I'll be getting a 16GB card soon to replace my 2GB I have but I'd like to have more internal memory.
What programs/files can I delete safely from my Sprint TP2 to free up more space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
158MB of "Storage" memory is actually quite a bit -- it's 60% open/empty. Considering that a lot of applications are less than a 1 MB, and a huge one is 5MB -- you still have room to install dozens directly to the device. To minimize use of Storage, install as many apps as possible to your card. And, wherever possible, configure settings on apps to store their data to the card...and set the camera to save to the card, etc. Even a 2GB card is a lot of space -- unless you're carrying full-length, high-quality movies.
Program memory gets filled up by stuff that's currently running, so deleting installed programs won't free up more of that -- unless these programs run automatically/all-the-time.
MCbrian said:
158MB of "Storage" memory is actually quite a bit -- it's 60% open/empty. Considering that a lot of applications are less than a 1 MB, and a huge one is 5MB -- you still have room to install dozens directly to the device. To minimize use of Storage, install as many apps as possible to your card. And, wherever possible, configure settings on apps to store their data to the card...and set the camera to save to the card, etc. Even a 2GB card is a lot of space -- unless you're carrying full-length, high-quality movies.
Program memory gets filled up by stuff that's currently running, so deleting installed programs won't free up more of that -- unless these programs run automatically/all-the-time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, if you have 158MB storage free on the phone right now, be sure to take a screenshot if it so you can look back later and remember "back when" you had still had that much free space
MCBrian is right, moving stuff to your memory card is the best way to free up space on the phone's memory and keep it from filling up unneccesarily. Like he said, first change the camera settings to always save to the card, otherwise that will always eat into your available on-board storage, and quickly. I would also suggest going into the current album of pics on the phone, deleting anything you don't want to save, and move whatever you do want to save into a "pics" folder on your card (HTC's photo album can include pics saved there as well). Same for music...store any and all of it on the card, not the phone's memory. The one caveat with that is that the HTC music player (the music tab in touchflo) doesn't always find music on the card, not for me anyway, but I never liked that player anyway.
Managing my memory that way has given me enough space that even with dozens of programs on the phone, all of them installed to the phone's memory, I still have 95MB free space for programs on there. In fact, I still have a fair amount of junk (stuff I tried but don't use, etc) in there that I need to go clear out. Installing some of your programs to the memory card can help too, but if you're careful you can keep enough storage memory on there available to be able to avoid ever needing to do that (and the hassle that comes with trying to figure out which programs are ok with being installed on the card, as well as managing/maintaining separate install locations).
If you're going to start using file explorer to dig around in your directories, I highly recommend you first install File Explorer Extension. It simply adds a lot of the stock destop file explorer functionality that's missing in the mobile version ("open with>" in the context menu, for example!)...makes a HUGE difference in ease of use when digging through your file structure. I attachted it below, "fexploreext v2.05.CAB"
For keeping your RAM ("running" memory) from growing too fast, I also suggest running the other 2 cabs I have attached below (SSK TP2 Dynamic Resource Proxy.cab and nopushinternet.cab), they make a big difference in the active memory management on the TP2, you'll probably see a noticable difference right after soft-reset.
Thanks for those CABs. I'm pretty good at managing the storage on things like this, I just couldn' find the files/folder on the newer phone using the options available in WinMo6+. I've been using an Axim for years runnign WinMo5 and earlier versions. Storage cards are pretty easy for me as I'm use to running stuff between the Main/CF/SD cards that I had on the Axim. I just have alot to learn about the newer 6.1 OS. Probably, by the time I get used to 6.1, Sprint will come out with 6.5(6,7,whatever) and I'll get to relearn everything all over again.
If there are any other programs you'd recommend to help me out I'd greatly appreciate it.
JohnMcD348 said:
Thanks for those CABs. I'm pretty good at managing the storage on things like this, I just couldn' find the files/folder on the newer phone using the options available in WinMo6+. I've been using an Axim for years runnign WinMo5 and earlier versions. Storage cards are pretty easy for me as I'm use to running stuff between the Main/CF/SD cards that I had on the Axim. I just have alot to learn about the newer 6.1 OS. Probably, by the time I get used to 6.1, Sprint will come out with 6.5(6,7,whatever) and I'll get to relearn everything all over again.
If there are any other programs you'd recommend to help me out I'd greatly appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the file structure is obviously still pretty much the same windows-standard, just some locations moved around. The bad news is that none of the programs installed by default in the stock rom are removable through the normal remove programs dialog, or any 3rd-party app I've seen. However you can just go perform the same steps manually by deleting any folders matching the program/publisher's name in these locations:
<root>/program files
<root>/application data
<root>/windows/start menu
...and then searching in the registry to delete any keys in there for the program as well. You'll need a registry editor to do that, I've attached my favorite free one, PHM Regedit...just search your registry by the name of the program you're removing. If you're not familiar with messing around in the registry, there's guides available here, let me know if you need me to point you in that direction. And, as always, be SURE to make a backup copy of your registry (PHM can handle that for you) before making any changes.
Here's a couple of other utilites I've found useful:
Advanced_Configuration_Tool_v3.3.cab -Gives you acccess to all sorts of advanced UI and system configuration options, a favorite and often-referenced tool here at xda.
Extra Camera Modes.cab -unlocks some capture modes that the TP2 camera is capable of, but aren't enabled from the factory on US models. New modes include MMS video, Burst, Sport, and geotagged images
SDK certs.cab -windows authentification certifcates necessary for installing many hacks/apps/cabs/etc that are available here
DivXPlayer_PPC.cab -a lean, mean .avi player from the people who came up with DivX (the codec standard, not the movie rental crap lol). I rip my DVD's at home to ~700MB DivX files, save them on my memory card, and use this app to play them...it gives far better performance and quality than any of the other players I've tried.
Very Much appreciated.
Now, I seem to have another probelm and I don't know if it's my unfamiliarirty with the newer Sync Center or am I just doing something wrong, or if it's an issue with the programs I've got.
I'm new to both Win7 and WinMo6+(and touch flo, etc). Up to now I had XP(w/ ActiveSync) and my WinMo5 Axim.
I can't seem to get my programs installed onto my TP2. I use a prgram for work called Tarascon. It's a medical reference program. I tried to install it yesterday and I never got the repsonse on the TP2 to request permission to install it. Today, I tried to install SOTI's Pocket Controller and this time I did get the request and I installed it to the device but I can't find it anywhere on it. It didn't install an Icon on the device and I've looked through every place I could think and can't even find an installation file for it. I didn't get an install error or failure notice and my memory size dcreased 2MB so something happened.
Glad to help
Since I don't really know anything about the medical reference software you're using, my first suggestion would be to check with the publisher and make sure that the version you have is compatible with Win7 and WM6.x...often software that worked on WM5 won't work just right on 6.
As for SOTI Pocket Controller, the latest version available on the site should be compatible with your setup. When you install it, are you doing that by running a .exe file on your PC and then letting Mobile Device Center (the new generation of ActiveSync) handle the install from there? It might be advisable to just moving the .cab file for the program straight to your phone (device memory or storage card is fine), and run it from there to install...bypasses the MDC, and ends up doing the same thing in the long run. In fact, it might be worth trying the same thing (running the .cab straight from your phone) with the medial software you've got.
It might just be that I'm using Ver4 and it doesn't want to run right with the newer install setup(MDC).
It worked fine when I installed it on my Axim(WinMo5) and using WinXP(ActiveSync).
Another odd thing, every time I plug in my TP2 and MDC starts to Sync, I get the request from Win7 for the Tarascon program to initialize. So that tells me something, somewhere set a pointer to my TP2 to update the program. I think.
Hi,
I did up a home replacement for my Nook simple touch, thought I would share it. This is an initial release, no doubt there are bugs, incompatibilities, etc, you were warned. There are no checks for other devices at this point, NST only.
Thanks to the nook community for the noogie.img file, touch nooter, and relaunch for source code ideas and various threads regarding quick refresh and e-ink support.
Disclaimer: Now, what I am using currently is the bare minimum, I have tried quite a bit of the work in this forum and it works well, but I wasn't satisfied or 100% confident and I wanted less installed. So, I restored my nook to stock, used noogie and copied over a rooted ramdisk. That was it, no touchcolortools, nooktouchtools installed, adw minimal this or that, or button saviors. I am sure they are great programs but I don't know enough about them or have the interest/time to do research on them to want to keep them installed.
For me, the point is to keep things simple and maintain battery life. It's an e-reader not a tablet after all. I just want to read books, check email, check a website or two, get some more use out of wi-fi since I don't live in a B&N supported nation.
To install:adb install EPubBrowser.apk
Optional:
I also installed Email.apk and set up my gmail from there, no certificates required or a million google app files and plucking a chicken on a Tuesday after jumping on your left foot crap. No offense to those who like chicken plucking.
adb install Email.apk
Done and done.
I can do up a CWM zip upon request, but last going off I have a continuous reboot after installing the latest version and if you know enough to get the Nook's CWM installed you should be able to use adb.See attached files.
What is not working:
Since Android doesn't really know about multiple external storage locations (at least for the Nook's 2.1 and/or my knowledge of android) EPubBrowser is unable to detect when the internal storage has been remounted, there is no notification of that, just notification of external storage. So if you plug in your usb cord to the computer the list of books will be empty even when you remove it. So if you don't have an sdcard you will have to hit the back button and launch home again to refresh.
Also, B&N books are not listed, whatever is in My Files will be scanned only. That applies to internal and sdcard storage. You can still use B&N's Library to access those.
I don't have any option of uninstalling apps either. adb uninstall works fine or you can just delete files from /data/app via adb shell.
What is working:
Launch of EPubBrowser via nook's home button, without use of nooktouchtools, it duplicates how the B&N home app works.
The notification icon for resuming reading goes through the app. As long as the book was launched from EPubBrowser it can remember the last book, otherwise the main display will show up. Reason being that for whatever reason the last page read doesn't work with the B&N home screen if it's not a book bought from B&N. But if you are just using the B&N Reader app it's not a problem.
When you are prompted which home you want you can select EPubBrowser and hit default. This may not stay set and will go away the next time you reboot.
How to use:Left / right swipes to go to the next 6, previous 6 books, no indication of the current page is displayed, (e-ink and aesthetics).
Touch a book cover to launch a description of the book, swipe up and down to scroll through the description, touch the cover displayed there to start reading. Hit back button on top of screen to exit without launching a book.
To bring up the list of apps installed, swipe a clockwise circle starting at 10 O'clock. Touch an app to launch it, left or right swipe to go back to main screen.That's it for now.
If you have any ideas for improvements, bug reports, please provide as much detail as possible, and when you have done that add some more detail.
Cheers!
Updates:
2/19/2012:
Added screensaver for last read book. (Jpeg 75%) Settings->Display->Screensavers->EPubBrowser
11/4/2012:
Added src project
Looks nice! I'll give it a shot later when my Nook's charged.
Thank you for making and sharing, i am going to try tomorrow and tell you,
Improvements
First of all, thank you for creating this cool launch screen. I love the simplicity of it. Here are is brief list of improvement that you can perhaps easily implement.
-When on the homescreen with the covers of all the books, I am not sure if I am suppose to scroll down or to the right to view the rest of my books.
-When on the page with the details from the book, there is no back button to take you back to the homescreen. I end up using the button savior back button.
-The circle gesture that takes you to the apps does not feel very responsive to me.
Anyhow, great job. Can't wait to see how you plan on improving it
OW MY EYES
I installed this, and everything just kept flashing. GO Locker and GO Launcher are both broken, and the only way I could fix it was by getting into ADW and closing the task. Did I install it incorrectly? I put it onto an SD card and used ES File Manager to install it.
ChunC said:
First of all, thank you for creating this cool launch screen. I love the simplicity of it. Here are is brief list of improvement that you can perhaps easily implement.
-When on the homescreen with the covers of all the books, I am not sure if I am suppose to scroll down or to the right to view the rest of my books.
-When on the page with the details from the book, there is no back button to take you back to the homescreen. I end up using the button savior back button.
-The circle gesture that takes you to the apps does not feel very responsive to me.
Anyhow, great job. Can't wait to see how you plan on improving it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback.
You swipe left to go to the previous page of books. You swipe right to go to the next page of books, assuming you have more than 6 books. Personally, I know what books I have on the device so it's not a problem knowing how many are left to see for me.
The back button should be on top of the screen in the middle, not sure why it wouldn't be there on yours. I will give it a think, maybe remove the scroll control in the book description and just use gesture detection and scroll the text via code.
Responsiveness and speed will likely improve over time, I am using the gesture library, maybe there are some optimizations there I can do.
Cheers!
Googie2149 said:
OW MY EYES
I installed this, and everything just kept flashing. GO Locker and GO Launcher are both broken, and the only way I could fix it was by getting into ADW and closing the task. Did I install it incorrectly? I put it onto an SD card and used ES File Manager to install it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Noted, so it doesn't work with GO Lancher/Locker. Never tried GO stuff, so that wasn't tested. It was tested with ADW and relaunch, and I had all the rest of your typical touch nooter install there without problems, android market, etc.
I have run it with Home.apk renamed to Home.apk.bak and that works fine as well.
As for your other question, if it is installed it is installed, there are no configurations to modify, however you get it there it should be fine.
Cheers!
WANT
Noted that it does not work with go, will have to get rid of that first.
From the screenshots, I can already tell you put time into polishing! Good job!
NFHimself said:
Hi,
Noted, so it doesn't work with GO Lancher/Locker. Never tried GO stuff, so that wasn't tested. It was tested with ADW and relaunch, and I had all the rest of your typical touch nooter install there without problems, android market, etc.
I have run it with Home.apk renamed to Home.apk.bak and that works fine as well.
As for your other question, if it is installed it is installed, there are no configurations to modify, however you get it there it should be fine.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try it again without the GO software, but it was making everything just keep flashing, like the lock screen.
@NFHimself, any plans for taking this to github? It is very close to what I always wanted but I was also looking for:
- some kind of usage of Calibre data
- library filtering for series, highly rated, etc.
- tracking of books that are clicked to maintain sort of recent read filter
- sorting options by rating, series, and other Calibre properties
- option to display 6 or 12 (smaller) book covers.
I hope it already does use intents for selecting a different epub reader for those who have no defaults and multiple ones installed.
I know its a long list, and I have some Android experience. I am sure there would be other developers here so a combined effort might help.
Screenshots looks good, but on the Nook - only flashing screen like Googie2149 said
tazzix said:
@NFHimself, any plans for taking this to github? It is very close to what I always wanted but I was also looking for:
- some kind of usage of Calibre data
- library filtering for series, highly rated, etc.
- tracking of books that are clicked to maintain sort of recent read filter
- sorting options by rating, series, and other Calibre properties
- option to display 6 or 12 (smaller) book covers.
I hope it already does use intents for selecting a different epub reader for those who have no defaults and multiple ones installed.
I know its a long list, and I have some Android experience. I am sure there would be other developers here so a combined effort might help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I use Calibre as well, I just connect via adb and calibre picks up the nook and I copy books over and it converts on the fly, cool program. Using Calibre data is an idea worth looking into, if I can fit it into the theme of no preferences, no extra buttons or config. There are plenty of those kind of home apps already. Relaunch for one is great, just missing a graphical front end, I was going to mod that, but decided that I didn't really need so much stuff and I wanted to learn more android API.
I did up the app using pretty straight forward epub standards (note the plural), it works with most epubs I have run across, not sure if looking for extra xml is a good functionality vs performance tradeoff. I haven't been using EPubBrowser for very long myself, so when I add more books and find something annoying I will probably make changes to fix it. I want to keep things simple, if I need a preferences menu, it is already going the wrong way.
I am not specifying any class, just a regular launch this epub file intent, so it should work with any reader. I like the stock reader myself, cool reader seems to dislike some epubs I have above a certain size, and I didn't want to deal with it.
I may github it, I am kinda time limited these days.
Cheers!
AgentSlash said:
Screenshots looks good, but on the Nook - only flashing screen like Googie2149 said
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
More details are needed to figure that out. What device do you have? What do you have installed on it?
Cheers!
I just wiped then manually rooted my Nook, and this works now. Although I'm having some trouble with getting to the apps page after the first time I did it. Could you possible change how you get to the apps page? Maybe change it so you have to click the menu key to get to apps.
Edit: Now that I've added my books, it shows me two books, one empty, and another book. Now it just flashes and removes/re-adds the last book. :/
Edit 2: I found that there are a few books that just don't like this launcher and cause the entire Nook to start flashing. I've been adding my books one by one to see which work and which don't and I'll try and find similarities between those that don't.
Great launcher replacement.
Running right now, but after the second page, I get sent back to the first, regardless of left-to-right or right-to-left swiping. Ideas?
Also, any chance for a page up/down use for scrolling through books?
I took a quick vid. It looks like when I swipe again from R to L, it tries to redraw the next books, but gets confused?
http://youtu.be/K1ukWFK0syg
ace7196 said:
Great launcher replacement.
Running right now, but after the second page, I get sent back to the first, regardless of left-to-right or right-to-left swiping. Ideas?
Also, any chance for a page up/down use for scrolling through books?
I took a quick vid. It looks like when I swipe again from R to L, it tries to redraw the next books, but gets confused?
http://youtu.be/K1ukWFK0syg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I'm busy painting the baby's room, but it looks like it is resetting, perhaps one of your books is crashing the app and it is being relaunched as the home screen. Or could be some other bug, how many books are involved, if you remove one or add one, does it go away?
If someone could open the e-pub (it's a zip file) that causes the error and paste the contents of the .odf file (it's an xml file) , that would help.
Cheers!
NFHimself said:
Hi,
I'm busy painting the baby's room, but it looks like it is resetting, perhaps one of your books is crashing the app and it is being relaunched as the home screen. Or could be some other bug, how many books are involved, if you remove one or add one, does it go away?
If someone could open the e-pub (it's a zip file) that causes the error and paste the contents of the .odf file (it's an xml file) , that would help.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've gone through and removed / added ebooks, and still the same problem.
Sorry, been kinda busy.
I need to be able to see the bug on my end to work on it. Maybe I've been lucky with the book selections I have made or converting using Calibre has set them all to have the same kind of format, vs the variety you might see in the wild from multiple sources.
Does the error happen with no books?
What happens when you have just one book?
How many books do you have on your nook? (If it's something like 1000 then yeah, maybe you'd have issues, no checks in the code for being out of memory.)
What firmware are you using?
Are there any hardware differences? (Can't imagine that being a problem, but I am using a NST, not the original Nook.)
What can I do to reproduce this error on my end? What are the steps?
Cheers!
NFHimself said:
Sorry, been kinda busy.
I need to be able to see the bug on my end to work on it. Maybe I've been lucky with the book selections I have made or converting using Calibre has set them all to have the same kind of format, vs the variety you might see in the wild from multiple sources.
Does the error happen with no books?
What happens when you have just one book?
How many books do you have on your nook? (If it's something like 1000 then yeah, maybe you'd have issues, no checks in the code for being out of memory.)
What firmware are you using?
Are there any hardware differences? (Can't imagine that being a problem, but I am using a NST, not the original Nook.)
What can I do to reproduce this error on my end? What are the steps?
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, it doesn't matter how many books I have, it's just a few specific books that crash, independent of the other books in my library, and some books are more severe than others (one makes the entire Nook start flashing (all software), others make only this app flash).
I have the same problem as the people above but I can't get past the first page. I can't seem to narrow it down to a certain book making it crash. It's a shame I love this home screen, but hopefully we can get this fixed and running great.
This is guide made for Windows 8, but can be used with any version of Windows. The options might just vary a little.
**This guide is meant to provide a way to improve performance on your computer. This is in no way, shape, or form, a fool-proof method (although i tried to make it fool-proof). I will not be responsible for any damage done to your computer by using any of these tools in this thread.**
This guide will show you ways that I have found to optimize windows to get the most you can out of any computer. Some of these tools come with windows, while others I will provide links for your convenience.
To make some of this easier, i have created a '.bat' script for your use.
HDD – Hard Drive
Free up space: Using Windows Tools
This first tool comes with windows. It is the disk cleaner.
The easiest way to find this tool is to go to the start page and type in: “cleanmgr.exe” and click on that.
This takes a little while to sort through your hard drive. Here are the categories that I recommend cleaning:
Code:
[LIST]
[*]Downloaded Program Files
[*]Temporary Internet Files
[*]Recycle Bin
[*]System error memory dump files
[*]Temporary files
[*]Thumbnails
[*]Any of the user error reporting categories if you want
[/LIST]
There is the option to clean system files, which requires administrator privileges. Here are the additional categories that I recommend you clean:
Code:
[LIST]
[*]Previous Windows Installation(s)
[*]Windows Update cleanup
[/LIST]
Depending on how much data is going to be erased, this may take awhile. This tool also tends to use a lot of CPU
Free up space: Using CCleaner
This second tool is not part of windows, but is simple and easy to use. It is called CCleaner. This is a program that has a lot of options that are explained in the different sections (Registry)
- Link: CCleaner
For this category, you will be using the cleaner section which is opened by default when you open the program.
Everything that is checked, I recommend keeping checked. You may choose whatever you want though.
1st click analyze and let it sort through your HDD
It may pause and ask you if you want to force close Chrome or any other conflicting program. Go ahead and let it force close them.
2nd look at what it is going to remove a second time and make sure it’s all stuff that you don’t care about. After that, you may click clean.
There is a third tool that is under the “tools” section in CCleaner. It is the driver wiper.
When you go to this section, you will only wipe the free space on your HDD.
The 35 passes option is a little overkill. Feel free to choose what ever option you want though.
If you have an SSD, DO NOT do the 35 passes. this will only shorten the SSD's life. See more info regarding this in post #4
This could take many hours to complete so make sure you have time.
This also may not give you a whole lot of space, but it should give you some.
Make your disk load files faster:
The major thing that many people recommend to do often, is to defragment the HDD. For people with SSD's, this is not needed
This program is found by going to the start menu and typing in “defrag” in the settings section.
When this opens, click on your HDD, and then click on analyze. It will then scan your HDD and tell you the amount of your HDD is fragmented.
You then click on optimize and this process will take a while as it does about 13 passes over the HDD
Registry
*For this procedure, you will be using CCleaner again. For those who skipped the HDD section, link for this program is in that section.*
In CCleaner, click and on the registry section and then click: “scan for issues”
After it scans, you can take a look at what it has found before it removes them. You can also choose what to delete.
Click fix issues, and this is when it will ask to backup the registry. I HIGHLY recommend doing this.
It will then ask you one by one what you want to do with each entry. You also have the option to fix all issues with one click
Uninstalling programs
For uninstalling programs, the windows uninstaller does not do it for me. I use revo uninstaller
- Link: Revo Uninstaller
This program is pretty self-explanatory but it does more than just uninstalling the program. After the program is uninstalled revo will scan your HDD and your registry to find anything that it believes it left over from the program.
BEWARE: make sure you choose wisely what you delete. Revo does make a system restore point before it uninstalls the program, but this is not a fool-proof method.
**On windows 8, there is a small bug, as far as I know, that when scanning all of this, it will use a decent amount of your CPU.**
*If any of you have ideas on how I can make this guide better whether it is by adding methods, or just clarifying some of these directions as this is the first time that I have written a reference guide like this. Any help is greatly appreciated. :fingers-crossed:
Thanks:
Microsoft: for Windows
Piriform: for CCleaner
VSRevo Group: for Revo Uninstaller
BillP Studios: for WinPatrol (Next post)
GoodDayToDie: for giving some major tips.
Awidawad: letting me use his code as a guide
Tips:
GoodDayToDie: Post #4
SixSixSevenSeven: Post #5
Tips on how to make your computer start-up faster.
Programs start-up
Using task manager
In task manager, there are a ton of options that can be used to help performance. This is especially true with the new task manager that
Microsoft has pushed out with Windows 8.
For the majority of people, when you open up task manager, it will look like this:
To get the full format of task manager, which you will need for this process, you will need to click on the button at the bottom that says: “More Details” and it will open the full version of task manager.
Now to disable start-up programs:
At the top where all the tabs are, click on the “Start-up” tab and you should see something like this:
Now all you have to do is click on the process that you do not want starting with your computer, and click the “Disable” button. Here are some processes that I recommend but you can choose whatever you want.
Code:
[LIST]
[*]Adobe CS6 Service Manager
[*] Apple Push
[*] Bing Desktop Application
[*] Evernote Clipper
[*] Hamachi Client Application
[*] iTunesHelper
[*] KiesPDLR
[*]Logitech Download Assistant
[*]Quicktime Task
This is only what I have disabled. You may disable whatever you want because there are no system tasks that are there to disable.
**That does not meant that you can disable whatever you want because that might cause some programs to not work**
[*]Using WinPatrol
[/LIST]
This program does more than just control start-up programs. This section is only going to talk about the start-up section.
This section of the program, in essence, is a more advanced program to deal with start-up programs.
- Link: WinPatrol
After you install WinPatrol, go to the "Startup Programs" section. It should look like this:
Run through the list of programs and find ones you want to disable. My list of recommended programs is listed under the task manager section.
NOTE: If you do not know if what you are going to disable is going to effect any of your programs, then I would recommend using the "Disable" button. If you KNOW that it WON'T effect any program, then feel free to hit the "remove" button
This program does not only take care of start-up programs. There are many other features such as Active taks and IE Helpers that i will not be covering in this thread. I do however, recommend that you look at them.
Services:
Using Service Manager:
This is going to show you how to use the service manager that is built into Windows to disable some services form starting automatically with your computer. For this, you will not be disabling any services completely, but rather just have them set to manual which will allow them to run when needed.
Start by opening the start page and typing "services" into the settings section. you should end up with a screen that looks like this:
Click on "View Local Services"
Right-click on a service such as "Apple Mobile Device", click properties, and change the startup type from Auto, to Manual.
Choose other services and do the same.
WARNING: I highly advise you NOT to disable any system services as this could cause problems. I am at no fault for what you disable.
Tips from users:
GoodDayToDie said:
tip of my own: there's a bunch of Windows Services which are enabled by default because *somebody* might need them, but which are really unnecessary on most computers. Some good examples include the Bluetooth service (if you don't have or don't use Bluetooth), Encrypting File System (if you don't use EFS), Print Spooler (if you never print), and so on. These can be disabled from the Services management console (services.msc, or find Services using the Start search). I actually recommend just turning them from "Automatic" down to "Manual"; this way, if you ever do want to use such a thing, it's possible that it will still work when you try to invoke it. As with other tweaks, do bear in mind what you've changed and watch for any potential system problems; if you're unsure, either revert the change or don't make it in the first place. Changing certain system services will make the system nigh-unusable. Also, be aware that changing many of these services really won't help much; it might shave fractions of a second each off of the bootup time of the system and/or save a few megs of RAM, but an idle service really isn't that big a threat to system performance if it's not coded completely horribly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SixSixSevenSeven said:
In almost a year on win7 I never had to manually invoke defrag, whenever I went to and analysed the disk it was only ever 1%, on the 80gb hard disk I had at the time its an insignificant amount of dragged data and I ignored it. I got windows 8 in November and so far it still says 0%.
I would recommend at least checking the values though, especially for external drives (my one hit 20%, think it was unplugged during windows scheduled defrags)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the_scotsman said:
Windows 8 knows if an SSD is being used. If it sees one, it won't allow you to "defrag". it will still allow you to "optimise" the drive. What this does is to manage TRIM to help clean the drives.
Look up TRIM if you want to know more. But do not disable the scheduled "optimisation" of an SSD drive as it's not a defrag, it does other things.
More info here: http://www.helpwithwindows.com/Windows8/Windows-8-on-Solid-State-Drive.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One last one just in case
also if this is in the wrong section, can someone please let me know. Thanks :good:
this guide is also a work-in-progress and no where near complete. again, feel free to offer whatever advice you have
A couple things to point out here, quickly:
* Don't try to do a massive overwrite a la CCleaner if you have a SSD. It will do nothing except use up a small portion of the disk's lifetime. SSD logical sectors are dynamically mapped to physical NAND blocks by a wear-leveling algorithm; overwriting the same address on the "disk" 35 times probably just means burning one write operation (out of tens or hundreds of thousand each, mind you) on 35 different chunks of NAND memory. Trying to read the "erased" data back in after even a single overwrite is quite futile, though.
* Manual defragmentation shouldn't be necessary on Win7 or later, unless somebody has disabled or otherwise tampered with the automatically scheduled task that runs it in the background. If you never leave the computer on except when it's in active use, though, it might be necessary. Also, SSDs don't benefit from defragmentation in any meaningful way - the speed boost is completely trivial given the lack of seek times, but again it burns a bit of NAND lifetime - although Windows should be smart enough to figure this out on its own.
A tip of my own: there's a bunch of Windows Services which are enabled by default because *somebody* might need them, but which are really unnecessary on most computers. Some good examples include the Bluetooth service (if you don't have or don't use Bluetooth), Encrypting File System (if you don't use EFS), Print Spooler (if you never print), and so on. These can be disabled from the Services management console (services.msc, or find Services using the Start search). I actually recommend just turning them from "Automatic" down to "Manual"; this way, if you ever do want to use such a thing, it's possible that it will still work when you try to invoke it. As with other tweaks, do bear in mind what you've changed and watch for any potential system problems; if you're unsure, either revert the change or don't make it in the first place. Changing certain system services will make the system nigh-unusable. Also, be aware that changing many of these services really won't help much; it might shave fractions of a second each off of the bootup time of the system and/or save a few megs of RAM, but an idle service really isn't that big a threat to system performance if it's not coded completely horribly.
+1 on defrag. In almost a year on win7 I never had to manually invoke defrag, whenever I went to and analysed the disk it was only ever 1%, on the 80gb hard disk I had at the time its an insignificant amount of dragged data and I ignored it. I got windows 8 in November and so far it still says 0%.
I would recommend at least checking the values though, especially for external drives (my one hit 20%, think it was unplugged during windows scheduled defrags)
A note on freeing up space (which is a good idea!):
goldflame09 said:
I recommend that you use the “very complex overwrite "35 passes" option.
If you have an SSD, DO NOT do the 35 passes. this will only shorten the SSD's life. See more info regarding this in post #4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
35 passes is also overkill on hard disks. Most government standards only require 1-3 passes. Just one pass is sufficient to prevent data recovery via software - there are probably only a handful of labs in the world which can recover data after this (by removing the platters from the drive and reading the bits off).
You also don't need to do this at all if you use bitlocker or truecrypt to encrypt the drive.
Updated: added service management to second post
Windows 8 knows if an SSD is being used. If it sees one, it won't allow you to "defrag". it will still allow you to "optimise" the drive. What this does is to manage TRIM to help clean the drives.
Look up TRIM if you want to know more. But do not disable the scheduled "optimisation" of an SSD drive as it's not a defrag, it does other things.
More info here: http://www.helpwithwindows.com/Windows8/Windows-8-on-Solid-State-Drive.html
the_scotsman said:
Windows 8 knows if an SSD is being used. If it sees one, it won't allow you to "defrag". it will still allow you to "optimise" the drive. What this does is to manage TRIM to help clean the drives.
Look up TRIM if you want to know more. But do not disable the scheduled "optimisation" of an SSD drive as it's not a defrag, it does other things.
More info here: http://www.helpwithwindows.com/Windows8/Windows-8-on-Solid-State-Drive.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Added to tips from users section
Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2
Updated: Added '.bat' script to make this as easy as possible for all of you
will be adding description soon for extras that i have included
I've been running XBMC on my FireTV for a while now and I have noticed that it keeps growing in size. With only an 8GB hard drive - most of which is taken up by apps - there isn't an easy way to get rid of the old thrumnails and such that are starting to make XBMC balloon up over 2GB.
Does anyone know of a good way to prune XBMC back down to a reasonable size? An app recommendation would be best - but detailed instructions would work. I'm kinda new to FTV and really haven't edited anything - just sideloaded a few things. Thanks in advance.
Search feature and ye shall find, young grasshopper
Moving the thumbnails to SD doesn't actually address the OP's problem...jut shifts it to SD
I would assume deleting the thumbnails folder together with Textures*.db should take care of the folder size. Your XBMC will run slower after the reboot as the images will have to be cached again as needed.
I have seen Python scripts to regenerate the thumbnails faster based in installed add-ons, but I don't know how to install Python on AFTV.
You need to save the Thumbnails on some external device. You can store them on a mounted flash drive or network location if you want. Unless you do that, eventually your internal memory is going to fill up.
I use a program add-on called Thumbnails Cleaner Version 1.1.3 by Max (m4x1m) Headroom, just search for repository.m4x1m.zip on google and you will find the repo in the first links. its very easy to use and can greatly reduce you thumbnails folder
I use fusion maintenance add on to do the cleaning.
Is it possible to increase the internal storage of the AFTV?
I'm running Kodi on mine and it only has 750MB left
I love this little device but the internal storage really sucks!
Hook up an external drive and move stuff there, including the kodi thumbnails. Look up <pathsubstitution> in the advancedsettings.xml.
Root or no root ? If root grab some ssd drive convert to usb, swap internal with external, if no root use move to usb function to free some storage it will only move some (you can move kodi cache i think,ssd would be best for it)
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
jpeg42 said:
Hook up an external drive and move stuff there, including the kodi thumbnails. Look up <pathsubstitution> in the advancedsettings.xml.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Won't that slow things down by a lot since it only has USB 2.0?
patt2k said:
Root or no root ? If root grab some ssd drive convert to usb, swap internal with external, if no root use move to usb function to free some storage it will only move some (you can move kodi cache i think,ssd would be best for it)
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am rooted but would SSD (vs HDD) make any difference since it's only USB 2.0?
Use texturecache.py (google it) once in a while to prune (P) the thumbnails cache in Kodi (it will delete unneeded ones).
Again, this is the correct answer for probably most of you out there. It works with both the Fire TV and the FIre TV Stick. It doesnt rely on you buying extra hardware (apart from the one you used to set up Kodi on the Fire TV).
Sure, you can wait until the next "Toolkit" includes its version of it, but why?
If it is not Kodi that fills your diskspace - learn how to manage disk space. Uninstall some apps you've installed. If you have messed around with Kodis advanced settings xml and because of you not knowing what you are doing, now are caching whole movies on your device - stop doing that.
Neo3D said:
Won't that slow things down by a lot since it only has USB 2.0?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
480Mbps seems sufficient to me. Haven't noticed any issues.
---------- Post added at 09:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:56 AM ----------
harlekinrains said:
If it is not Kodi that fills your diskspace - learn how to manage disk space. Uninstall some apps you've installed. If you have messed around with Kodis advanced settings xml and because of you not knowing what you are doing, now are caching whole movies on your device - stop doing that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand what you are trying to say, but the storage on the FireTV is insanely limited. Even without Kodi installed at all, it is easy to fill the paltry 5GB with just a few games and a photo stream.
Would you mind?
48MB/s which is well below the read/write speed of traditional harddisks. You will have no performance benefit from attaching a SSD to a USB 2.0 port.
---------- Post added at 06:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:05 PM ----------
jpeg42 said:
I understand what you are trying to say, but the storage on the FireTV is insanely limited. Even without Kodi installed at all, it is easy to fill the paltry 5GB with just a few games and a photo stream.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
edit: Mistook you for the thread starter. Yes - might be the case. Then again, it is not necessary to buy a HDD to use Kodi over the entire lifetime of the device. Also - some people arent rooted.
jpeg42 said:
480Mbps seems sufficient to me. Haven't noticed any issues.
---------- Post added at 09:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:56 AM ----------
480mbps is what the USB 2.0 standard says but does anyone get close to that in real life?
So you haven't noticed thumbnails and background art loading slower? It seems like it should load slower because internal storage is supposed to be a lot faster than USB 2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
harlekinrains said:
edit: Mistook you for the thread starter. Yes - might be the case. Then again, it is not necessary to buy a HDD to use Kodi over the entire lifetime of the device. Also - some people arent rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to be rooted to mount external storage. Which is why the easiest advice to the OP is to get a 10 dollar usb thumb drive and at least triple their storage immediately.
---------- Post added at 09:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:15 AM ----------
Neo3D said:
jpeg42 said:
480Mbps seems sufficient to me. Haven't noticed any issues.
---------- Post added at 09:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:56 AM ----------
480mbps is what the USB 2.0 standard says but does anyone get close to that in real life?
So you haven't noticed thumbnails and background art loading slower? It seems like it should load slower because internal storage is supposed to be a lot faster than USB 2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possibly a slight delay over the native flash, but nothing that bothers me in the least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@jpeg42:
The additional harddrive can only be used as an external storage device - so nothing can be installed on it that depends on android logic - what was new for me is that Kodi is able to relocate its cache directory on Android (and therefore doesnt need root). edit: False - apps can be moved to the external storage - with the usual shortcoming of Androids "move to sd". I stand corrected.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201739980 The entire functionality was added by amazon only two months ago.
Also - you dont need an additional harddrive to hold Kodis thumbnail cache (if you delete unneeded items once in a while using the suggested method). Never. in no use case - so the answer always will depend upon the thread starters actual motive. Sadly he hasnt specified it in any way.
Regarding the 48MB/s issue - real world benchmarks. You wont benefit from an SSD on USB 2.0.
harlekinrains said:
@jpeg42:
Also - you dont need a harddrive to hold Kodis thumbnail cache. Never. in no use case - so the answer always will depend upon the thread starters actual motive. Sadly he hasnt specified it in any way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://kodi.wiki/view/Artwork/Cache
XBMC maintains a local texture cache for thumbs and fanart, to allow fast loading of these images so that skins can show off your media in the best way possible.
All textures that Kodi loads, with the exception of textures that are provided directly by the skin, are cached to the userdata/Thumbnails folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jpeg42 said:
Possibly a slight delay over the native flash, but nothing that bothers me in the least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you also using a USB hub? I have an Amazon 10 port USB 2.0 hub. I'm afraid it might
1) be even slower
2) reassign "drive letters" at random
I've seen it do this in the past when I unplugged the hub and plugged it back in, even though all of the drives attached to the hub were not removed.
@Neo3D: And the likelihood of them ever amounting to something over 500 MB an still be "primarily useful" is non existent. Depending on the use case - I dont know If you have 500 TB of movies on your NAS which you are all trying to access in rotation and then are also very sensitive to Kodi reloading their artwork from the net, because you have not put them as files on your local storage which Kodi supports as well.
My answer is still the right one. If you use texturecache.py once in a while, the script will go into Kodis db files and delete old unused thumbnails - including their database entry (so when you should access one of those files again, it will be redownloaded from the net).
You dont need to buy extra storage to use Kodi to its fullest extend. For years. Even on a FIreTV Stick - which doesnt support external storage.
Also - please dont punish me for again assuming that you might have googled the question before asking it in here - again, I dont see xda primarily as customer support for amazon. (Just reframing, why it was ok, for me not to have known, that Amazon managed to release a proper Android integration for external media, two months ago and immediately thought of ways that would need root to extend the storage.).
harlekinrains said:
@jpeg42:
The additional harddrive can only be used as an external storage device - so nothing can be installed on it that depends on android logic - what was new for me is that Kodi is able to relocate its cache directory on Android (and therefore doesnt need root). edit: False - apps can be moved to the external storage - with the usual shortcoming of Androids "move to sd". I stand corrected.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201739980
Also - you dont need an additional harddrive to hold Kodis thumbnail cache (if you delete unneeded items once in a while using the suggested method). Never. in no use case - so the answer always will depend upon the thread starters actual motive. Sadly he hasnt specified it in any way.
Regarding the 48MB/s issue - real world benchmarks. You wont benefit from an SSD on USB 2.0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not true,
The maximum transfer rate is limited, yes, but random access time is still much faster compared to spindle drives.
Also depends a lot on what kind of flash drive you use. Especially the cheap ones tend to have really bad random write performance.
Was running Fedora on the FireTV with this Sandisk drive: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=57820070&postcount=85 and even though it was just running at USB 2.0 speeds it was really fast.
Even minimal read speed in benchmarks for normal HDDs seldomly drops below 48 MB/s. If you dont test random reads.
If you want to bring random read/write into the occasion - then you better list comparative graphs -
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.0-thumb-drive-review,3477-3.html
vs
http://www.tomshardware.de/charts/ssd-charts-2014/AS-SSD-4K-Random-Read,2784.html
(because there is that much variation)
but, yes - with random read/writes you have a point.
---------- Post added at 08:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:27 PM ----------
Just as a comparison in scope - I used texturecache.py on an old XBMC installation that run daily, for three years without clearing its cache - and it stripped out about 2 GB of thumbnails/artworks. With normal use - and cleaning the texture cache every 6 months or so you should never come close to those filesizes again. Also - Kodi at least doesnt seem to perform worse when it comes to thumbnail cache. When you use texturecache.py to clean it every 6 moths or so - you should be absolutely fine. I do it myself, it works - so Im speaking from experience. All profile data (including all plugins, their backups, all databases, and the cache) of my current Kodi installation on the fire TV comes to 260MB uncompressed (after using texturecache.py). I did a backup of those files just yesterday.
Also - when I lost the 2 GB worth of thousands and thousands thumbnails, my initial reaction was not "I wish I would have bought an external hard drive for them".
Also - there is still the possibility of you have modified an advanced setting that increases the video buffer and being oblivious to that. You shouldnt do that.
Simply put - if you are looking forward to install all those great Amazon Appstore Games on your FIre TV without having to reload them - by all means, buy an external storage device that you will attach to it 24/7. If you are just trying to maintain a Kodi installation , you probably wont need it.
harlekinrains said:
@Neo3D: And the likelihood of them ever amounting to something over 500 MB an still be "primarily useful" is non existent. Depending on the use case - I dont know If you have 500 TB of movies on your NAS which you are all trying to access in rotation and then are also very sensitive to Kodi reloading their artwork from the net, because you have not put them as files on your local storage which Kodi supports as well.
My answer is still the right one. If you use texturecache.py once in a while, the script will go into Kodis db files and delete old unused thumbnails - including their database entry (so when you should access one of those files again, it will be redownloaded from the net).
You dont need to buy extra storage to use Kodi to its fullest extend. For years. Even on a FIreTV Stick - which doesnt support external storage.
Also - please dont punish me for again assuming that you might have googled the question before asking it in here - again, I dont see xda primarily as customer support for amazon. (Just reframing, why it was ok, for me not to have known, that Amazon managed to release a proper Android integration for external media, two months ago and immediately thought of ways that would need root to extend the storage.).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This doesn't really help with the OP. This only helps with you trying to tell everyone that Kodi doesn't need more storage.
My Kodi install needs more storage. It's at >2.4GB.
I have 5 HDD's (10TB total ~2600 movies + lots of TV shows) connected to an Amazon 10port USB 2.0 hub and my library continues to grow.
Ok, now it comes to usecase.
Read my previous posting again - I've edited in some information.
Even with 10 TB of stored movies , it is questionable (edit - well actually it would come down to 12,5 GB a movie - which is possible) that you would come close to 2,4 GB of artwork and thumbnail cache. Calculate 3 mb for each movie and you can host 800 movies to reach 2,4 GB.
Depending on if this is the number of movies we are talking about - you might still want to look into using texturecache.py - it will only strip out the entries that arent active anymore (when used right).
Also - in your case - you could look at bundling the artwork with the movies themselves - and not storing it in the Kodi Databases - but since you are going into the granularities of Kodi at that point - you might as well buy an extra harddisk only for the FIre TV.
Foregive me that "I only have 5GB of diskspace on the fire TV" didnt immediatly trigger "of course - he has 1500 movies on Harddrives connected to a USB hub". Especially after the initial posting, mainly complaining how this was the Fire TVs fault..
My first impulse was "you are doing it wrong" - but perhaps, not.
Is harlekinrains really porkenhimer with paragraph breaks??
Gloat about the fact that the most unrealistic scneario actually became the one that we all should have gone for in the end - and to your using a SSD over USB 2.0 gentled advocacy - you went straight for from the very beginning.
Also lets not talk about people spending several hundereds of dollars on storage media and a fraction of that on the device to play back those files. Lets not even talk about backup, or the power cost to have them online all the time. Lets not talk about that this conversation started with "that lack of storage space on the Fire TV for artworks and thumbnails, how about that".
How about a nice game of denouncing nicknames instead?
Ok, here is my response - sure - I'm happily using four year old accounts to troll people like you. No you specifically. Because this is apparently what I do.
And between us - if there has been a character like me in here before, I can understand his level of desperation - when he/she left under said gloating. He probably wont be back.