I've noticed that if I power down my laptop and then restart, it comes back up with is normal fast loading capacity. Why would that be?
Any number of things it could be, from background tasks / memory allocation issues to overheating to malware/junkware/PuP's, etc
Malware/Adware/other malicious programs most likely wont' show up in add/remove programs - they like to hide and run in the background. As for CPUZ - it's a piece of software that scans your PC and displays information about several different components: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html However, I do apologize - i was thinking of Specc - this shows information from several different sensors on your PC, including CPU and Memory temperatures, etc. https://www.piriform.com/speccy
It's possible that when you reboot your net connect is reset, you're perhaps reallocated a new IP address and probably a flushed DNS client. When you start using your connection you might end up with data being cached on your harddrive if you are going to a lot of large websites (especially ones filled full of images) and your browser might purge those files on exit (depending on your settings), onto of that there is then the concerns of resident programs that might attempt to do a myriad of updates, perhaps you've got some that start downloading just after boot and bring your system's performance down (Bit Torrenting is can hog a lot of resources). Further more, you could then have concerns of rogue software which could be using your connect too.
Tks! I DO frequent high image websites with dumb pop-ups like science magazines, Huffington Post (the worst!), Fortean Times, and others. I guess I just need to purge that cache whenever the loading slows way down.
There's an addon for Firefox that's just a simple toggle icon [JS] you can click to turn off javascript before you visit certain sites that are heavily laden with junk like that (as well as turn back on afterwards). It's surprising how some websites can still retain some functionality to their links, buttons, and features even with javascript disabled; and the latter not only speeds up the loading of the page but makes it more difficult for malicious activity that is js-dependent to get a handlehold. Of course, if you use Chrome, IE, etc as your regular browser then this extension (among many others) wouldn't be available: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/js-switch/
Tks! I clicked on "Download" and it said I needed to download Firefox. What exactly is that, and is it free?
you could also probably do with a good scrubbing using CrapCleaner (CCleaner) - great little program Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Is that what you use? Actually just resetting my computer fixes the whole problem. So I doubt it's anything lurking in the depths.
MR, CCleaner, available for Free from Piriform, is a great "tool" when used correctly. It is available for downloading at this Link : https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner If you want to actually Solve your stated problems, a good starting point would be using the Microsoft Windows 7 System Configuration utility. It is already in your Laptop - part of the Operating System installed - and a very nice littler tutorial on its features and uses can be viewed at the following Link : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/wi...s-in-the-windows-7-system-configuration-tool/
Firefox is another web browser like whichever one you're using to get to SciForums. All of them are provided free: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, Safari, etc (IE works / is available only for a Windows OS). Before Chrome, Firefox was once the sole popular alternative to Microsoft's IE because of its customization features and all the addons available for it. It still probably has the most mature and diverse array of such extensions. If you want to continue to keep your present browser as your default browser for the time being, make sure you check or click "no" for any prompt that asks if you want to make Firefox your default. It can be downloaded here (select the correct operating system that is installed on your laptop, desktop or other device): https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ Here are some other useful Firefox addons; there are hundreds or thousands more: Security: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/wot-safe-browsing-tool/ Reference tool: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/babylon-dictionary-word-search/ Quick Note storage: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/quicknote/ Download manager: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/downthemall/ Auto-shutdown for download manager: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/auto-shutdown/ Inline translator: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-translator-for-firefox/ Create printer friendly version of webpage: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/printfriendly/ Omnibar for firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/omnibar/ Single file archiving of a webpage: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mozilla-archive-format/ Screenshot (make image capture of webpage): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/screenshot/
That reminds me, at one point while I was testing out Opera and I think even Chrome did this, some screenshots are captured and used as icons within the browser themselves. They don't get purged like a standard cache, so can over time fill your harddrive up with all the places you've visited. They might have fixed the problem now (there was actually an proof of concept of this that was patched where they used it to fill the hard-drive up with cat pictures, I think the capped the amount it stored.)
Opera sadly dropped its own unique Presto engine early last year and switched to being yet another redundant clone of the WebKit / chromium-project combo. So likely Chrome was indeed similarly afflicted if this happened not too long ago; or maybe this contributed to the very problem below that caused me to change browsers. I once used Chrome and Comodo's similar Dragon browser. But three years ago, after installing either Chrome or Dragon on an older computer that only had 1GB of RAM, I was astonished to finally realize how many resources these chromium-based browsers had been gobbling up. To the point that the browser slowed itself and any other program running at the same time (like Windows Explorer or Photofiltre) down to a snail's pace after it simply visited two or three websites. Apparently already having to use the harddrive for extra virtual memory in a bigtime way. I tried Firefox and the limited amount of physical memory was plenty for it, only using a fourth or fifth of what Chrome had. Installed FF on another computer after that, even though the latter had more capacity for handling the chromium "gas-guzzlers".
Yeah, Chrome/Firefox/Torch all open new processes threads (and new RAM caches) for each tab, window, and object (flash/shockwave/unity) you have running... so eight tabs, two of which are hosting Unity or Shockwave powered games, one running a Java based application, means you will have 12 separate Processes all vying for resources. I like Torch though - very good at minimizing the impact the "background tabs" have.
These weren't even cases of a large number of tabs and plugins running, though, which I agree would likewise bog a Gecko-powered browser like Firefox down. After Opera made its switch last year, I tried it on the same memory-strapped dinosaur from the XP era to see if anything had changed for the better for the chromium browsers. It brought everything to a standstill even sooner. While checking the processes running on Task Manager, Opera was showing up in several places with most well over a 100,000K in usage each; and this was after it had only visited one ordinary website. Comparing Firefox similarly at the time (as if there was any need to since FF had been its default browser for two years), it appeared in one instance, using no more than 110,000K, and there was no sign of the computer ridiculously becoming sluggish after a single excursion to the same website. With Opera, it had taken a good five minutes just for enough congestion to be cleared for the Task Manager to appear, another lengthy spell to check processes, and a good twenty minutes for the computer to finally shut-down after the pointer became movable enough to allow Restart to be clicked. Utterly dismal side-effects from a browser even if installed on a dinosaur equipped with only 1GB RAM. The latter limitation serving as that accidental test 3 years ago which it took for me to fully realize and care what a resource-gobbler Chrome and its imitators (borrowing from the same open-source provenances) had unleashed upon the world. Figures! No sooner did I type that than I belatedly discover that the chromium project is dropping its dependence on WebKit and devising its own Blink engine. At least some radical change (for better or worse) is the air. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2033...webkit-to-work-with-blink-browser-engine.html
