Disable background apps question

[Gary R.]

I always sim with as minimal as possible running background but two things I wonder about.

Does dis-abling the screensaver make a noticeable difference? I mean does it attempt to kick-in while FS is running?

Also, Norton avs and others.

[Dan]

In my experience screensavers ARE detrimental. Try to stop everything Except for Systray and Explorer. In Win98. My old Virus software was real FPS heavy.
Dan

[ozzy72]

I'm running XP, and unless I'm flying online I always deactivate firewall, anti-virus and the net. They suck resources.
A handy little program is EndItAll, you can use this to deactivate processes you don't want running, and get max performance out of your PC this way

Ozzy

[Gary R.]

If I'm connected to the net for weather purposes and I have Norton autoprotect turned off do you think I would still be at a virus suseptibility?

[Mozz]

You'll still be susceptible to viruses if you fly online without anti-virus software, best to keep it going if you're going to fly online (or even offline sometimes, if you download frequently etc.). Just remember, better safe than sorry, even when looking at frame rates.

[Skittles]

I have a list of processes which can be turned off. I use FSAutoStart. It will shut down whatever I want, startup FS and then restart whatever I told it to shut down. It also optimizes the memory before loading FS.

It's also possible to create another profile so most of these changes can be a little more permanent.

Joe