Optimize my PC!?

Question

My laptop is becoming sluggish. Have cleaned and defragged but still slow. What else can I do to make this machine work better? WinXP

Answer 1

Well, there are a few things you can easily do. Now that you've defragged and cleaned, you can next go to Start, Run, and type in MSCONFIG and hit enter, and then click on the "Startup" tab. That'll show you the programs that have loaded automatically at boot-up. Some of those programs aren't necessary, such as the RealPlayer and QuickTime update utilities etc. You can disable them, and check others, but do one thing at a time and then reboot and use your pc to make sure it's still operating properly.
Another command you can use in the RUN box is "SERVICES.MSC" (without the quotes). This will show you processes that are running, and they are also adjustable.
For further basic info on all the above, visit the below link and read what is there.
Lastly, you might want to consider adding additional RAM to your laptop. Nowadays 512 MB of RAM is recommended, and even 1GB will improve performance even more. Good luck.