is there any way to speed up my computer?

Question

I have XP home edition and it has slowed down alot.

Answer 1

Check for spyware, defragment and run a virus scan.

Answer 2

1. How fast your computer is depends on your hardware and software.
2. You could install more ram if you do not have enough.
3. For the software part, remove the history and junk files from you computer using ace utilities (acelogix.com) or ccleaner if you want something for free. Then uninstall unwanted programs and go through your program files and delete unwanted folders/files, do the same for your documents and settings\yourname and documents and settings\all users. Also check the application data and local settings folders under documents and settings\yourname and documents and settings\all users. These folders are hidden so you have to type documents and settings\all users\application data, for example in the address bar.
4. After you have done this, then yes you should defragment your hard drive.
5. Another reason for slow computers is a bloated or fragmented registry. To rectify this problem, use regseeker (http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm ) to clean your registry, furthermore remove unwanted keys via the installed applications -> software settings under regseeker or use regedit and edit the HKLM\Software and HKCU\Software. After which use ntregopt to defragment your registry (http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/).
6. Scan for and remove viruses and spyware from you computer and update Windows.
7. Oh yeah, and if you really really need to (or you have the free time), reinstall windows, that helps!
8. If you need any help with the above, just post and I will try to help; I hope this helps!

Answer 3

If your desktop background is a big file it will slow you down.
Remove any unwanted games or programs.
Try clicking Start>run
type msconfig
hit enter
click on the startup tab
all that suff thats checkmarked TRIES to start every time you start up, I say tries because if you dont have enough memory it just bogs down before giving up.
Turn off (uncheck) anything you might not need, like lexbcs (it just makes your printer start printing faster, but once its started theres no difference). The purpose of this service is to make things faster to start, so it starts it a little bit. Problem is that every time you add a program it adds itself to this list.
Turning it off doesnt make it not work, its just not qued up. So something you use very rarely just isnt useful in this service.
Turning it off doesnt delete it, infact you cant delete it from here even if you wanted to, its still there.
The only thing you will really need on is your internet connection stuff (if you have any here), and security measures like antivirus. You will have to restart your computer for changes to take effect.
For a list of things in msconfig and what they do click the link bellow.
WARNING- If you see something checked and there is no name, its a virus.

Answer 4

XP clog up a lot, you might want to try the following:

1: Run De-frag tools
2: Delete all junk files
3: Uninstall all the programs you don't NEED.
4: Check what programs are running in the background (ie Norton etc.
5: No improvement? back up your data, Reinstall Xp home. then carefully install programs that you use.

Answer 5

– Upgrade your memory. Most users will see a distinct improvement in performance when they add more memory. You’ll need to consult the vendor or the manual to know what sort of memory to buy but sites such as Crucial Technology www.crucial.com/uk/index.asp

– Clean your desktop. All those icons on the desktop can slow your system. You can safely delete icons that run programs by selecting one or more and pressing the delete key. Get into the habit of running programs from the Start Programs menu instead. XP users have a Desktop Cleanup Wizard to help them clean their desktop – it’s to be found in Control Panel, Display, Desktop, Customize Desktop.

– Clean out unwanted programs. You have probably downloaded and installed several programs you no longer need. you should clear out the rubbish. There is only one safe way to do this – use the Add/Remove programs utility in Control Panel. Never try deleting folders directly.

– Clean out files no longer required. Your system is full of unneeded backup, log files and temporary files – why not clean them out to create some disk space? The Disk Cleanup Wizard will do all this and will empty the Recycle bin as well. Just select Start Menu, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. This great wizard calculates how much space you’ll save, and allows you to delete files by category. From the screen shot here, you can see that it will free a massive 23MB of disk space on my system.

– Defragment your hard disk. Now you’ve freed up lots of disk space, the next step is to defragment your hard disk. As you write to your hard disk, it becomes more and more difficult to keep files stored together so a file may be split or fragmented, over several parts of the disk. This slows access to the files, causing the system to slow. Select Start Menu, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. Remember to disable any screen savers before defragmenting or it’ll never finish.

– Use a decent Antivirus and Spyware tools. Viruses can slow your system quite significantly as well as cause damage to files. tools on www.download.com

- Get rid of screen savers – they are not necessary and occupy resources.

– Be sure to use the latest drivers. Manufacturers often update the driver programs for your system components eg. for your graphics card. To identify the component use Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager. To find the latest driver search on the component name using a good search engine such as www.google.com.

– Understand your system loading. The most common reason a Windows system slows down is when you’ve used every byte of physical memory (RAM) and Windows has to start paging which is to use your hard disk as extra virtual memory. As hard disk is much slower than physical memory your system will slow down. Knowing how close you are to paging will tell you whether you need more memory. With Windows XP, just press control, alt and delete keys together to start the Windows Task Manager. Do you see the Commit Charge at the bottom right corner? The first number is the total amount of physical and virtual memory in use. The second number is the total available. If the amount in use is greater than half the amount available, it may be time to increase the amount of memory on board.

– The Startup. in Windows XP go to Start then Run
type msconfig then hit ok
go to Startup Tab
uncheck all the unwanted items thats automaticly starts when windows boot.

– Hotfix. if you are in Windows xp make sure that all updates and hotfix are automaticly downloaded you may right click on (my computer) icon on desktop and chose properties then go to Automatic update tab. and check the Automatic option.

Answer 6

Un-install any software you dont use much, do a thorough virus/spyware/adware scan and nuke anything that shouldn't be there. De-fragment your hard drive, clean out crap from your registry - but take note, if you dont know what you are doing with that you can screw XP in seconds, make sure your hard drive never gets more than three quarters full, fit as much ram as you can afford/your machine will take.

Answer 7

It's hard to tell why your computer slowed down from the limited information you gave but I would go to www.download.com and download Tweaknow Registry Cleaner, Adaware SE Personal, and SuperAntiSpyware Free Edition and run all of them through your computer and eliminate all the bugs. Plus they are all completely free! Hope this helps!

Answer 8

Defragement, do a spy ware search (Adawre SE ) or maybe you need a bit more RAM. if you the minimum for XP ( 128 )then it will slow down, if you have already 256, add the same again it will help.

Answer 9

there are many ways in which this may be accomplished. 1. delete all unnecessary programs. 2.use an optimizer or a registry cleaner. 3. use a spyware removal tool. 4.upgrade your memory so you have more space. 5.run scans with your diskcleaner and defragmenter. 6. get dsl. good luck.....

Answer 10

You could put a new pair of RAM in it. Or you could reformat it. Reformating it could very well solve your problem. But if you still want your files then I guess you should just put a new pair of RAM in it. And then to keep your computer fast, you should put some virus protectors on your computer.