When I first bought my computer, it was so fast. Now its oh so slow! how can i....?

Question

back up my files and prepare to reinstall my win xp media center os

Answer 1

Using registry cleaner can fix your pc and then make your pc faster,Why?The reason is that there are some regsitry errors in your PC to cause "Computer slow".You need to clean you PC.
Registry cleaner is a powerful and useful tool to elinimate to the clutter and junk that builds up in your PC's registry from installing and removing programs, creating and deleting files and surfing online.Without regular system tune–ups,the computer will run slow, crash, full of error messages and more...Scanning and cleanning your PC with registry cleaner can make your pc faster.Good Regisry Cleaner will improve your PC and Internet performance dramatically,dramatically!
There are some comparison and review of
TOP 5 registry cleaners.
http://www.registry-Cleaners.info

You can download and scan your PC for free.

Answer 2

- Many users are not aware of how much RAM is used by wallpaper and/or a screensaver full of graphics. They run in the background and consume memory. (I have only 512mb RAM, run multiple programs simultaneously, and have set my wallpaper and screensaver to blank.)

I don’t do games, but I do know they are primarily graphics which need and use a lot of memory.

- How many programs do you load at startup? Maybe you should check it out and ensure you are running just what you need.
To do this: cl Start, cl Settings, cl Taskbar and Start Menu.
- cl Start Menu, cl Customize, cl Remove.
- cl the icon for the program you wish to remove
- then cl Remove.
- This will prevent the program from loading at startup, but will not remove the program from the hard disk.

- When you are working in a large file, save frequently to restore full memory access. (Your work remains in memory until you “save” it to disk.)

1. Did you run an error check? Open My Computer,
Right-cl on C:, Select Properties, Tools – Run an Error Check ( checkmark “check all and fix); then run a Defrag

2. Are you using Yahoo Toolbar? Run a full Norton Antispy.

3. From IE, click Tools, Internet Options
delete cookies
delete files (offline files)
clear history (set days to save to 0 if you want)
click o.k., and Restart

3. click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools – run Disk Cleanup

4. click Start, Run ipconfig renew (type ipconfig space renew)

All these things should be done regularly. The more frequently they are run, the less time they take.
- Note: Games and videos are mostly graphics. Graphics create large files. If this doesn’t help, you should consider getting more memory.

Answer 3

Use a CD/DVD burner or usb drive to back up important files...then re-install. Many things can slow down a computer, spy-ware and ad-ware are major offenders.

If your computer has over a GB of RAM and a decent processor 2.8GHz +, I'd recommend looking into VMWare or VirtualPC to avoid the possibly painful process of rebuilding you computer every 6 months...essentially these make your entire OS+files a single file on your non-virtual computer that you can copy or backup vvery easily.

Answer 4

A couple of useful things to try also are to clean up all the trash that collects on the PC and to defragment the drive(s).

Click START/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools and you'll find Disk Cleanup. Run that to remove all the trash. Then in the same place run Disk Defragmenter.

Answer 5

For speeding up your PC it isn't necessary to reinstall windows. Try these tips:
Run msconfig and disable all startup items you don't need.
the next time you reboot your system, it will show some message. check the don't show this again and click OK.
Get some software like regcure or registry mechanic to repair your registry.
search for *.tmp and *.$$$ and delete all such files/folders.
Manually remove unwanted programs.
Free up some disk space.
In Internet explorer, go to tools-internet options click settings on temporary internet files check never (for checking for never versions of the websites) and double the amount of disk space to use. Set the no. of days to keep pages in history to 1. This also helps to speed up your connection.
Defragment often.
Perform disk cleanup.
Right click on my computer-properties. On the advanced tab, click on settings (under performance) and check adjust for best performance.

Answer 6

(1) Get you self a good antivirus or a free one .
(2) If you have not already scanned your comp with spybot do that now .
(3) Do an online virus scan to check if you still have any other viruses in your computer. And let us know if the online virus scan still finds any virus or spyware .

Answer 7

Did you try a virus and spy ware scan first? They can kill the speed of your PC. Also do you have unnecessary programs that are running at startup? They can rob your PC of performance too.

Answer 8

also you can run a defrag on your computer. If you dont know where that is, just run a search for "defrag". then let it run its course, dont touch to computer for a while, and when its done, all extra memory in your computer will be able to be used more effectively.

Answer 9

hi .janet frist you clean up the pc from any spyware .. then this will speed up your computer

http://www.iolo.com/sm/7/std/

you dont need too re-setup your windows os