speed up my computer?

Question

hey I have windows xp on my laptop, and its about a year old and had alot of stuff on it, and its starting toact a little slugish, i was wondering how i could remove some of the stuff i dont need on here, i know about disk clean up and stuff but i dident know if there was some thing a little more advanced that you can do, but i dont want to mess anything up, so if you could explain in detail what all to do i would greatly appriciate it..thanks

Answer 1

If your virus/spyware free, there are a couple things you can do get your computer working faster. If you using your laptop for normal stuff and not gaming. You got a good setup. You don't need more RAM you just need to perform a few maintenance task.

Firstly, if you haven't cleaned your registry in a while. This is necessary. Your registry holds all the information regarding updates, installs, un-installs etc. Each one of those events has
a key. That key needs your PC's resources and free space. So, if you clean your registry, you make more resources available for spped. Do a registry scan if you got more than 20 errors you should clean it.
http://www.delete-computer-history.com/what-is-the-best-registry-cleaner.html

2. Clear your Windows cache files, this is your temporary file. It can grow up to a large volume and stop your computer from using RAM properly. In a sense slow it down by preventing it from using free space.Here is how:

1. Quit Internet Explorer, Firefox, or any other web browser
2. Click Start, click "Control Panel", and then double-click "Internet Options".
3. On the General tab, click "Delete Files" under Temporary Internet Files.
4. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the "Delete all offline content" check box , and then click OK.
5. Click OK.

3. Manage your startups. Your excess CPU usage is due to too many programs running in the background. You can cut these to barebones by alter your msconfig. Here is how:

1. Open your Start menu.
2. Click Run
3. In the command screen type "msconfig.exe"
4. In the "system configuration utility",click either "service" or "startup" tab
5. Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.
6. Click "OK"

Other great tip is increasing your virtual memory to simulate more RAM. This will give you a bit more resources for multiple program use or CPU heavy programs. Check the link to alter your virtual memory spec.

Hope this link helps. Shows you how to do everything step by step. You should get a least 60% more resources and speed
if you follow the tips.

Answer 2

Well first off. you might want to go to add and remove programs and remove anything that you do not use..programs that you your self installed that is.. Also go to your task manager and google the processes running in the list..(this may take some time)... This will tell you what programs of yours is taking up the most power from your PC.. further eliminate or re-evaluate what programs you really need or want... see if that helps ... last ditch there are programs out there that claim to speed up your PC but i have only found marginal gains from doing this... If your really in a pinch just reboot your OS to scratch and reload all the programs you want back on...
Good luck

Answer 3

Your options are limited as to your options.
I suggest you Burn anything you want to keep to CD's or DVD's and Delete it off the computer.
Go to Add/ Remove Programs and delete anything you don't need or use.
You can always buy an External Drive and transfer any Music, Video's or Pictures you want to store and get that stuff off of your computer.
It is an absolute must to have some form of Virus Protection, and besides that I use
SpyBot's Search and Destroy, and Lavasoft's Adaware-2007 these you can get by doing a Google search they are available Free.
These options will clean your computer up and make it much smoother and faster.
Don

Answer 4

Get something to clean your registry. After a while, you end up getting a whole bunch of crap that you don't need in there. Like if you uninstall a program. It usually doesn't delete all the registry keys. Also check for Active X controls that are just there to slow down your computer. I use CCleaner and it is a pretty neat tool, it also clears your cookies. Also check for spyware, that slows down your computer. And last but not least, if you are using norton or mcaffee for your anti-virus, those use up alot of resources and makes your computer slower. If you have those programs, add more ram or uninstall and use something else.

Answer 5

Using a registry cleaner can fix your computer and then make your computer faster,Why?the reason is that there may be some regsitry errors and remnant,corrupt files and temp files in your computer to cause "computer slow".
Everytime you install and uninstall software on your computer and surfing online you create junk in the computer registry.over time, the registry can grow to enormous proportions, especially if the various programs you've installed do not do a good job of deleting and/or updating it's Registry entries.You need to scan and clean your computer with registry cleaner to make it fast.Good Regisry Cleaner will improve your computer and Internet performance dramatically!It even can speed up your computer by 300% or more!
There are some comparison and review of TOP 5 registry cleaners.
http://www.make-pc-fast.info/index.php?t=makepcf
You can download and scan your computer for free.

Answer 6

Try pc booster: http://www.pc-booster.info
It contains all the secrets to speeding up and optimizing your PC, without spending a single $ on hardware. It turbo-charges your PC to make it much more stable by preventing system inefficiencies that cause crashes, lockups and slowdowns of your computer. By running PC Booster's Auto Tune, you'll be left with a faster and more responsive system that is less prone to crashes and fatal error messages. So you have no more troubles running important programs or memory consuming multimedia or Internet applications.
pc booster: http://www.pc-booster.info

Answer 7

"start" "run" then type in msconfig and go into the startup window and uncheck anything you dont need starting up and running every time such as realplayer itunes quicktime etc. After you uninstall the programs you dont want then do a defrag. You dont want to do a defrag before you uninstall them cuz, if you do, as soon as you uninstall stuff you'l leave open spots on your hard drive resulting in future progs etc getting fragmented.

Answer 8

Go to Contol Panel and Add/Remove Programs.

Answer 9

Back up any data or media that you think or feel is needed. Then back up the OS also.
Re-install , (clean install), replace or don't replace the backed up files and stuff it will or should run almost as fast as new.
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000179.htm
and
http://www.computerhope.com/basic.htm#00
That is a step by step of the back up every user should have.

Answer 10

follow this :

Start, Control Panel, Add remove software,

here is the place that you can delete the software and program that you do not want

then follow this:

start, Accessories, Sys tools, Defragment

do this for all of your Drivers

good Luck