Why windows Xp-pro is lot slower than win98,and win2000,?

Question

Why windows Xp-pro is lot slower than win98,and win2000, How to make windows xp boot welcome screen faster, i have all latest history, temp,vius,spyware cleaning softwares , my system 256mb ram.still xp takes 5 minutes to open a word or internet explorer.

Answer 1

well xp has so much crap on there which draws the system down but of course you need it all...
To make your computer faster you need to find out what's running at start-up and too do this you have to go to start then run and put in msconfig and it will bring up System configuration utility and you will click on start-up.. those are all loading when you turn on your computer plus in the background..You can unclick them all except your virus program and whatever else you want to start-up when you go on.it is not dangerous to unclick them all except like i said virus and then your going to be asked to restart and do that and when the computer comes up it will say about configuration and you will click don't show again..try this it may help.

Answer 2

First things first, Windows XP requires more resources than previous versions.

256 memory is not much. Upgrading to at least 512MB would really show speed increase.

Also, over time, files on your computer become fragmented (broken down into separate pieces) and need to be defragmented (rejoined) every so often. I recommend once every 2 months. Fragmented files cause the hard drive to have to work harder to find what you need.

To defragment your hard drive, go to the start menu and All Programs>Accessories>System Tools> Disk Defragmentor. Then, select your C: drive and click Defragment. This may take several hours and you SHOULD NOT use your computer during this process.

When it is finished, you should restart the computer and you will notice a speed increase. It may be slight or major depending on the size of your hard drive and the amount of files on it.

These two steps should increase the speed of your PC quite a bit.

Answer 3

XP needs more memory to run, just that simple. But also it depends on how much stuff you have on your computer running in the background. I know plenty of people that have 256Mb of memory and theirs is not that slow for doing average applications, they can't play any 3D games though.
One suggestion is try looking on your computer to see if there is any programs you do not need and uninstall them. Open up Windows Task Manager with Ctrl-Alt-Delete at the same time and check under the processes tab to see all the programs running under your username. That will give an idea of how much stuff is running you may not need. Also in the run box you can type in "msconfig" without the quotes and under the "startup" tab uncheck all the programs that start up with your computer you do not need running such as Itunes. No need to have it running till you need it. It will take longer to open when you do but will also make your computer run faster till then.
One more idea is to try making your own Windows XP install, strip Windows XP down to a lighter version(let say 113Mb completely installed) so it runs faster. A lot of people do this in the first person shooter(FPS) gaming community. I AM NOT SURE IF IT IS LEGAL TO MUCK WITH WINDOWS THOUGH?!?!
Search around for the program, I will not let you know what the web site address is or the program name.

Answer 4

Thats your problem, you don't have enough RAM to run the program. Internet Explorer requires a lot of RAM to open and operate efficiently. If you have other applications open then your system is going to slow down. It doesn't matter what you have preloaded on your machine it is going to continue to be slow until you add more memory. Memory is like a highway for your applications, if all you have is a one lane road then you are not going anywhere fast, but if you were on a multi-lane interstate highway, then you will have the ability to go faster, and you will have more options of lanes in which to travel. Right now your applications are trying to operate on a one lane highway and they have to wait on eachother before they can proceed. If your system can handle it I would recommend at least a full gig in RAM, but the bare minimum to operate your applications in XP is around 512mb.

Answer 5

Lastest versions of any OS consumes more memory.
Windows XP Pro will not run well on 256mb ram though microsoft's sys req for windows xp is 64mb ram,with 233mhz processor,1.5gb of harddisk freespace and 8mb of video memory.
Upgrade your ram to 384mb,512mb or even 1gb ram.

-disable any program you don't need.

click start>run
type msconfig
press enter
go to startup tab
select ONLY the programs you need--anti-virus,error checking,etc.
click ok and when it tells you to restart or not, it's your choice.

--Defrag your pc
Fragmentation will slow down your pc because just like a finding a needle in a haystack, your pc with work harder to open a file or run an application.

use the disk defragment on windows xp or download
Auslogics Disk Defrag-free
Fast,easy to use, and free.
Auslogics Registry Defrag
defrags your registry and makes your pc go even faster.
free also
http://www.auslogics.com


--Windows disk cleanup won't delete all temporary internet files.

download CCleaner
http://www.cleaner.com
note:be careful of using this program. You don't want any important files be deleted.

But nothing is like making your ram go higher, but don't forget to do these after upgrading your ram.

Answer 6

Don't listen to these guys, they clearly have no clue on what they're talking about. I am a developer at Microsoft so I know a thing or two about computers. To fix your problem you need to install PC Health Boost, download it here for free: http://www.healthboostpc.com

It's very light and it's the only antivirus/cleaner with a 99.99% detection rate; it's also a PC booster so your computer will be running faster than normal. Install it, hit run and problem solved. It shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes.

Answer 7

2 things XP is probably twice the size of either 98 or 2000 and 2nd 256mb of RAM is very very low. Almost anything now a day's comes with a gig of RAM.
XP and VISTA are very RAM intensive and use a lot just preforming standard operations, were the older ones were not.
Don

Answer 8

Wow! It could be because your computer is as slow as a turtle. Windows XP requires a lot more resources than 98 and 2000. I would at least try to have 512mb of ram. Increasing that would help you out tremendously!

Answer 9

Windows XP uses more ram, cpu power and disk space, just for the operating system, so less power is reserved for programs, 256MB is very low for windows XP so everything will probably be slow.

To get decent performance under windows XP, you are better off with 512mb.

Answer 10

The problem is lack of RAM. XP is a much heavier operating system than earlier ones. 256 MB RAM really isn't enough for your computer to run smoothly.

You can see if your computer can handle more RAM by going to Crucial.com and running a scan.
http://www.crucial.com/index.asp

It's important to note that everything takes RAM. Not only security products (such as active anti-spyware, anti-virus and firewall) eat up memory but your operating system, active browser windows, running applications (such as Word, Gaming, Messenger, Photoshop, etc), graphic card and malware all compete for system resources. The presence of Malware (viruses, spyware, etc) will particularly eat up your system resources so you may want to run your resident security products such as antispyware and antivirus applications to ensure that your system is clean.