Something's that could easily cause your PC to slow down overtime will be explained and example of the remedy will be demonstrated below.
1. Defragmenting your Hard drive
One easily overlooked step is simple defragmenting your hard drive. Defragmentation happens when the files on your PC become scrambled and out of order causing your PC to search for files when if they were lined up in an order fashion your PC will be much quicker at retrieving them for you!
Go to "My Computer", right-click the hard drive which Windows XP is installed to (Usually C:), click on Properties, Click the Tools Tab, click Defragment Now. Select which Volume/Hard drive you wish to Defrag then click Defragment!
2. Turn off Startup applications
Windows XP can automatically load programs when Windows starts, these startup programs eat up valuable computer memory and CPU processes. However if you turn any of these startup programs OFF they will not load upon starting Windows XP, most of the programs in this method can safely be turned off as they shouldn't be "system needed programs"
Click Start, click Run..., in the Run box that pops up enter "msconfig" without the quotes, click the Startup tab. Now would be a good time to disable whatever programs you don't want automatically loaded. For instance, I've unchecked Yahoo Messenger from my Startup list as I DO NOT want Yahoo Messenger automatically running when I start Windows XP.
3. Turn off file indexing
While disabling file indexing increases file searching time, it increases overall file handling performance is disabled, the performance boost isn't significant but it will help speed things up usually!
Click Start, click My Computer, right-click your hard drive containing Windows XP (Usually C:), click Properties, uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching". It may take some time to finish un-indexing your files and will probably some up with a warning, just click "Ignore all" in this case as it only should be warning you about the files that can't be un-indexed, which is normal.
4. Turn off visual effects
Turning off visual effects in Windows XP is highly recommended if you can live without the fancy shadows under menus or sliding dropdown boxes. Disabling such things gives our PC extra processes to do other things faster!
Go to Control Panel, click System, click Advanced tab, click the Settings button under Performance, in the Visual Effects window that pops up you can turn off all the basic Windows XP candy, though I recommend leaving "Use visual styles on windows and buttons" so it still looks spiffy!
5. Switch from 32bit to 16bit depth
Switching your display from 32bit to 16bit isn't as bad as you think, most people never can tell the difference and it definitely increases PC performance! using 16bitover 32bit will give your Graphics card a well deserved break by not having to do so much work.
Go to Control Panel, double-click Display, click Settings tab, in the "Color Quality" dropdown box select "Medium 16bit" then click Apply, click Ok.
6. Uninstall un-needed programs
Getting rid of old or unused programs frees up disk space and helps with file defragmentation, its healthy practice to uninstall any programs you no longer need from your PC.
Go to Control Panel, double-click "Add or Remove Programs". In the list that appears you may browse through the list of currently installed programs on your PC and easily click Remove to have Windows XP automatically delete the program off your computer, make sure to look at what you remove however!
7. Disable un-needed Windows XP services
Windows XP by default runs a lot of unneeded services in the background which by most common PC users just really aren't needed! This tip is slightly advanced so I recommend you read up and understand what you're doing before you actually disable any Windows XP services. If I can't figure out what a specific Windows XP service is I usually type its full name and extension into Google and get detailed results, feel free to use this same method.
Go to Control Panel, double-click administrative Tools, double-click Services. The list that pops up are all the Services currently installed on your PC, you may disable most any of them by right-clicking and clicking "Stop". However just simply stopping a service does not stop it from starting again once Windows XP has been restarted, so in order to permanently stop a service, right-click on a entry in the services window, click Properties, in the "Startup type" choose disabled and that service will not be re-launched once the PC has been restarted.
8. Free Windows XP memory
The more free memory you have the better suited your PC will before optimally loading and running programs and files. For this I simply recommend a program which does exactly that! Free RAMXP Pro is a wonderful tool that will automatically scrub the crud currently lurking in your RAM and free it up for other everyday PC tasks! FREE RAMXP PRO.
9. Remove the spy ware
Nothing can ruin a PC's performance (and your day) quite like spy ware! Its highly recommended to keep your PC spy ware free to insure optimal performance!
Ad aware by Lavasoft is amongst the other well known spy ware tool kits on the web, its fast, professional and powerful and its free! Ad aware by Lavasoft.
10. Remove any garbage from the registry
Most people never clean out their registry. your PC's registry is usually a very dirty place with dead end files, corrupt entries and even invalid keys oh my! luckily for the most people who don't know anything about Windows XP's registry there's a simple program to scan, detect and even remove faulty registry entries which can stall out a PC when it goes on another wild goose chase for a missing file.
Free Registry Cleaner is a light weight efficient registry cleaner with a simple and easy interface for repairing and cleaning your Windows XP registry.
Conclusion
These methods listed above are pretty standard things for me when I setup a new PC or help someone with their PC to get it running at its maximum speed without going overkill. I hope you find this guide to speeding up your PC helpful in every way!
1. Defragmenting your Hard drive
One easily overlooked step is simple defragmenting your hard drive. Defragmentation happens when the files on your PC become scrambled and out of order causing your PC to search for files when if they were lined up in an order fashion your PC will be much quicker at retrieving them for you!
Go to "My Computer", right-click the hard drive which Windows XP is installed to (Usually C:), click on Properties, Click the Tools Tab, click Defragment Now. Select which Volume/Hard drive you wish to Defrag then click Defragment!
2. Turn off Startup applications
Windows XP can automatically load programs when Windows starts, these startup programs eat up valuable computer memory and CPU processes. However if you turn any of these startup programs OFF they will not load upon starting Windows XP, most of the programs in this method can safely be turned off as they shouldn't be "system needed programs"
Click Start, click Run..., in the Run box that pops up enter "msconfig" without the quotes, click the Startup tab. Now would be a good time to disable whatever programs you don't want automatically loaded. For instance, I've unchecked Yahoo Messenger from my Startup list as I DO NOT want Yahoo Messenger automatically running when I start Windows XP.
3. Turn off file indexing
While disabling file indexing increases file searching time, it increases overall file handling performance is disabled, the performance boost isn't significant but it will help speed things up usually!
Click Start, click My Computer, right-click your hard drive containing Windows XP (Usually C:), click Properties, uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching". It may take some time to finish un-indexing your files and will probably some up with a warning, just click "Ignore all" in this case as it only should be warning you about the files that can't be un-indexed, which is normal.
4. Turn off visual effects
Turning off visual effects in Windows XP is highly recommended if you can live without the fancy shadows under menus or sliding dropdown boxes. Disabling such things gives our PC extra processes to do other things faster!
Go to Control Panel, click System, click Advanced tab, click the Settings button under Performance, in the Visual Effects window that pops up you can turn off all the basic Windows XP candy, though I recommend leaving "Use visual styles on windows and buttons" so it still looks spiffy!
5. Switch from 32bit to 16bit depth
Switching your display from 32bit to 16bit isn't as bad as you think, most people never can tell the difference and it definitely increases PC performance! using 16bitover 32bit will give your Graphics card a well deserved break by not having to do so much work.
Go to Control Panel, double-click Display, click Settings tab, in the "Color Quality" dropdown box select "Medium 16bit" then click Apply, click Ok.
6. Uninstall un-needed programs
Getting rid of old or unused programs frees up disk space and helps with file defragmentation, its healthy practice to uninstall any programs you no longer need from your PC.
Go to Control Panel, double-click "Add or Remove Programs". In the list that appears you may browse through the list of currently installed programs on your PC and easily click Remove to have Windows XP automatically delete the program off your computer, make sure to look at what you remove however!
7. Disable un-needed Windows XP services
Windows XP by default runs a lot of unneeded services in the background which by most common PC users just really aren't needed! This tip is slightly advanced so I recommend you read up and understand what you're doing before you actually disable any Windows XP services. If I can't figure out what a specific Windows XP service is I usually type its full name and extension into Google and get detailed results, feel free to use this same method.
Go to Control Panel, double-click administrative Tools, double-click Services. The list that pops up are all the Services currently installed on your PC, you may disable most any of them by right-clicking and clicking "Stop". However just simply stopping a service does not stop it from starting again once Windows XP has been restarted, so in order to permanently stop a service, right-click on a entry in the services window, click Properties, in the "Startup type" choose disabled and that service will not be re-launched once the PC has been restarted.
8. Free Windows XP memory
The more free memory you have the better suited your PC will before optimally loading and running programs and files. For this I simply recommend a program which does exactly that! Free RAMXP Pro is a wonderful tool that will automatically scrub the crud currently lurking in your RAM and free it up for other everyday PC tasks! FREE RAMXP PRO.
9. Remove the spy ware
Nothing can ruin a PC's performance (and your day) quite like spy ware! Its highly recommended to keep your PC spy ware free to insure optimal performance!
Ad aware by Lavasoft is amongst the other well known spy ware tool kits on the web, its fast, professional and powerful and its free! Ad aware by Lavasoft.
10. Remove any garbage from the registry
Most people never clean out their registry. your PC's registry is usually a very dirty place with dead end files, corrupt entries and even invalid keys oh my! luckily for the most people who don't know anything about Windows XP's registry there's a simple program to scan, detect and even remove faulty registry entries which can stall out a PC when it goes on another wild goose chase for a missing file.
Free Registry Cleaner is a light weight efficient registry cleaner with a simple and easy interface for repairing and cleaning your Windows XP registry.
Conclusion
These methods listed above are pretty standard things for me when I setup a new PC or help someone with their PC to get it running at its maximum speed without going overkill. I hope you find this guide to speeding up your PC helpful in every way!
This article was supplied from the original source @ JW's PC Tips - http://www.jwpctips.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremy_James_Womack
