Windows XP Home Edition Slow

[JAJansenJr]

If a thread on this topic has been started elsewhere, apologies are offered in advance.

My Windows XP Home Edition runs slowly. Even after defragmenting, checking for removal of spyware, it can run at a crawl.

It would be a wonderful thing if there could be a "turbo" button to get XP to run in a "lean and mean" mode, meaning everything is turned off that is not necessary for me to be running.

Three questions:

1) what's the best way to find out what's slowing things down? Remember, the system is running at a crawl, so trying an extremely lengthy list of things following an extremely involved procedure is going to be time prohibitive.

2) what's the best way to configure XP so that it runs in a "lean" or "light" mode, where as few processes as possible are running?

3) are there any programs that anyone has tried that are commercially available and which can make XP really run?

Any and all help appreciated. I've been dealing with this problem for years, ever since XP first came out, and it would - really - be a great thing to get this figured out!

JAJansenJr
[email][e-mail][/email]
quickly?

[TheNNS]

What are the specs of your computer? how long has this been going on for?

It depends on your hardware. We need more information.

Usually reinstalling the OS is the only thing that will make a computer run faster.

[bobbyraw]

ok first u need to system resources.memory howmuch u have, hdd space how big is it compare to your pagefiles. then u have to clean up autostart programs bot in msconfig and the registry. clean temp directories and temp internet files and dont forget the prefetch directory. defrag with a commercial program like diskeeper, as for service to stop and start follow this link
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/

give a break down off all processes that you might find on windows

[JAJansenJr]

Computer is a Pentium IV 1.3GHz 384 Meg RDRAM. Hard drive is 60 Gig. Has anyone tried all solid state flash drives as their main hard drive? The old slow hard drive has to be part of the problem. Processes show more than 2 pages - best way to share details would be to do a screen capture and post the image but can I post an image here? This has been going on since XP came out and I loaded it on my system. Would really like to avoid reloading the OS (and XP SP2) as this would take a bunch of time - and - I have no reason to think but that the problem would still be with me.

JAJansenJr
[email][e-mail][/email]

[TheNNS]

Your hardware is more than enough to run XP at a reasonable speed. No, flash drives cannot be used as main hard drives, at least not yet. Over 2 pages of processes? There's your problem, you have too many applications running, probably most you don't use or need.

There's two things I recommend doing. One is to back up your data and reinstall the operating system. Two is to go in a delete any unused files, uninstall unnecessary programs. Try killing some of those processes, that's way too many.

Yes you can post pictures here.

[jbennet]

Computer is a Pentium IV 1.3GHz 384 Meg RDRAM

yeah, thats not an amazing spec but it should be able to run XP for general internet/word processing stuff

my guess if youve just got too much crap running.

Use add/remove to get rid of any stuff you dont need

[caperjack]

Computer is a Pentium IV 1.3GHz 384 Meg RDRAM. Hard drive is 60 Gig. Has anyone tried all solid state flash drives as their main hard drive? The old slow hard drive has to be part of the problem. Processes show more than 2 pages - best way to share details would be to do a screen capture and post the image but can I post an image here? This has been going on since XP came out and I loaded it on my system. Would really like to avoid reloading the OS (and XP SP2) as this would take a bunch of time - and - I have no reason to think but that the problem would still be with me.

JAJansenJr [email][e-mail][/email]

at first glance ,i would say get a ram upgrade ,to at least 1 gig ,When do you notice the slowness the most ,If its the internet ,you have to remember that maybe you didn't update any of your software ,But todays internet software is a major upgrade for your computer Re: IE 7,Java and all the Flash type programs and flash s--it on the internet to-day,and you may have to consider upgrading you old P4, 1.3 to get the speed you are looking for.

Anyway with what you have i would use CCleaner to clean any unneeded temp file and other crap ,and regestry cleaning ,safe program i use all the time .
also a scan with Spybot 'search and destroy .
Also a scan with, Free fully working demo Trojan Hunter .

Trojan
hunter download . http://www.soft82.com/download/Windows/TrojanHunter
Trojan hunter update ,do this before you scan.
http://www.misec.net/trojanhunter/updating/

Spybot an CCleaner can be found at www.filehippo.com

[jbennet]

at first glance ,i would say get a ram upgrade ,to at least 1 gig

He cant. RAMBUS ram is ridiculusly expensive as they dont make it anymore. The cost of 1gb of RAMBUS would be the price of a new PC.

An unbloated XP can run on 384 just fine for websurfing asnd office tasks

[caperjack]

I missed the Rambus ram sorry.im actually loading win98 on a p4 1.6 as wee speak that has 4 sticks of 128,meg of rambus ram.i just bough the tower for $68.00 CDN,

[TheNNS]

why windows 98?

[caperjack]

why windows 98?

LOL ,why not ,just a step back in time ,for something to do,also going to install a 18gig 10,000 rpm scsi drive to dual boot win98 and winxp and 2000 and a linux ,just for something to do !

[jbennet]

lol.

I have 2 NT4 machines (PIIs) , i like NT4. Need drivers for everything though.

[caperjack]

I actually like older computers ,not near as much trouble as the new ones .

[jbennet]

exactly

my oldest machine is an AST from 94. Upgraded it from 8 to 24mb ram and run NT 3.51 / A custom linux distribution i made (24 is min for X)

Runs perfectly. Only ever needed 2 BIOS batteries. Lol the cpu is 20 or 50mhz Cyrix 486 (the good one out of the DX and SX) (cant remeber) - doesnt have a heatsink or fan or anything as it runs so cool

[JAJansenJr]

I can't say I have the entire situation figured out but I turned off indexing services
and have streamlined things a bit with the use of selective startup in msconfig and
things are running a bit better. There are other speedup tricks described elsewhere
on the Internet (Google search for "Windows XP Home Edition slow" returns numerous
useful links) that I'll be trying.

Why a major OS like XP would not have some simpler way to get in a "turbo" mode
is hard to understand.

The fact that so many links are returned by the aforementioned search suggests I'm
far from the only person having a "slowness" issue.

Any further suggestions anyone has are sincerely welcome.

JAJansenJr
[email][e-mail][/email]

[caperjack]

The fact that so many links are returned by the aforementioned search suggests I'm far from the only person having a "slowness" issue.

Any further suggestions anyone has are sincerely welcome.

JAJansenJr [email][e-mail][/email]

I use a P4 2.8 with 1 gig of ram and keep things neat and tidy and I to consider my machine slow ,actually i think its really slow right now for some reason,i just loaded win98 on a p4 1.6 /512 ram,and its a quick as a bunny ,never loaded any other software on it yet,and that the main reason its still fast ,as soon as we start loading software to fix this or speed up this, we start the slow down process.Especially a Anti Virus program
you might want to check out the startup in msconfig and stop programs not needed at startup from running .just go to,Start/ type msconfig into the run ,go to startup/and unchek program not need to be running all the time .only 4 things in mine .

As for turbo mode ,that never worked even when there use to be a turbo button on the front of the tower !lol

[vigneshvh]

hai
i think u r system is installed with windows xp home edithon,normally windows xp home dition if the best and fastest os for home users,if u r system is having the followoin configuration then u can attain gud speed
1:ram 128
2:processor:2.4
3:original theam of windows xp only installed,no other theam should install
4:short cuts should me minimum
5:icons from start up should be minimum
6:antivirus scan at start up can slowdoun u r system sppe
7:desktop shortcuts should be minimum

[caperjack]

you also might want to try tweakui part of Microsoft's' power toys
http://www.filehippo.com/download_tweakui/

actually this program will do nothing to speed up your computer ,i just tried it again after many yeast of using it ,i will leave the link anyway .

[TechTJ]

Hello sorry to come in so late but i have a suggestion, In Control panel click Performance and Maintenance and there will be a selection that says "Adjust My Visual Effects", When that opens there will be 4 things to choose from,
1. Let windows choose what best
2. Best appearance
3. Best Performance
4. Custom(Then gives you a lot of options to choose from)

Then choose what suits you. (Best Performance will make your computer look like old windows) Bun in custom you can deselect stuff like fading and shadows and smooth scroll , etc., just a bunch of stuff that we dont realize all the time.

Macs are Fast. :)
Well hope this helps
Tech TJ

[JAJansenJr]

Thanks for that suggestion - I'd already looked into that. But keep the ideas coming. Things are running better but I still am not where I'd like to be. In typing this message, for example, the computer stopped printing for several seconds and I had to wait for (whatever) to finish before the printing caught up with my typing. It makes no sense for this sort of delay to be happening. Until I can get rid of all the "slows" I'm seeing I'm not where I want to be.

Until a Windows OS comes along (or a tool to use with existing Windows OSs) which allows you to get rid of the delays and slowness, an OS is simply not doing the job it should be capable of doing.

JAJansenJr
[email][e-mail][/email]