Ron,
A couple possibilities.
The first file we want to edit is MSDOS.SYS. This is a read only file, as well as a hidden file. So before you can edit it, you need to do 2 things to be able to do so.
First, open Windows Explorer, On the top toolbar, chose "Tools","folder options", then click on the View tab. Check "Show hidden files and folders", and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files", and click Apply, then Ok.
Next, do a file search for MSDOS.SYS. Right click on it, and select "properties". You need to uncheck "read only",Then click Apply and Ok. After changing the file attributes, double click on MSDOS.SYS, it should open in notepad. (If this doesn't work, hold the shift key down while right clicking on the file will give you an "open with"... option, select this and choose open with notepad). The changes that can be made are as follows.
Make these changes under [Options]:
Logo=0 (This disables the start-up logo , reducing load time. If you really like the Windows logo, don't use this setting)
BootMenuDelay=<Number>
Default: 30
Purpose: This setting is used to set the number of seconds your system will pause on the Startup menu. If the number of seconds counts down to 0 without intervention, the BootMenuDefault is activated.
NOTE: This option is not functional unless BootMenu=1 has been added to
the [Options] section of the Msdos.sys file.
----------------------------------------------
Change the number to something like 5 or lower.
========================================================
Try hitting F2 or the Del key on startup to access the BIOS. You may see an entry for Fast Boot or similar wording. If so, enable it.
right-click on My Computer, click the Performance tab and verify the File System and Virtual Memory are 32-bit.
Click the Virtual Memory button and make sure that Windows is managing the virtual memory.
If those are OK, try these steps to eliminate unecessary program running:
The things that make the computer slow are the many unecessary items that automatically startup when Windows starts.
Right-click on the icons in the tray area, open each, go through the options to turn off the "tray" or "run at startup" feature.
For the others, go to Start>Run, type msconfig. Leave systray, scan registry, Load Power Profile (both), your virus scanner and firewall if you have one.
Go to Start>Run, type sysedit. Look over the autoexec.bat for unneccessary lines, click the win.ini and check for programs loading here:
[windows]
load=
run=
Open Explorer and navigate to c:\windows\temp and delete all files here. Empty the Recycle Bin
Open Internet Explorer, go to Tools>InternetOptions, click the Delete Files and Clear History buttons. Click the Settings button and choose a reasonable size for the temporary internet files directory. i'd suggest 40MB for a 56K connection, as little as 10MB for cable or DSL.
Close all tray applications and hit Alt_Ctl_Del and end task on all items except for explorer and systray, disable your screensaver, then run scandisk, then defrag.
If you don't know what an entry is or what it does, post back.
reghakr
