XP is slooooow - how to speed up? 1

[Rinnt]

Hi all,

I have a computer that I am trying to optimize. It is quite slow. I have run defrag (which was at 13% fragmation), and removed tons of spyware. The system seems to have gone from very slow to just slow. Are there any other things I can do to speed the thing up? Upon factory install it was a quick machine, but now it has become sluggish. Do you have any tips or tricks you use to optimize XP? I'd hate to do a reinstall just to speed the thing up...

Thanks in advance...

 

[TSSTechie]

Howdy folks,

I would be interested to hear this. I too have an XP machine that has become quite slow. I have defragmented, run Norton AV with latest definitions, run Ad-aware 6 (latest build) with latest definitions, have cleaned out the usual "junk" directories.

I'd be grateful if anyone can suggest anything more.

Thanks in advance

TSSTechie

May The Force Be With You

 

[qwert85103]

Try increasing the virtual memory of your system. You may do this by right clicking on My Computer icon->Properties->Advanced->Performance-> Here set the virtual memory size to a higher number. You'll see another radio button option here which will let you optimize your virtual memory either for "background services" or for "applications".
Make sure you restart your system after the changes.

Good luck!

 

[fuunstatic]

stopping indexing services and system restore service as these are big resource hoogers.

Use MSCONFIG to check to see what services are started that may not be needed

full list =

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm

Antivirus programs insist on checking everything before you can open or run things so another area to check



"Work to live, don't live to work"

"The problem with troubleshooting is that sometimes it shoots back"

 

[Rinnt]

Thank you guys for these excellent tips... I will try them this evening to see how they work.

BTW, that page suggests using services.msc vs msconfig to change start services =P just in case u didn't catch it...

 

[kiddpete]

Run DISKKEEPER. I have found it very effective in speeding up my PC under Win XP Pro.

 

[criado]

the speed of xp has nothing to do with your virtual memory the problem lies in your system memory. xp is designed to run with 1024 of ram if you don't have anyhwere close to that with at least 512mb your system will be a complete dog.

 

[bcastner]

XP was not designed to run with 1024 of RAM.

This is the second appearance in the last week of this claim.

Could you provide a Microsoft cite for this?

 

[Rinnt]

Well I'm not talking slowness from day one - but rather a gradual progression... Had memory been the issue, I would believe it would be apparent even on the first day of operations...

 

[cdogg]

Yes I agree. The 1024MB of RAM theory is completely bogus and baseless. XP was not designed to run any specific amount. However, the more you have the better some applications will run. The operating system (XP) on the other hand will hardly benefit with amounts greater than 512MB. I personally recommend 256MB as the minimum, although 128MB should still work fine as long as you have a decent CPU.

Back to the original question...

A lot has been suggested, but you can easily find more ideas in the Win98 FAQ forum. Although it's a different operating system, a lot of the concepts in minimizing startup applications, deleting temp files, and defragmenting are all the same. Go here:

http://www.tek-tips.com/faq.cfm?spid=615

And finally, there's a handy little utility called bootvis which was originally provided by Microsoft. Their current position is that the utility doesn't make a difference in overall boot times, but a lot of people who have used it claim the contrary. It won't harm your system to try it out, and you can manipulate the way in which the programs and files are organized on the hard drive. The advantage here is that you don't have to rely on Windows XP choosing the layout for you automatically, which can often be less efficient.

http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/12/2/12-2-1.shtml

~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind"
[tab][tab]- Aristotle

 

[linney]

Running the Disk Cleanup tool will help too.

Also see how it goes if you switch off anti virus software for a few moments.


Type MSCONFIG in the Run Box to see what is loading at start up.

Try disabling any unrequired services that are running in background.

http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Computer Speed and Performance May Decrease (Q310419)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q310/4/19.asp

HOW TO: Set Performance Options (Q308417)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/4/17.asp

819017 - Long Delay Before Files Appear in My Computer in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;819017&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

819101 - Temporary Decline in Performance Occurs When You Right-Click a File or Folder in Windows Explorer

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;819101

Spybot

http://security.kolla.de/

Ad-aware

http://www.lavasoft.nu

The last two will check your computer for spyware and adware.

 

[Rinnt]

This is going a bit OT - we should quickly return to the original topic - but it's still somewhat related: How do you handle spyware? I was shocked by the large volume of spy apps on this system and found I needed at least two apps to remove them. I believe they were degrading performance, particularly w/the number of IE windows poping up. I used Spybot to scan, but found I needed SpySweeper to remove the ClientMan infection... Also use SpyBlaster from javacoolsoftware to prevent installs...

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

How much RAM do you have? I would recommend a minimum of 512 MB with XP. How much disk space do you have free? Lower amounts of disk space makes your computer run slower. Also, I would hard-set your swap file size, by doing this, Windows won't have to increase and decrease your swap file and it will cause less fragmentation. I would recommend a size double your RAM up to 512 MB. I have 512 MB of RAM and I have a 512 MB swap file, I have basically never have had problems.

Also your defrag and a scan disk should take care of a few more problems.

Also, check to see how many programs are running in the background. I bet there is more things running than what you may think. You can go into Task Manager to see that. I don't recall the name off the top of my head, but there a program that will list all programs that start when Windows starts up, I would recommend running that and remove non-essential programs, like Office Start-Up, OpenOffice.org startup, etc. The more programs you have running the slower you computer will get. One other thing to look at is your registry. Get a registry cleaner and have it clean up things that are no longer installed on your PC.

One other thing to check is Disk Cleanup, make sure your temporary items are cleaned up.

These ideas should help quite a bit in way of cleanup and speed.

iSeriesCodePoet
iSeries Programmer/Lawson Software Administrator

http://www.koldark.net

See my progress to converting to linux.

http://linux.koldark.net

 

[rgzimmer]

Haven't looked at any of the links, but a couple of thing to optimize are:

System restore. XP takes up huge amounts of HD space for this. Scale it back or eliminate it if you don't use it.

Temp Internet files. Clean these out regularly.

Unused programs. I periodically go into add/remove and remove anything that I haven't used in a while.

 

[bcastner]

Rinnt,

To prevent it, I have not found a completely satisfactory answer. To regularly sweep and remove adware, spyware, etc. I hope this FAQ helps: faq608-4650

 

[linney]

In answer to the "why" question you could try these articles.

Spyware - Good Review
thread779-649885

 

[pbsanf]

Watch out for too many tsr's (terminate and stay resident programs.) But be careful which ones you turn off. Check out the following freeware for Startup Managers.

http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/system/fwstartup.html

good luck,
Peter

 

[bcastner]

pbsanf,

Just a quibble, these are not TSR's.
You are showing your DOS roots.

 

[123ASP]

Hay, I got the same performance issues, Here what I did to make it run fast:
1. at the command prompt (run ) type %temp% , you will see temp file, delete them All
2. at the command prompt type msconfig, if you are running xp. you will see a dialog box, go to startUP tab and uncheck the programs that you do not use , they run in the background and eat lots of resources.
you do the same under services tab, you can uncheck the services that you do not use. then under General, choose
Selective Start up .

Good luck
Al

 

[glennomoore]

Do some basic system things:

1. Defrag hard drive
2. Turn OFF services that are not needed and set them to manual
3. Clear cache and .tmp files
4. Make sure ad ware is not running, get the free ad-aware
5. Buy more RAM if you have under 256MB
6. See how big your local profile is. If over a couple of MB, delete it. It will recreate when you log in again.
7. Update all drivers to latest greatest, update firmware to latest greatest.