10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Your Windows XP
One of the factors that slow the performance of the computer is disk fragmentation. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. To speed up the response time, you should monthly run Disk Defragmenter, a Windows utility that defrags and consolidates fragmented files for quicker computer response.
Follow Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
Click the drives you want to defrag and click AnalyzeOver time, your hard disk develops bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and repair disk errors, Windows has a built in tool called the Error Checking utility. It TMll search the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and repair them for faster performance.
Follow Start > My Computer
In My Computer right click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties
Click the Tools tab
Click Check Now
Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box
Click Start
Indexing Services is a little application that uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won TMt do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often.
Go to StartClick Control PanelClick the Add/Remove Window Components
Uncheck the Indexing services
Click Next
You may have noticed that everytime you open My Computer to browse folders that there is a little delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing speed, you can disable the Automatically search for network folders and printers option.
6. Disable Performance Counters
Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC TMs performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.
Download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List
Then select each counter in turn in the Extensible performance counters TM window and clear the performance counters enabled TM checkbox at the bottom button below
Under Performance choose the Settings button
Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.
Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.