Any good, free ways to optimise my computer's speed?

exet0626

Hi,

My computer (Windows XP) is beginning to chug along, and I was wondering how I might speed it up. I've performed a disk clean up, have defragmented the hard drive, and have downloaded the Windows anti-spyware programme. But this doesn't seem to do a great deal. I don't have a HUGE amount of programmes on the machine, and none that are particularly big.

If anyone has any good advice, I'd be grateful to hear it.

Thanks.

albertross_2

https://www.ccleaner.com

how much ram have you got?

how much stuff have you got in startup?

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html

esuhl

Go to Start/Run and type "msconfig". If you click the startup tab you can see the programs that run automatically when Windows starts. Untick any you don't need (you may need to type the program name into Google to find out what each program does and whether you need it).

Also, have a look in Control Panel / Add/Remove Programs and uninstall an software that you never use.

exet0626

Thanks for your reply, Albertross. My computer has 192MB of RAM. As for your other question, I downloaded and ran the programme to which you kindly directed me, and 33 categories appeared, under which a varying number of programmes was listed. Under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Start Up was listed HP Digital Imaging Monitor and Microsoft Office 2000. However, I'm not sure if you're referring to this category....?

whotook316

I use a program called freeramxp which claims to free up ram at regular intervals to keep your pc running smoothly. I don't know how much of an effect this has on a real time basis, but it does put an icon in the taskbar that tells you how much free ram you have at any point. If you are running low, you can run the program and it tends to free up a lot of ram, which does prevent slow downs and lock ups.

I think you can download it on download.com

albertross_2

If you have XP??, lack of ram will be your problem, <256 makes XP go slow, try buying some more from https://www.crucial.com, it will make a dramatic difference to the speed.

PS all these free up ram programs are a waste of time imo.

Toxteth_OGrady

whotook316 wrote:

I use a program called freeramxp which claims to free up ram at regular intervals to keep your pc running smoothly.

Another Windows urban myth.

RAM Optimizers/Defragmenters

Myth - "Increasing the amount of available RAM improves performance."

Reality - "RAM Optimizers have no effect, and at worst, they seriously degrade performance. Although gaining more available memory might seem beneficial, it isn't. As RAM Optimizers force the available-memory counter up, they force other processes' data and code out of memory. Say that you're running Word, for example. As the optimizer forces the available-memory counter up, the text of open documents and the program code that was part of Word's working set before the optimization (and was therefore present in physical memory) must be reread from disk as you continue to edit your document. The act of allocating, then freeing a large amount of virtual memory might, as a conceivable side effect, lead to blocks of contiguous available memory. However, because virtual memory masks the layout of physical memory from processes, processes can't directly benefit from having virtual memory backed by contiguous physical memory. As processes execute and undergo working-set trimming and growth, their virtual-memory-to-physical-memory mappings will become fragmented despite the availability of contiguous memory."

Source link

:cool:

TOG

buglawton

You could plough through the list of tweaks mentioned here
http://www.pcmech.com/show/optimize/677/1/
- I keep an elderly laptop going (256MB RAM running XP) using some of this info. IMHO 256MB is too little to run XP fast, 512MB is just about OK and Win XP flies with 1GB.

exet0626

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

TornadoTom

albertross wrote:

https://www.ccleaner.com

how much ram have you got?

how much stuff have you got in startup?

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html

I tried this autoruns program as It takes ages for my pc to boot up.
There are dozens and dozens of entries...a lot of them are duplicated
How can I tell whether I need all of them or not Is it safe to delete and leave only one of each file ?
Tom