How can I speed up my system ?

Question

I have an old compaq presario 5000 series pc with a P3 and 384 megs of ram. It was running pretty good with windows XP home edition, and then I decided to re-format, and upgrade to Windows XP pro. Now its kind of sluggish. I've done all the windows tricks I could think of. Defrag (windows told me I didn't need to, it was a fresh install) Virus scan, Disk cleanup, turned off screen savers, changed the graphics to classic settings. I've even got the virtual memory maxed out. Does xp pro use more system resources than home edition does ? Should I go back to home edition ? Help me. Please ?

Answer 1

To speed up your computer and free up space and memory for free:

Go to the Start Menu> Run

Type in "appwiz.cpl"

Uninstall whatever you don't need.

Next, go to Start> Run and type in "msconfig".

Go to the Startup Tab and uncheck everything you don't want to startup. If you want, you can uncheck everything, and your anti-virus will still restart itself when you log on.

Now go to My Computer> Hard Drive> Documents and Settings> [USER NAME]> Local Settings> and delete everything inside the Temp Folder. (This is a hidden folder so you will need to have "show hidden files and folders" checked in Folder Options) All the files in this folder are just temporary files that your Internet stored for certain websites.

Next, you should install CCleaner, it will get rid of alot of temporary files on your computer. It also has a registry repair system, which is easily the best free one available on the Internet:

http://www.ccleaner.com/download

Another option is to try defragmenting your computer.

Go to the Start Menu and go to All Programs

Go to Accessories and System Tools.

Choose Disk Defragmenter and when it loads click defragment.

Next, go to Device Manger (Start> RightClick My Computer> Properties> Hardware Tab> Device Manager) and expand all listings. Now rightclick and update all drivers.

Another thing I would say is to compress your files if you already haven't.

Open My Computer and right click on your hard drive

Check the Compress Drive button and let it do it's thing.

Finally, make sure your Hard Drive doesn't have any bad sectors. Go to My Computer> Right Click Hard Drive> Properties> Tools Tab> Check Now> Check both boxes and Start. It will ask you to reboot, so reboot. This will clear out any bad sectors on your Hard Drive.

These are short-term solutions however. the easiest way is to just upgrade the RAM on your system, but at least the ways above are free.

Good Luck =]

Answer 2

Check http://www.pcoptimizerprodownload.com

With pc optimizer pro you can safely clean, repair and optimize your computer.

It will help improve your system performance.

Answer 3

Using a registry cleaner can clean up your computer and then make your computer faster,Why?the reason is that there may be some registry errors and remnant,corrupt files and temp files in your computer to cause "computer slow".

Every time you install and uninstall software on your computer and surfing online you create junk in the computer registry.over time, the registry can grow to enormous proportions, especially if the various programs you've installed do not do a good job of deleting and/or updating it's Registry entries.You need to scan and clean your computer with registry cleaner to make it fast.Good Registry Cleaner will improve your computer and Internet performance dramatically!

There are some comparison and review of TOP 5 registry cleaners.

http://www.speed-up-your-pc.com/

You can download and scan your computer for free.

Answer 4

There are lots of problems which make your pc slow.

Microsoft Registry Problems = Slow Computer!

Spyware/Adware

RAM

De-Fragmenting

Etc.

Below can help you speed up your pc:

From IE, click Tools, Internet Options delete cookies delete files (offline files) clear history (set days to save to 0 if you want) click o.k., and Restart

De-Fragmenting

1. Right click of C Disk.

2. Click properties.

3. Click tools tab.

4. Click "Defragment now".

5. Click Defragment.

You can search which process full use you cpu, and end the process.

Under steps:

1. right click on the TaskBar.

2. click the Task Manager.

3. click the processes tab.

4. double click the CPU.

5. find if the "System Idle Process" is max.

6. if not right click and click end process.

Use the tool: http://tpdownload.com/themosteffectivere...

Learn more information "why is my computer running so slow": http://tpdownload.com/WhyIsMyComputerSlo...

Answer 5

There're some different things between XP Home & Pro, basic is:

1/Remote Desktop

– remotely access your Windows XP Professional PC, from another Windows PC, so you can work with all of your data and applications while away from your office.

2/Internet Information Services (IIS) version 5.1

– host your own Web site on the Internet or your intranet.

3/Offline Files and Folders

- access to files & folders on a network share when disconnected from the server.

4/Scalable processor support

– up to two-way multi-processor support.

5/Encrypting File System

- protects sensitive data in files that are stored on disk using the NTFS file system.

6/Access Control

– restrict access to selected files, applications, and other resources.

7/Centralized administration

- join Windows XP Professional systems to a Windows Server domain to take advantage of the full range of powerful management and security tools.

8/Group Policy

- simplifies the administration of groups of users or computers.

9/Roaming User Profiles

- access to all your documents and settings no matter where you log on.

10/Remote Installation Service (RIS)

– support for remote operating system installations where desktops can be installed across the network

11/Multi-lingual User Interface (MUI)

add-on - change the user interface language to get localized dialog boxes, menus, help files, dictionaries, and proofing tools etc.

So, you can choose what you like depend on your works.

Answer 6

That shouldn't be the case. According to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314865, Winxp Home and Winxp Pro have the same system requirements.

It's recommended that your virtual memory be twice your ram size.

Winxp Pro has some extra services that are unavailable to Winxp Home. I suspect that's what's slowing you down.

Depending on what you want to do with your computer, you should disable unneccessary services. Goto START > RUN > "services.msc". Disable the services you don't need.

-Services that i think you absolutely need:

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) - never disable this even if you found a way

Plug and Play

System Event Notifications

Windows Management Instrumentation (win programs wont run without)

Event Log (don't disable this, in fact i think you're not allowed)

DCOM server process launcher (a lot of things go wrong if you disable)

Windows Audio

Theme

Print Spooler

That's all i can think of right now. Check the "Sources" link below, and try it yourself. If things go wrong, restart, press F8, start in Safe Mode. Reset things, restart normally.

And most of all, if you can, upgrade the ram.

Hope that helps.