what Steps you follow and recommend to make windows xp work faster?

Question

after some months from running my windows xp i feel its getting old and slower.

i always hear about tools and applications that can make the windows faster, such as registry cleaners, but i am always afraid from those applications.

Which steps you did and trust which made your xp work faster?

Answer 1

Check what is being run at startup using autoruns, and get rid of anything you don't need. Also, use CCleaner

Answer 2

I don't have enough reputation points to comment yet, but I suggest not cleaning the Prefetch folder. See this article for reasons why this is not recommended.

Answer 3

• Defragment HDDs
• Uninstall all applications, which you didn't using.
• Clear applications at startup
• Set all services (Control Panel -> Administration Tools -> Services), which you didn't using to "Start Manualy"

Answer 4

I right click My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Performance Settings, Adjust for best performance. That turns off animations and similar (you can see exactly what it turns off, there are tick boxes). It looks less pretty but makes a difference to performance.

Answer 5

A little-known trick that I do for everyone who tells me that their Windows computer is starting to get slower is to raise the amount of Virtual Memory.

Here are the steps:

Go to Control Panel -> System -> Advanced. Under the "Performance" section, press "Settings", then chose Advanced tab again. The last category is Virtual Memory, press Change to change the values.

You will get a list with all your partitions.

[...]

For the partition where you want to make virtual memory, chose "Custom size". You must specify initial and maximum memory. For the initial size, put a value equal to your RAM Memory, and for maximum, twice. This is not a rule, you can choose what amount you want as long as your computer works. If you get the message: "Virtual Memory Minimum too low", raise the initial size value.

You'll want to change the amount on your main partition, setting it fairly higher than the current amount.

Answer 6

I know this is an old thread, but anyhow, here are the measures I took to speed up the old xp laptop of my girlfriend (Asus A3F, Centrino Duo 1,6 Ghz, 1 GB RAM):

• Convert the filesystem to NTFS

• Defrag the HD using MyDefrag

• Defrag the registry and all the other programmes using CCleaner
• Disable services (see Black Viper's list)
• Disable the themes (see wikiti's answers here)
• Replace the virus scanner with Avast
• Deinstall Intel PROSet Wireless (if you have it, had a big impact on startup performance!)

Just my two cents ...

Philipp