OK, so you’ve had Windows XP for a while now and have installed a bunch of third party apps, and Windows just keeps getting slower, and slower, and slower, and slooooower…

It might be Microsoft’s fault, since there are a bunch of things that XP should do differently. It might be a third party application provider’s fault for installing a bunch of junk into the startup folder that you didn’t ask for. It might be your fault for carelessly installing software that contains spyware or adware.

But we’re not here to point fingers. The purpose of this article is to help you get your computer back up to speed.

Before I begin, let me tell you how I personally keep my Windows machines running at top speed — I completely reformat the C: drive and reinstall everything, starting with Windows XP, every few months. Yes, this can be pretty time consuming, though I’ve worked out a few tricks that really speed things up. If you really want to get back to top performance, this is the best course of action. However, this solution isn’t for everyone – you should have some clue as to what you’re doing before taking this route.

If you want to speed up your current system without reformatting, give these steps a try:

  1. Clean up your Desktop

    2. For some reason, having large files on your Desktop slows Windows down. (Don’t ask me, I didn’t design it.) You should try your best to store your documents somewhere else, for instance, in your “My Documents” folder.

    Having a lot of icons on the Desktop can slow windows down as well, which is why Windows ships with a “Desktop Cleanup Wizard.” You may have noticed that an annoying little bubble pops up from time-to-time saying “You have unused icons on your Desktop” This isn’t Microsoft trying to be helpful by unlcuttering your screen for you, this is them working around the “too many icons slows me down” design flaw.

    If you’d like to use the Desktop Cleanup Wizard, access it by right-clicking anywhere on your Desktop then choosing “Properties.” The “Display Properties” window will appear. Choose the “Desktop” tab, then click the “Customize Desktop” button at the bottom of that screen. From that screen, choose the “Clean Desktop Now” button.

    Of course, there is really no need to run the wizard – you can accomplish the same by simply deleting the icons that you don’t use manually.

  2. Free Up Disk Space by Removing Temporary Files

    3. Start Microsoft’s “Disk Cleanup” by going to
    Start –>All Programs–> Accessories–> System Tools–> Disk Cleanup
    -or–
    Go to Start->Run and type “cleanmgr”

    If prompted to choose a drive, select “C.”

    Disk Cleanup now examines your drive for a bit, then shows you how much disk space you can reclaim by deleting unused files. When the box pops up, you will probably want to choose to get rid of

    • Downloaded Program Files
    • Temporary Internet Files
    • Microsoft Error Reporting Temporary Files
    • Recycle Bin
    • Any “Log” Files

    Do NOT choose “Compress Old Files” — while this will free up some disk space, it will also make your computer much, much slower.

    Anything else, it’s really your call. In my list, I see that “Office Setup Files” are taking up about 200M of disk space. While I could reclaim that space by deleting them, I choose to keep them in place since it makes some tasks in Microsoft Office a little bit easier. And since I’m not really hurting for disk space, they really don’t bother me.

    Hit “OK” to let XP reclaim some disk space then move on to the next step.

  3. Defragment your Hard Drive

    4. Start-> All Programs-> Accessories-> System Tools-> Disk Defragmenter
    –or–
    Click Start->Run and type “dfrg.msc”

    Choose the C: drive from the list and then click “Analyze.”

    The tool will now analyze your hard drive and tell you whether the drive needs to be defragmented. If so, follow the instructions on-screen. (You may want to bookmark this page now — your computer may need to be rebooted by the defrag program. Hit “CTRL-D” to bookmark.)

    Note: Depending on the size of your Hard Drive and level of fragmentation, this step might take a few hours to complete. You will still be able to perform other tasks while the program runs, though.

  4. Check Your System for Malicious Adware

    5. If you don’t already have Lavasoft’s Ad-aware installed on your computer, you need to download it and install it. What this program will do is search your system for malicious programs that may be running in the background and disable them.

    The software is free and can be obtained from download.com or in the free Google Pack. To get Google Pack, which contains a bunch of other software as well, click the button below.



    (Note: Google Pack is completely customizable. Just de-select any software that you don’t want.)

    After installing Google Pack, run it by finding the appropriate file in the Start Menu. Be sure to choose to “Check for updated definitions” if prompted.

    Once the definitions have been updated, choose “Start” to start the scan. Once the scan is complete, choose to have any detected adware files quarantined or removed.

  5. Get rid of Spyware

    6. Like adware, you may not even be aware that spyware is running in the background on your computer. The best spyware detection tool out there is called Spybot Search & Destroy and can be downloaded by clicking here.

    Download and install the software, the run it by locating the appropriate menu under Start->All Programs. (Likely called “Spybot Search and Destroy”)

    When you run the program, you will need to first choose “Search for Updates,” after which you may need to re-start the program. Then choose “Check for Problems” and let Spybot S+D quarantine any problems found.

  6. Run a Virus Scan

    7. This is going to vary depending on the virus software that you use, but you should start your virus scanner, update the definitions, and run a full system scan.

    If you don’t have virus software, or if you are looking to make a change, note that Norton Antivirus is included in the free Google Pack. You can download the Google Pack by clicking the button above.

  7. Do you have enough RAM?

    8. RAM, or Random Access Memory, is what your computer uses when it “thinks.” The more complex tasks you perform, the more RAM you need. And if your computer doesn’t have enough, Windows can run like a dog as it tries to make up for the RAM deficiency by caching to disk. Most bargain-basement computer manufacturers keep their costs down by selling PCs with too little RAM – those of us “in the know” know that simply popping an extra RAM module in can speed up performance drastically.

    To check the amount of RAM that your computer has, hit the Windows Key and the Pause/Break key at the same time. (Or right-click on “My Computer” then choose “Properties.”) The amount of RAM That you have will be listed on the bottom right side of the box that pops up. If you have under 512M, and if speed is an issue for you, you’re going to want to seriously consider upgrading to at least 512M of RAM or more. It shouldn’t cost you more than $50, and the performance increase will be considerable.

  8. Coming in Part 2

    9. This ends Part 1 of the “How to Speed up your PC” article. In Part 2 I will discuss more advanced techniques, such as disabling certain programs that run at Startup and deleting Tasks in the Task Scheduler. Until then, Good Luck and happy tweaking!