XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

[Guest Mr. Low]

Dear Sir,

 

I am using a Dell Pentium 4 PC with RAM of 520MB.

 

However I noticed that the response time for launching a software such as MS

Word or Ms Work Spreadsheet is pretty slow.

 

Comparatively, at the work place, I used a Pentium 3 PC with Wondow 2000

Server OS, the eswktop application could be launch much faster.

 

I carried out routine system eminence such as running disk clean up, Check

and Repair Disk Error, Window Defender, Window Updates., but not much

improvement was noticed.

 

May I know if XP Home is design to run at this speed ?

 

Is there any changes in the XP Home setting I could make to enable it to run

faster ? or is there any MS drivers that could speed it up ?

 

Thanks

 

Low

 

--

A36B58K641

[Guest DL]

Re: XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

 

Generally there are no settings that will improve this.

What versions of Word are being used?

Boot into safe mode, how much better is it then?

 

"Mr. Low" <lsk2141@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:88FA4E38-6C5D-4781-B848-C9F01D3D3AF6@microsoft.com...

> Dear Sir,

>

> I am using a Dell Pentium 4 PC with RAM of 520MB.

>

> However I noticed that the response time for launching a software such as

> MS

> Word or Ms Work Spreadsheet is pretty slow.

>

> Comparatively, at the work place, I used a Pentium 3 PC with Wondow 2000

> Server OS, the eswktop application could be launch much faster.

>

> I carried out routine system eminence such as running disk clean up, Check

> and Repair Disk Error, Window Defender, Window Updates., but not much

> improvement was noticed.

>

> May I know if XP Home is design to run at this speed ?

>

> Is there any changes in the XP Home setting I could make to enable it to

> run

> faster ? or is there any MS drivers that could speed it up ?

>

> Thanks

>

> Low

>

> --

> A36B58K641

[Guest Mr. Low]

Re: XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

 

Dear Sir,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I am using Microsoft Work Version 7 (Word Processor).

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Low

 

 

--

A36B58K641

 

 

"DL" wrote:

> Generally there are no settings that will improve this.

> What versions of Word are being used?

> Boot into safe mode, how much better is it then?

>

> "Mr. Low" <lsk2141@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:88FA4E38-6C5D-4781-B848-C9F01D3D3AF6@microsoft.com...

> > Dear Sir,

> >

> > I am using a Dell Pentium 4 PC with RAM of 520MB.

> >

> > However I noticed that the response time for launching a software such as

> > MS

> > Word or Ms Work Spreadsheet is pretty slow.

> >

> > Comparatively, at the work place, I used a Pentium 3 PC with Wondow 2000

> > Server OS, the eswktop application could be launch much faster.

> >

> > I carried out routine system eminence such as running disk clean up, Check

> > and Repair Disk Error, Window Defender, Window Updates., but not much

> > improvement was noticed.

> >

> > May I know if XP Home is design to run at this speed ?

> >

> > Is there any changes in the XP Home setting I could make to enable it to

> > run

> > faster ? or is there any MS drivers that could speed it up ?

> >

> > Thanks

> >

> > Low

> >

> > --

> > A36B58K641

>

>

>

[Guest Bob I]

Re: XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

 

Go into Control Panel, System, Advanced, Performance Settings button.

Make adjustments there.

 

Mr. Low wrote:

> Dear Sir,

>

> I am using a Dell Pentium 4 PC with RAM of 520MB.

>

> However I noticed that the response time for launching a software such as MS

> Word or Ms Work Spreadsheet is pretty slow.

>

> Comparatively, at the work place, I used a Pentium 3 PC with Wondow 2000

> Server OS, the eswktop application could be launch much faster.

>

> I carried out routine system eminence such as running disk clean up, Check

> and Repair Disk Error, Window Defender, Window Updates., but not much

> improvement was noticed.

>

> May I know if XP Home is design to run at this speed ?

>

> Is there any changes in the XP Home setting I could make to enable it to run

> faster ? or is there any MS drivers that could speed it up ?

>

> Thanks

>

> Low

>

[Guest Mr. Low]

Re: XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

 

Hello Bob,

 

May I know what adjustments I must make ?

 

Thanks

 

Low

--

A36B58K641

 

 

"Bob I" wrote:

> Go into Control Panel, System, Advanced, Performance Settings button.

> Make adjustments there.

>

> Mr. Low wrote:

>

> > Dear Sir,

> >

> > I am using a Dell Pentium 4 PC with RAM of 520MB.

> >

> > However I noticed that the response time for launching a software such as MS

> > Word or Ms Work Spreadsheet is pretty slow.

> >

> > Comparatively, at the work place, I used a Pentium 3 PC with Wondow 2000

> > Server OS, the eswktop application could be launch much faster.

> >

> > I carried out routine system eminence such as running disk clean up, Check

> > and Repair Disk Error, Window Defender, Window Updates., but not much

> > improvement was noticed.

> >

> > May I know if XP Home is design to run at this speed ?

> >

> > Is there any changes in the XP Home setting I could make to enable it to run

> > faster ? or is there any MS drivers that could speed it up ?

> >

> > Thanks

> >

> > Low

> >

>

>

[Guest Bob I]

Re: XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

 

Please read the description of the setting, make your choice to disable

or not.

 

Mr. Low wrote:

> Hello Bob,

>

> May I know what adjustments I must make ?

>

> Thanks

>

> Low

[Guest Big Al]

Re: XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

 

Mr. Low wrote:

> Dear Sir,

>

> I am using a Dell Pentium 4 PC with RAM of 520MB.

>

> However I noticed that the response time for launching a software such as MS

> Word or Ms Work Spreadsheet is pretty slow.

>

> Comparatively, at the work place, I used a Pentium 3 PC with Wondow 2000

> Server OS, the eswktop application could be launch much faster.

>

> I carried out routine system eminence such as running disk clean up, Check

> and Repair Disk Error, Window Defender, Window Updates., but not much

> improvement was noticed.

>

> May I know if XP Home is design to run at this speed ?

>

> Is there any changes in the XP Home setting I could make to enable it to run

> faster ? or is there any MS drivers that could speed it up ?

>

> Thanks

>

> Low

>

Add more memory. 1/2 gig is a bit low. 1 gig will make it a bit better.

Turn off antivirus, long enough to see if that is doing it. Some

people think Norton or McAfee slow things down, but its still a debate.

 

Control panel -> system -> advanced -> performance. If you check the

'best performance' it turns most features off. This might be a bit

overboard but you can always add a few back until it starts slowing down.

[Guest Mr. Low]

Re: XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

 

Dear Sir,

 

Thanks for your advice.

 

Low

 

--

A36B58K641

 

 

"Big Al" wrote:

> Mr. Low wrote:

> > Dear Sir,

> >

> > I am using a Dell Pentium 4 PC with RAM of 520MB.

> >

> > However I noticed that the response time for launching a software such as MS

> > Word or Ms Work Spreadsheet is pretty slow.

> >

> > Comparatively, at the work place, I used a Pentium 3 PC with Wondow 2000

> > Server OS, the eswktop application could be launch much faster.

> >

> > I carried out routine system eminence such as running disk clean up, Check

> > and Repair Disk Error, Window Defender, Window Updates., but not much

> > improvement was noticed.

> >

> > May I know if XP Home is design to run at this speed ?

> >

> > Is there any changes in the XP Home setting I could make to enable it to run

> > faster ? or is there any MS drivers that could speed it up ?

> >

> > Thanks

> >

> > Low

> >

> Add more memory. 1/2 gig is a bit low. 1 gig will make it a bit better.

> Turn off antivirus, long enough to see if that is doing it. Some

> people think Norton or McAfee slow things down, but its still a debate.

>

> Control panel -> system -> advanced -> performance. If you check the

> 'best performance' it turns most features off. This might be a bit

> overboard but you can always add a few back until it starts slowing down.

>

>

[Guest Doug W.]

Re: XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

 

 

"Big Al" <BigAl@nowhere.com> wrote in message

news:ntXWj.36813$Au2.6258@trnddc07...

> Mr. Low wrote:

>> Dear Sir,

>>

>> I am using a Dell Pentium 4 PC with RAM of 520MB.

>>

>> However I noticed that the response time for launching a

>> software such as MS Word or Ms Work Spreadsheet is pretty

>> slow.

>>

>> Comparatively, at the work place, I used a Pentium 3 PC with

>> Wondow 2000 Server OS, the eswktop application could be

>> launch much faster. I carried out routine system eminence

>> such as running disk clean up, Check and Repair Disk Error,

>> Window Defender, Window Updates., but not much improvement

>> was noticed.

>>

>> May I know if XP Home is design to run at this speed ? Is

>> there any changes in the XP Home setting I could make to

>> enable it to run faster ? or is there any MS drivers that

>> could speed it up ?

>>

>> Thanks

>>

>> Low

>>

> Add more memory. 1/2 gig is a bit low. 1 gig will make it

> a bit better.

> Turn off antivirus, long enough to see if that is doing it.

> Some people think Norton or McAfee slow things down, but its

> still a debate.

>

> Control panel -> system -> advanced -> performance. If you

> check the 'best performance' it turns most features off.

> This might be a bit overboard but you can always add a few

> back until it starts slowing down.

-

Re: Advanced->performance. Not only that, but you also get rid

of those 'garish' XP colors which anyone in their right mind

would never permit. I like my computer to resemble Windows 98

and in most respects it does.

-

 

-

>

[Guest brent3600]

RE: XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

 

The counsel about getting more RAM is very good - that will help. Also be

sure you have plenty of disk space - the system needs it for swapping space,

virtual memory, etc.

 

There are at least five general sorts of things you should do to keep your

PC stable and running fast. This list is not comprehensive, and is in no

particular order.

 

1) Junk in your registry - Particularly if you install or uninstall a lot of

software, invalid keys build up in your registry and can slow things down.

An excellent free product to deal with this is CCleaner, from Piriform. An

even better product, not free but well worth it, is Registry Mechanic, from

PC Tools.

 

2) Fragmented hard disk - Think of your hard disk as being like a bookshelf.

When you look at it in Windows Explorer, it looks like each file is in one

piece, like a book on a shelf. In reality, the file management system

manages all of the "pages" of the books separately. The more you use your

hard disk to write and erase files, the more scattered the "pages" get, so

the hard disk has to work harder and harder to gather up the "book" you want.

Defragmenting your hard drive keeps the "pages" close together, more like a

bookshelf and less like a pile of paper. The

Windows Defragmenter is very good but takes a long time to run (overnight).

Degraggler from Piriform is free, fast, excellent, and allows you to

defragment one file at a time, if you want.

 

3) Malware - Be sure you have anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-rootkit

software running and up-to-date, as well as a firewall. There are lots of

great alternatives in this area. I use TrendMicro. Malware can soak up lots

of bandwidth and cpu cycles, as well as jeopardizing your security.

 

4) Crapware - All PCs come loaded up with software that make the PC seem

like a better deal, but which don't really add any value for you.

"Add/Remove Software" and/or CCleaner help get rid of this junk which takes

up disk space and spawns processes that suck up your cpu cycles.

 

5) Unnecessary processes - Advanced users only. There are lots of processes

and services running in the background on your computer. Get rid of the

processes you don't need and free up the cpu cycles. This is a bit tricky.

Stop the wrong process & you can crash your PC or disable something you need.

You can find and stop processes using Control Panel -> Administrative Tools

-> Services. I find Service Studio, from Mindswarm, quite helpful, and its

free. Not free, but well worth it, is The Ultimate Troubleshooter, from

AnswersThatWork.com. Also, ProcessQuickLink 2, from Uniblue, is free and

attaches to Task Manager, giving you a button to click by each process that

takes you to a website telling you what that process does and whether or not

you can kill it. Also very helpful is Microsoft SysInternals Autoruns,

which shows you what is starting automatically when you boot Windows, and

allows you to disable things you don't need.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

"Mr. Low" wrote:

> Dear Sir,

>

> I am using a Dell Pentium 4 PC with RAM of 520MB.

>

> However I noticed that the response time for launching a software such as MS

> Word or Ms Work Spreadsheet is pretty slow.

>

> Comparatively, at the work place, I used a Pentium 3 PC with Wondow 2000

> Server OS, the eswktop application could be launch much faster.

>

> I carried out routine system eminence such as running disk clean up, Check

> and Repair Disk Error, Window Defender, Window Updates., but not much

> improvement was noticed.

>

> May I know if XP Home is design to run at this speed ?

>

> Is there any changes in the XP Home setting I could make to enable it to run

> faster ? or is there any MS drivers that could speed it up ?

>

> Thanks

>

> Low

>

> --

> A36B58K641

[Guest brent3600]

RE: XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

 

The URLs for the above tools:

CCleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/

Defraggler http://www.defraggler.com/

Registry Mechanic http://www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/

Service Studio http://www.mindswarm.com/default.aspx

The Ultimate Troubleshooter http://www.answersthatwork.com/

ProcessQuickLink http://www.processlibrary.com/quicklink/

(or look up manually at

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/dlllibrary/)

Autoruns http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

 

I'd like to add two more suggestions. These may or may not be valuable for

you, but they help me a lot.

 

1) Process Lasso - This free-for-home-use tool runs in the background and

manages the priority at which processes run, so that background processes

(virus scanning, backups, updates, etc.) don't hog system resources while

you're using the PC. They still run, but Process Lasso reduces their

priority so they consume fewer cycles. http://www.bitsum.com/prolasso.php

 

2) Startup Delayer - There are lots of processes that need to start up when

you boot Windows XP. Some you need right away (e.g., firewall), and some you

won't need until later (battery management, iTunes, backup). Startup Delayer

allows you to delay the starting of these processes, so the system is

available for use much faster when you boot, rather than having to wait while

everything starts up. Its free. http://www.r2.com.au

 

"brent3600" wrote:

> The counsel about getting more RAM is very good - that will help. Also be

> sure you have plenty of disk space - the system needs it for swapping space,

> virtual memory, etc.

>

> There are at least five general sorts of things you should do to keep your

> PC stable and running fast. This list is not comprehensive, and is in no

> particular order.

>

> 1) Junk in your registry - Particularly if you install or uninstall a lot of

> software, invalid keys build up in your registry and can slow things down.

> An excellent free product to deal with this is CCleaner, from Piriform. An

> even better product, not free but well worth it, is Registry Mechanic, from

> PC Tools.

>

> 2) Fragmented hard disk - Think of your hard disk as being like a bookshelf.

> When you look at it in Windows Explorer, it looks like each file is in one

> piece, like a book on a shelf. In reality, the file management system

> manages all of the "pages" of the books separately. The more you use your

> hard disk to write and erase files, the more scattered the "pages" get, so

> the hard disk has to work harder and harder to gather up the "book" you want.

> Defragmenting your hard drive keeps the "pages" close together, more like a

> bookshelf and less like a pile of paper. The

> Windows Defragmenter is very good but takes a long time to run (overnight).

> Degraggler from Piriform is free, fast, excellent, and allows you to

> defragment one file at a time, if you want.

>

> 3) Malware - Be sure you have anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-rootkit

> software running and up-to-date, as well as a firewall. There are lots of

> great alternatives in this area. I use TrendMicro. Malware can soak up lots

> of bandwidth and cpu cycles, as well as jeopardizing your security.

>

> 4) Crapware - All PCs come loaded up with software that make the PC seem

> like a better deal, but which don't really add any value for you.

> "Add/Remove Software" and/or CCleaner help get rid of this junk which takes

> up disk space and spawns processes that suck up your cpu cycles.

>

> 5) Unnecessary processes - Advanced users only. There are lots of processes

> and services running in the background on your computer. Get rid of the

> processes you don't need and free up the cpu cycles. This is a bit tricky.

> Stop the wrong process & you can crash your PC or disable something you need.

> You can find and stop processes using Control Panel -> Administrative Tools

> -> Services. I find Service Studio, from Mindswarm, quite helpful, and its

> free. Not free, but well worth it, is The Ultimate Troubleshooter, from

> AnswersThatWork.com. Also, ProcessQuickLink 2, from Uniblue, is free and

> attaches to Task Manager, giving you a button to click by each process that

> takes you to a website telling you what that process does and whether or not

> you can kill it. Also very helpful is Microsoft SysInternals Autoruns,

> which shows you what is starting automatically when you boot Windows, and

> allows you to disable things you don't need.

>

> Hope this helps!

>

>

> "Mr. Low" wrote:

>

> > Dear Sir,

> >

> > I am using a Dell Pentium 4 PC with RAM of 520MB.

> >

> > However I noticed that the response time for launching a software such as MS

> > Word or Ms Work Spreadsheet is pretty slow.

> >

> > Comparatively, at the work place, I used a Pentium 3 PC with Wondow 2000

> > Server OS, the eswktop application could be launch much faster.

> >

> > I carried out routine system eminence such as running disk clean up, Check

> > and Repair Disk Error, Window Defender, Window Updates., but not much

> > improvement was noticed.

> >

> > May I know if XP Home is design to run at this speed ?

> >

> > Is there any changes in the XP Home setting I could make to enable it to run

> > faster ? or is there any MS drivers that could speed it up ?

> >

> > Thanks

> >

> > Low

> >

> > --

> > A36B58K641

[Guest Ken Blake, MVP]

Re: XP Home: Any settings for speeding up my PC ?

 

On Thu, 15 May 2008 10:24:00 -0700, brent3600

<brent3600@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

 

 

I have several comments, interspersed below.

 

> The counsel about getting more RAM is very good - that will help.

 

 

Unlikely. He has 512MB of RAM (I assume that 520MB is a typo). Except

for those doing especially memory-hungry things like video-editing or

editing large graphics images, very few people running Windows XP need

or can make effective use of more than 512MB.

 

If he is currently using the page file significantly, more memory will

decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve his performance. If he

is not using the page file significantly, more memory will do nothing

for him. He should go to

http://billsway.com/notes%5Fpublic/winxp%5Ftweaks/ and download

WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your pagefile usage. That should

give him a good idea of whether more memory can help, and if so, how

much more.

 

 

> Also be

> sure you have plenty of disk space - the system needs it for swapping space,

> virtual memory, etc.

>

> There are at least five general sorts of things you should do to keep your

> PC stable and running fast. This list is not comprehensive, and is in no

> particular order.

>

> 1) Junk in your registry - Particularly if you install or uninstall a lot of

> software, invalid keys build up in your registry and can slow things down.

> An excellent free product to deal with this is CCleaner, from Piriform. An

> even better product, not free but well worth it, is Registry Mechanic, from

> PC Tools.

 

 

I completely and very strongly disagree. Registry cleaning programs

are *all* snake oil. Cleaning of the registry isn't needed and is

dangerous. Leave the registry alone and don't use any registry

cleaner. Despite what many people think, and what vendors of registry

cleaning software try to convince you of, having unused registry

entries doesn't really hurt you.

 

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously

removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit

it may have.

 

 

> 2) Fragmented hard disk - Think of your hard disk as being like a bookshelf.

> When you look at it in Windows Explorer, it looks like each file is in one

> piece, like a book on a shelf. In reality, the file management system

> manages all of the "pages" of the books separately. The more you use your

> hard disk to write and erase files, the more scattered the "pages" get, so

> the hard disk has to work harder and harder to gather up the "book" you want.

> Defragmenting your hard drive keeps the "pages" close together, more like a

> bookshelf and less like a pile of paper. The

> Windows Defragmenter is very good but takes a long time to run (overnight).

> Degraggler from Piriform is free, fast, excellent, and allows you to

> defragment one file at a time, if you want.

 

 

Fragmentation under Windows XP, if he's using NTFS, is much less of an

issue than it was in previous versions of Windows, and defragmenting

is unlikely to solve any performance problems. However there is

certainly no downside to defragmenting, and I don't disagree with your

recommendation to do this. I just caution him not to expect a giant

improvement by doing so.

 

 

> 3) Malware - Be sure you have anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-rootkit

> software running and up-to-date, as well as a firewall. There are lots of

> great alternatives in this area. I use TrendMicro. Malware can soak up lots

> of bandwidth and cpu cycles, as well as jeopardizing your security.

 

 

 

I very strongly agree with this. Malware is becoming an

ever-increasing problem, and is very often the cause of performance

problems.

 

 

> 4) Crapware - All PCs come loaded up with software that make the PC seem

> like a better deal, but which don't really add any value for you.

> "Add/Remove Software" and/or CCleaner help get rid of this junk which takes

> up disk space and spawns processes that suck up your cpu cycles.

 

 

 

I don't disagree here, except that it's important to distinguish

between such preloaded programs that start automatically when you

boot, and those that are just installed and are available for your use

if you actually run them.

 

The first sort is very likely to be a drain on performance (but even

here, not always. It depends on what the program is), but the second

type is not. The only disadvantage of having such programs installed

is that they use some disk space; on a typical modern machine with a

large hard drive, the amount of disk space involved is almost always

so small as to be inconsequential.

 

> 5) Unnecessary processes - Advanced users only. There are lots of processes

> and services running in the background on your computer. Get rid of the

> processes you don't need and free up the cpu cycles. This is a bit tricky.

 

 

 

It's more than "a bit tricky." For most users, it's downright

dangerous. Moreover the number of CPU cycles freed up is almost always

inconsequential. For almost everyone, I recommend against doing this.

 

> Stop the wrong process & you can crash your PC or disable something you need.

 

 

Exactly! The risk of a serious problem is great and the potential

benefit is small. A poor bargain, in my view. I recommend leaving this

alone.

 

> You can find and stop processes using Control Panel -> Administrative Tools

> -> Services. I find Service Studio, from Mindswarm, quite helpful, and its

> free. Not free, but well worth it, is The Ultimate Troubleshooter, from

> AnswersThatWork.com. Also, ProcessQuickLink 2, from Uniblue, is free and

> attaches to Task Manager, giving you a button to click by each process that

> takes you to a website telling you what that process does and whether or not

> you can kill it.

 

 

> Also very helpful is Microsoft SysInternals Autoruns,

> which shows you what is starting automatically when you boot Windows, and

> allows you to disable things you don't need.

 

 

 

Disabling un-needed auto-starting programs is good to do, but I want

to add my regular caution here:

 

On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its

Options to see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you

actually choose the option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon"

option). Many can easily and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't

work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab,

uncheck the programs you don't want to start automatically. (Autoruns,

as you suggest, is also a good choice, but is unnecessary for most

users).

 

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of

running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell

you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs

you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but

others have no effect on performance.

 

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do

is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what

the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can get

more information about these at

http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it there,

try google searches and ask about specifics here.

 

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed

decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.

 

--

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

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