I'm trying to speed up my friends laptop running win xp. I've tried defragmenting the hard drive and running the disk clean up wizard and even making a new account and migrating all the used files over, but all that seems to not have done anything. Even the startup process is slow, the windows xp screen stays on for over 5 minuets. I was looking at mycleanpc.com and it seems promising but I'm not %100 sure. If there's anything that's FREE and will work, let me know.
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Dump 10 pounds of the crap that is loading on startup!
I would say you first of all scan your system with any good system cleaner such as Reginout to clean your system of excessive data that gives errors and cause slowdown. Also, uninstall unnecessary programs. I hope your problem will be solved. Few more steps will also help you:
1. Make Sure Your Hardware is Sufficient: Above and beyond everything you can do with software to optimize the function of your computer, making sure you have the proper hardware to support Windows is critical.
2. Clean Your Desktop: Is your Windows Desktop dotted with files? Have you noticed that your computer has been running slower and slower? Do you see the hard drive light often flashing while you wait for the computer to respond to an action? There are steps you can take to fix it. Read this article.
3. Scan Your Windows System for Errors: An operating system is a collection of files that perform different functions. It is possible, over time, that one or more of these system files has changed or become corrupted. If this happens, the speed of your system may decrease. By using a utility called “System File Checking”, it will inspect these files and correct any problem it finds.
4. Scan for Viruses, Spyware and Adware: Every Windows computer is vulnerable to viruses. Viruses are nasty little programs that cause both major and minor problems for users. Spyware and Adware are programs created by companies to find out more information about customers, so they can better market products to them. Spyware and Adware can load into computer memory and slow it down.Periodically scanning and removal of Viruses, Spyware and Adware is a great way to improve computer performance.
5. Uninstall Unused Programs: Over time, you may have accumulated programs on your computer that you do not use. When a program is installed, it creates connections between the program and the operating system. Even if you don’t use these programs, they can slow down your system. If you have the original program’s installation disk or file, removing programs will free up space on your computer and may speed up your system's performance.
6. Adjust Visual Effects for Better Performance: Windows provides a number of interesting visual effects including animated windows and fading menus. If you do not have enough operating memory (see above number 1), these effects can slow down your computer. Adjusting or reducing visual effects can make a difference.
7. Don’t Automatically Start Programs: Programs use operating memory (RAM, also called system resources). Unless you always use these programs, you can keep them from loading at Windows startup and speed both the booting of your computer and its performance. Manage startup programs using reginout.
8. Defragment Your Hard Drive: The more information and programs you have on your computer, the more it is likely that Windows has placed parts of the same file in different locations on your hard drive. It may do this for hundreds of files and programs, depending on how much space is available. Defragmenting the hard drive places all information for each file in one place. The result can be a faster computer experience.
Hmm... try the following:
+ Run a virus scan. I recommend Comodo and/or Avast. Both have free versions.
http://www.comodo.com/
http://www.avast.com/
+ Check to see how much disk space you have.
Do this by right clicking on C: drive.
+ Uninstall any unused programs.
+ Check to see how many programs run at startup.
You can disable some of them by going to All Programs>Startup and Right Click>Delete. Others that won't show there, some can be disabled within the software's settings.
+ Check your Ram.
You can do so by right clicking on My Computer. If you run on less then 1GB Ram, an upgrade is seriously needed there. I recommend 2GB+ Ram if you want decent speed though. I'm not into the hardware field, but a little googling should help you find tips and prices on this.
Other then that, there's always an option of reinstalling your operating system. That almost always fixes the problem and everything else.
As what you said in your description, it is obviously that it is so slow to start up your PC.I will recommend a free software glary utilities, and it will help you to monitor and optimize free memory in the background. The startup manager will manage program which run automatically on startup.
I used to reinstall windows once a year on my computers. That is if you have an installation disk. Make sure you backup your files to a external hard drive. Reinstalling starts you from scratch and makes your computer faster.
DO NOT USE MY CLEANPC.COM
go to the start menu --> click "run" --> type in "msconfig" without ""
Go to startup and de-select all unnecessary items. That should help A LOT
use c cleaner from piriform.com its free run it to clean up junk files clean the registry
check programs that start up with windows and remove all programs that start up with windows they arent necessary.
also you could plain need more RAM you should have at least a gig
Clear out some of the junk you got on it less to process
Delete the donkey porn from your hardrive