Re: Restore original performance of XP

Hi Diane,

In case you're keeping a tally, Norton products, and McAfee in close second
are both resource hogs. Both have been a major source of computer
sluggishness. Use the free alternatives Rock mentioned.

--
Curt

http://dundats.mvps.org/
http://www.aumha.org/





"Rock" <rock@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u2QkX0aPHHA.3944@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"DianePDavies" <DianePDavies@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:79725F3A-05D0-4C6B-808E-169FA573FD30@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wauw - this seem to touch a nerve... Thanks for the suggestions. Up font
I
forgot to mention that I have Norton Internet Security and Antivirus
installed. The only other programs in use is Office 2003 and a HP
printer.
Everything but the printer was part of my original installation - so
there
may be something with the printer.

I had hoped there was a simple procedure like erasing all temp files and
remove cookies. In the early windows days - I have often just installed
Windows 3.1 again - but with all the drivers, updates end fixes now
needed, I
would really prefer not to do anything as drastic.

Can I look somewhere to se what is included in the startup procedure -
for
possible cleaning up?
--
Diane


"Kerry Brown" wrote:

You have received a few good suggestions. One thing no one has mentioned
or
asked is what programs have you installed? In particular have you
installed
a printer or camera? Many printer and camera manufacturers include all
sorts
of extra "features" that run on startup and slow down the computer.
Kodak
cameras and some HP printers are notorious for this. Another common
cause of
slowdowns is P2P file sharing programs such as Limewire, Kazaa, and
such.
The first thing to do is right click on each icon down buy the time in
the
bottom right corner. See what the program is and decide is you want it
running. Look in the program options and see if there is a way to stop
it
from running on startup. Once you have worked through these the next
step is
to use the built in utility "msconfig" to stop unwanted startup
programs.

Here's a link with some tips for speeding up XP.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/northrup_restoreperf.mspx

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


"DianePDavies" <DianePDavies@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:684904A5-7307-470B-8CD5-227AA603670B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have now used Windows XP Home Edition on the family laptop for 3
months.

During that peiode the performance of the system has become noticably
slower.

Is there some way to monitor and clean up the system - and get back
the
original performance?

The laptop has several users - as accomodated by XP - so maybe I need
to
make a general cleanup for all users.
--
Diane




IMO you're better off without NIS or any of the Norton Home products.
There are good, less resource heavy, programs for this, some of which are
either free or low cost.

AV: Avast, AVG, CA eTrust, Nod32
Firewall: Sunbelt Software's Kerio Personal Firewall, Zone Alarm, Comodo
Personal Firewall.

You also need several non viral anti malware apps. No single one catches
it all. Fortunately these are all free:
Adaware SE Personal, Spybot S&D, Windows Defender, BHO Demon,
SpywareBlaster.

--
Rock [MVP - User/Shell]


.

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