Re: Improving Speed and Performance of my computer

WilliamHenry wrote:

I have way too many extraneous programs and drivers apparently
overloading my C drive so that slows it down to a crawl. I want to
move many of these off my C Drive and onto an external 80 GB hard
drive (my F drive). I'm not sure how to do this or how to tell my
systems where to go to look for drivers, etc. once they've been moved
to another hard drive. I want to free up my C dive so that it's
storing only those programs and drivers absolutely necessary for
maximum computer performance given the age of my equipment and
operating system.

Moving programs doesn't make sense. Do you perhaps mean moving
installation files for your programs? (Some people like to keep these.
If so, moving *them* to an external hard drive would make sense.) Moving
drivers doesn't make sense, either. If you have hardware (like a printer
or CD burner), then you need the drivers. Perhaps you mean you would
like to move data (like Word documents, MP3s, etc.) to another drive.
What I would do is move data you hardly ever access but would like to
save nonetheless to the external hard drive. Data that you access more
regularly should be kept on an internal hard drive. Perhaps you should
just look into getting a larger internal hard drive; they're fairly
cheap right now.

Can anyone provide me with extremely basic instructions on how to
speed the computer up to gain greater performance, keeping in mind
that I am totally new to this and do not know much about basic
computer diagnostics.

Yes. See "Slow Computer" at:

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm

As Ken stated, one big cause of sluggishness is malware (malicious
software, such as viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, etc.). You
need to rule out the possibility that you are infested with malware.
Once this is done, it's important to make sure you aren't running any
memory-hungry programs. And sometimes, turning off the eye candy in
older machines can be helpful. Deleting temp files -- especially
temporary Internet files (also known as Web browser cache) can be very
beneficial. And defragging the hard drive (after deleting temp files,
not before) periodically is beneficial.

The computer was originally purchased from Dell in 2002 and came
preloaded with Windows Me which was for me a disaster. My system has
been upgraded several times, physically by adding RAM memory chips
and by upgrading the OS to Windows XP Prof. (2002 ver), Office XP
Small Business(2002 ver) , etc..

Do you still have the XP installation disk? If so, what kind is it --
Full or Upgrade? At this point (since your machine is fairly old), you
*may* want to consider performing a clean install of XP. Usually this is
done as a last resort. I'm not necessarily recommending it, but the
option should always be there for you. Nine times out of ten, better
performance can be realized by the maintenance outlined above, so that's
what I would try first.

If I move all my data to the external drive and then reinstall from
the disks provided by the manufacturer I'll end up with an inferior
performing OS (Windows Me).

If you have your XP disk, you should be able to perform a clean install
of XP. Even if it is an Upgrade disk, it shouldn't matter.

What is your method of reinstalling ME by the way? Standard methods are
by using an installation disk (best method), restoring from a "Restore"
or "Recovery" disk (a not-so-great method that returns your PC to its
original factory state, often with annoying software trials and other
junk), and restoring from an image on a hidden partition on your hard
drive to its original factory state (the worst option because if your
hard drive is gone, so is this method!).

Hopefully you have an ME installation disk. If so, all you need to do is
pop in the XP Upgrade disk and then start your clean install. At a
certain point, it will ask for qualifying OS media. This is where you
would pop in the ME disk. If this option isn't available, you can always
load your "fresh" version of ME and immediately use the XP disk to
upgrade. Of course, you would then need to uninstall all the crap you
don't want/need!

Is there a way to unload my system of
extraneous programs, registry entries, .dll files, etc. that can
speed up its performance without reverting to an ancient and
uniformly regarded unsuccessful OS?

Don't worry about leftover registry entries. Ninety-nine percent of the
time they don't have any negative effect on performance. Therefore, stay
away from registry cleaners as there is no benefit and potential
trouble. Again, see http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm for
instructions on improving performance.

I recently reinstalled Windows XP and that seemed to have mild
improvement results, but the problem of too many discarded or
unwanted programs trying to start in the background seems to remain.

Some background programs use very few resources. The trick is to find
the ones that use significant resources and then configure these
programs not to run at startup. The Web site already mentioned has this
link in Step 10:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS

Using XP's MSCONFIG is good to see what is running each time you boot
up. Task Manager (Control + Alt + Delete) will give you information as
to what is processes are currently running. In addition to the above
site, also have a look at:

http://www.sysinfo.org/startupinfo.html and
http://www.answersthatwork.com (and click on the Task List button).

When I do a Windows Explorer search and look at my C:\ drive under
Programs I see a whole mess of programs I could probably live without
but I'm concerned that going in and just deleting them won't totally
remove them and will leave commands on my registry that continue to
slow everything down.

Usually, uninstalling via Add/Remove Programs is perfectly fine. It is
very rare that orphaned registry entries will slow anything down. If
there is a conflict or other problem due to a messy uninstall, just post
back here. But, really, it's rather rare. :-)

So, once again, have a look at
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm

The most important steps are 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10. Other ideas:

Turn off indexing:

Double-click My Computer
Right-click on your hard drive icon, select Properties
Uncheck "Allow indexing service...."
Click Apply button for C and subfolders
Click OK button.

Either turn off the eye candy or keep it and tweak it. See:

http://www.terryscomputertips.com/computers/speeding-up-windows-xp-fine-tuning-visual-effects.php


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