slow windows pro

[Guest]

My computer is running slow so I have increased my ram from 256 to 778, i
have 85% free space on hard drive. I have done all of the necessary tweaks,
delete temp files, defragment hard drive etc. . It's 6 years old and have
many programs, music, games, pictures etc downloaded and deleted over those 6
years. I was just wondering if i should reformatt the hard drive

 

[Guest]

i my opinion, nothing beats a clean install, but it can take a long time to
get your computer back to normal.

I would try this first:
look at how many processes you have running in your task manager, i like to
see 30ish or so.
go to the msconfig file uncheck everything in you startup tab, reboot.
check your running processes again and the speed of your computer.
you could usually clean up the msconfig file at least, some programs need to
start with the comptuer, Virus software, but most do not need to start with
the computer.

also run spyware scans, i use Windows Defender, Ad-Aware, Spybot.

good luck

 

[Ken Blake]

My computer is running slow so I have increased my ram from 256 to 778, i
have 85% free space on hard drive. I have done all of the necessary
tweaks,
delete temp files, defragment hard drive etc. . It's 6 years old and have
many programs, music, games, pictures etc downloaded and deleted over
those 6
years. I was just wondering if i should reformatt the hard drive

In my view, reformatting and reinstalling is the wrong solution to almost
any problem. Sometimes, nothing else works and you have to do it, but it
should always be thought of as a last resort. It leaves you with lots of
work. You have to restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all
your programs, you have to reinstall all the Windows and application
updates,you have to locate and install all the needed drivers for your
system, you have to recustomize Windows and all your apps to work the way
you're comfortable with.
Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome, you may have
trouble with some of them: can you find all your application CDs? Can you
find all the needed installation codes? Do you have data backups to restore?
Do you even remember all the customizations and tweaks you may have
installed to make everything work the way you like?



Over and above all of this, you never find out what was wrong, and that
means that you are likely to repeat the behavior that caused it, and find
yourself back in the same situation very quickly.



The first thing anyone experiencing poor performance these days should do is
investigate the possibility of malware infestation. This is the most common
cause of such problems. I recommend that you go to Malke's Malware Removal
site at
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware and follow
the instructions there.