Windows going slow

[John]

Hi

I just reinstalled win xp pro and it was quiet slick in the beginning. As I
started installing apps like Office 2007 and IE 7 it started getting slower.
Is this normal? I also used the win xp settings and files transfer wizard to
transfer IE and Outlook Express settings but can't say for sure if it had
any adverse effect too as I did not check immediately afterwards. Can I
speed up windows somehow?

Thanks

Regards

 

[R. McCarty]

A PC that has Windows ( Fresh ) is always going to be faster than a
setup that has 3rd-Party drivers and applications installed. Windows
is a "Platform" to load/use other things. Usually, the performance loss
is minimal and not that noticeable. If you experience that much of a
performance loss then something is wrong. What is wrong is hard to
say ( Use Event Viewer to locate any errors ). A fresh install of XP
has less memory usage and background services than one that has
all the user's drivers/apps loaded. It's always a trade off between the
things you want installed and XP's performance. Some apps are just
badly written or have know interaction problems with others. This is
why it's important to have all patches/updates for everything on a PC.
Nothing is ever 100% at release/delivery - there are always issues
that are found and patches released to address them.

 

[Leonard Grey]

Here are the most effective ways to speed up the performance of an XP PC:

1. Remove malicious software.
2. Minimize programs running in the background that place heavy demands
on CPU and RAM.
3. Purchase more RAM. (This helps up to a point - almost nobody needs
more than 1 GB of RAM in XP unless they are doing specialized work, like
CAD/CAM. video editing or complex photo retouching.

 

[John]

Got 1GB RAM, no malicious software as totally new install...and only
software is MS's own. I am doing a defrag on disks though as I speak.

Thanks

Regards

 

[R. McCarty]

If it's a recent install, then you may not have reached the number of
reboots necessary for XP to ProcessIdleTasks and take the Prefetch
data and update the Layout.Ini and defrag for optimal boot/frequently
used apps.

 

[Leonard Grey]

It takes just seconds for a computer to become infected. No joke.

On a related topic: Your security software is arguably the single
biggest hit to your PC's performance because it has to run all the time
and it requires a lot of processing power.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

3. Purchase more RAM. (This helps up to a point - almost nobody needs more

than 1 GB of RAM in XP unless they are doing specialized work, like
CAD/CAM. video editing or complex photo retouching.

That's a highly subjective figure. "Specialized work"? A lot more apps
beyond just CAD/CAM/video editing/Photoshop need tons of memory.

I suppose though if somebody's gonna use a PC as little more than a
household appliance, then yeah, 1GB might be adequate...

 

[Gerry]

Homer

It's these applications, especially when they have an Undo feature. Also
users who leave computers on 24/7 expose themselves to the worst affects
of memory leaks.


--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry]

It helps to have cleaned up removing redundant temporary files after
such major changes. Also you will accumulated a surfeit of restore
points.

I agree with other remarks about the need to seek out updated third
party drivers, even for any brand new items. Many products are sold with
CDs containing out of date drivers.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Got 1GB RAM,

That's almost certainly more than enough.

no malicious software as totally new install...

Then you probably aren't aware of how quickly you can get infected.
What anti-virus and anti-spyware software do you run? Is it up to
date. Based on your description of your problem, I would think that
malware is the most likely cause of it.

 

[Daave]

That's a highly subjective figure. "Specialized work"? A lot more
apps beyond just CAD/CAM/video editing/Photoshop need tons of memory.

Those are the heavy hitters, though.

I suppose though if somebody's gonna use a PC as little more than a
household appliance, then yeah, 1GB might be adequate...

At work, where I use my PC for Web, e-mail, Word, and Excel, 256 MB is
more than adequate.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

That's a highly subjective figure. "Specialized work"? A lot more

Those are the heavy hitters, though.

Ever spend time with dev tools? Databases? Or, God forbid--VMware or
VirtualPC?

At work, where I use my PC for Web, e-mail, Word, and Excel, 256 MB is
more than adequate.

Again, that's the very definition of "subjective". Of all the machines I've
used, even after a clean wipe/reinstall, it doesn't take long before (to me)
512MB feels sluggish. How can your system not be paging to disk with half
of that?

 

[Daave]

Ever spend time with dev tools? Databases? Or, God forbid--VMware or
VirtualPC?

The only time I ever used Virtual PC was six years ago on a Mac with OS
8.5. I ran Windows 95 on it.

How much RAM does VirtualPC eat up typically?

Again, that's the very definition of "subjective". Of all the
machines I've used, even after a clean wipe/reinstall, it doesn't
take long before (to me) 512MB feels sluggish. How can your system
not be paging to disk with half of that?

Perhaps because I rarely multitask. There are rare instances when I play
streaming audio in addition to another activity; *that's* when I notice
paging occurring. But again, it's pretty rare. Also, I don't use the
dreaded McAfee or Norton; I'm sure that makes a big difference!

I've found that 256 MB of RAM is fine if you're running lean. YMMV, of
course.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

The only time I ever used Virtual PC was six years ago on a Mac with OS

8.5. I ran Windows 95 on it.

How much RAM does VirtualPC eat up typically?

It's not really how much RAM VirtualPC eats up for itself, but rather, the
amount of RAM you're taking away from the host OS to give to the guest...

Perhaps because I rarely multitask. There are rare instances when I play
streaming audio in addition to another activity; *that's* when I notice
paging occurring. But again, it's pretty rare. Also, I don't use the
dreaded McAfee or Norton; I'm sure that makes a big difference!

I've found that 256 MB of RAM is fine if you're running lean. YMMV, of
course.

"Lean" is the key word here, I think. Back when I had a laptop with XP on
256MB, the only use I got out of it near the end of its life was to read
PDFs.