windows running slow

[adrian]

Hi,
I am currently using winXP, with PIII, 320MB RAM, and the OS has been
installed for less than 1 year, now it's running unacceptably slow.
I've tried everything I can, like defragment, disk clean up, run the McAfee
Quick clean, run the McAfee virus scan, and I am sure there's no spyware in
my computer since I got my McAfee installed.
I found some free stuff like RegClean on the internet, saying that it will
optimize the computer performance, does it really help?
What else I can do to speed it up? Thx.
Adrian

 

[R. McCarty]

Over time & use, a PC will get slower. In your case, it may be
the McAfee itself that is contributing to the problem. To answer
your question, RegCleaners do not improve the performance of
Windows XP. The list of things to do is quite extensive. Defrag &
Clean out caches are the primary ones. Some of the other big
offenders are Startups, Unnecessary Services, outdated drivers,
keeping every program ever installed.
One thing that will help, is to use a more comprehensive Defrag
program than the one included with Windows. I recommend a
product from Raxco, called Perfect Disk 2000 (Version 6.0)
They offer a 30-day, fully functional trial. If you download &
install "Read the Instructions". Perfect Disk requires a few simple
settings and both a Boot-Time and GUI based defrag on each
of your drives.
http://www.raxco.com

 

[Yves Leclerc]

McAfee may not catch ever spyware! I use Ad-Aware 6, Spybot and Norton
Anti-Virus 2004. Each catch a few spywares that the other do not!

Y.

 

[Guest]

Adrian, there are endless things you can do to speed XP.
It was built for the LCD. Use RegCleaner, but my guess is
if prob is on net contact ISP. A good company will lead
you through a reconfigure of ISP settings.

 

[adrian]

THX guys, it's great help, I will try all your suggestions ^^
Actually, why would the spyware slow down the PC? Who will install the
spyware in a home computer? There's not much important information that can
be stolen from my computer ^^.

adrian

 

[adrian]

Actually, do you guys have more tricks on optimizing the performance of the
OS? Thx.

Adrian

 

[DE]

THX guys, it's great help, I will try all your suggestions ^^
Actually, why would the spyware slow down the PC? Who will install the
spyware in a home computer? There's not much important information that can
be stolen from my computer ^^.

Oh my! You are a bit innocent!

There are a ton of places that computers acquire spyware/adware; do as
you were told & get Ad-Aware, the latest def's, install, and follow the
suggestions it provides. If you have only Axela on your system, I'd be
surprised.

Download from http://www.lavasoftusa.com

Also have you updated your system to ensure you are not infected with
Blaster or a related worm? You say you are running McAfee but I don't see
any reference to your downloading the latest def's, and if you're running
as it installed ... you're not protected even against most of today's
common viruses.

Also you need to have a good 10-15% of your C: drive free for the OS to
operate properly.

Also, you should look at what is loading at startup and get rid of
anything non-essential; for this, you can use MSCONFIG which will give
you a simple view of the various places that programs load. You also
might try dropping your display settings and reduce the complexity of your
wallpaper -- see how it runs with a plain color only! -- as
display-intensive resource-wasters can make a huge difference in
responsiveness.