Make Windows XP Run Faster! - Comments Page 7

Thanks for your website, it's great. One thing though - I followed your recipe above, down to the REGCLEAN, and when I restarted my computer, one of my user accounts seems to have disappeared. Before I had 3 accounts, "Administrator", "Kate" and "Guest", and now I can't find "Administrator", which is the account I normally use and all of my files are saved on. I'm kinda freakin' out here, so any help would be great!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Kate, I think you should do a System Restore.

My computer has windows XP home edition I have it conected to the internet with a Lan wireless
how do I get it to upload and download faster ? is there anything I can change to help that ? please let me know , thanks

EDITOR'S NOTE: This may help: http://askbobrankin.com/boost_your_wifi_signal.html

Thank you! After trying to rearrange the two computers in our house to accomodate a third, better computer (YAY! :D), this was the most helpful article in getting the slow, older computers to run much quicker. Thanks for all your help and expertise!

You have this theory? more like omg you like every one else that knows how to use a computer has common since? that is not your theory and i give this theory to every one with a brain. when trying to make a computer faster...delete unnessesary files... increase virual mem and ram...also use a virus finder and deleter. another thing is ....defrag and run c drive cleaner outer or whatever it is called...if it still doesnt work there is always something call geeksquad...

EDITOR'S NOTE: So, after reading my article, you have the same advice to offer? How nice that we agree. (Except for calling Geeksquad. Doing it yourself was the whole point.)

Bob: Your site and expertise are greatly appreciated. My cheapo rig (Presario 3000 & XP) run much faster after applying your techniques. Your suggestion of unloading Norton helped speed things up as well. I installed AVG AntiVirus and Windows Defender AntiSpyware and am pleased with them both. For those who have Google Toolbar, dump it. It made my comp run slower. If anyone has Webroot SpySweeper and or WindowWasher, these programs will install as part of the Startup Menu in XP and will be a major pain in the ass causing slowness, starting/stopping and freeze ups. Go into the Startup Utility. Uncheck the boxes next to "SpySweeper" and "wwDisp". This will get rid of the problems. D.W. Whitlock.

Michael: You're out there. You're angry. We hear you! But you're not literate. Go back to school you cheeky lil' pecker, and ask your parents to give you a good spanking every day about breakfast time. Disrespect to one's elders always sounds so much better when it is done with lucidity, simplicity and euphony. You have a ways to go.

The most effective way I found to speed up Windows is to use the first step in this article, then to install SP3. It reduced my start up time from about 2 min. to less then 20 sec.

I reformatted my hard drive, installed XP, Firefox, then defragmented my computer, and it still runs just as slow as it was before I reformatted the hard drive... I am wondering if there may be failure with a piece of hardware... I have a Dell OptiPlex 270 with a GeForce 5200, a 1GB/512MB/2x128MB RAM chips, and my fan is rather loud and probably needs replaced... This thing is 4 years and 1 month old. So it is about time to get a new one anyways... My second question is, is there a certain order to put the RAM chips in for best results? Thank you for any ideas from anyone, and this is a great site.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't think there's any magic in the order that the RAM sticks are inserted. You'll probably get the best bang for your buck if you invest $400-$500 in a new system.

I am having so many problems with this computer that I can't keep it running long enough to download SP3. Every time I start it somewhere in the middle it crashes. I have programs that I have uninstalled that are still there.
It's a old computer but it still does what I need when I can keep it running. It crashes to the blue screen about 2 x's a night and then all the different browsers crash. I don't know whether to go through the steps above or just re-format (I don't really want to do that). When you read different pages, everyone tells you to do something different. I just need one concise CHEAP way to get this cleaned up so I can use it without crashing every 10 minutes (literally!).

EDITOR'S NOTE: At this point I would recommend that you follow all the suggested steps in this article, and if that doesn't help, reformat and re-install Windows. It's also possible that a failing hardware component (RAM, motherboard, power supply) could be causing the glitches.

You have very little info on Vista?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Most (if not all) of these tips apply equally to Vista.