Make Windows XP Run Faster! - Comments Page 6

I enjoyed reading your article, but it avoided mentioning the elephant in our living rooms. Windows is a 20th century design attempting to run in a 21st century world. Microsoft's implementation of registry and folders is the base cause of sludge. It is an engine designed without any way to change the oil. In fact, their solution has been to make the oil filter increasingly difficult to find. Windows was once a very good OS. But a lack of genuine innovation has caught up to it and it is time for something new.

You said "The easiest thing is probably a System Restore to the day before you made the changes."

System restore is not possible since a lot has happened since I discovered this. Starting all services backup did NOT help either. Win installer does NOT work anymore. Now been busy for DAYS following instructions on a dozen sites with no luck. Reinstalled SP3 with no result. Links in excel do also NOT work anymore. This was a BAD idea.

EDITOR'S NOTE: "A lot has happened?" Sounds like all BAD stuff has happened. I still think System Restore will undo the mess. All you'll need to do is re-install any new software you've put on since that time.

I appreciate your articles. They are very helpful. Thank you!

FYI, I noticed you are advertising Google Starter Kit. I did some research on this company and it seems it is a huge scam. Not sure you were aware of this and thought you should know, as I'm sure you wouldn't want to be associated with a firm that scams people.

Keep up the good work.

I have a simple solution just reinstall xp! I did it and it just makes life so much easier! remember to backup your personal data to a external hard drive and let the installer do the rest. After instalation is complete make shure to get some antivirus and updates like the recipie states!

EDITOR'S NOTE: I should mention that re-installing XP could also require you to apply the SP2/SP3 service packs. Downloading and installing the service packs plus other security patches could take quite a few hours.

A good trick for the virtual memory is to set the size at twice the amount of ram you have installed. I have 2 gig so my swap file is set to 4092. Then set the size to custom and have the inital size and max size set to 4092. All the clusters are allocated when the new swap file is created so the file dosn't get defraged.

i use xubuntu on my imac g3 and it is slow. particularly because firefox eats up memory. i have only 256 megs on that machine. I have xp on another machine with 2 gigs of ram and it's actually much faster than xubuntu with 256megs of ram. I also have mac os x , which runs slow as well. it depends on your computer not the operating system. youclash.com

One program that dosE terrific job of cleaning and maintaining is IOBIT.COM. It more than doubled my internet speed and general systems speed but also more than halved the Win XP start up times on the free version. Mty main system is running 1000 gigabits of drives.

sorry,owe u an apology , it helped quiet a bit after all,thanks

I need help w/ fixing my PC. I got drawn in by one of Bob's sponsored ads for PC MightyMax 2009, thinking it's a free to try TRIAL program.

Oh...these guys want $30 just so you can BUY a "key" to fix the problems the TRIAL version finds--they want MORE for the FULL PURCHASE version!!!

OK--I understand (but don't condone) the market for PC maintenance...but why must we be shook down for "protection" from hackers--when hackers don't pay $$$ to harm us???

Bottom line: I'm ridding my PC of this PC MightyMax 2009! Steer clear of these grubbers!!

hay thanks loads, it helped loads. the peeps reading this should look in to products from piriform. there free and thay realy help, i would recomend "cCleaner", and "Defraggler". "recuva" is ok but if you are any good with computers then you wont need it as it restors files you have lost. hope this helps, good luck

I was using the suggestion in the "Make Windows XP Run faster" article and deleted unused program, ran the Disk Cleanup program, and ran the Disk Defragmentor program. In the process, my Outlook PST file was wiped to 0 KB and Outlook is acting real odd. Any suggestions?

when i look in "Windows Task Manager" i see several svchost.exe Image Names, with the following user names: My user name, "LOCAL SERVICE" and "SYSTEM". Is this normal?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, that's normal.

I ran the free registry ckeanup, but to fix any errors they want me to pay for it. Any free ones out there? I have a lot of errors. thanks.

EDITOR'S NOTE: See http://askbobrankin.com/free_registry_cleaners.html

Purchased Uniblue.Much,MUCH better.Thanks.

Thank you Very Much!!!! =)

Great Advice! i used most of your suggestions and some i were already using so adding yours really helped! i definitely notice a difference! thanks! :)

great advice..thanks

Excellent advice as usual Bob. Readers might also want to try the totally free crapcleaner. Easy to install and run and will empty your temp folder, recycle bin, Internet Explorer Cache and Cookies folder. You can erase personal tracks like recently used documents, typed URLs as well.

Greetings Bob!

Ref:

"RAM and Virtual Memory Settings

"When you run out of physical (RAM) memory, Windows will use [Delete: a check of] your hard disk to create [V]irtual [M]emory [(pagefile)]. This is a nice feature, because it allows application programs to access huge amounts of memory. The only problem with [using] [V]irtual [M]emory is that it's a lot slower than real RAM."

Technically, you are always using "Virtual Memory", and you don't have a choice about it. "Paging", not "Virtual Memory", is what slows things down. When the system gets close to filling RAM, then it starts to page.

"So installing extra RAM on the system board is a good idea because it's pretty cheap and easy to pop in. Find out how much your system will accommodate and install the maximum amount. Extra RAM will probably do more to boost your overall system performance than anything else"

Only if your current RAM is close to being filled! If you have 1 GB of RAM and you never use more than 500 MB, then adding more RAM is a waste of money because it won't be used. In Windows Task Manager, on the "Performance" tab, "Physical Memory-Total" give you the amount of physical RAM available to the system. (Some of the actual RAM may be allocated by the video adapter.) "Commit Charge-Peak" is peak one-time amount of Virtual Memory that the system has used since boot. ("Commit Charge-Total" is what's currently being used; "Commit Charge-Limit" is the sum of the RAM size and the pagefile size.) If "Commit Charge-Peak" is close to or greater than "Physical Memory-Total", then you are paging and would benefit from adding more RAM.

"But getting back to Virtual Memory, it's wise to let Windows manage the amount, unless you are a Wizard, with a capital W. Go to Control Panel / System / Advanced, then press the Settings button under Performance. Click Advanced again, then press the Change button under Virtual Memory. If System managed size is selected, you're all set. If you want to fiddle with the Custom Size options, be my guest!"

When using "System managed size", Windows is constantly readjusting the Page file size, taking time and wasting CPU cycles, and probably fragmenting the Page file in the process. After running the system for a while, I suggest setting the "Custom-Initial size" to "Commit Charge-Peak" minus "Physical Memory-Total" times 150% (50% as a fudge factor) divided by 1024 (to get MB). I suggest setting "Custom-Maximum size" 1024 higher than "Initial size". This way, Widows has this initial chunk of page file to use (if necessary), plus another 1 GB for these really rare times (if ever) that it may need more.

Once this is all done, I suggest running PageDefrag from Microsoft SysInternals (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/PageDefrag.mspx), which will also defrag your Registry -- another potential speed-up.

I have an older Dell (6 yrs) and use Dialup. Of course opening is sooo slow but until I get a new comp have to bear w/it. Read yr article (extremely helpful in answering questions for a novice) and want to try yr suggestions. Question:

Do you have any more updates before I begin or is it complete as is? -- A Grateful Senior!

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm not sure what you've done so far, but if you follow those steps, it should help some.