Here are a Few Tips on Getting Windows to 'run' a Little Quicker
Things to help "Speed" up PC
-Disable Indexing - Got to windows Explorer and right click on each drive you may have and click properties and take check mark out of Allow Indexing and Apply to all Folders and Sub-Folders
Disable Visual Effects to Speed Up Windows XP
Disable Visual Effects to Speed Up Windows XP - Team Tutorials
Disable Visual Effects to Speed Up Windows Vista
Computer, select "Properties" then chose "Advanced System Settings", and, on the "Advanced" tab, click the "Settings" button under the "Performance" section. Go to the "Visual Effects" tab; there you can choose options to enable or disable certain visual effects, very similar to the User Interface of Windows XP.
Significant performance gains in this build have been seen when using the "Adjust for best performance" option, although the benefit of the snappy new interface will be partially lost.
Note: Disabling certain Visual Effects will also disable Aero Glass effects
Disable Unneeded Services
XP
Hacking Windows XP: Speed Up Your Boot - Disabling Unneeded Services - OS, Software & Networking by ExtremeTech
XP SP3
Windows XP x86 (32-bit) Service Pack 3 Service Configurations by Black Viper
Vista
Hacking Windows Vista: Speeding Up the System Boot - Disabling unneeded services - OS, Software & Networking by ExtremeTech
Reduce the Number of Fonts installed
Every font that is installed in Windows has to load when Windows starts. The more fonts you have installed, the slower Windows loads. Although you can safely have around 1000 fonts loaded in Windows, I like to keep my font list closer to 300-500 or fewer if possible. There are certain fonts that are definitely required by Windows, so be careful in removing any fonts from your computer unless you know they are not needed. Fonts such as Verdana,Arial,Trebuchet, Tahoma, Tahoma, Times New Roman, MS Sans Serif, and Courier New should be left on your system. Follow the directions below to remove extra fonts from Windows XP.
1 - Open My Computer
2 - Double-click on Drive C
3 - Click on File, New Folder and title it Fonts Backup
4 - Double-click on the Windows folder to open it
5 - Double-click on the Fonts folder
6 - Highlight the fonts you wish to remove, click on Edit and choose COPY
7 - Navigate back to the C:\Fonts Backup folder and PASTE these fonts into your backup folder
8 - Return to the Fonts Folder and right-click on any fonts you previously copied to the backup folder, then choose Delete.
If you accidentally removed a font, simply reverse the procedure by copying and pasting the font back into the Windows\Fonts folder.
Disable the Windows Boot Logo
Many sites recommend disabling the animated Windows boot logo to help speed up the time it takes to boot. Although it may decrease the time by a couple seconds, the anxiety caused by facing a blank screen and wondering if Windows has stalled or froze during bootup outweighs the second or two you may save. Although if you wish to disable the Windows boot logo, follow these steps:
1) Click on Start, Run and type MSCONFIG and press Enter
2) Click on the BOOT.INI tab
3) Click the NOGUIBOOT checkbox and click OK
4) Reboot the computer
Free up disk space
By freeing disk space, you can improve the performance of your computer. The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk. The utility identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.
Use Disk Cleanup to:
-Remove temporary Internet files.
-Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
-Empty the Recycle Bin.
-Remove Windows temporary files.
-Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
-Remove installed programs that you no longer use.
Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.
To Use Disk Cleanup
1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.
2. In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list
3. Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then
click OK.
4. When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files,
click Yes.
After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and performing better
Run a Registry Cleaner/Optimizer
CCleaner (Freeware)
Download CCleaner 2.11.636 - FileHippo.com
On the right hand side, click download latest version
Defragment Your Drive Monthly/Bi-Monthly, User Option
Add More Memory (RAM)