What can cause extreme slowness logging onto desktop WinXP and desktop icons slow to appear and open - Norton Virus Spyware scan & Ad-Adware found nothing. Could there be a hardware issue instead?

Try defragging the disc using the tools section of the program. This makes a huge diffrence. Also, just how many programs do you have that are pinned to the start menu? This can make a difference also in how fast your computer comes up.

Not enough memory? The system goes into "swap space hell" every time it tries to do anything.

I know Microsoft says Windows XP will run on 256mb, but even 512mb is slow in my experience. I never recommend anything less than 1gig of memory for XP if you want anything resembling a peppy computer.

After you up your memory to 1gig, drefrag the computer, THEN set the swap space to 2 1/2 times memory... 2500mb.

1. Right-click on MY COMPUTER and select PROPERTIES
2. Click on ADVANCED
3. Click SETTINGS on the Performance section
4. Click ADVANCED
5. Under Virtual Memory, click on CHANGE
6. Make sure your C: drive is selected
7. Click on CUSTOM SIZE and set both boxes (Initial and Maximum) to 2500
8. Click SET
9. Click OK > OK > OK
10. Reboot

Sometime If your harddisk is too full with files and you never do defragment , it can be slow down your system. If you want to boot faster , you should take out all the startup programs.

Go to Start.
Click on Run.
Type msconfig and click OK.
Go to the Start Up Tab
And then click disable all.


You should delete the Temporary File.

Go to Start.
Click on Run
Type %Temp% and Click OK.
It will open temp folder.
Select all and delete .

You also can delete from prefetch folder.

Go to My computer. Double click it
Go to C:\ ( the drive your install windows )
Go to Windows
Go to Prefetch Folder .
Select all file in the Prefetch folder and delete it..



I hope It will help your PC.

Regards,
ABB

I'm not sure I would DISABLE ALL on the msconfig. There's usually SOMETHING in there important like your antivirus or custom drivers... I disable a LOT, but never ALL.

Other than what was said earlier, what else can I do to speed up my computer system?
I did the %Temp% and also did the prefetch folder process.

I am looking into getting an external hard drive tomorrow.
By transferring music and pics onto that, will this ensure a speedier response for my computer?
With an external hard drive, can I put programs onto that as well?

Thanks

Speed of computer is NOT usually affected by size of hard drive. If you want to speed up your computer, you:

• maximize the installed memory FIRST
• install a second internal HD
• set the swap space to a non-changing number like 2 1/2 times memory and locate it on the newly installed second drive (so the swap space is a single block of space at the beginning of the second drive)
• go into msconfig and disable EVERYTHING that isn't completely necessary on the STARTUP tab
• switch from Norton antivirus to something a lot less system resource hungry...like AVG Free or Avast
• make sure you do not have more than one antivirus installed and active, that will kill your system performance
• make sure you do not have more than on firewall installed and active