Make Windows XP faster

[bigbondfan]

How can you make windows xp faster, mine is running slow ever since i put SP2 on it. I have 768 MB RAM, amd athlon 1.67 ghz.

 

[jac006]

first off: antivirus scan and spyware scan. then, defrag. then lemme know how its going.

 

[lurkswithin]

yes get rid of all the malware/spyware and then see if it still runs slow.
Here are a few free tools that can help you clean it up.
spywareblaster: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2859.html
spybot search and destroy: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2471.html
adawareSE: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download506.html
crapcleaner: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

 

[Knight]

I have the same issue and almost the same specs (2.0 instead of 1.67). Already scanned with those, cleaned everything up, all up to date, still slow.. Thanks in advance

 

[Cronodude360]

If you can, you might want to turn DMA on.

 

[XPUser1]

One of the common problem for XP running slow (no high CPU) is disk defragmentation. If this is your case, defrag the hard drive.

For XP running slow with high CPU, you may have Indexing services running. If you do, turn it off permanently this way:

1. Double click My Computer.
2. Select View | Explorer Bar | Search.
3. Click Change Preferences.
4. Select Without Indexing Service.
5. Click No, do not enable Indexing Service.
6. Click OK.

 

[Knight]

I've also defragged the drive, turned off indexing, and visited other tweaking sites but to no avail. Cronodude360, what is "DMA"? Any other tips as well? Thanks in advance!

 

[XPUser1]

DMA stands for Direct Memory Access/Addressing. A method of transferring data from one memory area to another without having to go through the central processing unit.
.

I have the same issue and almost the same specs (2.0 instead of 1.67).

How much RAM do you have? Do you have too many services running?

 

[jac006]

yeha, try closing some programs... and also uninstalling programs taht you dont use anymore...

 

[Knight]

I have 768 MB of RAM. I only have 3 programs running in the background:

McAfee Enterprise
ZoneAlarm
the volume control (if you can consider that a program)

I've also uninstalled all of the unnecessary programs and programs I no longer use. I still have 38% of my HDD free. Still no virii or other malware/spyware/adware on my computer either. Is my HDD going out? The PC is a Dell that was purchased in mid 2001.