Help with Speeding up XP

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonesy63

Just for reference, most AV packages only catch about half of current malware. :eek:

Raises an interesting point.

On all my home systems I use an adminstrative log on for maintenance but have normal (non-administrative) log ons for normal use. That way I can run a 'light' antimalware package like Microsoft Security Essentials. The performance overhead of the mainstream antimalware is crippling.

This only works if the logged on user cannot instal software or make system changes, malware uses the same privileges as the current log on. It is inconvenient, especailly when you have a new or fresh system, but still (IMHO) a worthwhile trade-off.

HTH

User behaviour is by far, the most important factor. If a person clicks on every link saying "Bill Gates will give you millions" - then God help them!

As well as a lot of the other things people have suggested, what I have found over the years, and would try this before a full backup and reload. When I had my own business with a workshop as well as virus/malware scan we also would do these as well:

1. remove anything running in the background you don't need (usually you can see these in the system tray)
2. remove any unwanted browser add-ons from Internet Explorer (if that is your preferred browser)
3. Reset Internet Explorer back to fatory defaults (for IE 7 & 8. If you have IE 9 remove it)
4. Uninstall any programs you dont need
5. Clean all of the temporary files from your computer via the disk cleanup tool (can be found by opening My Computer, right click on the hard drive (usually C: and go into properties. In the General click on Disk Cleanup. I would tick everything in there except "Offline Files" and "Compress old files") then click OK
6. Run a disk defragmenter that will optimise files as well as defrag (not the inbuilt one). I use IOBits Smart Defrag 2. When you install it
i. until the other programs
ii. go into the settings and untick minimise to system when program is closed
iii. untick also load automatically at windows startup and click ok
iv. on the boot time defrag tab turn on the boot time defrag and select the 3 settings, and then click on configure and set it to either everyday first boot to every 7 day first boot then click ok. This defragments the system files that normally would not get defragmented and cause most of the system slowness
v. Go back to State (C: the first tab) and click on the down arrow beside defrag and select "Defrag and Fully Optimise"
vi. let this run (it can take hours)
vii. Personally I reboot (for the system file defrag) and run it a second time on a machine that has not run it before.
viii. I have found as well as defraging this program will optimise file location on the hard drive depending on how often files are accessed, as parts of the hard drive are faster than others.
7. You can also download from IOBit the Free version of Advanced SystemCare, and run this. Follow the same install procedure as before to stop it from loading on startup and minimising to the syste, tray
i. you can run quick care and deep care (before running deep care turn off disk scan and disk defragment).
ii. As well as doing a general cleanup this will also do a registry defrag which is another area that causes major slowness in XP.
8. Give it a cleanout with the Vacuum cleaner if its dusty on the air vents

In general as suggested before you should have SP3 installed and a minimum of 2GB of RAM as this seemed to be the suite spot for memory in XP, as you add more than this you don't get the same increase in performance as going to 2GB.

Richard