Why is my windows xp computer running slow?

I work on a lot of older PC’s. Whether its the overall price tag of an upgrade or the fear of having to deal with something new, people tend to prefer the status quo. And for many that remains Windows XP. The “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke approach” has some advantages…a familiar environment, for example, allows people to be more productive. Time behind the wheel, as they say, is the reason some prefer to delay an upgrade. When it comes down to changing habits formed by years of repetitive use productivity can be hampered. So, if you’re one of those people that prefer the eleven year old unsupported predecessor to 7…and are wondering how to speed it up, here is how:

First off, let me delve into some of the reasons Windows XP tends to get sluggish with time. As you use your computer over time, you create and acquire data. Lots of it. Unfortunately Windows XP has some design flaws that cause it to get bogged down by all that data you are creating. As your My Documents and Program Files folders grow over time, Windows XP has more and more things to keep track of…more things to keep in mind so to speak…and this causes it to inevitably slow down. The problem is not entirely with the operating system alone though. As with any complicated system, there are multiple layers that contribute to the problem and to get to a solution a multi-tiered approach is required. Here is my check-list of things that will speed up Windows XP and the reasons they work.
[step 1] Turn off Indexing.

[step a] Right click the C: drive and select Properties. Un-check the box that says “Allow indexing service to index this disk for fast file searching”.

[step b] In the Confirm Attribute Changes dialog, select All changes to C:, subfolders and files. Click OK.

[step 3] Ignore All Errors.

[step c] Set the Indexing Service to Manual (and stop it if it is running). To get to services, click Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services and find the Indexing Service.

[step d] (optional) Clear your index catalog. Right-click My Computer and select Manage. Then click Indexing Service and right click the default index and select All Tasks->Empty Catalog.

Most people don’t realize that hard drive indexing creates a huge searchable database of all the stuff inside your files. In my experience 95% of desktop searches involve searching for terms in file/folder names. If you’re not searching for stuff inside a file, you don’t need indexing. I’ve seen XP machines with a 20GB index. Products like Windows Search and Google Desktop Search attempt to improve XP’s native indexing and search capabilities but they tend to make the problem worse. If you want a faster computer, turn indexing off. If you need to search the contents of files, install a copy of PowerGREP or Windows Grep.

[step 2] Upgrade your hard drive.

As your disk fills up with data blocks, reaching the bits you want takes more seek time. If your hard drive is more than 60% utilized, you’ll notice a significant speed improvement if you upgrade to a disk that will be less than 30% utilized. Additionally, modern hard drives typically have larger amounts of cache allowing your drive to spend less time seeking platters to retrieve the data you want now. I recommend SATA3 drives with at least 16MB of cache or more…steer clear of the bargain “green” drives. They are slow performers. Go Western Digital Black for best performance. Most new hard drives come with software that will allow you to clone your existing disk to the new one in 30 minutes or less.

• EaseUs Disk Copy
• Seagate Disk Wizard
• Acronis True Image WD Edition
• YouTube Video on how to use Acronis True Image

[step 3] Upgrade your RAM.

If your PC has less than 2GB of RAM memory, it’s time to get some more. Don’t go crazy though, XP is mostly a 32bit operating system. That means it can only address about (2^32) bytes = ~4 gigabytes of RAM. If you go out and buy 8GB, the most you’ll ever use is ~4GB.

• NewEgg Memory Configurator
• Crucial Memory Configurator
• TigerDirect Memory Configurator

[step 4] Get CCleaner.

Installing Applications and browsing the web creates temporary files. Lots of ’em. For a while they help you do things faster, but XP has no mechanism for deleting stale temp files, so they just pile up. When enough of these files exist, XP performance will be impacted. CCleaner is a free utility that can pear down the amount of temporary files on your system using the Cleaner tab. Here are the relatively safe options I tend to select for clearing temp data using CCleaner:

CCleaner can also help you pear down your start-up items. These are generally programs that run when your computer starts and end up in the notification area or background. They can slow your computer down, so here are the ones I typically disable because they’re not needed:

[step 5] Stop/disable some services

Click Start->run… and enter services.msc, then click OK to bring up the Services Dialog.

Windows Services are service applications that run behind the scenes and allow your computer do to everything from browsing the internet to sharing files and folders. There are Windows services (those services are part of the XP operating system) and third party application services installed by some applications. Many of these third party application services are not critical for your computer to function and some will hamper performance. The Services management dialog allows you to start, stop, enable and disable various services. Here is a list of services that are part of a “fresh” Windows XP SP3 install. Do not modify these services:

NOTE: As a good rule of thumb, I usually set services not part of the list above to Manual before completely disabling anything. This way the service is not completely blocked from working, just blocked from starting automatically with your computer. Apple device and helper services are a good example services that fall in this category.

[step 6] Uninstall programs.

If you don’t need it, uninstall it! Microsoft has chosen not to force developers to use a single standardized installer, so some applications uninstall cleanly and some leave lots items behind. IObit uninstaller is a great free tool to cleanup files left behind by poorly developed uninstallers.

[step 7] Defrag.

Click Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter.

As you create data on your computer, it stores files in random unoccupied spots on the hard disk. Over time as your disk becomes more and more utilized, the random placement of all these files (also known as fragmentation) will become an issue that can affect XP performance. Defragmenting the hard drive means organizing data randomly stored on your hard drive into contiguous blocks and optimizing free space. This should be done quarterly.