My+computer+is+slow

Here are some basic tips for speeding up your Windows XP computer.


 * 1) Restart your machine every few days.
 * 2) Space - you gotta have space or Windows is not happy. At a minimum keep 5GB of space free on your drive. If you have a bunch of videos, pictures, and music that you can't bear to part with then buy an external hard drive [|like this one] and move stuff that you don't use very often to it. Word to the wise, an external drive also makes it a lot easier to move things from an old computer to a new one.
 * 3) Defragment your drive. Use [|method one from this link] unless you are feeling adventurous.
 * 4) [|Clean up your drive].
 * 5) [|Run Windows Update]
 * 6) Buy some more memory - if you are going to be keeping the tablet for awhile it might pay to buy more memory and have it installed. Your college computer store or a place like Best Buy can do the job for you. A memory upgrade will help your computer multi-task more effectively.
 * 7) Disable toolbars in both IE and Firefox. The more toolbars you have the more chances you have for conflict and misery with your browsers. How to disable? Go to the view menu, select toolbars, click on the ones that you wish to eliminate. When it asks you if you want to disable the toolbar select yes! You have done it.
 * 8) Start up MSConfig from the run box. What is the run box? Select the "Start" button, look around, click the word "Run". In the resulting window type "msconfig". Turning stuff off in here saves startup time and memory. The two tabs of interest are Services and Startup. Here's a list of things you can safely turn off (although some users might want some of them on):
 * 9) UC Fax Provider (Service)
 * 10) Google Updater (Service)
 * 11) HP RAID (Service)
 * 12) Adobe Active File Monitor (Service)
 * 13) Agere Modem Call Progress Audio (Service)
 * 14) Apple Mobile Device (Service)
 * 15) Adobe Acrobat (Startup)
 * 16) Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition (Startup)
 * 17) iTunes (Startup)
 * 18) QuickTime (Startup)
 * 19) Microsoft Office OneNote (Startup)
 * 20) Chat programs: Yahoo, MSN Messenger, AIM (Startup)
 * 21) Yahoo! Music Jukebox (Startup)
 * 22) Toshiba Flash Cards (Startup)

Remember that when you change things with MSConfig, it puts up a warning box the next time the person logs in. You may want to log in that extra time and dismiss it so that it doesn't confuse the laptop's owner.