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However after one or 2 years, you find
the same computer so slow. It seems to be loading
something forever to start up. Day by day it just takes
longer to boot.
Fortunately, there are some tips for you to make it
faster.
1. Clear Prefetch
Windows XP use Prefetch to load common used programs. In
simple words, Say, you open Microsoft Outlook to check
email, Windows will store a “memory” of Outlook into its
prefetch folder. This “memory” helps you to open Outlook
faster next time. Windows load these “memory” before
Windows completes its booting process.
The problem is, this “memory” is not cleared up even
when you don’t use a particular program anymore. As a
result, Windows take longer to boot up.
Cleaning up the prefetch will help Windows a little
faster to complete its boot. You can find the prefetch
in C:\Windows. Go into this folder (C:\Windows\Prefetch)
and delete all the files there. Be careful, don’t delete
the wrong folder or you’ll cause lots of troubles.
You will notice that the next reboot will be slower than
normal, simply because Windows need to prefetch its
system files again. After the first reboot, Windows
should be faster. Although it won’t be flying, but it’ll
make some difference.
Remember that this is only temporary. The reason is:
prefetch will still continue to memorise used programs,
which means after a year, it’ll be loaded with many
“memory” of programs that you may no longer use.
You should cleanup the prefetch folder occasionally.
2. Hard drive fragmentation
This tool is very commonly used to “re-organise” hard
drive.
You can learn more about hard drive defragment here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_Defragmenter_%28Windows%29
To defragment your computer hard drive, open "My
Computer" right click on the boot drive, click
properties, click on Tools tab, click Defragment Now.
Close all open programs before running Defragmenter by
clicking on the button.
Keep in mind that this process may take 15 minutes, 30
minutes or even more. So leave it run when you don’t
need your computer.
3. Virus and spyware
These things can cause big troubles, and they can slow
down your computer significantly as well, especially
spyware that claim itself to be some sort of spyware
remover or virus remover (these ones usually run a fake
scan on your computer and tell you that there are
hundreds of problems or Trojans found).
There are many virus and spyware protection available in
the market, namely:
• Symantec Norton
• McAfee
• Trend Micro Pc-cillin
• AVG Anti-virus
• Avast Anti-virus
• Kaspersky, etc
Choosing correct virus spyware software might be
confusing at times. Each software has its own features
and popularity may differ each countries. We don’t
generally recommend one over another, but if you would
like an opinion, please feel free to ask.
Get an anti-virus software and install it, then run a
full scan on your computer to get rid of viruses and
spyware. Please note that not all virus and spyware can
be removed by these programs. If your computer is
already infected, there is a chance that the virus or
spyware cannot be removed.
4. Upgrade RAM or Processor, Windows
reinstallation:
If after all of the above, your computer is still too
slow, then you should seek help from a computer expert
for an upgrade of RAM, or processor, or Windows
reinstallation.
The cheapest option is RAM upgrade, which potentially
can boost your computer performance.
Windows reinstallation will bring you back to as “brand
new” state. You can still retain all of your data but
may need to reinstall some software.
Processor upgrade is more expensive generally but it can
help boost your computer significantly. This option
isn’t much available for laptops, notebooks due to
expensive supplies of processor chipset and complexity
of the work.
We can’t put any price here because it varies from time
to time and also depends on brands, models, specs of
your computer.
Credit to
Steve Wiseman for his original post at:
http://www.intelliadmin.com/index.php/2006/09/why-windows-takes-so-long-to-start-up/
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