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From: Bill Bowden on 19 Jan 2010 19:47
Trying to improve performance of WinXP Home system running on a
900mHz, 128 Meg, 20 gig drive system.

The system runs slow and requires 35 seconds to open the FireFox
WebBrowser. The page file (virtual memory) is about 250 Megs.
Sometimes, I get a message the page file is too small.

The disk has been defragmented with good apparent results, however I'm
having trouble with the disk cleanup utility and not sure what can be
safely deleted.

The cleanup report indicates the following:

Downloaded Program files - 664KB
Temporary Internet files - 43K
Recycle Bin - 5076 KB
Setup Log Files - 1250 KB
Temporary Files - 37466 KB
WebClient/Publisher Temp Files - 36K
Compress Old Files - 2227 KB

Can I safely delete all these files to improve performance?

What else can be done to speed things up?

Thanks,

-Bill
From: Gerry on 19 Jan 2010 20:18
Bill

You will struggle with only 128 mb RAM.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

A better programme than Disk CleanUp is cCleaner but note that cCleaner
will not handle System Restore points. Removing older restore points
should help get Disk Defragmenter to work better.
http://www.ccleaner.com/download

The default allocation to System Restore is 12% on your C partition
which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right click your My
Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore. Place the cursor
on your C drive select Settings but this time find the slider and drag
it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get to the
Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Bill Bowden wrote:
> Trying to improve performance of WinXP Home system running on a
> 900mHz, 128 Meg, 20 gig drive system.
>
> The system runs slow and requires 35 seconds to open the FireFox
> WebBrowser. The page file (virtual memory) is about 250 Megs.
> Sometimes, I get a message the page file is too small.
>
> The disk has been defragmented with good apparent results, however I'm
> having trouble with the disk cleanup utility and not sure what can be
> safely deleted.
>
> The cleanup report indicates the following:
>
> Downloaded Program files - 664KB
> Temporary Internet files - 43K
> Recycle Bin - 5076 KB
> Setup Log Files - 1250 KB
> Temporary Files - 37466 KB
> WebClient/Publisher Temp Files - 36K
> Compress Old Files - 2227 KB
>
> Can I safely delete all these files to improve performance?
>
> What else can be done to speed things up?
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Bill

From: Daave on 20 Jan 2010 09:19
Bill Bowden wrote:
> Trying to improve performance of WinXP Home system running on a
> 900mHz, 128 Meg, 20 gig drive system.
>
> The system runs slow and requires 35 seconds to open the FireFox
> WebBrowser. The page file (virtual memory) is about 250 Megs.
> Sometimes, I get a message the page file is too small.
>
> The disk has been defragmented with good apparent results, however I'm
> having trouble with the disk cleanup utility and not sure what can be
> safely deleted.
>
> The cleanup report indicates the following:
>
> Downloaded Program files - 664KB
> Temporary Internet files - 43K
> Recycle Bin - 5076 KB
> Setup Log Files - 1250 KB
> Temporary Files - 37466 KB
> WebClient/Publisher Temp Files - 36K
> Compress Old Files - 2227 KB
>
> Can I safely delete all these files to improve performance?
>
> What else can be done to speed things up?

You will never experience good performance with 128MB of RAM unless you
downgrade to Windows 98 or 2000. Even if your motherboard supports 512MB
of RAM, the CPU is still on the slow side, too. Your system is simply
not meant to run XP.


From: Ken Blake, MVP on 21 Jan 2010 12:21
On Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:47:16 -0800 (PST), Bill Bowden
<wrongaddress(a)att.net> wrote:

> Trying to improve performance of WinXP Home system running on a
> 900mHz, 128 Meg, 20 gig drive system.
>
> The system runs slow and requires 35 seconds to open the FireFox
> WebBrowser. The page file (virtual memory) is about 250 Megs.
> Sometimes, I get a message the page file is too small.
>
> The disk has been defragmented with good apparent results, however I'm
> having trouble with the disk cleanup utility and not sure what can be
> safely deleted.
>
> The cleanup report indicates the following:
>
> Downloaded Program files - 664KB
> Temporary Internet files - 43K
> Recycle Bin - 5076 KB
> Setup Log Files - 1250 KB
> Temporary Files - 37466 KB
> WebClient/Publisher Temp Files - 36K
> Compress Old Files - 2227 KB
>
> Can I safely delete all these files to improve performance?


Some of those can be deleted (temporary files, for example). Deleting
others (recycle bin, for example) has built-in danger. But most
important, deleting files will save you disk space, but will *not*
improve performance.



> What else can be done to speed things up?


The single most important thing you *need* to do is add RAM. 128MB is
insufficient for good performance for just about everyone. How much
you need depends on what apps you run, but 256MB is the minimum
anybody needs.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
From: Bill Bowden on 22 Jan 2010 22:56
On Jan 21, 9:21 am, "Ken Blake, MVP"
<kbl...(a)this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:47:16 -0800 (PST), Bill Bowden
>
>
>
> <wrongaddr...(a)att.net> wrote:
> > Trying to improve performance of WinXP Home system running on a
> > 900mHz, 128 Meg, 20 gig drive system.
>
> > The system runs slow and requires 35 seconds to open the FireFox
> > WebBrowser. The page file (virtual memory) is about 250 Megs.
> > Sometimes, I get a message the page file is too small.
>
> > The disk has been defragmented with good apparent results, however I'm
> > having trouble with the disk cleanup utility and not sure what can be
> > safely deleted.
>
> > The cleanup report indicates the following:
>
> > Downloaded Program files   -  664KB
> > Temporary Internet files   - 43K
> > Recycle Bin    - 5076 KB
> > Setup Log Files  - 1250 KB
> > Temporary Files  - 37466 KB
> > WebClient/Publisher Temp Files  - 36K
> > Compress Old Files  - 2227 KB
>
> > Can I safely delete all these files to improve performance?
>
> Some of those can be deleted (temporary files, for example). Deleting
> others (recycle bin, for example) has built-in danger. But most
> important, deleting files will save you disk space, but will *not*
> improve performance.
>
> > What else can be done to speed things up?
>
> The single most important thing you *need* to do is add RAM. 128MB is
> insufficient for good performance for just about everyone. How much
> you need depends on what apps you run, but 256MB is the minimum
> anybody needs.
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Thanks to everyone for the advice. Yes, I suspected the RAM was low,
but not sure this machine is worth upgrading with a slow processor.
I'm looking at newer model laptops for under $300 as possible
upgrades. This desktop machine was destined for the recycle bin a
couple years ago, and I took it home as a gift. It was setup by a IT
service company for low budget use. The customers subsequently bought
new machines and threw this one out. They also gave me another P2
machine, 250MHz, with WinXp and unknown RAM, that takes 5 minutes just
to boot-up. They told me not to worry if the screen went blank for
several minutes, as it would eventually start running.

-Bill
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