Why is everything is running so slowly on XP?

Everything was running fine until last week. Finally gave up and reinstalled Windows XP pro from scratch. Things improved for couple of days, but everything is FUBAR again. For example, it is taking 10 minutes to type this question!

Some interesting observations:

1. it takes 5 minutes to log in on MSN Messenger. The first attempt always fails and I have to manually log in.

2. The system process is taking up 50% or more of CPU time. I expect this behavior if I have too many apps running but I am only running 1 at a time now

3. the auto update downloads the files, but the shield disappears after the download is complete. I have to manually open 'Help and Support' to install the updates

4. Firefox disappears from the task bar when it loses focus. It reappears when it has focus.

I am pretty sure the last Microsoft update has FUBAR the permissions or there is a bug in an update. I can not find the app causing the problem. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Why is everything is running so slowly on XP?windows updates

Well, I know just the regular Windows XP needs 256 Megabytes of RAM to work properly... of course, Dell didn't tell me this when I was buying my laptop, and now it needs a RAM upgrade, so I'm mad at them... but that's less to the point.

I guess what I'm getting at is, maybe the newer version of Windows XP you're running needs more RAM to accomodate the Operating System. Try talking to a shop in the town you live in that can do a RAM job (no pun intended) on your computer, and see if that doesn't help things run more smoothly. The RAM chips aren't normally TOO expensive and the shop in my town does that kind of work for free-- you'd just have to pre-pay the RAM chip, if they have to order it, from say... Dell Computers (re-occurring theme... hooray!). I hope you find this helpful.

Why is everything is running so slowly on XP?replacement windows internet explorer

Adding RAM would be a good place to start, but there could be a problem with the software that has eben installed on teh computer.

maybe you are in the habit of checking all the emails that you receive in your inbox, whether you know the person or not, so this way you are adding viruses / trojans, or other spyware from different sources.

maybe you had virus in the data that you saved from your previous installation, so when you restored the docs, u restored viruses as well.

you visit all sorts of websites, with all sorts of spying software, ad-ware, whcih you need to get rid of.

and the possibilities are endless.

but the solutions are few,

best of them is an old english saying

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE

do not click on all the links that you find on a website or in an email, even if the sender is your friend

do not open the email if you do not know the sender, and even if you do know the sender, but you see that the subject line is in-appropriate in ne regards

do not opn any email when you do not know the sender and also it has attachments, usually all email clients tell you in the list that there is an attachment in the mail. attachment from unknown people in the junk mail is 100% virus/ad-ware/spyware

do not go to the websites which are known to be problematic. incidentally msn / hotmail / microsoft website are quite problematic in as far as ad-ware is concerned. they have all sorts of ads going on in their sites alongwith cookies.

Cookies are small codes which are stored on your computer by the websites, so that the site knows that you have been there, and the site can identify you.

do not use Internet explorer

use FireFox instead, which is faster and less prone to threats, only coz not many people use it, and virus writers tend to pay more attention to Internet explorer.

anyways in both these browsers, you can set to not receive cookies from any site, and tehn you can have an exception list

in Internet Explorer you can do this by clickingon the folowing

TOOLS

INTERNET OPTIONS

PRIVACY

and then move the slider bar from medium to HIGH

by doing this what you are doing is simply not allowing any website, which is not in your safelist to store cookies on your computer.

and then to create a list of allowed sites, click on

SITES

and then type in the web address of the site eg

YAHOO.COM

and click on

ALLOW

and then list all the sites which you think you visit on a regular basis.

and also remember to delete all the browsing history, and cookies, and temporary internet files

how to delete that

click on

START

MY COMPUTER

make sure that you have set FOLDER OPTIONS to view hidden files, and show protected operating system files

C:

DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS

click on the folder which has your user name

COOKIES

select all

and DELETE all files by confirming your choice to delete

then go back one level and click on folder name

LOCAL SETTINGS

and delete the contents of the folders

HISTORY

TEMP

TEMPORARY INTERNET FOLDERS

by going into each folder and manually selecting all and deleting them

you need to do this for all the users that you have defined on your computer.

and make sure to search for other TEMP folders in the computer, and delete all the contents of all TEMP folders, coz they are temporary, and shouldnt be hanging in there in-definitely.

also I assume that you have the licensed version of XP, that entitles you to receive security updates from MS website.

make sure that you are set to automatically receive and updates from Microsoft

additionally you can install the following two software from

www.download.com

AD-AWARE by LAVASOFT

and

SPYWAREBLASTER

make sure that you type in the correcdt spellings, especially when you download AD-AWARE make sure that it is the one by LAVASOFT.

AD-AWARE scans and removes all the spy-ware and ad-ware from your computer, they provide you with an update process through the program console, where you can always get the freshest list of malicious softwatre.

SPYWAREBLASTER, does not remove anything from the computer, but it simply creates a list of blocked sites, so even if you type in the web address, it will not take you to the site.

the third software which comes in handy is

FORTICLIENT v 3

this has a firewall and antivirus, and antispam, and is free to use for 3 months, a very nice tool to have, you can get FortiClient from download.com without going into the hassle of registering.

I hope this helps, it sure did help me.

no tool can do anything, until you yourself are cautious.

coz all the computer does is what you tell it to do

it does not do what you want it to do.