Is your computer slowing down? Do you want to know why is my computer running slow. Windows XP is the problem because it is not a self-tuning operating system and begins to slow down right after you install it. Just browsing the Internet you will pick up performance robbing spyware and data mining programs that try and determine what your interests are so that targeted advertising can be sent to you. Windows XP also has a large complex registry that tries to keep track of all the hardware and software changes to your computer. Every time you install a new program or utility it makes changes to the registry. Every time you remove a program or utility it tries to remove the file pointers and configuration changes it made to accommodate the program. Sometimes it doesn’t remove or reset all the file pointers so the next time you restart your computer it seems slower as Windows looks for files that are no longer there. It also has to take more time during startup to load all the new programs you have added making for a slow computer. It also has to take more time to run all these new performance hogging programs that you installed thinking they were going to help you. Some of the worst offenders are the newer anti-virus programs that now have to scan every Web site connection, email, and downloads. Also these anti-virus programs will do background system and hard drive scans that eat up more performance. You hard drive gets fragmented just running Windows, and with all the programs you install and then later remove you will fragment the hard drive even more. Sometimes hardware and software drivers are not compatible with the operating system and can slow your computer to a crawl.
What To Do
When I first buy a computer, or repair one, I reformat the hard drive and remove all those offending programs. Reformatting also restores the hard drive by removing any fragmentation problems, scans and checks the media for errors, and provides a fresh partition to install Windows on. When you install Windows you have a fresh clean registry and I only install the absolute minimum software that I need to do my work. If I want to play games, download files, and install new programs to test I do this either on a different computer, a different partition, or the best choice, a virtual machine.
Second Computer For Downloading and Testing New Software or Games
Having a second computer for downloading and testing new software or games will help to safeguard your primary operating system. You can also create a second partition on your hard drive and install a second Windows XP just for this purpose. Better yet you could use a virtual machine to do your downloading and testing of new software.
Virtual Machines
Virtual machines run just like a regular operating system and appear like a complete computer to the host. You can install any operating system, including Linux, and run it inside Windows. The virtual machine will even connect to the Internet and act like an independent computer. The virtual machine is only a single file that can be copied to create backups or additional machines that can be run at the same time to create a network of computers. If one of the virtual machines get corrupted you just restart it without saving the corrupt changes or delete it and use a backup. Virtual machines have become very popular because of their ease of use, performance, and portability. They are portable because they will run on any computer that can host or run virtual machine software.
Imaging Software
Imaging software, such as, Norton Ghost, Acronis, Partimage, and others have become very popular for maintaining and cloning large numbers of computers. Also you can create copies of partitions on your personal computer that will allow you to restore your files or operating system in minutes. This is what I use and recommend because it keeps my computers running at their optimum performance 24/7/365. I have not had a slow or poor performing computer for more than a few minutes for over 10 years now and I daily run and maintain over 35 computers. It takes no longer than 5 minutes to completely restore a computer to its optimum performance using imaging software. Why is my computer running slow is never a problem for me anymore.
You might find some of the following links helpful for maintaining your computer.
Slow Computer web site has many helps and video links.
YouTube Channel Frenchge has many computer related video helps.
