[thomask1]

I reckon I'm getting about 9mths max before the computer starts to slow down and the only solution would appear to be to do a clean install of windows again. Done a Spyware check, unused programs removed, defrag etc.

I know it's because junk gets filled up on the hard drive, anyway to prevent this happening and make an install last as long as possible without it slowing down after a time?

What's people's experience on here?

 

[Stewart]

Well, you will have installed various updates, more virus
definitions/program updates perhaps the odd util here and there,
updated drivers.. temp internet files, history, temp installed files,
log files getting bigger, event logs, the odd game maybe..

It all adds up doesnt it, i was thinking the same and perhaps upgrading
for Battlefield2 which is soon to be released but I looked at the specs
and mine is well within playable specs, so i removed a load of stuff
from the startup (msconfig/startup), defragged properly (3rd party
util), removed loads of history (not just net stuff but updates and
installs etc) and it feels nice and snappy again now...

 

[redbutcher]

My XP install is just
over 12 months old and is quick enough for me. I keep XP and Office etc
all on a separate partition so if I do need to reinstall it's pretty
straight forward. All my data - documents, pics and Outlook pst folder
is on another partition, then misc stuff on another partition and games
on another partition. I've another hard drive installed which has
everything else on it (mp3s etc.).

Sometimes it is just as well to start from scratch - some uninstall
programs do leave bits of themselves behind and sometimes the best way
to get rid of them for good is to start from scratch. You can get utils
that you run before an install so it keeps track of everything an
install program changes, so when you uninstall it does completely
remove all traces of the program. The registry can contain orphaned
entries from uninstall programs, so a utility that cleans up your
registry and looks for entries that aren't needed might help also - a
search on Google will probably turn something up.

What set up are you running? My XP install sits on an AMD Athlon XP
3200+ CPU with 1GB (2x512MB) matched Corsair XMS Pro DDR400 DIMMs. The
hard drives aren't huge - 1 Seagate 80GB SATA drive and 1 Seagate
Barracuda IV 80GB drive, so I do have to have a clean out every so
often. All that lot sits on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard.

If you've got room on your motherboard to put more memory in, that is one of the best ways of speeding things up as well.

 

[thomask1]

Well, you will have installed various updates, more virus definitions/program updates perhaps the odd util here and there, updated drivers.. temp internet files, history, temp installed files, log files getting bigger, event logs, the odd game maybe..

In otherwords just using it, you'd think Micro-con would have allowed for that wouldn't you?!

What defrag utility are you using?

 

[Milkfloat]

Try this http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10165_7-5554402-1.html

 

[redbutcher]

In otherwords just using it, you'd think Micro-con would have allowed for that wouldn't you?!

What defrag utility are you using?

I use O&O Defrag - is set up as a service so Defrags when it needs to.

 

[thomask1]

My XP install is just over 12 months old and is quick enough for me. I keep XP and Office etc all on a separate partition so if I do need to reinstall it's pretty straight forward. All my data - documents, pics and Outlook pst folder is on another partition, then misc stuff on another partition and games on another partition. I've another hard drive installed which has everything else on it (mp3s etc.).

Sometimes it is just as well to start from scratch - some uninstall programs do leave bits of themselves behind and sometimes the best way to get rid of them for good is to start from scratch. You can get utils that you run before an install so it keeps track of everything an install program changes, so when you uninstall it does completely remove all traces of the program. The registry can contain orphaned entries from uninstall programs, so a utility that cleans up your registry and looks for entries that aren't needed might help also - a search on Google will probably turn something up.

What set up are you running? My XP install sits on an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU with 1GB (2x512MB) matched Corsair XMS Pro DDR400 DIMMs. The hard drives aren't huge - 1 Seagate 80GB SATA drive and 1 Seagate Barracuda IV 80GB drive, so I do have to have a clean out every so often. All that lot sits on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard.

If you've got room on your motherboard to put more memory in, that is one of the best ways of speeding things up as well.

I have the same motherboard, with an Athlon XP2500 and 512mb and an adequate HDD, not state of the art but plenty quick enough.

The gradual deteriation in performance caused by software regardless of hardware is annoying with Windows. I should have been a bit more meticulous with my partitioning like yourself, Windows is separate but everything else is together.

Milkfloat - cheers for the link, that was most helpful.

 

[sk4tec]

I would recommend running RegClean - its no longer supported by MS but it still works.

 

[brainwashington]

I used to be exactly the same, after 6-9 months just do a clean install and have a brand new computer. But now you've got the SP1 + SP2 updates (which take forever), all the security fixes etc.. and then the re-installation of all those apps, emails etc..

So I can't be bothered anymore, my solution is to keep chucking more memory and faster CPUs just to get me back to a position I was at 2 years ago [^o)]

Carlos

 

[redbutcher]

If you're fed up of installing Windows XP and then the service packs - take a look here - allows you to build your XP Cd with the service packs built in - speeds up the install nicely....

clicky

 

[NikB]

I haven't reinstalled for almost a year now and the computer is still
running very well. Mainly because I just haven't put that many things
on it this time. I have found that the laptop was getting very slow so
I've just reinstalled all of that. The slow down is mainly due to
bloating of the registry because WinXP doesn't use it very efficiently.

 

[dubzter]

I know XP is pretty rubbish but does anyone use Linux as their OS

 

[PaulGT]

my laptop is getting pretty slow and havent formatted for about 18months!

How much size do u recomend for a partition just for XP? 2GB?

TIA

 

[NikB]

Mine's a 20Gb partition but I stick all programs on there.

Can't get along with Linux at all. Don't need that kind of security/stability personally and its so user unfriendly.

 

[redbutcher]

I had an old PIII700
running Mandrake 10.1 for a while - wasn't too bad, but not as easy to
get up and running as XP. Had it running Apache web server and ProFTP
FTP server and it could be seen from the Windows network and accessed
thanks to Samba. It was ditched when I wanted to set up a wireless
network - it didn't want to play ball - so went and installed XP over
it - up and running within a few hours again with a similar setup as
the Mandrake setup with the added bonus of it all done without any
wires!

 

[spanner]

My work laptop is 1 year old this week and about a month ago started performing badly. Been down hill since then, with the occasional blue screen during boot for good measure. I've done all the usual things, freeing up disk space, regclean, defrag but it's still pants.

Carried out a full backup to my external HD last night (4 1/2 hours) and am planning on blitzing this thing tomorrow.

 

[morse]

*cough* linux *cough*

 

[Milkfloat]

*cough* linux *cough*

The problem is that Linux is not suitable for the avergae user, it is a real *** to set up on a lot of machines, is always a step behind in compatabilty and has a community that is too small. I have dabbled a lot in it, but it is just not up to the job yet.

 

[morse]

The problem is that Linux is not suitable
for the avergae user, it is a real *** to set up on a lot of machines,
is always a step behind in compatabilty and has a community that is too
small. I have dabbled a lot in it, but it is just not up to the
job yet.

I think the gap is closing very fast now. There is a very big effort
going on in the Linux community to change this. New distro's like
FedoraCore3 and SUSE9.3 are much, much better than the Linux of old. I
give ALL my users Linux machines, most of whom are/were dedicated
Windoze users and after the initial psychological hurdle of it not
being windows, most get on with it just fine. From a desktop point of
view there are very few differences now.

I disagree about compatability presuming you are talking about
hardware. Most software issues can be overcome now as well. And the
community is very large and growing very fast.

/2p

 

[shiuming]

I've been running 98 SE for a tad over five years without a single rebuild, and this machine has been through a lot. The system cost me ?4K in total, ?1.5K of that for a high quality 21" CRT monitor and professional 6-DSP audio card (CreamWare Pulsar II), so I've tuned it along the way and really got my money's worth. I run a number of other systems as well, as I work in IT, but 98 is still my main workhorse (in fact this machine is a dual boot with 2000 Professional but I seldom work with that as it takes longer to boot). Plan to thrash this some more then start looking at building a newer system with RAID and more bandwidth than I can shake a mouse at.