Best ways to speed up a fresh XP machine?

Kelemvor · 08-28-2012, 09:33 AM

So I have an older laptop (Dell Inspiron something-or-other Pentium 4) that had XP on it. It hadn't been reinstalled for a while so I wiped it and reinstalled XP from scratch.

The ONLY thing this laptop will be used for is Internet Browsing. My nephew likes to play Minecraft so I'd like to see if I can get it working on this.

I haven't used XP for a while so I'm looking for the best ways to get the most performance out of this laptop. Things like uninstalling Windows Search, turning off things that run that I just won't need, etc.

Google returns tons of results but they were mostly just regular people posting things like "Do a defrag" which I already know.

If anyone has a nice list of things that aren't needed and should be uninstalled or whatever, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

theevilsharpie · 08-28-2012, 09:45 AM

Other than making the necessary drivers are installed, there's nothing more to really do.

pauldun170 · 08-28-2012, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theevilsharpie

Other than making the necessary drivers are installed, there's nothing more to really do.

A fresh install + appropriate drivers is all that needs to be done. Install MSE (of the AV products out there I found it to be the easiest on older hardware) and be done with it. Defrag every couple of months or so or just schedule it.

Kelemvor · 08-28-2012, 10:52 AM

All I did was install XP and hit up Windows Update over and over until everything was installed. Just wasn't sure if there were any included components of Windows that weren't needed that could be removed to speed it up a bit.

But if not, then I guess I'm good to go.

cl-scott · 08-28-2012, 12:54 PM

You can turn off the Luna skinning engine and go with the "Classic" Windows theme, which will take some load off the system. Makes it slightly more ugly, but also slightly faster.

Billb2 · 08-28-2012, 01:06 PM

Check out the XP stuff here.
http://www.blackviper.com/

Nothinman · 08-28-2012, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billb2

Check out the XP stuff here.
http://www.blackviper.com/

Once the page is open, laugh at the author and then move on to using your PC as is because it's fine.

JackMDS · 08-28-2012, 09:06 PM

Make sure that there is at least 512KB RAM, 1MB is even better.

Download this and make sure that the Start Menu does not act as a crap Loader.

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Make sure that it is upgraded to Win XP SP3 and get rid of any 3rd party security suit.

Use Win XP native Defender for Malware, use Win XP Firewall if you do not need control on outbound traffic.

If you do want more control download and use Kerio 215 (middle of the following linked page) as a Firewall, or just use Win XP Firewall if you do not need control on outbound traffic.

http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page7.html

Run cClearner for files and Registry.

XP should then run well on a P-4 laptop. The rest of the things are "snake oil" and the blackviper thing can actually hinder the Internet and network capacity.

oynaz · 08-29-2012, 06:42 AM

I believe that 512 kilobyte RAM is a bit on the small side for running Windows XP. You might be able to run Amiga Workbench 1.3, though.

1 megabyte would allow you to run Amiga Workbench 2.0, or even MS-DOS 5.

:-P

Charlie98 · 08-29-2012, 07:33 AM

I rebuilt my old Dell (2005) Inspiron last year, but kept it as an XP machine. The biggest improvement I made to it was bumping up the RAM to 2GB (from 512MB) and making a clean XP install. Like one of the others mentioned, I'm just using MSE and will occasionally run SAS and SpyBot.

Additionally, I put a new HDD in it (160GB, up from my 40GB!) and put a faster processor in. It will now go from power button to navigate in 1 minute flat.

dbailey · 08-29-2012, 08:48 AM

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Ha...es/winxptweak/

Kelemvor · 08-29-2012, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie98

I rebuilt my old Dell (2005) Inspiron last year, but kept it as an XP machine. The biggest improvement I made to it was bumping up the RAM to 2GB (from 512MB) and making a clean XP install. Like one of the others mentioned, I'm just using MSE and will occasionally run SAS and SpyBot.

Additionally, I put a new HDD in it (160GB, up from my 40GB!) and put a faster processor in. It will now go from power button to navigate in 1 minute flat.

This was a laptop that belonged to my wife's dad before he passed away. We just thought if we could repurpose it into a MineCraft PC for our nephew, we'd let him have it. Otherwise we'll just sell it.

It has 1 gig of RAM and an older 80 gig IDE drive. Not really willing to put any money into it to upgrade anything so we'll see what we get.

lakedude · 08-29-2012, 01:37 PM

You can turn off startup programs by entering the command: msconfig

Also Puppy Linux makes for an awesome browser, especially on old computers. It much smaller and more efficient than Windows. The whole OS loads into RAM so it is very responsive, like having an SSD. Puppy is free and best of all it can be used without installing to your hard drive. It will work straight from the CD/DVD. Once it loads to RAM the CD/DVD can be removed so you have access to your drive.

To try, DL Puppy or FatDog ISO, burn ISO to disk, boot from disk, enjoy!

Puppy (32 bit): http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=07235

FatDog64 (if your CPU is 64bit): http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/iso/

An ISO burner: http://www.ntfs.com/iso-burning.htm