Theresa,
> Seriously. I'm using an e-machine, and running Windows XP Home. I
> used to run multiple programs at once with ease, but lately it
First off, memory is a go no go kind of thing. It either works or not, well
sort of. The thing is that if memory is bad you have more serious problems
than slowdowns. Bad memory is likely to stop the computer from running
properly.
So what causes the kind of problems you are talking about. One action that
would probably improve speed quickly, but is a rather drastic thing to do,
is to run your rescue disks and bring the computer back to factory spec.
This would mean that only the original programs that came with your computer
would be installed. Any software you have installed since you got the
machine would have to be reinstalled.
There is an alternative, but it takes a lot of work. Before I explain that I
have to ask how much ram you have. 512 Meg. is considered by most
knowledgeable people to be the sweet spot for all but gamers and graphics
and video creators.
OK, back to the alternative. What generally seems to cause most slowdowns is
too many programs and processes running at start up. Lots of program install
all sorts of unnecessary items that run when the computer boots. There are
several ways to examine these startup programs, but deciding which of these
can safely be removed is not easy, they often have enigmatic file names. So
you may have to just try removing them to see what helps.
Fortunately there are several programs that make removing startup items easy
to do, and easy to put back if necessary. One of these is part of XP. It
can be run from Start, Run. Type in 'msconfig' and hit Enter. This brings up
a program that has a startup tab. Click that to see a list of startup items.
Clicking on the checkmark by each program you keep an item from starting up.
If you want/need to put the item back, just run msconfig again and click the
item to recheck it.
There is another program that you can download from the files section in
this group, it is called startupCPL.exe. It has the startup items in several
groups. Another download called startup.zip is a compressed set of files
that explain which startup items can safely be removed. There are two of
these programs. To open a .zip program in XP or ME just click it. What I do
then is highlight all the contents and paste them into a different folder.
I have been thinking about creating a single file that contains the
information I have explained above along with startup.cpl and the
startup.zip files. Then all I would have to do is reference that file when
people ask how to speed up their computers. :-)
Jim
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