My computer is a Dell dimension 2400 and I have had it almost a year. It has been a great one. My question is what would make it so slow just recently?? I run my antivirus program and spyware program daily and there are non of either on my machine.
I don't download a lot of things to clog up the works.I don't have a lot of things in the start up menu.
For some reason unknown to me everything is just so slow and I can't figure out why. I have a high speed connection not dial up.
If anyone has an answer for me I would really appreciate it.
Thanks,
MsDee

Check your temporary Internet files, stored under Documents and Settings\ [your user name)\local settings.
Although I frequently clean this out, mine currently contains 18+ MB. These files can increase to over a gigabyte very quickly. When you are surfing, Windows will compare these files to those on the web site before downloading it so it only downloads new files. This was useful with dial up because it cut the download time considerably, but with a high speed connection it can actually slow things down.

Hello! Get Ray´s Clean A1. That will do the job anytime you have a problem with too many temp or other unnecessary files. Have a nice day!
triuno.

Good morning,

I have a P4 with 2.70 processor, 1 gig of RAM with cable connection. I have found that when my computer slows to a crawl, it has adware and cookie trackers versus actual spyware. I used Adaware Pro and it nevers finds less than 15 "critical" objects and 20+ neglible objects. Once I quarantine them, it is back to is self and running like a champ until next time. I run SpywareBlaster in the background that has almost completely stopped all problems with spyware, but as I said, the adware is a terrible problem for me. I also have my Internet Temp files set to empty each time I exit the web; that has helped tremendously!  

Hope this help!

Sue

Hi,

I have a protocol that I go through that took me about 2 hours, partially because the computer itself is slow.  You can do all of this with trial versions once, but then you would need to buy programs after that.

I use the following programs (all mine are registered versions, but they have trial ones available):
1. A1 PC cleaner, (available from this forum's host)
2. Cleanup! (similar to A1 but does some different things, the two together are very, very thorough)
3. Ad-aware (free version works fine)
4. Trojan Hunter (Trial version)
5. Regvac (best registry cleaner I have found, also available from forum host)
6. Diskeeper (great defrag program, trial version, you can use it to adjust your master file table size, defrag your swap file, and it is much more thorough than Windows defragger)

Start by using msconfig to turn off your startup programs, install all programs, run Ad-Aware (may have to use safe mode), then run Trojan Hunter (safe mode may still apply), then A1 PC Cleaner, then Cleanup!, then Diskeeper's functions, turn your desired startup programs back on, remove any trial programs from this list, then run regvac, restart computer.

This is like giving your computer a serious roto rooter treatment.  You will be very pleased with the results if your computer is running slow.

Don't forget to reset your Internet Explorer cache settings to 25mb and go to Advanced in the Internet Options and check Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder when Browser is Closed.

If you have very nasty spyware or trojans(i.e. winantivirus pro or spy sheriff), then more professional help may be needed, but this protocol works wonders.

Anyone using Internet Explorer is going to eventually discover tons of temporary files on their computer. I have been using Firefox as my browser, which I find far superior to IE. Furthermore it's free. By the way, when I used Firefox with Windows 98SE I had no trouble locating the cache so I could delete the files. Since I upgraded to Windows XP, I can't locate the cache anywhere on the system.

There is an article on TechRepublic on ZD Net entitled "Windows XP services that can be disabled" that lists Windows services that may not be needed for your system. I used the guidelines and deleted a number of services (after using WinRescueXP to back up the registry). There was a noticeable speedup.
The site is http://www.techrepublic.com.
Look under White Papers.