Hugh wrote:
Slowness is more likely to be a result of spyware, or a need to defrag.>>

To that, I'd add:
Or too many programs running in the background.

If you happen to have Ms Office installed, its internal fast indexing
service is a known memory hog, and many people have reported drastic
performance improvement after disabling it.

Run Msconfig/startup tab, and see how much is running at startup.  Very
likely many or most of those aren't needed at all times, and you may find
that unticking those that aren't essential will pay dividends.

Also, in XP there are many services which are set to run by default, many
of which are probably not needed.

To disable unneeded startup services for a safer, faster XP, use the
"Services" Admin Tool (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services). If
you are a single user of a non-networked machine, you should  disable the
following items, with no ill effect.

Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Access Devices
Indexing Service (Slows the hard drive down)
Messenger
Net Logon (unnecessary unless networked on a Domain)
Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
Server
SSDP Discovery Service (this is for the pointless "Universal P'n'P", &
leaves TCP Port 5000 wide open)
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet (disabled for extra security)
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration (for wireless networks)
Workstation

Don Penlington
 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html

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