Ruth writes:

"My computer has started running very slow and hanging, with no apparent
rhyme or reason. ....the problem started when I switched from AOL to
worldshare and started using outlook express. "

Ruth, when posting problems, it's essential you state what OS you are
using..  Win 3.1, 95, 98?  Or what?

16 mb of memory is barely enough to run Win 95, and nowhere near enough for
Win 98.  You would need to be very careful about running any
programs  which take too much of your computer resources.  The symptoms you
are experiencing point towards a shortage of memory.  I don't know, but I
suspect that OE might need more memory to run properly.  You might be
better off trying a smaller simpler Email prog such as Eudora Lite.

Check the Task Manager (Alt/Ctrl/Del) and make sure you only have the bare
essentials running in the background.  Turn off any background wallpaper
(this consumes a little bit of memory).

Also check to see how much free space you have on your hard drive.  Windows
95 needs over 200 Mb free to run properly, maybe a bit more if you have are
short on  memory.  I'd suggest keeping at least 300 Mb free for Win 95 or
later.

Regular registry restoration usually improves performance---the registry
tends to get cluttered up over time, and this can slow things down quite
dramatically.

You mentioned that you "deleted" some previous programs.  How did you do
this?  If you simply deleted the files, and did not use an uninstaller,
this may leave a lot of hidden stuff still in your computer, such as
registry entries, which will also slow things down.

Don Penlington





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