Lisa,

I am a hard core believer in computers lasting for a lot longer than 
people think they do.  Computers typically do not get slow and cranky 
because they are old.  They don't slow down because they are tired. 
*GRIN*

I have a computer at home that I still use daily.  It is now about 8 years 
old, has 384 MB of RAM, and a 650 MHz processor.  It still runs just fine 
and is never slow unless I am really driving it hard.  I regularly have 
Internet Explorer, JAWS, my mail client, and music running all at the same 
time.  It runs Windows 2000.

The deal is that you have to be very vigilant about spyware, viruses, and 
programs that insert themselves into the autostart when you install them.

One thing to do is to make sure you run some kind of spyware and virus 
cleaner.  Then, go to the run box and type msconfig.  There is a tab under 
there that shows you every program that starts when the computer starts. 
There should be very little that auto starts when you boot your computer.

I don't recommend this to everyone, but I have gone into the process list 
as well and deactivated many of the processes that autostart as well.  For 
example, I almost never print from my home computer, so I disabled the 
print queue.  That doesn't mean I can never print, just that I have to 
first enable printing before I can print.

You start reducing all those memory and processor hogs, and before you 
know it, your computer is running just as fast as it did when you first 
got it.

-- 
Blue skies.
Dan Rossi
Carnegie Mellon University.
E-Mail:	[log in to unmask]
Tel:	(412) 268-9081


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