please help with computer slow down

[kenny1999]

hi , i am using windows xp home, my computer hardware is not bad and it was bought in late 2005 , i just don't know why it has been getting slower and slower, actually it is not the first day problem of it , i ask here because i can no longer tolerate the slow speed.. many lags between switching windows, freezing screen, sometimes even hang up, i dont' have any photoshop or photo-editing or video-editing software or those sort of professional software which will consume lots of system resource, i just use my computer to have some fun with mp3, watching film, download something like many people use it for entertainment. My hardware is Intel Pentium4 cpu 3.00GHz without any oversizing, 2GB DDR2 ram, 160GB & 1000GB(for storage only) Harddisk

Before, i have tried google some freeware / shareware to registry optimize....system optimize... anti-virus.. but they are all shit... I
just don't feel that my computer has anyway speed improved...I
don't want to format and reinstall windows XP... you know, it is a
big trouble as i have lots of useful text files, photos, clips, everywhere
in the computer, it will be a big problem...

I really don't know how to do, hope someone would help me

[bookworm]

Originally Posted by kenny1999

hi , i am using windows xp home, my computer hardware is not bad and it was bought in late 2005 , i just don't know why it has been getting slower and slower, actually it is not the first day problem of it , i ask here because i can no longer tolerate the slow speed.. many lags between switching windows, freezing screen, sometimes even hang up, i dont' have any photoshop or photo-editing or video-editing software or those sort of professional software which will consume lots of system resource, i just use my computer to have some fun with mp3, watching film, download something like many people use it for entertainment. My hardware is Intel Pentium4 cpu 3.00GHz without any oversizing, 2GB DDR2 ram, 160GB & 1000GB(for storage only) Harddisk

Before, i have tried google some freeware / shareware to registry optimize....system optimize... anti-virus.. but they are all shit... I
just don't feel that my computer has anyway speed improved...I
don't want to format and reinstall windows XP... you know, it is a
big trouble as i have lots of useful text files, photos, clips, everywhere
in the computer, it will be a big problem...

I really don't know how to do, hope someone would help me

first Defrag your system - use disk cleanup but leave Compressed files

Try these free programs -
Antivirus, but only if you do not have one installed - Avast - click get Avast Free Home - you will be given a licence to use when you register
http://www.avast.com/eng/programs.html

anti spyware
Ad-Aware - Download Ad-Aware Free in green http://www.lavasoft.com/home.php

SpyBot Search & Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

get CCleaner ( crap cleaner ) http://www.ccleaner.com/
this will clean all leftover files - temp files etc - be prepared it could be big. It also has a registry claener with a backup facility, used for 3 years no problems.

[firestorm]

That's a good list of software^.

IMHO, I would change the antivirus to AVG 8 Free
www.avg.com
I find that it's better than Avast for the free version, but YMMV.

Before, i have tried google some freeware / shareware to registry optimize....system optimize... anti-virus.. but they are all shit..

Please don't use the registry cleaner and optimizers. They are usually more harmful than useful.

Defrag the system thoroughly, including the system files such as the MFT and pagefile. A boot-time defrag may be required for this after you've finished the normal defrag. Use a good, reliable defragmenter like Diskeeper 2008. It's not free, but you can use the free trial download here http://www.diskeeper.com for a month.

Finally, if the disk cleanup + A/V scans + defrag don't help to restore performance, check whether the hard drive is okay. If it's an old HDD, then it may be towards the end of it's life. Check whether the drive has downgraded to PIO transfer mode instead of DMA.

If nothing works, then you are unfortunately looking at a re-install