This question comes up often in my field of work.  My name is Steve and I’m a computer consultant so I help my clients with their computers, networks and servers on a daily basis.  As I go from office to office, the most asked question from the employees always has something to do with a Computer Running Slow.  I usually stop at their desk for a few minutes and show them a thing or two which helps speed up their computer slightly but it isn’t the cure.  So, “what is the cure?”, you ask.  The cure is regular computer maintenance and hardware upgrades.

Throughout this website, you will find detailed articles answering questions about why my computer is running very slow.  I like to focus on free methods of fixing a slow running computer so there is no need to buy expensive software.  Just follow along as I go over these methods.  In previous posts, I have talked about Startup Programs and Hard Drive Maintenance.  In those posts, we basically removed unwanted startup programs and really gave our computer’s hard drive a good cleaning.

Today, we are going to look at software tweaks to increase the speed of a slow Windows XP computer.  If you have done what was suggested in the previous posts, then you should be ready to make these XP tweaks.

I personally like performance over pretty graphics.  Here are a few things you can do to help your system performance without suffering too much from the loss of some pretty graphics:

1. Right-Click on “My Computer”
2. Select Properties
3. Click on the “Advanced” tab
4. Under Performance, Click on the “Settings” button

You should now be looking at the Visual Effects Tab.  Click on the “Adjust for best performance” radio button, like the image below and click “Apply”:

This will remove all of the checks which will allow your computer to run faster because it disables all the nice windows graphics that you can really do without.  I would suggest keeping two from the list checked.  The bottom two:

• Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop
• Use visual styles on windows and buttons

I want my computer to run fast but without those two selections my computer desktop would be down right UGLY.

If you have a XP computer running very slow, then you should also make sure your computer has all the latest security patches and service packs provided free from Microsoft.  I would suggest getting Windows Service Pack 3 and all the security patches.  You can also update your Internet Explorer to version 8 but that program is SLOW!!  It’s good to update, so your computer isn’t as susceptible to security risks, but I would be using Google Chrome or Firefox as they are streamlined and built to work faster.

• Window Updates Service
• Google Chrome
• FireFox

Well, those tips are just a couple of things you can do with a computer running really slow.  Other questions I get from clients are why is my computer running so slow, and what to do if my computer is running slow?  These are great questions and I try to answer them for my clients and I can help you out as well.  For more help check out my article Slow Computer Fix and part II of Slow Computer Fix.

Thank you for stopping by the site.  If your computer is running slow, try out some of these methods from this post and my other posts How to Fix a Slow Computer plus part II of How to Fix a Slow Computer and your computer should be running faster in no time.  As always, leave your questions in the comments section and I will help you with your computer issues.

Take it easy,

Steve