How to get a noticeable performance boost out of your old Windows XP PC.
If you’ve got an older PC, something with 1 gig or less of RAM, every day is a new struggle for it to complete regular day-to-day tasks, and if wuauclt.exe is on one of its sudden and random runs – well – forget about it.
Now, this idea won’t help with the crippling Windows Autoupdate Client, and it won’t give significant relief to your beaten and abused page file. But it will free up some RAM and other resource to make your desktop reacted faster.
But wait, I know what you’re thinking: “If I’m running a PC with only one gig of RAM, what’s the likelihood that I’ll know I’m running only one gig, or how to find out how much I’m running, or for that matter, what RAM is at all. Seriously, seven years ago a whole gig of RAM was cool. But now-a-day, you’re only buying a PC with 1 gig if you’re buying it for someone else – and you’re a jerk.”
So let’s see how much RAM you have. It’s simple. Click the start menu, open the Control Panel, and click System (System icon under Performance and Maintenance). In the lower right hand corner of the System Properties box, you’ll see a description of your RAM – something like “3.00 GHz, 1.00 GB or RAM” – meaning you’ve got one gig of RAM. And if you’ve got less than one gig, you probably haven’t gotten this far because you’re still waiting for Control Panel to populate.
So lets shake some of that fancy XP fluff off your operation so you can get some work done – because seriously – if you’re limping along on one gig, you need to make some money and upgrade your equipment. Hopefully you’ve still got the System Properties box opened. From there open the Advanced tab and click Settings under Performance. In the Performance Options box, open the Visual Effects tab.
This is where you can control certain aspects of Windows Glitz and pizzazz. So go ahead and tic Adjust for best performance and hit Apply. (You can always switch it back) If you feel a sudden surge of nostalgia, and feel like you’re sitting in front of your old Win 2000 PC, it’s because you just stripped off all the characteristic XP lace and doilies, leaving a regular Windows interface. Without all that cumbersome crap, there’s more RAM for your programs to use.
Think of RAM as a bunch of little monkeys in a tree. The only way anything can happen in your computer is if data is moved and changed. In this analogy, it’s the monkeys’ job to hold everything up off the ground that you’re using – all the tools, programs, and data. Well now they don’t have to mind all the balloons and streamers. You’ve got more monkeys doing important stuff – or rather – fewer monkeys clogging a critical path: rendering crap on your screen.
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Raging Kitty