Win XP Home edition, SLOW!

[Kry]

... I'm having trouble at home with my laptop. I run Win XP Home Edition and it runs extreamly slow at random times. I can open Task Manager anymore to shut stuff down, not that shutting other programs down helped anyways. I dont have much installed. It runs slower when running on battery and runs faster when the internet is unplugged but still not fast enough to ignore. I don't have any viruses, malware, ect. that I can find. I've already formated many times and I DON'T have enough money to buy a new computer. Anyone got any idea?

[jman2050]

Two possibilities:

1) Your computer sucks

2) The GUI is mucking up your system. Display->Properties->Change scheme to Windows Classic

My laptop runs fast enough to handle XP. Also note that your laptop is probably supposed to run a lot slower on batteries to save power consumption.

[Warlock]

Check this site out:
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm

That may help speed things up. I definately helped me.

[vegeta1215]

Check this site out:
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm

That may help speed things up. I definately helped me.

Yeah, blackviper's site is great. I used his guide to configure our Windows XP laptop. The main idea is to disable services you don't need (and for a casual user, there are many that you don't need) I think the big ones related to speed are the themes, indexing service, and system restore service.

Also, when you turn off themes and use the classic look, go into your view preferences and choose the setting for the best speed.