Very Computer

Suggestions:

Hard Disk Performance Is Slower Than You Expect
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q308219

Increase Windows XP performance by adjusting view options

Start/Run/Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop In the right pane select,
"MenuShowDelay". Right click, modify and set the value to 0. Reboot.

Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Advanced, Startup and Recovery,
System Startup/Display Recovery...set the timeout to 0.

Right click My Computer Icon/Properties/Advanced/Performance/Visual Effects
Tab/Adjust for Best Performance/Uncheck everything from: Animate Windows
when....all the way down.

1: Right Click on My Computer and select properties.
2: Click on the "Advanced" tab
3: See the "Perfomance" section? Click "Settings"
4: Disable the following:

Fade or slide menus into view
Fade or slide ToolTips into view
Fade out menu items after clicking
Show Shadows under menus
Slide open combo boxes
Slide taskbar buttons
Use a background image for each folder type
Use common tasks in folders

To disable unneeded startup services for a safer, faster XP, use the
"Services" Admin Tool (Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services).

If you are a single user of a non-networked machine, you can disable the
following items, with no ill effect.

Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Access Devices
Indexing Service (Slows the hard drive down)
Messenger
Net Logon (unnecessary unless networked on a Domain)
Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
Server
SSDP Discovery Service ("Universal P'n'P", & leaves TCP Port 5000 wide open)
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet (disabled for extra security)
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration (for wireless networks)
Workstation

--
All the Best,
Kelly

MS-MVP Win98/XP
[AE-Windows? XP]

Windows Troubleshooting & Support
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/tips/

Quote:> Apparently there is some kind of a problem with xp and
> certain kinds of hard drives. Basically my system is much
> slower now after installing xp. Certain graphic
> applications are especially slow but not the only things
> effected. Microsoft wants me to pay $35 to solve. I am a
> novice and I am sure if walked through it I can handle
> it. Any suggestions......Please Please Please

Kelly has given you some pretty good suggestions.

However there is one additional matter.   How much RAM do you have in your
computer?  That is perhaps the biggest single factor affecting the
performance of XP if you have less than 256 mb of RAM installed.

If, for example, you installed XP on a system with 96 or 128 mb of RAM
then I would expect the performance to be noticeably slower than it was
with Windows 98 or Windows Me for example.

The fact that you say that graphic applications are especially slow also
points at lack of RAM as being the possible cause, as graphics files are
huge and therefore the RAM requirements are quite large.

For normal business type apps (such as MS Office), web surfing, email,
etc. you should have 256 mb of RAM for reasonable performance with XP.
And if you are doing extensive graphics work then you might want to
consider going to 512 mb or at least to 384 mb.

Hope this is of some assistance.

Good luck

Ron Martell     Duncan B.C.    Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."