Bill, On of the very important things that a lot of people miss, is running Checkdisk (similar to Scandisk). This is one of the main causes of Windows slowing down. And of course a few hundred Mbs of temp don't help either. In RUN type: chkdsk /f (and press Enter), then when the black box comes up type Y when prompted (and Enter). Checkdisk will run the next time you boot up. With XP it's I always disable all of the special effects (except for the last 3 in the list). This alone helps a bunch (and still looks the same as before with most windows). Contact me privately if you want to know which programs to disable in Startup. Need to run antispyware too to remove parasites. Bil Green PC 1000 Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546 760-924-1000 Saturday, December 18, 2004, 10:40:44 AM, you wrote: EG> Bill; EG> I don't think it has much to do with how many programs you have EG> installed, more of how many programs are loading at Start up. EG> Programs in resident memory will slow down your computer, especially EG> with too little RAM. Go to your msconfig.exe folder and check what EG> programs are loading on start up. Unless you use your printer often, EG> print buffer doesn't need to be there. Try unchecking some of the Start EG> Up programs. Go from there. You can always recheck them later if you EG> need them. Keep any AV software loaded. The rest you will have to EG> improvise. EG> -Ed- EG> Ed Gaidies EG> Tel-Tek Electronics EG> Ontario-Canada EG> teltek3@xxxxxxxxxxxx EG> teltek@xxxxxxxxx EG> On 18-Dec-04, at 12:21 PM, Tvcr9@xxxxxxx wrote: >> Hello folks- My computer has slowed down a lot lately (operating >> system is >> Windows XP). One of the things I was advised to do by a local tech is >> to >> delete all unnecessary files. I went into my Add Remove Programs >> area, but I'm >> having a tough time determining what programs I should keep and which >> ones I >> should remove. Is there a general, safe rule to follow here ? Many >> thanks. >> >> Bill >> Bill's Electronics >> Chandler, Arizona >> >> >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >> ------ >> Lost Password: >> http://www.tech-assist.org and select "Login Problems?". >> Email Archives: >> //www.freelists.org/archives/techassist/ >> EG> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- EG> Lost Password: EG> http://www.tech-assist.org and select "Login Problems?". EG> Email Archives: EG> //www.freelists.org/archives/techassist/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lost Password: http://www.tech-assist.org and select "Login Problems?". Email Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/techassist/