How to get increase your Windows Xp speed

The Windows XP desktop. Image courtesy Microsoft

Despite Microsoft's best marketing efforts, you haven't yet upgraded to Vista. You still prefer your trusty old copy of Windows XP. And, despite your diligence in protecting your beloved XP machine from viruses and sneaky trojan horses, Windows is noticeably slower than when you first installed it. Don't panic -- there are a number of things you can do to get your XP system running faster.Important thing is to use the software Reg Cleaner other than the steps explained below.
Keep in mind though, that, while these tips listed below can help you speed up Windows and recover hard drive space, you aren't going to see the sort of speed boost you'd get from upgrading your key hardware components. If you're unhappy, for instance, with the write speed of your hard drive, a few of these tips may help, but not nearly as much as upgrading to an ultra-fast Serial ATA (SATA) drive capable of 10,000 RPM. Also, adding more RAM almost always brings life to an older, slower system.
Other How-Tos in this series:

• Speed Up Windows Vista
• Speed Up Your Mac

Defragment Your Hard Drive

XP's Disk Defragmenter. Image courtesy of Microsoft

Once the go-to solution for all speed problems in Windows, Windows Vista has largely eliminated the need for defragmenting by doing it automatically in the background. In Windows XP, however, defragmenting is still a fact of life.

Improve Startup Times

Whenever Windows starts it automatically loads a number of programs, many of which you may not need. Unfortunately stopping programs from running at start-up isn't easy because there's several places these programs can live.
The three main places to investigate are the Startup folder, inside logon scripts and, in some cases, the Registry. By far the easiest of these is the Startup folder which can be found here:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu\Programs\Startup 

Turn Off Unnecessary Services

Services are background processes that run silently without you ever knowing about them. Because Windows takes the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach there's likely to be some unnecessary services running in the background.
To get rid of them go to Start >> Run, type "services.msc" and hit return. Double-click on the service you want to get rid of and change the startup type to Disable.

Clean House

Ccleaner

Like most people, you probably have a number of files and programs you don't need that are eating up hard drive space. When it comes to files it's your call, but for getting rid of programs we recommend the free application CCleaner which is faster and much more thorough than the default Add/Remove application provided with Windows.

Optimize Your BIOS

Gladiator BIOS, screenshot courtesy of Foxconn

The BIOS is a set of instructions that's hard-wired into your computer's motherboard. It stands for Basic Input/Output System, and it's responsible for initializing the hardware on your computer whenever it boots up. Tweaking your BIOS will only provide small performance gains on most computers, but on heavily-customized or recently upgrade older computers, it can make a noticeable difference.

Additional Reading

• Microsoft has some good advice for XP users on its website.