Laptop Slowing Down

[Derek]

Other than the fact that this is a Toshitba bought in 2004. Seems like there are many processes that need to be loaded up at the start, some of which I have no idea what they are. An ailing hard drive and 512MB of RAM doesn't help matters. Since I'm piss broke at the moment, is there any program that can help to speed it up?

[h]

...stop using windows?

...if you have no idea what the processes are, then i think you should look them up.
a lot of people have services they never use turned on.

if it has been noticeably slow recently (and you're not doing anything different), you may want to check some logs.

[vicvic]

what you can do now is scan for virus/spywares/trojans

after which you can do a defrag, during that time you can search up on windows services and learn how to disable those that's not useful to you

[lips]

full format!
defrag
msconfig, disable all programs that you dont use, including anti virus, this or that checking program like sound stuff, graphic card stuff etc.

clear ur desktop.

too many things = load slower.

[galapogos]

If you have not done a full OS reinstallation since you've bought it, it's time...

No amount of spyware/registry cleaning/defragging/etc will get it back to speed as much as an OS reinstallation will.

Of course, back up all your data before you do that.

[nakorius]

remove all the porn.

clean your registry.

remove all spyware etc.

[vicvic]

backup all the porn.

clean your registry.

remove all spyware etc.

corrected for you

[Derek]

If you have not done a full OS reinstallation since you've bought it, it's time...

No amount of spyware/registry cleaning/defragging/etc will get it back to speed as much as an OS reinstallation will.

Of course, back up all your data before you do that.

The last one was done in 07' I believe, after the customer service had the technical support install a new hard drive. Just need to find the damned reinstallation DVD now...

[galapogos]

If you have not done a full OS reinstallation since you've bought it, it's time...

No amount of spyware/registry cleaning/defragging/etc will get it back to speed as much as an OS reinstallation will.

Of course, back up all your data before you do that.

The last one was done in 07' I believe, after the customer service had the technical support install a new hard drive. Just need to find the damned reinstallation DVD now...

If it's just the OS DVD then that's fine. However if it'll install all the services that makes your laptop "factory new" again, then the same problem will come back pretty soon.

All you really need to start out are:
1. OS
2. Antivirus
3. Firewall

[lips]

aha, i dont have AV for all my windows before 1.