Cleaning Out Windows XP
There’s no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.
Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.
In last week’s Mailbox, you said that Windows XP machines can slow down over time unless you do "a lot of techie maintenance." What did you mean? I regularly defragment the hard disk, tweak the registry, and clean out temporary files, but my PC is still slow.
All of these things are helpful, though I don’t recommend that nontechie users "tweak" the Windows registry, which contains vital program information that can mistakenly be removed or altered if you don’t know what you’re doing. Another speed-enhancing tactic is to use a program like Startup Cop Pro (snipurl.com/b4v91) to prevent unneeded programs from running at startup, and one like PC Decrapifier (pcdecrapifier.com) to clean out craplets - unwanted pre-installed programs.
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