Fixing Startup Problems With Windows XP

The text details several ways to fix problems with a sluggish Windows XP startup or slow application running. I describe several of these in the following:

-Sometimes if an application is running sluggishly, it is possible to increase the applications priority via the task manager. However, this should only be done with very important applications as giving an application a higher priority than certain background processes can interfere with the operation of the OS.

-Under the Processes tab of the Task Manager, every process is listed along with the amount of CPU usage each process is using. If it seems like a process is utilizing too much of the CPU total usage, you can Google the process to see what it relates to, such as if it relates to an antiviral program or is adware. From here, the priority of the process can be lowered or deleted, or the application creating the process can be configured to not lock up the CPU.

-Processes can be temporarily disabled from loading at startup via the System Configuration Utility (MSConfig), which can be reached by typing msconfig.exe in the Run dialog box. From here you can choose which programs you want to run when the OS starts up. Having too many programs running at startup can greatly slow down the system.

-A service can be completely disable through the Services Console (services.msc). From here you can research a service that is running to find out what exactly it is doing and if it is something you want, or is necessary, to be running.

-There might be software on the CPU that needs to be un-installed. Maybe there are old applications that you used to use that you no longer use that need to be cleaned up. There are several ways to un-install software, but one of the easiest is to access the Add or Remove Programs window through the Control Panel.

-Although it's risky and the average user shouldn't mess with it, items in the Registry can be deleted if software is no longer installed but still showing up as installed software in the Add or Remove Programs window.

-In the Task Manager window, under the Performance tab, you can check to see if the RAM being committed is more than the RAM available on your system. If this is the case, then you need an upgrade.