I have an old laptop (Sony VAIO 600Mhz, 256 RAM) that I installed WinXP on. Apparently this OS is WAY bloated and it's really taxing the laptop's capability. Originally this computer came with Win ME but I found this OS to be very unstable and that's why I installed XP. I really don't want to go back to ME, is there an alternative to XP but more stable than ME? Thanks.
Which OS?
- Thread starter sudo4re
- Start date
Have U tried tweakin XP, there are many services U can turn off & also turn off visual styles & fancy effects like shadows on mouse cursor & menu's.
U can also look here for info on what services U need & dont need & can disable them to speed things up Black Viper
Also turning of system restore can free up resources as it wont be running backing up files as U change or install other stuff.
Also run a good defrag program on Ur drive, that can help speed up disk access.
Failing that U could always try Windows2000 on it, that is less resource hungry than XP, but in my opinion doesnt have the same configurability as XP (harder to change certian things)
I have XP SP2 runnin on a old AMD 700 cpu, default install options slow things down, after i have tweaked things, it much faster, the XP interface can really drain a old PC
Ur 256 mem will slow things down a bit, at least 512 is recommended for XP (preferablly more)
Hope it Helps
BaNzI
U can also look here for info on what services U need & dont need & can disable them to speed things up Black Viper
Also turning of system restore can free up resources as it wont be running backing up files as U change or install other stuff.
Also run a good defrag program on Ur drive, that can help speed up disk access.
Failing that U could always try Windows2000 on it, that is less resource hungry than XP, but in my opinion doesnt have the same configurability as XP (harder to change certian things)
I have XP SP2 runnin on a old AMD 700 cpu, default install options slow things down, after i have tweaked things, it much faster, the XP interface can really drain a old PC
Ur 256 mem will slow things down a bit, at least 512 is recommended for XP (preferablly more)
Hope it Helps
BaNzI
Windows 2000 is the way to go for such a processor. Only last week I went from XP to 2000 on my 667Mhz desktop. Smaller size and better performance (speedwise).The computer now is more responsive and and even seems to be humming more happily.sudo4re said:
And Windows 2000 is just (or almost, I don't know) as stable as XP.
Banzibaby is right, you can tweak XP to make it faster. That's quite effective, but you'll end up with XP looking like 2000 and still being slower.
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Another vote for Windows 2000 Service pack 4.
A good friend who'se been using XP for a year and half was trying to install XP SP2 on a friend's old laptop last night. He called me because the installation had fatally hung, and he wanted to know if there were any options for recovery beyond doing a full reinstall. I couldn't think of any in his case (there didn't seem to be anything to work with in recovery console), and it made me cheer inwardly at the comprehensibility and stability of Win 2k.
A good friend who'se been using XP for a year and half was trying to install XP SP2 on a friend's old laptop last night. He called me because the installation had fatally hung, and he wanted to know if there were any options for recovery beyond doing a full reinstall. I couldn't think of any in his case (there didn't seem to be anything to work with in recovery console), and it made me cheer inwardly at the comprehensibility and stability of Win 2k.
PC-GUY
1
You may want to try a great free program callled XP-AntiSpy. The first program I run after install XP and any MS office.