Any third party software to run XP faster?

[attyallanlatras]

My netbook has limitations on RAM only 1gig maximum. so can anyone suggest a third party software to make my OS (Windows XP Pro SP3) run faster...TIA

[Jun aka Pekto]

My netbook has limitations on RAM only 1gig maximum. so can anyone suggest a third party software to make my OS (Windows XP Pro SP3) run faster...TIA

1 gig ram should be plenty for Win XP. Heck, it's snappy with 256mb if you don't multitask too much. With such a tiny screen, you shouldn't anyway.

There's no magic app that'll speed up XP except maybe updating the video card driver. You can try installing Linux on it. But, I doubt that's an optimal fix (or maybe it is if you don't mind switching to Linux apps).

If you have two* physical hard drives (not partitions), you can try moving the page file away from the system drive (drive with the OS) into the other drive and make the page file permanent (the same size). That one's worked for me all the way back from Windows 3.1.

You can also disable/uninstall any app running in the background that you don't need.

The only other option would be to get a proper laptop if you plan to do more than just surf the web or do very light office work which was the original premise of the netbook.

I went to Best Buy earlier and tested every single one of the netbooks (ASUS, Dell, MSI, HP, Acer) there. They all seemed to be pretty snappy when surfing the web and/or using the webcam. The one with Vista (Dell?) seemed just a tad slower, but not enough to bother me.

*Every single one of my computers (except the Macs) have two hard drives installed. Internally for the desktops and externally via firewire for the laptops.

[roninblade]

yeah, 1Gb RAM should be enough for XP.

also use the windows classic style theme and try to remove all the visual effects for the user interface (menu fade in/out, rounded corners, menu shadows, etc...) they all take a bite out of your computer's resources.

[Jun aka Pekto]

I had XP Home on a P3-733 with 512mb ram and a GeForce 2MX. It was quite snappy.

Of course, that pc also had two physical hard drives and I followed the method of having the OS on one drive and the (permanent) page file on the other.

[ghosthunter]

My netbook has limitations on RAM only 1gig maximum. so can anyone suggest a third party software to make my OS (Windows XP Pro SP3) run faster...TIA

Adding more applications will not help your netbook to run faster. It is optimizing what you have that will make it run better.

First, avoid letting more than the bare minimum applications be running at the same time. This includes applications running in the background like instant messenger programs, wiggets, and even certain antivirus programs.

Regarding antivirus programs. Best to choose one which does not require too much system resource to run. You can try using AVG (free version available) if you are running something else.

You can also tone down the graphics a bit by setting the Visual Effects to "high performance" and setting a specific size (example: 2.5gb) for your virtual memory size.

You can also check the web for further tips:
http://kadaitcha.cx/performance.html
http://bloggerdigest.blogspot.com/20...ce-tuning.html
http://windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/wi...xp_tuning.html

Or Google: tuning windows xp performance