I have an XP home system with 256MB RAM, 1.7 MHz cpu,60GB hard drive (only 6GB used), AT&t DSL connection. I would like to have a free sw clean-up, so I can have the problems in the 7 year old sw eliminated. The computer is getting slow! I am a 78 year old man and try to save some money by not buying any sw. Thanks for your help. Tom Kelley Tom Kelley

XP with only 256MB RAM isn't going to run blazing fast but there are cleaners that *may* help. Try CCleaner Slim for starters: http://www.ccleaner.com/download/bu... Another thing that will slow a system is too many programs loading at startup. How many processes do you have running? To check, press Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up Task Manager, then look at the lower left corner..what's the number of processes?

There is no software needed for what you want. Control panel/add-remove programs is where you would want to start. Remove programs you are not using anymore. Then go to Accessories/system tools and run Disk Cleanup by checking everything and running it. Then from the same location run the Disk Defragmenter. These are all built into the system and free.

I have to respectfully disagree with Wanderer. Just uninstalling programs will not speed up a system. Uninstalling programs will free up disk space, but they do not slow down a machine unless those programs are actually running. Run msconfig and check the 'Startup' tab. Disable any programs that you don't need running all the time. If you are unsure about anything you find in the list, check the following web sites for help in determining what they do. http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/sta... http://www.answersthatwork.com/Task... http://www.processlibrary.com/ As Jam said, 256mb is kinda low for XP. Adding memory will probably speed the system up significantly.

Hi, This is Tom Kelley, Thanks for jam, wanderer and aegis1!!!!!!!!!! 1) the number of processes are:35 - and this is only the web running. 2) I have about 54 GB free of the 60 GB hard drive,but I can try Disk Cleanup and then run the Disk Derafgmenter and see what happens. 3) Will try to run the msconfig, 'startup' tab. Will need some curage to disable any programs - which I think I don't need, but I'll give it a try. Note: There are 'cleanup' programs advertised on the web. Some with 'free download and check-up' of errors. I've tried one and shows some 200+ "cleanable" errors, but I would have to buy them to do the cleaning. That is why I thought there maybe a similar 'free' cleaup program. Many thanks again for you guys (or girls) to offer advice to me. I will also think about adding more RAM. Sincerely, Tom Kelley Tom Kelley

Use CCleaner as jam suggested. Run both the cleaner module and the registry module. For insurance save the backup file when running the registry module. I haven't experienced any issues when using it but for piece of mind save the file. I suggest saving to the desktop. Then in a couple of days if nothing is amiss you can delete the file easily. CCleaner removes the files in the index.dat file created when surfing the internet. That file can get very large. Part of that file is any cookies for site or email logins. If you don't remember the login passwords for some sites I suggest you change them now and mark them down because they will be lost.

I loved Ccleaner, but it was found to have a backdoor virus, had to delete it. There are several free programs out there. Do you have spyware, malware, virus protection, etc.? I have an older computer, and have been working on speeding mine up also. Have you cleared your Java console, emptied Windows 'prefetch cache', deleted your browsing history, temp.files, cookies, etc.? What is your virtual memory setting? There are alot of little things to do to help. Main thing is to make sure you aren't infected, using totally 'freeware' (I learned this term quickly). There are a bunch of help sites out there, also. This being one of them. If you haven't fixed your problem I can give you some of the websites. I'll check back. Good luck! Gandi