Computer running slow?

Try these:

* Run Defragmenter.

* Clear Temporary Internet Files.

* Empty Recycle Bin.

* Full System Virus scan.

How to Run Defrag on Windows Vista, XP, 2000, ME, 98 and 95

To help keep your computer running well, it is important to run maintenance on parts of it, especially the hard drive. Defragmented files load more efficiently. Defrag should be run at least once per month, to keep things running smoothly.

* The best way to start Defrag is to click the Start Menu, double click on 'My Computer', then right click on the 'C' drive and select Properties from the list that appears.

* From the next menu select 'Tools' and then 'Defragment Now'.

* The Disk Defragmenter screen will now appear. Click on 'Analyze'. This will check your drives and will only take a few seconds. If your result shows a lot of red then click on 'Defragment' to continue. Be warned that this may take several hours so don't run it if you need your computer in a hurry. We recommend running it overnight or before you go to work or school.

* Once completed, shut down your computer and restart. You should find things run a little smoother.

How to Clear Temporary Internet Files

The Temporary Internet Files (or cache) folder contains Web page content that is stored on your hard disk for quick viewing. This cache permits Internet Explorer or MSN Explorer to download only the content that has changed since you last viewed a Web page, instead of downloading all the content for a page every time it is displayed. To delete the files in the Temporary Internet Files folder, follow these steps:

* Quit Internet Explorer and quit any instances of Windows Explorer.

* Click on the Start Menu, click 'Control Panel', and then double-click Internet 'Options'.

* On the 'General' tab, click 'Delete Files' under 'Temporary Internet Files'.

* In the 'Delete Files' dialogue box, click to select the 'Delete All Offline Content' tick box , and then click 'OK'.

* Click 'OK'.

Notes If the Temporary Internet Files folder contains a significant amount of Web page content, this process may take several minutes to complete. An administrator can customise your Temporary Internet Files settings and prevent you from changing them (for example, by removing the General tab from the interface in the Internet Options dialogue box). If you cannot access the Internet Options dialogue box or the General tab, contact your administrator for more information.

How to Empty the Recycle Bin

Before emptying your Recycle Bin, double check there is nothing in there you have accidently put in there or may not permanently want to remove. If there is, then restore it first.

* Double click 'Recycle Bin' on your desktop.

Tips for Speeding Up Windows XP

The following instructions will help increase the performance of your computer or laptop running Windows XP

File Browsing
This will stop windows explorer looking for any networked drives when opening.
1.    Double-click on My Computer
2.    Click the Tools menu
3.    Select Folder Options
4.    Click on the View tab.
5.    Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
6.    Click Apply
7.    Click OK
8.    Reboot your computer

Display Settings
Windows XP looks great but that look comes at a cost, if you can live without all the nice effects and would prefer better performance follow the instructions below.
1.    Click the Start button
2.    Select Control Panel
3.    Double-click the System icon
4.    Click the Advanced tab
5.    In the Performance box click Settings
6.    Leave only the following ticked:
7.    Show shadows under menus
8.    Show shadows under mouse pointer
9.    Show translucent selection rectangle
10.    Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
11.    Use visual styles on windows and buttons
12.    Finally, click Apply and OK

Disable Indexing
Turning off this service will stop XP from creating index lots of files on your computer, if you do not search your computer for files all that much then it is well worth turning this function off.
1.    Click Start button
2.    Select the Control Panel
3.    Double-click Add/Remove Programs
4.    Click the Add/Remove Window Components icon on the left side of the window
5.    Look for the “Indexing Services” component in the list
6.    Uncheck the Indexing Services
7.    Click Next
8.    Click Finish

Stop Windows Messenger Starting

Windows Messenger is pre built into Windows XP is an Instant Messaging  program that loads when Windows starts, if you do not use Windows Messenger then this pop up can become pretty annoying, the following tutorial will explain how to prevent it from loading when Windows starts:
•Open Windows Messenger by double-clicking its icon located in the lower-right corner of windows.
•Click the Tools drop-down menu. Select Options. A window opens.
•Click the Preferences tab.
•Under the General heading, remove the tick from the "Run Windows Messenger When Windows Starts" box.
•Next, remove the checkmark from the "Allow Windows Messenger to Run in the Background" box.
• Click the OK button. Messenger should now be disabled when Windows Starts.

NTLDR is missing error Fix

This tutorial will try and help you resolve the NTLDR is missing error when starting your computer.
You will need an original or backup XP CD to complete this fix.

Typical Error Messages.

NTLDR is Missing
Press any key to restart

Boot: Couldn't find NTLDR
Please insert another disk

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl Alt Del to Restart

Causes of this error.

There are a few reasons why this error appears but the most common is a corrupt file that XP is unable to read from the hard drive.

Before using any of the solution please ensures you have no floppy disks in your drive and there are no USB memory sticks attached to the computer as this may be causing the error.

Solution 1 - Check your hard drive for errors and repair them.

1.Insert you XP CD into your CD\DVD drive.
2.Restart your computer.
3.When prompted to "Press any key to boot from the CD" press any of the keyboard keys except "space" to start the XP CD boot.
4.If you do not see the "Press any key to boot from the CD" message you will need to set your computer to boot from the CD before the hard drive, a tutorial on this can be found on this site.
5.The computer will now boot into the blue "Windows Setup" screen, do not worry none of your files are being overwritten at this time.
6.The next screen will display "Welcome to setup" and you will be given three choices, please press "R" to "Repair a Windows XP installation".
7.The screen will now turn to black and you will be asked "Which windows installation would you like to log onto", press "1" then "Enter" to log on.
8.You may now be asked to enter the administrator password enter it here if you have one otherwise press "Enter" to continue.
9.The screen will now display "C:\WINDOWS>" please enter the following command to start checking your hard drive.  "chkdsk /p /r" then press "Enter".
10.This may take some time so now is probably a good time to put the kettle on!
11.Once finished the screen will display the results of the check, remove the XP CD from your drive then type "exit" and press "Enter" to restart the computer.

If Windows XP starts normally then the problem has been resolved however it would be a good idea to start backing up your important files as this may be an early indication of problems with your hard drive.

If you still receive the "NTLDR is Missing" is missing then please read the following solution?

Solution 2 - Copy NTLDR and files

1.Insert you XP CD into your CD\DVD drive.
2.Restart your computer.
3.When prompted to "Press any key to boot from the CD" press any of the keyboard keys except "space" to start the XP CD boot.
4.If you do not see the "Press any key to boot from the CD" message you will need to set your computer to boot from the CD before the hard drive, a tutorial on this can be found here. Set ".
5.The computer will now boot into the blue "Windows Setup" screen, do not worry none of your files are being overwritten at this time.
6.The next screen will display "Welcome to setup" and you will be given three choices, please press "R" to "Repair a Windows XP installation".
7.The screen will now turn to black and you will be asked "Which windows installation would you like to log onto", press "1" then "Enter" to log on.
8.You may now be asked to enter the administrator password enter it here if you have one otherwise press”Enter" to continue.
9.The screen will now display "C:\WINDOWS>" please enter the following command to start copying new files to your hard drive.1."copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\" then press "Enter"
2."copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\" then press "Enter"
3.Please note this presumes your CD\DVD drive is named e:\, it may be different on your computer, i.e. named d:\ or  f:\ just change the e:\ to your drive letter.

10.You have now copied new versions of the corrupt files and can remove the XP CD from your drive and type "exit" to restart your computer,

Windows XP should now start normally however in some cases the message "NTLDR is compressed.  Press CTRL - ALT - DEL to Restart" if this message appears then please read the following solution.

Solution 3 - Uncompress the NTLDR file

1.Insert you XP CD into your CD\DVD drive.
2.Restart your computer.
3.When prompted to "Press any key to boot from the CD" press any of the keyboard keys except "space" to start the XP CD boot.1.If you do not see the "Press any key to boot from the CD"  message you will need to set your computer to boot from the CD before the hard drive ,A tutorial on this can be found here, Set your computer to boot from a CD or DVD ".

4.The computer will now boot into the blue "Windows Setup" screen, do not worry none of your files are being overwritten at this time.
5.The next screen will display "Welcome to setup" and you will be given three choices, please press "R" to "Repair a Windows XP installation".
6.The screen will now turn to black and you will be asked "Which windows installation would you like to log onto", press "1" then "Enter" to log on.
7.You may now be asked to enter the administrator password enter it here if you have one otherwise press "Enter" to continue.
8.The screen will now display "C:\WINDOWS>" please enter the following commands to uncompress the NTLDR file.1."cd c:\" then press "Enter"
2."attrib -c ntldr" then press "Enter"
3."exit" then press "Enter"

Your computer will now restart and Windows XP should start normally.
Thanks for reading this tutorial and we hope this helped resolve the problem.

CD or DVD Drive Missing From Windows

This page will provide a solution to a missing CD or DVD drive in Windows XP
 Please backup your registry before attempting the following fix.
 
Symptoms of the problem
•    You cannot access the information on your disk.
•    You cannot see your CD\DVD drive from My Computer
•    Your Device Manager lists your CD\DVD as faulty

You receive any of the following errors
•    The device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device.
•    A driver for this device was not required, and has been disabled
•    Your registry might be corrupted.
 
Step 1: Start Registry Editor
Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK. Registry Editor starts.
 
Step 2: Delete the UpperFilters registry entry
1.    In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
2.    Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.
3.    Expand Control, and then expand Class.
4.    Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
5.    In the right pane (topic area), click UpperFilters.

Note An UpperFilters.bak registry entry may also appear. To delete the UpperFilters registry entry, you must click UpperFilters and not UpperFilters.bak.

6.    On the Edit menu, click Delete.
7.    When you receive the following message, click Yes to confirm the deletion of the UpperFilters registry entry:
Are you sure you want to delete this value?
The UpperFilters registry entry is removed from the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry sub key.

Note Do not exit Registry Editor. You must have this program for the next step.
 
Step 3: Delete the LowerFilters registry entry
1.    In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
2.    Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.
3.    Expand Control, and then expand Class.
4.    Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
5.    In the right pane (topic area), click LowerFilters.

Note A LowerFilters.bak registry entry may also appear. To delete the LowerFilters registry entry, you must click LowerFilters and not LowerFilters.bak.
6.    On the Edit menu, click Delete.
7.    When you receive the following message, click Yes to confirm the deletion of the LowerFilters registry entry:
Are you sure you want to delete this value?
The LowerFilters registry entry is removed from the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry sub key.
8.    Exit Registry Editor.
 
Step 4: Restart the computer
If a CD recording program no longer works after you restart the computer, you must reinstall the CD recording program

Good luck!