help with an old pc

[cjloki]

As I say, I really do believe Windows incorporates "planned obsolescence".

windows and general motors^

[Andrewr05]

Here are the things I would do:

(some are already stated)

 

• Install at least 1GB of memory (the more the merrier up to a certain point).
  
• Do not use all of the fancy fading and screen effects, you can leave windows theming on but do not keep the effects on.
  
• Update all the drivers.
  
• Update the motherboard bios (not necessary but some bios revisions have the potential to speed things up a bit).
  
• Shut down any unnecessary services, here is a guide.
  
• Make sure nothing is running in the background (msconfig).
  
• Run TweakUI and make sure nothing is turned on that could be a resource hog.
  
• If they are running a known resource hog of an antivirus (MCafee or Norton) offer them an alternative as removing either of those god awful programs can speed up a computer immensely.
  
• Now that were talking about antivirus its a good idea to scan the PC (with a bunch of different programs to be thorough) to make sure it hasn't been hijacked or that it isn't being bogged down from a virus/worm/etc.
  

[usaweapon777]

Thanks for all the help will do. He does have norton on though, so should i try to get him to use avg or?

[Phil]

Thanks for all the help will do. He does have norton on though, so should i try to get him to use avg or?

Anything else. Norton is probably a big part of the speed issue.

[jgv115]

Yea, Norton is a piece of cow dung. It detects itself as a virus.