Instant speed boost step 7:
So you removed all the junk completely. Now to sort things out. That cleanup left some large gaps in the hard drive, but they are here and there – they need to be sorted out into one big lump of free space.
Also known as Defrag
Go to Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> Disk Defragmenter
Select your main drive, hit ‘Defragment’.
All done
Notice any difference? Is XP flying? Great! Glad I could help.
You should really do step 6 and 7 every day. To …

Instant speed boost step 6:
Right, now we’ve gotten rid of all the junk, we’ve optimized. Now it’s time to clean up.
Go to Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> ‘Disk Cleanup’
Make sure there’s nothing you want salvaging from your recycle bin.
The disc cleanup will now scan for files. It may take a while if your computer is really slow, or if you’ve never even used this utility. By a while, I mean up to half an hour.
Scanned? Ok, keep it on the ‘Disk Cleanup’ tab, select …

Instant speed boost step 5:
Don’t close that box from step 4 yet. Time to get rid of that ‘cool’ screensaver. If your computer is really slow, it seems to grind to a halt when a screensaver tries to load.
Select none, or blank. Don’t worry, it’s far better to rely on power settings than a screensaver anyway. You could turn the screensaver off, and simply adjust the power settings to turn off the monitor after however many minutes being idle.

Instant speed boost step 4:
Remove the background on the desktop. Sure, it may be your favorite background, but it’s eating up precious resources.
Just right click on the background with all other windows closed.
Then click ‘Properties’, then when the box is opened, click the ‘Desktop’ tab.
In the background box, select ‘none’ which is at the top, then click apply.

Instant speed boost step 3:
Click on Start, then ‘Run’ and in the run line type in: msconfig
and click on OK.
Now click the startup tab. Scroll through the programs. Any there that you don’t think need to be booted at startup?
If so, uncheck the box and then click ‘apply’
Warning! Don’t uncheck any program you don’t know. Google the name of it first to see if it is or isn’t part of the system.
There are some oddly named ones in there that need to stay activated, like SkyTel.exe, or ‘bonjour’ if …