XP Slow Down - Annoying!

[stuppy]

Hi there!

Ok, I have used XP on and off since RC1 - I have a Final Build Copy of XP Pro which i have used a few times but the most it has been installed on my hard-drive is about a month. The Reason? well...

After getting some programs installed on there it just seems to slow down a lot. The most annoying things i think are >>

- Menu's. I use the standard windows theme (like 2k/Me/98 etc) and i find that when clicking Start > Programs, it has to read the hard-drive to get the listing and it slows the Computer down, and although you might think this to be nothing, its really annoying.
Also, like to have all my commonly used programs on the taskbar in a button thing, and that takes ages to open up (ages = a second 🙂).

secondly

- getting directory listings. Opening a folder with lots of files and stuff in it takes ages to read (again ages = 2-3 seconds) and it does my head in.

Is there anyway to stop this??

My Computer is :

AMD Duron 900mhz
256meg mem
40gig hdd
64meg geforce 2 pro
all the rest of the bundle

i have defraged my partitions, messed witht he swap file settings, disabled some of the visual things like shadows etc etc but to no avail! Even disabled the Indexing Service

Thanks in advance

Stuppy - btw, Windows 2000 and Millennium run fine without these 2 problems, just XP

 

[Kelmy]

Menu slowdown in XP

I have the same problem with the menu slowdown.

The folder slowdown may be related to the fact that XP marks the "last accessed" date when files are accessed. I don't know if viewing them in explorer counts as accessing them but it may be the culprit. There a reg hack somewhere on this site to disable it.

Perhaps the menu is the same issue. After all it's doing the same sort of thing as an explorer window.

 

[Kelmy]

Dsabling Last Access update

I found the tweak. It looks like it does apply to the explorer.

http://www.xp-erience.org/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=14#w

I've installed it and am rebooting after this post...

 

[Outback2k1]

*going to do the same*

Last Accessed is pointless IMO...all I need to know is when was the last time it was modified.