Vista has slowed down, how to speed up?

Dear All,

I have a trusty laptop running Vista Ultimate with 2 Gb RAM.
When I first got it it ran programmes like Mozilla Firefox and the Office
Suite rapidly, opening the apps quickly when required.
Over time programmes began to slow down upon opening. I also tried the new
Windows 7 which was OK but had a few drawbacks.
So I bit the bullet and re-set my machine back to how it was when it was
new.
Reloaded my apps and data files, speed returned.
Now it's slowing up again after only 4 months.

Question: do these proprietary programs like Norton etc actually clean up
the computer and restore its trusty speed in opening apps?
If so, which one have you found to be the best in practice?

Please advise

Regards

Alex McF

"Alex McFarlane" <> wrote in message
news:CCC00683-B59D-425E-9199-...
> Dear All,
>
> I have a trusty laptop running Vista Ultimate with 2 Gb RAM.
> When I first got it it ran programmes like Mozilla Firefox and the Office
> Suite rapidly, opening the apps quickly when required.
> Over time programmes began to slow down upon opening. I also tried the new
> Windows 7 which was OK but had a few drawbacks.
> So I bit the bullet and re-set my machine back to how it was when it was
> new.
> Reloaded my apps and data files, speed returned.
> Now it's slowing up again after only 4 months.
>
> Question: do these proprietary programs like Norton etc actually clean up
> the computer and restore its trusty speed in opening apps?
> If so, which one have you found to be the best in practice?

First of all, get rid of 'Norton' and replace it with something more
suitable, that may even solve your problem.

Harry.

>
> Please advise
>
> Regards
>
> Alex McF

It was my sad experience to find that when running Vista, my memory was not
returned (as it should be) when I closed a lot of programs. Worst offender
was IE. I have now gone to 7 and no longer have that problem. Try opening
your Task Manager and watch what gets returned to your system. The more you
use, the slower your system gets.

I agree with Harry. Definitely dump Norton. I wouldn't even take their
free suite with my pc. There are a number of tweaks that you can make, but
there are sites devoted to it. Everything on my laptop runs faster and
better than it did on Vista, starting with how many processes it runs by
default.

I hope this helps.

Bill
Knowledge is the only resource in the world that multiplies when shared.

"webster72n" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
>
> "Alex McFarlane" <> wrote in message
> news:CCC00683-B59D-425E-9199-...
>> Dear All,
>>
>> I have a trusty laptop running Vista Ultimate with 2 Gb RAM.
>> When I first got it it ran programmes like Mozilla Firefox and the Office
>> Suite rapidly, opening the apps quickly when required.
>> Over time programmes began to slow down upon opening. I also tried the
>> new Windows 7 which was OK but had a few drawbacks.
>> So I bit the bullet and re-set my machine back to how it was when it was
>> new.
>> Reloaded my apps and data files, speed returned.
>> Now it's slowing up again after only 4 months.
>>
>> Question: do these proprietary programs like Norton etc actually clean up
>> the computer and restore its trusty speed in opening apps?
>> If so, which one have you found to be the best in practice?
>
> First of all, get rid of 'Norton' and replace it with something more
> suitable, that may even solve your problem.
>
> Harry.
>
>>
>> Please advise
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Alex McF
>

I have had Vista running on 3 computers since the beginning of Vista an
all run as fast if not faster than when brand new. I only use
programs to keep it running clean. They are

1. Microsoft Security Essentials (free
2. Malwarebytes (free

Try them both but only after uninstalling Norton completely. You wil
be plesantly surprised

Alex McFarlane;1238049 Wrote:
> Dear All
>
> I have a trusty laptop running Vista Ultimate with 2 Gb RAM
> When I first got it it ran programmes like Mozilla Firefox and th
> Offic
> Suite rapidly, opening the apps quickly when required
> Over time programmes began to slow down upon opening. I also tried th
> ne
> Windows 7 which was OK but had a few drawbacks
> So I bit the bullet and re-set my machine back to how it was when i
> wa
> new
> Reloaded my apps and data files, speed returned
> Now it's slowing up again after only 4 months
>
> Question: do these proprietary programs like Norton etc actually clea
> u
> the computer and restore its trusty speed in opening apps
> If so, which one have you found to be the best in practice
>
> Please advis
>
> Regard
>
> Alex Mc

--
rhlhamlet

On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 18:28:51 -0000, "Alex McFarlane"
<> wrote:

>Dear All,
>
>I have a trusty laptop running Vista Ultimate with 2 Gb RAM.
>When I first got it it ran programmes like Mozilla Firefox and the Office
>Suite rapidly, opening the apps quickly when required.
>Over time programmes began to slow down upon opening. I also tried the new
>Windows 7 which was OK but had a few drawbacks.
>So I bit the bullet and re-set my machine back to how it was when it was
>new.
>Reloaded my apps and data files, speed returned.
>Now it's slowing up again after only 4 months.
>
>Question: do these proprietary programs like Norton etc actually clean up
>the computer and restore its trusty speed in opening apps?
>If so, which one have you found to be the best in practice?
>
>Please advise
>
>Regards
>
>Alex McF

Are you regularly cleaning out your temp files: cache, cookies,
windows log files, etc. I use CCleaner and clean everything out daily.
Another thing that will really slow you down for sure is if you don't
defrag on a regular basis. You can set up your system to defrag itself
using MS tools or there are many third party tools that you can use
also that are a bit faster. I like defragler.

Gregg

Dear All,

Thanks for all this, keep the replies coming.
Please note: I have never had Norton installed since the rebuild.

Regards

Alex McF



"totfit" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 18:28:51 -0000, "Alex McFarlane"
> <> wrote:
>
>>Dear All,
>>
>>I have a trusty laptop running Vista Ultimate with 2 Gb RAM.
>>When I first got it it ran programmes like Mozilla Firefox and the Office
>>Suite rapidly, opening the apps quickly when required.
>>Over time programmes began to slow down upon opening. I also tried the new
>>Windows 7 which was OK but had a few drawbacks.
>>So I bit the bullet and re-set my machine back to how it was when it was
>>new.
>>Reloaded my apps and data files, speed returned.
>>Now it's slowing up again after only 4 months.
>>
>>Question: do these proprietary programs like Norton etc actually clean up
>>the computer and restore its trusty speed in opening apps?
>>If so, which one have you found to be the best in practice?
>>
>>Please advise
>>
>>Regards
>>
>>Alex McF
>
> Are you regularly cleaning out your temp files: cache, cookies,
> windows log files, etc. I use CCleaner and clean everything out daily.
> Another thing that will really slow you down for sure is if you don't
> defrag on a regular basis. You can set up your system to defrag itself
> using MS tools or there are many third party tools that you can use
> also that are a bit faster. I like defragler.
>
> Gregg
>

On Sat, 6 Mar 2010 18:28:51 -0000, "Alex McFarlane"
<> wrote:

>Dear All,
>
>I have a trusty laptop running Vista Ultimate with 2 Gb RAM.
>When I first got it it ran programmes like Mozilla Firefox and the Office
>Suite rapidly, opening the apps quickly when required.
>Over time programmes began to slow down upon opening. I also tried the new
>Windows 7 which was OK but had a few drawbacks.
>So I bit the bullet and re-set my machine back to how it was when it was
>new.
>Reloaded my apps and data files, speed returned.
>Now it's slowing up again after only 4 months.
>
>Question: do these proprietary programs like Norton etc actually clean up
>the computer and restore its trusty speed in opening apps?
>If so, which one have you found to be the best in practice?
>


Have you checked to see what programs and services are loaded to
automatically start up? You need to look past the startup menu option
to the reg keys that start programs/modules as well as in services.msc
to disable junk you don't need. There are programs that will help with
the startup keys or you can use msconfig to do most of it.

Alex. If you follow this advice you'll be posting back here with a ton of
new problems. Registry *cleaners* do waaaaaaayyyyyy more damage than good.
As has been posted here tons of times, registry cleaners are nothing but
snake oil. Now, having said that, you can download and run a program called
CCleaner, as someone else mentioned. Google it. Do not run its registry
fixer. Just run the cleaner. It will find and remove all temp files,
cookies and any other garbage it finds. Then open a command prompt as
administrator and run "sfc/scannow." After that's completed open the log
and see if it found anything major it couldn't repair. If there were no
errors then search for and run Defraggler, as someone suggested and defrag
your drive.

--


"Don't pick a fight with an old man.
If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you."


"Steven L." <> wrote in message
news:yvadnYOPg-...
> "Alex McFarlane" <> wrote in message
> news:BD83C0A8-6DDE-4B18-B591-:
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> Thanks for all this, keep the replies coming.
>> Please note: I have never had Norton installed since the rebuild.
>
> Another cause: The System Registry may have become fragmented, and/or may
> contain bad entries which are impeding performance.
>
> To tune up the Registry, I've been using "WinASO Registry Optimizer" and
> I'm satisfied with it.
>
> Finally, notice that the apps themselves may be slowing down. The new
> versions of apps are generally bigger than the old versions, requiring
> more virtual memory to run. Or you could have installed various add-ons
> which make the apps bigger.
>
> So go into Windows Task Manager\Performance to see how much memory you're
> using total. If you're using more virtual memory than physical memory,
> then applications are being swapped back and forth to disk, slowing
> performance considerably. The only solution to this is to add more
> physical memory.
>
>
>
> -- Steven L.
>
>