If I was a computer expert I would be worth 10 Million in 5 years

[riskyfrisky]

Originally Posted by BenCodie

I Turned off all the visual effects and that helps quite a bit, my computer screen looks like 1998 now but at least is running faster.

We still need more information really about your PC. Do you have the Windows Vista disc?

How long have you had the PC, has it ever had Windows reinstalled?

Do you know how much memory (RAM) the machine has?

The best way to speed up your PC would be with a fresh installation of Vista, if that's possible, or even using a System Restore point to revert Vista back to an earlier time, before the slowness kicked in. Have you tried System Restore?

[Booster Gold]

Vista is really a crappy operating system. It is one of the worst Windows releases I've ever seen. I'm not surprised that your computer is running slow. Try to upgrade to Windows 7 if you can. It is worth the money and the upgrade is fairly straightforward. You wouldn't have to reformat your hard drive or reinstall any programs.

[Pad]

Originally Posted by evilmonkey

Vista is really a crappy operating system. It is one of the worst Windows releases I've ever seen. I'm not surprised that your computer is running slow. Try to upgrade to Windows 7 if you can. It is worth the money and the upgrade is fairly straightforward. You wouldn't have to reformat your hard drive or reinstall any programs.

Agree with you about Vista, but not about upgrading to Win7. The costs of a legal Win7 upgrade come in as follows:

Home Premium $119
Professional $285
Ultimate $299

All of which are complete rip-offs and frankly probably won't give a significant improvement in performance. You would be much better off putting those funds towards a new machine with Win7 already installed.

OK, I know you can probably pick up a bootleg of Win7 for free, but you don't know what kind of malware may have been added to it, nor will you be able to avail yourself of security updates etc.

[MIB04]

My six year old PC running Vista was sluggish as well. I would have hated to have known what my boot time was. First thing I did was blow the dust out. Six years of accumulated dust played hell on my cooling fans. The next thing I did was upgrade the ram. In six years I never upgraded from the original 512 mb (yikes). I believe one gig (at the least) is recommended, so I went with two. After doing that, defragging, virus scans, and using a site like Black Viper's to see what startup processes I needed, the PC worked great for what I needed.

[Booster Gold]

Originally Posted by Pad

Home Premium $119
Professional $285
Ultimate $299

I didn't think it would be that expensive.
You're right. It's not worth it.

[Armanoïd]

Now if this was happening to me, while buying a new computer, I would keep the old one to make experiments on it, such as, installing Linux Mandriva:

"http://mandriva.com/en/linux/overview/"
"http://mandriva.com/en/linux/which/"

Or Ubuntu:
"http://ubuntu.com/"
"http://ubuntu.com/download"

Both look good.
It's a totaly different world, and there are new things to get familiar with, but for a second hand computer that would otherwise end up in the trash container, it's really worth it.
Even if you fail at installing, or using your Linux, it doesn't matter, it's like a game, there's still your brand new computer, you are not stuck because you failed at installing stuffs.


I would do that, but that's just me.

[alexora]

Originally Posted by Pad

Agree with you about Vista, but not about upgrading to Win7. The costs of a legal Win7 upgrade come in as follows:

Home Premium $119
Professional $285
Ultimate $299

All of which are complete rip-offs and frankly probably won't give a significant improvement in performance. You would be much better off putting those funds towards a new machine with Win7 already installed.

OK, I know you can probably pick up a bootleg of Win7 for free, but you don't know what kind of malware may have been added to it, nor will you be able to avail yourself of security updates etc.

There are other ways:

[Pad]

Originally Posted by alexora

There are other ways:

Even at £60.00 (that's $97.14 or €74.60) it's not worth it - particularly if it's an old PC - you simply won't see a really significant gain in performance. I'd still put that money towards a new machine - or better still towards a nice night out. Maybe a meal in a nice Italian restaurant.

P.S.

Thanks for not suggesting a Mac.

[Armanoïd]

"Thanks for not suggesting a Mac."

Macs are great machines dude.



I mean, you know who this guy is right ?
It says a lot.

But yeah, apple's policy SUCKS, BIG TIME, especialy toward ordinary people.
Good thing is, the firm will follow its creator soon.
Just remember what happened when they fired him couples of years ago...
Apple almost died.



"Even at £60.00 (that's $97.14 or €74.60) it's not worth it - particularly if it's an old PC - you simply won't see a really significant gain in performance."

I second that.



PS:

Bencodie, if you could take a couple of pictures of your computer and post it here (the inside for example, close range), or give it's name if it has one (laptop) we would have a much better idea of what's possible and what's not.

Or better, follow these instructions, and take a screen shot like here :

"http://winvistaclub.com/f7.html"


"You may occasionally need to know a little more about your machine…details about your hardware, software, etc. There are four ways you can get such info in Windows 7 or Vista.


1 For knowing just the basics, about your operating system and computer try the System Control Panel. You can open System Properties by simply pressing the Windows Logo+Break keys or by Right-clicking Computer and choose Properties.

2 For a little more information : Right-Click on Computer and select Manage to open computer management utility.

3 To dig a little deeper Systeminfo.exe is a great tool ! Systeminfo.exe is a command-line utility that displays information about your Windows version, BIOS, processor, memory, networkconfiguration, and so on. To open this utility, simply Run Systeminfo.exe !

4 And finally there is the System Information/MSInfo Utility. msinfo32.exe is a Geek’s Paradise ! To start this one, Run > type msinfo32 > hit Enter."


Here's how to take a screenshot:
"http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Take-a-screen-capture-print-screen"



Take a screen capture (print screen)

You can take a picture of what is on your screen by pressing PRINT SCREEN (PRTSC or PRTSCN on some keyboards). This is called a screen capture. You can then paste the screen capture into a document, e‑mail message, or other file. There are two types of screen captures you can take: the entire screen, or just the active window. For example, if you have three programs open at the same time, you might want a screen capture of only the active window.

Some keyboards or mobile PCs that don't have the PRINT SCREEN button might use other keyboard combinations, such as FN+INSERT, to take a screen capture. Check the information that came with your computer or the manufacturer's website for more information.
To copy the entire screen

Press PRINT SCREEN.

To copy only an active window

Press ALT+PRINT SCREEN.


You can paste your screen capture into Paint, which is a drawing program you can use to crop, rotate, and resize pictures.
To paste a screen capture into a Paint file

Open Paint by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, and then clicking Paint.

Click Edit, and then click Paste.

[Armanoïd]