My POS computer currently uses Windows XP and IE 9. How far behind am I, and will updating improve my computer. (While composing this post, my tech guy called, claiming the problem is my router, is he right?)
Your question is a little difficult to provide an exact answer to. Computer performance is either a question of hardware processing capacity, or the processing rate of specific software. I think you may be asking if a newer operating system will make your computer generally perform better, and if that’s it, then the answer is probably not. If you want increased performance across the board get new hardware. Other browsers will perform somewhat better than IE9, but for many pages you might view it won’t be a night and day difference.
I have no idea if your tech guy is right about the router, but if you are mainly browsing then the router could be a problem.
BTW, it’s a cable issue, not router.
Your system should be perfectly capable of running Firefox and if so, I’d recommend AdBlock Plus. You’ll be surprised how much performance your computer discovers when it isn’t constantly loading animated advertisements. IE 10 (which only runs on Win 7/8) claims to be faster but I haven’t tested this because I don’t know of any good free ad-blockers for it. I know I find IE performs better when I shut all the “helpful” add-ons off, like “accelerators” and protected mode.
FWIW, I recently did a hardware upgrade and I think I got the most computer for the least money I’ve ever spent. Assuming your power supply is decent, you can upgrade to an I5 processor (or AMD equivalent which would be even less expensive), new motherboard and 8GB of RAM for $300-450. RAM is really cheap right now.
Win 7 has similar hardware requirements to XP and you may find that it performs the same or slightly better due to optimizations. Win 8 has an even lower hardware spec (because Windows Aero glass effects have been removed) but has been known to fellate goats with alacrity.
I still use XP on my home computer and it’s quite fast. I don’t think XP in and of itself is a performance bottleneck, but some newer programs may not run on it.
E.g. I mostly play Steam games using XP but the game Just Cause 2 didn’t support XP, so I used Windows 7 instead (same machine, dual boot OS).
It depends very much on the requirements of the software you are interested in. I know someone who had a very old laptop which was loaded with newish software - it spent all its time swapping itself to death. I had a Vista loaner which didn’t quite have enough memory to run Vista - it was quite awful.
How much memory do you have?
If you don’t have to upgrade, it might be better not to. Newer software is almost always slower due to having more features and taking more memory.
The biggest single issue with slowness on old computers is insufficient memory. If you’re interested in squeezing an extra few years out of old hardware, look into making sure your system has the max amount of RAM. This is way more significant than CPU speed and number of processors, because if your system is running out of memory, it spends a lot of time “thrashing” (swapping data and code to disk cache and back).
When buying a new system, especially a laptop, it has generally been cheaper to buy the system with the least amount of memory, and replacing the memory with memory bought online. It’s been a few years since I looked, so things may be different now. In any case, if ordering memory, get your friendly neighborhood nerd to help, because it can be confusing and misleading.
Usually the problem would be outdated hardware. XP came out in 2002, so in dog years, (Gates years?) it’s ancient. If you don’t upgrade, Bill Gates won’t be able to buy his kids that second Lamborgini each for college. (Oh, wait… he will).
If your computer is so old it came with XP, maybe it needs updating. The original XP was running on slow pentiums, and 128MB RAM was generous. Since then there’s SP3 and lots of extras, and all the software (newer software) that asumes your computer is pretty much up to date.
Cheapest upgrade is to max out the RAM. We have people using XP and 512MB RAM, and the PC crawls when the modern antivirus was loaded. If you can, max out your RAM - up to 4GB (unless you have 64-bit XP, that’s all it can handle). Some PC’s won’t handle more than 2GB. RAM is cheap cheap cheap…
Then you need to check the swap file… (right click my computer - properties - advanced - performance… ) If your swap file was set when you bought the PC, but you added RAM - it should be 1 to 1.5 times RAM. Too small and your PC could slow or crash when busy.
DO you have a decent amount of disk free space? That helps
Do a defrag on the drive if it hasn’t had one in a while, especially if it got close to full.
Ask an IT expert to lok at the services running or programs installed and remove the ones you don’t need. Way back, computers came with a lot of crapware because the software guys (McAfee, Norton, etc.) paid the manufacturers. (Oh, wait, they still do). No need to load crap programs.
In some circumstances it can, and may be just as effective as newer software, but in some circumstances it can adversely affect overall performance too.
I think your tech guy is more likely to be right about your problem than anyone here, because at least HE MIGHT HAVE SOME IDEA ABOUT WHAT THE FUCKING PROBLEM ACTUALLY IS!
XP is a 32 bit OS. It cannot see anything over 3 GB, to address more, OP would have to upgrade to a newer, 64 bit OS.
I am running XP with 4GB installed, and it seems I can’t open as many browser tabs as I used to. Web pages are more and more bloated with stuff, and it just isn’t enough any more.
Actually, XP was the first version of Windows that came in a 64-bit flavor.
To answer the OP question, outdated software is much more unlikely to be slowing your computer down than outdated hardware trying to run modern software. Sure, you can get an i5 and pay a few hundred dollars, but I recently built a computer to run FreeNAS for $130, and that included the case and the RAM. It could easily run Windows 7 like a boss, and barely flinches at serving up HD video at gigabit speeds.
Missed the edit window.
I’ll also second, third, etc the suggestion to max out your RAM, that will make a world of difference.
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Windows XP 64-bit edition is very rare to actually see in the wild and there weren’t many drivers written for it, so not many manufacturers used it. It’s unlikely you have it.
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Maxing out your RAM can help a little, but is not necessarily the only issue.
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Check to see if you have crap running in the background: toolbars, auto-updaters, various utilities, etc. These can slow down your computer quite a bit. If you don’t know how to do that, ask a geek friend to check for you.
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Ditch IE and download Google Chrome. Then get Adblock Plus for it (because many ads these days are Flash ads that slow down your browsing).
Maxing RAM helps more than just a little, depending on where you’re at and how high you can go. If you’re running 512M or 1G and your computer can go to 2G, it’s cheap and worth a try. However, killing any unnecessary background tasks is definitely a good idea. And yes, Adblock (or just dont install Flash, but then you can’t youtube).
But EatTheSun is right that if you keep your case and power supply but upgrade your mobo and hard drive (and getting at least 4G memory, leaving half the slots empty for a later upgrade to 8G), along with a new version of Windows (far less expensive when you get new hardware like a MOBO), you’ll be better off for quite a bit longer than merely a memory upgrade.
Earlier I wouldn’t have recommended upgrading hard drive too, if your hard drive is big enough (and it might be, even from 2002). However, your hard drive is probably not SATA, and a new mobo should have SATA. I don’t know if MOBOs with both SATA and IDE are common or practical.
Again, get a friendly neighborhood nerd to help. Not all nerds can select a MOBO (I’m not one of them, for example) but most should know someone who can. They’ll know how much power your power supply has and will pick a MOBO that won’t exceed it (or will recommend a PS upgrade, if that’s really the best way.) They’ll also know whether your hard drive is SATA already (might be, who knows). Etc, etc.
That’s major surgery. Simpler to buy a whole new computer, leave that one in place for what you NEED (point of sales only?)
I recommend RAM if you have 1GB or less, it can make a decent difference. RAM is the cheapest, least complex upgrade you can do. A new mobo (motherboard) new hard disk, in case replacement - all require major surgery and software changes (i.e. new mobo, new drivers). RAM should just snap in and go. Didn’t work, can’t boot? Take it out.
The problem is exactly illustrated by IE - we’ve had 5 versions and updates since XP came out; every windows update adds to the code its running. There are add-ons galore, many people have 2 or 4 of those stupid add-on toolbars running. If it’s starved for RAM or has a slow processor, no surprise if it cannot open as many tabs or runs slower…
Not using Internet Explorer will improve performance. Beyond that, we can’t help you unless you tell us what your problem is. Your router and ethernet cable have no effect on your “computer performance”, just on interactions with the Internet (web browsing, downloads and so on).
also an issue can be video processing. on-board video is slow. older video cards may not have much video memory.
Perhaps a better reason to upgrade the hard drive, if it really is 11 years old, even if you don’t upgrade the mobo, is because such an old drive is likely to fail at any time, especially if it is in a regularly used computer (this is exactly what happened to me with my last computer, which was 8 years old, but otherwise still perfectly capable for my needs, when the drive failed).
Unlikely to result in system-wide slowdown. Dedicated graphics/the GPU are rarely used except in games, 3D modeling, and certain GPU-accelerated programs that the average home user is unlikely to run. And Windows XP doesn’t use Aero 3D effects, so Windows itself wouldn’t be using the graphics card either.
It’s a big deal (on older machines) for web video and even some online games, though. And those are the places on the web where you will most likely feel the bottleneck.
As for the OP’s question: in general, the answer is no. Old software will not slow down your entire system. It is possible that the old software will run slowly when it is actually running, but, in most cases, older software is faster. A major exception is when that old software is dealing with new content; e.g. a web browser.
To address your more specific concerns: Windows XP is faster than any newer Windows operating system. It is not slowing you down. Internet Explorer 8 (as it’s impossible for you to have 9. which only runs on Vista or above) is however rather slow, and you’d probably do well to not use it. But it’s not slow because it’s old–it was slow when it was released. It should not be slowing anything down but web browsing.
I agree with everyone else that it is unlikely the software you mention is causing problems. If any software is causing you problems, it’s likely malware. It is rare for a router to fail in any other way than to just stop working altogether.
You need to list your specific problems for me to give you more specific advice or information. What exact problems are you having? What are your “symptoms”?