# What happened to my formerly blinding computer speed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-formerly-blinding-computer-speed/198964 "2003-09-01T14:25:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-formerly-blinding-computer-speed/198964/21 "2003-09-03T19:13:23Z")
> [@](#): > > But your best choice is to back up all your important files and reformat and reinstall Windows from scratch. Its good to do this every 6 months or so to keep things running smooth. Did Compaq provide you with a Windows XP install disk or one of their proprietary “Restore Disk” crap? This is really shitty advice. Do not let some dingbat on a message board convince you to reformat your hard drive. Run ad aware or spy bot. Go to add remove programs and get rid of stuff you do not use. Windows might have problems but windows 2000 and windows XP do not need to be reinstalled every so often because they fill up with cruft. ---
**Author:** ![squid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@squid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squid)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-formerly-blinding-computer-speed/198964/22 "2003-09-03T19:21:09Z")
\*\*This is really shitty advice. Do not let some dingbat on a message board convince you to reformat your hard drive. Run ad aware or spy bot. Go to add remove programs and get rid of stuff you do not use. Windows might have problems but windows 2000 and windows XP do not need to be reinstalled every so often because they fill up with cruft. \*\* [/QUOTE] OUCH !!! ---
**Author:** ![squid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@squid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squid)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-formerly-blinding-computer-speed/198964/23 "2003-09-03T19:23:14Z")
“I’m sorry I ever invented the Electoral College.” — Al Gore ---
**Author:** ![sanja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@sanja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sanja)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-formerly-blinding-computer-speed/198964/24 "2003-09-03T19:43:57Z")
my money is on a bloated user profile. \*\* outlook express puts all of its database files inside the “documents and settings” folder (win2000 – does it have a different name in XP? i forget – i’m at work and have 2000 here, XP at home). if you don’t do file\>folders\>compress all folders the database file just grow and grow … \*\* “my document, my music, my movies” … etc. all of “my” crap is saved under this same “documents and settings” folder. audio, movies, big files \*\* storing lots of stuff on the desktop – bad all of the above data (if it is allowed to live in its default location) is part of the user profile, which means it all essentially gets loaded into RAM right when you log on. not good. outlook allows you to relocate the database files easily. it’s also easy to get all that crap off your desktop. create a new folder under C:, put all that stuff in it and put a shortcut to the folder on your desktop. getting stuff out of the “my documents” etc area is a bit trickier – and it makes all the built in OS navigation obsolete, but the performance payoff is worth it. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-formerly-blinding-computer-speed/198964/25 "2003-09-08T13:02:44Z")
Oh, I’m so sorry to have been so absent. No excuse-I’ve had my nose in books lately at home and I’ve been doing my net crawling at work. The one thing that did seem to help was taking all the crap off the desktop. That did speed things up a bit. I’m hesitant to try to reinstall any programs. The software is all internal in a recovery something-or-other inside, so I didn’t get any CDs with it. But I am very pleased with the improvement from cleaning up the desktop (most of which was there when I got the machine-I was amazed at all the icons that were there when I first booted it up), and I will try more of these. I may try to download Ad-aware and Spybot tonight. By the way, I do have a 56k modem, and yes, it was primarily the SDMB that was slow. Thank you, everybody, for all your great suggestions. I’m definately going to bookmark this thread and try these suggestion as time permits. By the way, do bookmarks have any effect on speed? And will these suggestions also help on my sluggish Windows 98 laptop too? I promise to pay better attention from now on. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-formerly-blinding-computer-speed/198964/26 "2003-09-08T13:06:02Z")
By the way, I’m too much of a computer tard to figure out how to hook up Outlook, which is stupid on my part, since it means I can’t even use the email that comes with my ISP. Is it any easier on Windows XP? I’ve been too much of a coward to even try it on the new computer, since I was such a miserable failure on my laptop. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-my-formerly-blinding-computer-speed/198964.md?page=1)