ash118

hello, ive got a laptop which runs Vista (32-bit), with a Intel(R) CPU T2060 @ 1.60GGHz. The actual Operating system is ok, however it can tend to be quite slow at times, more often than usual. It takes a little longer to open up applications and close them. Also my computer freezes alot, and it sometimes doeasnt respond, so i have to open task manager to end the tasks.

I have 1015 RAM at the moment? How much is this? Is it a good amount, or is that bad? Is it under a GB? Ive got a good feeling that it isnt so good, as the quality shows it.

Please could you reply with some possible solutions to these problems?
Thank-you for your time and effort.

Thank-you

Mordax

1015 is about a gig of ram, provided that figure is in megabytes (MB)

To speed up Vista, change your theme from Aero to Classic

Disclamer: All of the following is an opinion, some of the other helpers here may disagree entirely with what you're about to read(

Aero is a huge waste of system resources, because of all of its classy transparency affects and other crap

In classic, your computer won't look as good, but it'll run a lot better

...actually I take that back, I think Aero looks hideous as well as being a pointless waste in every way it possibly can be

I'm sorry I got sidetracked

Anyways, if you have Norton Antivrus/Internet security, remove that as well because it doesn't do anything except eat system resources, use AVG8 instead because its free, works, and doesn't slow your computer down by any noticable amount

)

Check your startup list for programmes that don't need to be running at start up, this includes Microsoft Office because MS are arrogant enough to think you want to use their software every time you turn your computer on, don't worry you're not removing or deactivating Office it'll just take slightly longer to start up but give you slghtly more RAM when you aren't using it

This also includes anything with the word "Adobe" in it, because if they make anything that anyone actually needs running the whole time I'll be very surprised

I recommend Spybot S&D (google it) to help you choose which startup options you need to turn off (it can turn them off for you as well), while you're using it you should give your computer a spyware scan, it can find a lot of things that can slow your computer down a great deal

Disclamer - more opinions that I'm sure some people can validly disagree with(

Vista is a resource hog, if you can I highly recommend going back to XP, as any XP install will always be faster than any Vista install on the same system

Especially with your amount of RAM, you can't afford to be running Vista's needless bloat

)

gistek

just one caveat on the AVG. With AVG you may (will probably) notice a slow down during the first few minutes after booting while AVG updates. To me this is a very minor issue, and AVG's protection is well worth the delay.

Mordax is quite right, Vista is a resource hog, but that's been true of all windows OS's. Right now there are very few things Vista can do that XP can't, and if you can run XP, you're probably better off, but if you can't (due to having newer hardware that doesn't have XP drivers) then take a good long look at what's running and disable everything you don't need.

A few other small resource savers:

Whenever possible, disable tray icons.

Reduce the number of desktop icons to the fewest possible. You can place some that you want handy, but not constantly, in a folder. Those you don't need at all - like shortcuts for applications you almost never open, can be deleted. The programs they point to are still available from the "All Programs" list.

Make sure you don't have any applications or files on the desktop. If you do, move them to appropriate folders. The only things that should be on your desktop are the shortcuts to the few applications or files you need to have immediately available.

Change your background to a plain single color rather than an image. If you feel you must have a screen saver, choose one that is simple.