Win XP Media Center slow after SP3 install

Hi John.

Since your computer is pretty slow, follow these steps to make the computer run faster:

1. Click Start< Control Panel< Add/Remove Programs and uninstall any programs that you don't use.
2. While in the add/remove programs window click the button that says add/remove windows components and uncheck the checkboxes next to Indexing Service, MSN Explorer, and Windows Messenger. Then click the Next button. When the wizard finishes click the finish button to close the window.
3. Disable any Windows Services that you don't use by following Black Vipers Services Guide.
4. Download and run ATF Cleaner and select all the checkboxes in the program then hit the empty selected button, http://majorgeeks.com/ATF_Cleaner_d4949.html.
5. Run Disk Cleanup, Start< All Programs< Accessories< Sytstem Tools< Disk Cleanup. When its done calculating how much free space you can save make sure you check all the checkboxes except for compress old files on the Disk Cleanup tab. Now click the More Options tab and under System Restore click the cleanup button. When it asks you if you want to delete all but the most recent restore point click Yes. Now click ok on the Disk Cleanup window to allow Disk Cleanup to remove unnecessary files from the computer.
6. Download and run Auslogics Disk Defrag from here.
7. Download and run Quicksys RegDefrag from here.
8. Click Start< Right Click My Computer and click Properties. Click the advanced tab< Under performance hit settings< click advanced again and under virtual memory click change< Make sure your harddrive is selected and select the option that says system managed size and click the set button. Now Click ok on all the windows to close them out and reboot the computer.
9. Also what security programs do you have installed?

Let me know if your computer is any faster after performing the above steps.

 

Great. Do you pay a subscription in order to use Trend Micro Internet Security?

 

FYI there are many free security programs that will do as good of a job at protecting your system from malware and other security threats. You shouldn't have to pay to protect your system. IMO I would ditch Trend Micro in favor of some other free alternative programs.

If you like Trend Micro and want to still pay for it then thats fine as well but you shouldn't have to.

 

Here are some good programs to try:

Microsoft Security Essentials.
Spybot Search and Destroy.
Spyware Blaster

As for the firewall, the Windows Firewall does an adequate job at protecting your system so you don't really need a 3rd party firewall.

Also its a good idea to have a few security programs installed since having only 1 suite of programs won't always catch all of the threats on a users system.

 

If the updates have already been installed then you can just hide the updates so they won't show up anymore.

To do this, click the yellow shield icon in the system tray which is the Automatic Updates icon. When the window comes up asking what type of installation you want to use click the custom option. Then uncheck the checkboxes of those updates that keep being offered to you. Once you do that click the close button and then click the checkbox that says don't show me these updates again and then click ok.