I recently inherited an old laptop for work (I'm typing on it now). I have no idea how old it is, but I'm guessing at least 2004 or older. It had Quicken 2004 installed when I got it, and has MS Office 2003. Windows XP, Intel Celeron M 1.4GHz, 512mb RAM, 60GB HDD... screaming speed, I know. But it's sufficient for the rare times I'll use it for work. Anyhow...
When I first fired it up, it was slooooooooooowwww. I mean almost unbearable. I have no idea when it was last used, but I'd say about a year if I had to guess. Things I did to improve it:
Deleted all programs and files I didn't need, then defragmented the HDD. I then cleaned the registry, and defragmented it. I then updated Microsoft Security Essentials and ran a scan (no problems found). Finally, I downloaded Google Chrome to use instead of Internet Explorer. Even with the computer cleaned out, IE was still a dog. Chrome is darn quick! Now the computer is actually surprisingly usable for how old it is. I do have a subscription to Norton 360 antivirus software, with 3 licenses, but they're all being used, so I'm just going to use free antivirus software on this beast. I won't be online with it much anyhow.
Anything else you guys recommend to get this machine running in tip-top performance mode? And I don't plan on putting any money into it (RAM, HDD, etc) so that's out.
When I first fired it up, it was slooooooooooowwww. I mean almost unbearable. I have no idea when it was last used, but I'd say about a year if I had to guess. Things I did to improve it:
Deleted all programs and files I didn't need, then defragmented the HDD. I then cleaned the registry, and defragmented it. I then updated Microsoft Security Essentials and ran a scan (no problems found). Finally, I downloaded Google Chrome to use instead of Internet Explorer. Even with the computer cleaned out, IE was still a dog. Chrome is darn quick! Now the computer is actually surprisingly usable for how old it is. I do have a subscription to Norton 360 antivirus software, with 3 licenses, but they're all being used, so I'm just going to use free antivirus software on this beast. I won't be online with it much anyhow.
Anything else you guys recommend to get this machine running in tip-top performance mode? And I don't plan on putting any money into it (RAM, HDD, etc) so that's out.