Tweaking Windows XP Pro

[Megadeth]

My room mate has a computer I put together of spare parts.... I didnt have a license for Windows so Apparently he went and bought a copy of Windows XP pro.... The thing is that it runs horribly.
The specs are as follows:
AMD K6-2 350mhz
192MB PC100 RAM
8GB HD
32MB Stealth Video Card
Dont know what motherboard


Just scrap parts from about 4 differant computers I had laying around.
All he is using it for is writing papers on word, chatting on Yahoo Messanger and playing the occassional game of Half-Life with us on a LAN.

Today I upped the RAM from 128-192 it seems to of helped a little bit, I would like to know what things I can do to help Windows XP run faster...
I have disabled all the nice visual effects and have disabled some services.... I think I might need a little more shut down in order to get this run better.

 

[BML]

Upgrade the hardware or install windows 98

 

[duragezic]

Remove / shut down absolutely everything. I've ran win2k on a similar system just fine, which should be about the same speed as XP if you turn off everything and tweak it to hell.

 

[KoolDrew]

Here is a list of sites I have in a txt file

http://www.schadentech.com
tweakguides.com
tweaktown.com
http://www.iamnotageek.com/a/10-p1.php
tweakhound.com
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,5155,00.asp
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html
http://www.pcmech.com/show/optimize/677/9
http://gear.ign.com/articles/554/554744p1.html
http://www.woods.us/sp2/

 

[21Outlaw]

Originally posted by: BML
Upgrade the hardware or install windows 98

Agreed.

 

[Tarrant64]

You may have 192mb of ram. but it's SLOW ram. If your friend can muscle up a couple hundred bucks, he may be able to get a cheap but faster proc, mobo, and ram. Everything else should be ok.

If not, Windows 2000.

 

[Megadeth]

Hehe, I would rather him pay rent then spend money on computer parts. Maybe I can find an old copy of Win 98 that Im not using..
Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[mikecel79]

That is about the minimum you can get away with Windows XP. Anything below that is going to be really bad. No one else mentioned this eaither but that 8GB hard drive is going to kill your performance to. A newer drive would go a long way in speeding that machine as will more memory.

Tweaking will only get you maybe at the most another 1%, and 1% of slow is next to nothing.

 

[Schadenfroh]

see my Guide to Free Performance

 

[Tarrant64]

Tell your friend to sell his copy of WinXP Pro and use that to upgrade his computer a little bit, and then find a copy of Win2000.

All this, of course, after he pays his rent.