Fri 21 Sep 2007
A while ago on this blog we discussed what you could do to improve the performance of your XP computer such as adding ram, doing a disk clean up, and getting your computer tuned up. However something else you may want to consider, especially if your computer is on the older side, is to disable visual effects.
Windows XP has a number of visual effects such as shadows to make things look three dimensional. To see this in action look closely at your mouse arrow and you will see a faint shadow behind it. If you have an older computer these visual effects may be slowing your computer down.
To turn off your computers visual effects:
- Click on the Start button, then right click My Computer and click Properties
- Now in the system properties box that appears click on the Advanced tab.
- In the Performance area, click Settings
- Now select Adjust for best performance and click OK, then OK again.
If once you have turned off your visual effects, if you decide you would like to turn then on again then simple repeat steps 1-3 and then select Let Windows choose what is best for my computer. This will take you back to the default settings.
To see instructions on this including pictures from Microsoft Click here.
If you are finding that your internet browser is running particularly slow you may also like to look at this article about removing spyware.