Windows XP has become a fairly old operating system
. Recently, Microsoft has decided to no longer support this system. This means that it can technically be open to security flaws and other issues that will slow down your system. Find out what you can do that will help you speed up Windows XP even though it is an operating system that is no longer supported.
Be sure that you have downloaded and installed any patches that you have not got already. It's important that you have all the patches as there are some security flaws that need to be fixed. If you do this, your computer will go faster than if you choose not to install them. Always keep your operating system up to date to prevent your computer from being hacked by others. Be safe than sorry.
Get rid of applications that you aren't using on your machine. The more applications that are installed to the system on average will make the computer run slower. If you haven't used a program in awhile, consider taking it off the computer. Large files will make your computer run slow, so if you can remove those to an external drive and only run them when you need too.
Free up space on your hard drive. If it's almost full, the computer will go much slower. If you don't have more than a few thousand megabytes of data open, your computer will run faster when using XP. If you don't need to have a file open then close it until you do need it. This will save on your memory which you need for operating the system.
Since you no longer have any security from the patches it even more necessary that you run virus and malware protection on your machine. From now on anyone who exploits the operating system will have a clear path in unless you have protection.
Be sure you defragment the hard drive. This will make your system speed up quite a bit. When you do this process, everything will be organized better on your computer making it easier to access the data.
If you haven't in a long time, reload the operating system on your computer. Back up first before you do this. This will help the machine start over and get rid of anything that is slowing things down.
Windows XP is an operating system that is no longer supported. Find out what you can do that will help you speed it up even without the patches designed for it.