I came across this article, it's mostly to do with what I am always indulging in (3D CAD, which is related to engineering and designing stuff) - But the issues and how to solve them are common with many other things. http://www.cad-notes.com/speed-up-autoc ... ign=buffer 3 Dimensional computer aided designing, and computer aided manufacturing (3D CAD & CAM) - Are of course the things which use up processing power like crazy, specially when it comes to rendering... So this is where it hurts the most, when the PC becomes old, and is not able to handle new software. But as I had mentioned before, all these techniques can be applied to just about any Windows PC. So even if you are not using any 3D CAD, and neither are you a PC pilot using flight simulators - You will still feel a dramatic change in your PC's performance!
I've been doing a lot of what the article suggested above for years now. They really do make a difference, particularly turning off special effects and weeding out applications from startup. One I'll also recommend is running a good defrag on your hard drive. This will really help you once your hard drive is starting to get full. I use JkDefrag, a simple but effective defragmenter. Thanks S-H.
Yes Frank that is correct! Defrag really can do wonders for old computers, specially those that are still running on FAT32. With NTFS also it is needed sometimes, but NTFS is a far better organized format then FAT32. Another trick that I often tried (about 10+ years ago), is to make 3 partitions on your HDD. In the first part (the C drive) you only install the operating system. This will be closest to the center of the spinning disk, and so the slowest area. Next you put all your data on the middle D drive (which should be the largest partition). But finally, on the smallest partition (E drive, which will be on the outer rim of the spinning hard disk, and so the fasted in response), you only put the Windows swap file. This in my experience seeped up the PC substantially! Also, most of the Defraging required would only be on this last E drive. This by the way worked really well on hard drives of about 20 to 60 GB, on 80 to a 120 size HDD, the difference in speed didn't show. Perhaps because by that time PCs had already become too fast, and so it didn't matter much. But this is a trick which I still remember very fondly. As it utilized the HDD's physical properties to our advantage, as it moves faster around the edges, and slower in the center! Of course using Linux means that one wouldn't need any Defrag in the first place - Also Linux runs very well on old computers, gives them a new life in a way. However I still sometimes sense a lot of resistance towards Linux. But once anybody uses it, they hardly ever want to go back to Windows. Trick is to make the PC dual boot, and slowly introduce someone to Linux...
