It would be best to get more ram.  Your 256 mb is not enough for windows xp that works better with 512 mb, and many now have 1 gb. You also may have some programs starting up at boot that takes up even more memory, and you can disable these to boot faster and have some more memory left over.

Get more ram, and you will see a difference...

Below procedure will provide a faster boot up, and eliminate wasting memory on programs that are not in use at this time……

http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/

Start Up Programs: Click on START, Click on Run, than put in the box MSCONFIG Click OK. Now you are in the System Configuration Utility Program. Click on START UP you see on the top of this Utility Program. Uncheck the programs from here that you do not want to start at boot up, leaving the anti virus, and any third party firewall alone. You can always go back into this program to restart them. They will not be uninstalled. Click on APPLY, than it will ask you if you wish to reboot the system. Do so. After it boots up again, you will be presented with another window from the System Configuration Utility Program telling you that you have made an adjustment. If you don't want to see this pop up each time you boot up, put a check mark in the little box in the lower left corner of this announcement.

http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php   Link to a site that can explain what you have starting up, if you do not already know, and which ones you can safely un-check. It’s a long list.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20   Must have free downloads for our computers security.

Defrag the Hard Drive / Run two spyware programs / update and run the anti virus software / Empty the trash can often / Have at least 512 mb of ram if not 1 gb...

Dim 4400
2.6 Ghz 400 FSB
1 Gb 2100 DDR memory
Windows XP Home
17 inch 1703 FP monitor
XFX 7800 GS O/C AGP ( 91.31 driver )
48x CDRW
16x DVD-R
410 watt ( PcPower&Cooling )
PC-Cillon Internet Security

Message Edited by SR45 on 08-25-200604:18 PM

Research what SR45 said.

More memory = less reliance on pagefiling = better performance.  256 is 'just barely adequate' for WXP and simple applications (email).

Click the "let Windows set pagefile size" box.  There's something wrong if you think you're making it bigger and it still says 'zero'.  Unless your harddrive is literally 'full'.

There actually is an issue with ALL Windows editions, not fully releasing memory allocated to applications when they close.  It's known as 'memory leak' and it results from a typo in the code that Microsoft has known about and refuses to fix.  (C++ programmers:  it's in C++ too.  I know an engineer from Adaptec who nailed it down, notified Microsoft, they sent him a coffee mug but did nothing to fix it.)

Thanks for both responses. I think that I will do a repair laydown. Will post my results.

You will definitely see an improvement.  Let us know  :smileywink: