adamman,

 

Making more RAM available for system operations can be accomplished in several ways.  One is to check the Windows->Startup folder for shortcuts and to remove those which are not needed.  Another way is to open the Startup tab in MSconfig and uncheck unnecessary applications which start up there. 

 

Additional performance can had if you configure your swap file (virtual memory) to be a fixed size of about 2.5 times the size of your physical RAM instead of letting Windows try and manage the size of the swap file for you.  If you have more than one hard drive in your system, you can put the swap file on a different physical drive than the OS and the apps for a bit more system performance.  Defragging the hard drive may very well help out since it will keep the OS from having to work as hard to reconstruct so many files on the fly. 

 

Of course, increasing the actual RAM in your system will definitely help with this issue as well.  This last suggestion is the only one which will cost you money.  All of the others can be done for free. 

 

Steve