Making Windows XP Faster Through Basic System Maintenance

A  friend asked me some time ago why her computer was slow and crashed  frequently while in Second Life the short answer is she needs to defragment her  hard drive before using Second Life as the program places a lot of demand on a computer.

I find the best way to avoid the problem with Second Life crashing  intermittently is to use CCleaner http://www.ccleaner.com to clean the computer from accumulated junk and to also allow CCleaner to search for issues and then backing up the relevant registry entries when asked.

After  the registry entries have been backed up complete the cleaning  process.

By backing up the registry entries this allows you to restore the registry prior to the cleaning process in the event of further problems caused by the deleting of the registry entries.

I have never had the need to restore the deleted registry entries myself but  that doesn't mean anyone else would be in the same boat.

After using CCleaner I generally do a defragmentation of the hard drive as  this places all the Second Life program files in one place on the hard drive  helping the computer user to maintain stability in Second Life.

To use the Windows Defragmenter you need to follow the steps below:

1. Go to the windows XP Start Button and click it
2. Click on All Programs then select Accessories
3. Click on System Tools then select Windows Defragmenter

After doing a defrag of the hard drive the computer should now be stable while using Second Life, this is required each time you connect to the Second  Life server in order to maintain stability and to avoid both a system reboot which occurs frequently for some SL users or Second Life crashing altogether which happens to me every now and then.

So hopefully this blog has helped you to overcome the problems of a highly  fragmented hard drive slowing down the performance of your computer right down to a crawl.

Please feel free to make suggestions about the content and any topics for discussion you would like answers to, if your questions are beyond my area of expertise I will research the problem for you and get back to you in a relevant blog.