Wizard suggestion from Microsoft

[ChrisGreaves]

In my Copious Free Time ^(TM) I wander next door and accept the challenge of speeding up my neighbor's 512MB 10GB WinXP/SP3 machine. (It's an ongoing debate as to which of them is older.)
The machine takes so long to boot, Patty should cook me a nice supper.
Here is today's wizard suggestion from Microsoft!

Huh.JPG

[HansV]

I'd set it to "System managed size".

Have you cleared the various temp folders and caches? (A program such as CCleaner can do this in one fell swoop)

Have you analyzed which programs and processes are started automatically? With only 512 MB RAM, these should be kept to a minimum. (A program such as WhatInStartup can help; be careful not to disable essential services though)

Have you checked the fragmentation of the C: drive?

[ChrisGreaves]

I'd set it to "System managed size".Have you cleared the various temp folders and caches? (A program such as CCleaner can do this in one fell swoop)Have you analyzed which programs and processes are started automatically? With only 512 MB RAM, these should be kept to a minimum. (A program such as WhatInStartup can help; be careful not to disable essential services though)Have you checked the fragmentation of the C: drive?

Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes respectively.

When I arrived early last week the 10GB drive had about 250 MB free.
We first installed RoboCopy and a 300GB external drive and did a complete backup.
I used EasyCleaner to eradicate the most obvious (default) unnecessary files.
Today was SpaceSniffer which helped us to identify the largest block of space in each of the three major areas. That gained us 3.4GB, which means we now have enough space to set up the step-ladder.
We have renamed some rather large folders with a prefix of "OLD_" and will wait for a couple of reboots to check that no harm is done, after which they can be deleted.
The largest areas now seem to be images and music, so I'll dive into my stationery closet and pull out a spare IDE drive - 20Gb should do it - and mount that as drive D:; Patty can RoboCopy/Create then RoboCopy her media there, and use her C: drive for the opsys, programs and documents.

If we are still on speaking terms this time next week she can buy me supper at The Montreal Deli


P.S. An apology: In viewing my screen snapshot I think that Microsoft may not be as dopey as I first thought (not the first time, either!).
My 1 GB memory key shows as drive F:.
Microsoft probably adds the 1GB on to the 10GB IDE drive to come up with that recommended figure of 670MB.
Sorry, Microsoft, :grovel: