Do this:
1.( Desktop: DO NOT SAVE any program on your desktop, if you did, create a folder under c:/diverse
And move those heavy files there.
2.) Startup: click start, type in "msconfig" and enter, select startup, make sure that only the programs you really to start every time the pc start are ticked.
3.) Desktop: click start, click control panel, click system, select "advanced", select under performance "settings
" choose "adjust for best performance"
These tricks are used by M$ Windows engineers and should make your winxp starting at least 3-4 times faster and make your pc working AT LEAST two times faster, do not mess with the other possibilities there unless your realy know what you know,
eg. example virus identification andremoval... you can do that easily under the startup button, but it world require also that you do it in safemod as well as extra registry work...,will get back to that next time. Enjoy! :-)