[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Speed Up Your Windows XP Netbook here

[number6]

It's usually better to check and uncheck the boxes for yourself so that you know what you're changing. Sometimes it takes more than rechecking a check box to restore your settings the way you like them.

[oldschoolh4ck3r]

Who doesn't know this 'trick' by now?

[WayneW]

I agree with selecting "custom".
I leave 3/4 checked.
Not going into that here.
I'm not going to finish this article for you.

[ditorfer]

I volunteer at a local public library teaching a beginning computer class. Believe me, there are a LOT of people who don't know this trick. The beauty of this is that it's simple to understand, and has accompanying pics. With baby-boomer newcomers turning to netbooks, keep these simple fixes coming!

[Kinman]

xp itself doesn't use a lot of resources, uncheck these visual efforts will probably just help a little, makes it feel faster.

[number6]

I can easily tell the difference on older machines.

[websquad]

Well, the transparent icon fonts went away, so I replaced the fancy desktop image with a plane blue background ... right mouse click on an empty desktop space, select Properties at the bottom, select the Desktop tab, change the background to (None) by sliding the vertical scroll bar to the top. The defrault color was OK. Clicked Apply and then OK ... with this small single-core processor, removing anything that competes for resouces should help.

[KebHo]

These "effects" are always mere time-wasters--they make you wait on even the fastest PCs. I disable them on any machine I use. The computer industry is constantly working to make faster machines, and Microsoft seems to be continually slowing them down. With CPU speeds approaching 1000 times that of the original PC, we should not have to wait for anything.

[nhboomer]

Perhaps the single most "trick" to improve performance is to right click on the C drive, select properties, and, in the general tab, deselect the box "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching". It will take a while for it to do its thing so be patient.

[nhboomer]

I'm sorry, that should be single most SIGNIFICANT "trick".

[VHMP01]

Works under Vista and 7 too. I also leave some checked so that visual effects stay there.