1. Start and right-click on My Computer and select Properties or right click the My computer icon on your desktop
2. Click on the Advanced tab
3. Click Settings under the performance section
4. Select Adjust for best performance and click ok
This will increase the performance of your computer but will reverse the graphic quality similar to Windows 2000.

You can also disable Windows XP themes. To do this;
1. Right click the Desktop or click Start>Control panel> and double click Display
2. In the drop down list box under Theme:, select Windows Classic and click Ok

Startup programs run at the same time windows desktop loading and causes delay of normal operation of the system. To delete or remove startup programs;
Click Start, select All Programs, select Startup and delete all the applications under this menu. To delete, right click the program and click delete

You can also disable startup programs in the system configuration utility. To open the system configuration utility, use the command msconfig.
1. Click Start and then Run
2. Type msconfig and click ok
3. Click the startup tab and deselect (remove the check mark) all the programs to disable starting with windows

1. Perform disk cleanup and disk defragmentation regularly

2. Protect your system with ant virus and anti spyware program. There is free online virus checker you can use and free spyware checker.

3. Remove useless programs installed. To do this click Start, and Control panel. Double click Add/Remove programs, select program to remove, click Change/Remove and flow the prompts

4. Perform windows updates regularly and manually. Automatic update might slow you down on your busy time.

5. Disable NTFS volume last access time attributes. This attribute defines when the file or folder was last accessed, such as when a user lists folders, adds files to a folder, reads a file, or makes changes to a file. To disable the last access attributes; Click Start and click Run. Type this command; (FSUTIL behavior set disablelastaccess 1). To enable change the 1 to 0 for the same command.