There's a program you can get that I highly recommend, it's called MaxMem. What it does is put things that aren't active into a file, thus freeing up RAM.
We used to use it on Win98 all the time and it really made a difference. You can set it to clear automatically, but even better, you can also right click it and tell it "clear now"!
The other thing I advise is going to be a bit time consuming but will be worth it.
First of all, go through all your programs in add/remove programs in control panel. If there is something there you are not using, remove it!
Second, go through all the programs you do use and check out your preferences for any that do automatic updates.
See, a lot of software companies try to make it easy on you by setting it up so your programs will update for themselves. The problem is, especially in an older machines, this sucks up resources because the program checks every so often to see if it needs to update (some will do it once an HOUR!). You can update most of these manually and don't need something running in the background at all!
Real Player is a BIG offender, not only does it check constantly, it also runs what it calls the "start center". Supposedly, this makes it open instantly, but you know, it was using THREE PERCENT of my computer's resources, which is ridiculous. So go into the preferences and turn that stupid thing OFF--believe me, it only takes a few seconds to load without it--faster than if you were running the stupid thing.
Look on your taskbar to the right. You want to have as few icons as possible, because every single one of them represents a background process. While you want to leave your anti-virus alone, of course, you will be astonished at how many of these you can get rid of.
Your computer will run a lot better
We used to use it on Win98 all the time and it really made a difference. You can set it to clear automatically, but even better, you can also right click it and tell it "clear now"!
The other thing I advise is going to be a bit time consuming but will be worth it.
First of all, go through all your programs in add/remove programs in control panel. If there is something there you are not using, remove it!
Second, go through all the programs you do use and check out your preferences for any that do automatic updates.
See, a lot of software companies try to make it easy on you by setting it up so your programs will update for themselves. The problem is, especially in an older machines, this sucks up resources because the program checks every so often to see if it needs to update (some will do it once an HOUR!). You can update most of these manually and don't need something running in the background at all!
Real Player is a BIG offender, not only does it check constantly, it also runs what it calls the "start center". Supposedly, this makes it open instantly, but you know, it was using THREE PERCENT of my computer's resources, which is ridiculous. So go into the preferences and turn that stupid thing OFF--believe me, it only takes a few seconds to load without it--faster than if you were running the stupid thing.
Look on your taskbar to the right. You want to have as few icons as possible, because every single one of them represents a background process. While you want to leave your anti-virus alone, of course, you will be astonished at how many of these you can get rid of.
Your computer will run a lot better
My mom's old Packard Hell started doing this right before it bit the dust and it was due to a faulty hard drive...
.