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DougieFresh4U
November 27th, 2010, 02:09 AM
So my mother has been griping about how slow her 5 year old machine running WinXP is. She is 74 years old. I was telling her how I had the newest Windows 7 (I triple boot) and she was like 'oh, I always get asked if I want to upgrade to internet 8, that's newer'. I couldn't help but laugh and tried to explain that Internet Explorer wanted to upgrade but she would still have WinXP. I proceeded to change her RAM from 768MB, upgraded to 2GB as that's the limmit and 2 slots.
I am hoping this will speed it up some for her, I guess her biggest gripe is her email taking forever to load. It appears that she never gets rid of emails and she has over 1500 that show up when she logs in! Could all those emails be slowing down her machine as they are trying to load and she is clicking away trying to open an email.
So anyways, I am sure I will hear in the morning if she has noticed any difference with her new RAM!
Just thought it funny how some people see the internet and there machines and they some how think it's all the same. (my mother also thinks the 'hard drive' is the 'whole' tower!

wilee-nilee
November 27th, 2010, 02:28 AM
Has she been using XP with a limited account mainly; with strong passwords for it and the admin?

Old_Grey_Wolf
November 27th, 2010, 02:32 AM
Could all those emails be slowing down her machine as they are trying to load and she is clicking away trying to open an email.
Well, what is your answer?



Just thought it funny how some people see the internet and there machines and they some how think it's all the same.

Hmmmm.

:)

czr114
November 27th, 2010, 02:35 AM
If she's using webmail, then that quantity is definitely not an issue.

By comparison, I have 2.2GB of saved mail in Thunderbird, and the running 64-bit version, with Enigmail, only consumes 41.1MiB of RAM.

You need to profile the memory usage on that machine. 2GB should be more than sufficient, 768MB should be decent, provided the system is running right.

A Windows box riddled with viruses, malware, obsolete junk, excessive daemons, and the like can expand to fill however much memory you throw at it.

With 2GB, you should consider the swap tweak.

Rasa1111
November 27th, 2010, 02:42 AM
my mom also used XP for years.
on an old, (at least 10 years old, possibly more) compaq presario desktop. lol

was 256 RAM but I stuck in another to get it to 512.

The extra RAM didnt do much for the XP.
and the XP would only "work" for a limited time,
then it would be back to slowmo and I would have to 'fix' it again..
for years. lol
it was the same when I had XP to,
but jeez.

Then, After I started using Ubuntu,
I showed, and then hooked my mom up with Ubuntu 9.10,
and its been at least 9 months or so shes been using it, and she loves it!
She is 59, but really.. pretty much computer/technology illiterate.
She doesnt know what any of this stuff means either. lol
But she has no problems at all with Ubuntu.

She likes her PC more now than she ever has. lol
She has said to me a couple times
" Tell me again, Why didnt you start using this sooner?" :lol:

A good question I ask myself from time to time. lol

Why not just hook mum up with some Ubuntu? :confused:

kaldor
November 27th, 2010, 02:45 AM
I'd greatly recommend popping Firefox 3.x on it, since she may not be security-minded. Arm it with Adblock and other addons for her online safety.

Also, try out ccleaner. I used it on my dad's PC and it sped stuff up a lot; cleans up registry and other things.

madjr
November 27th, 2010, 02:46 AM
u keeping xp or switching to ubuntu?

this is what i did with my dad

TheNessus
November 27th, 2010, 02:48 AM
my mom also used XP for years.
on an old, (at least 10 years old, possibly more) compaq presario desktop. lol

was 256 RAM but I stuck in another to get it to 512.

The extra RAM didnt do much for the XP.
and the XP would only "work" for a limited time,
then it would be back to slowmo and I would have to 'fix' it again..
for years. lol
it was the same when I had XP to,
but jeez.

Then, After I started using Ubuntu,
I showed, and then hooked my mom up with Ubuntu 9.10,
and its been at least 9 months or so shes been using it, and she loves it!
She is 59, but really.. pretty much computer/technology illiterate.
She doesnt know what any of this stuff means either. lol
But she has no problems at all with Ubuntu.

She likes her PC more now than she ever has. lol
She has said to me a couple times
" Tell me again, Why didnt you start using this sooner?" :lol:

A good question I ask myself from time to time. lol

Why not just hook mum up with some Ubuntu? :confused:

I can't take my mom off Explorer 6, not to FF or Chrome... but not to Explorer 7 even. "Don't touch it, you'll ruin everything! and I don't like these 'tabs', I want different windows, just the way it is now". Christ.

czr114
November 27th, 2010, 02:51 AM
Firefox+AdBlock are a must.

Advertising is not only a waste of RAM, but also, it serves as a serious vector for malware. That IE must go.

I've gotten people off IE by tweaking the FF interface, then changing FF's desktop shortcut to the blue 'e' logo. Most of them don't notice for a while.

Quadunit404
November 27th, 2010, 03:24 AM
F (http://secunia.com/advisories/41957/)i (http://secunia.com/advisories/41297/)r (http://secunia.com/advisories/41244/)e (http://secunia.com/advisories/41095/)f (http://secunia.com/advisories/40720/)o (http://secunia.com/advisories/40309/)x (http://secunia.com/advisories/39925/), really? And I can't guarantee MoCo patched all of those holes yet, considering how Firefox is still at version 3.6.12. (Before you call BS, Secunia is one of the top security firms out there and is often considered to be one of, if not the best firm when it comes to reporting security vulnerabilities accurately)

If you SERIOUSLY want to recommend Firefox, throw in NoScript as well. That's probably the ONLY way to have guaranteed security in Firefox.

DougieFresh4U
November 27th, 2010, 03:35 AM
She goes to AOL through IE. I have been thinking about putting Thunderbird on there and making the desktop icon say 'AOL Mail'
My mother, at her age of 74 really hates change.

madjr
November 27th, 2010, 03:35 AM
I can't take my mom off Explorer 6, not to FF or Chrome... but not to Explorer 7 even. "Don't touch it, you'll ruin everything! and I don't like these 'tabs', I want different windows, just the way it is now". Christ.

there is an internet explorer 6 skin for cases like that.

even full xp themes.

seriously IE6 is a malware hole. Is a huge security breach. Worst thing to happen to the internet.

czr114
November 27th, 2010, 05:55 AM
F (http://secunia.com/advisories/41957/)i (http://secunia.com/advisories/41297/)r (http://secunia.com/advisories/41244/)e (http://secunia.com/advisories/41095/)f (http://secunia.com/advisories/40720/)o (http://secunia.com/advisories/40309/)x (http://secunia.com/advisories/39925/), really? And I can't guarantee MoCo patched all of those holes yet, considering how Firefox is still at version 3.6.12. (Before you call BS, Secunia is one of the top security firms out there and is often considered to be one of, if not the best firm when it comes to reporting security vulnerabilities accurately)

If you SERIOUSLY want to recommend Firefox, throw in NoScript as well. That's probably the ONLY way to have guaranteed security in Firefox.
Secunia's own recommendations classify those as fixed in 3.6.12.

Firefox is a step up from IE. FF+ABP is a step up from that, and FF+ABP+NS+Usermode is a step up from that.

The FOSS model cleans up these vulnerabilities whereas they tend to fester in IE.

The only perfectly safe computer is one which has been thrown into a lake.

Megaptera
November 27th, 2010, 09:22 AM
Hi dougiefresh,

Have you used msconfig to see what's running at startup and what doesn't need to ?

I hope you don't mind me including this guide to msconfig just in case others reading this thread are unfamiliar with it?

http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/index.html