It’s a common observation that laptops with the passage of time get slower and users end up buying a new one after getting frustrated. Check out our how-to guide to speed up your aging laptop without buying a new one.
Re-Install Operating System
The first thing you must do is to re-install OS on your system. In addition to this, remove all unused programs, files or any other thing which unnecessarily resides on your hard drive.
Upgrade Your RAM
After you’re done with cleaning up and stuff, upgrading system RAM is the next step. 4GB ram is enough for a regular PC user.
Upgrade Your Hard Drive To A Solid State Drive
Most laptops come up with slow hard drives, running at 5400RPM because of overheating and power issues. These HDDs are cheaper but slow down systems considerably when starting, running application programs, games and browsing the internet.
In contrary to this, Solid State Drives or SSDs are much cooler and faster then conventional hard drives and are easier to upgrade as well. The only drawback of SSDs is its price.
Use a USB adapter if your laptop has only one spot for hard drive. You can copy data from your existing hard drive to the new one using tool called CloneZilla. Make sure that your SSD runs to its fullest capacity.
SSD will surely put a new life into your laptop and you may be able to get a few more years out of it.
Lets me know in comments if you know any other way to speed up slow-aged laptops.
Install a BETTER OS. But, what's better is debatable... So, I'll just say a more efficient OS... and applications.
Linux Mint Debian with XFCE or Xubuntu seem to work pretty well even on a Intel Celeron M and 512 MB of RAM (my laptop by the way). But If you're so hung on Windows XP, you might consider installing Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (albeit illegally).
Specifically for Windows users:
Install CCleaner for regular cleanup of temporary files & application temp files. Install Defraggler as a better disk defragmenter, and schedule de-fragmentation runs every month at least.
I'd also recommend not having any startup programs except an on-access antivirus if necessary. Microsoft Security Essentials as an excellent choice for that.
I must point out though that re-installing the operating system isn't necessary in many cases. Regular cleanup of unnecessary installations and the related files would do the trick for the most part. My laptop actually got even more sluggish after reinstalling Windows on it.
Thanks Pranav.. Yes, all those stuff works exactly as said.. And to add to those list, Tuneup Utilities is one awesome software to manage your Windows operating system. It lets you control system health,registry,startup management,display settings and much more.