You might look at Microsoft Press's "Windows XP Registry Guide"
formatting link
. This will give you an idea of the structure, some of the XP entries, and ideas about how to work with the registry. It is good. It is not anything like a complete explanation -- and cannot be because of the registry's nature.
Proceed with caution. The foot you shoot is likely to be your own.
Other ideas if you pursue this further:
You can check for invalid processes by looking at the Task Manager Processes tab, Googling anything you don't understand, and sifting out the chaff.
You can also look at the Performance Monitor (Start-> Run -> PerfMon) to get real-time statistics or create logs over time. Processor utilization, memory paging, and physical disk usage are good starting points. PerfMon is on XP Pro -- I don't know about XP Home.
Win XP on 128M sounds a little like Nicole Richie -- exists, looks cute, but no one suggests it as a role model. It would take very little legitimate work to overwhelm such a computer. 384M can do a fair amount as long as you do not start up everything or work with much graphics. I have had happy users running Office under XP Pro on 256M machines in a domain. They got unhappy if they started up additional apps and got into page thrashing.
I don't know how you got Adobe Reader 3.0 on a computer about 1 year old. If I really saw that correctly, you definitely should go through everything installed because it does not sound like there was much thought process when things were added.
I don't know if you did this, but definitely download Lavasoft's AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy and do spyware checks. A lot of sudden slowdown situations are related to malware. Periodic scans are a good idea. These checkers are free for personal use. Of course, antivirus and firewalls are musts in today's world.
Good luck,
Joe M
>>I (my brother in law, really) have a computer that has a SERIOUS case of
>>The Slows. It takes FOREVER to open apps, and complete any number of >>different tasks.
>>
>> It is an off-brand box that came from Fry's (I think). I don't recall
>> what the architecture is, but I'm pretty sure my 286-based laptop was >> faster.
>>
>> The computer is on its way to my house for a checkout. I'm not sure what
>> my strategy will be.
>>
>> The machine has a valid version of XP Home edition, but I do not know if
>> it has the Restore CD or not. Can I use a different copy of XP to do
>> restore operations? I assume that I have to use the Key Code that is on
>> the computer, not the one that belongs to the copy of XP that I will >> restore from.
>>
>> Do not hesitate to offer suggestions on what to do ...
>>
>
> I found a couple of legacy programs that should have uninstalled long ago.
> They still remain in the Add or Remove Programs section of the Control
> Panel, and they would not go away from there. I went into the Registry and
> removed all of the "calls" to the errant programs, then I uninstalled
> McAfee Internet Security Suite. Now the machine works like it should.
> Since we last talked, I've loaded a dozen CDs into iTunes (this is a
> project that would have taken days, assuming one would tolerate the pain > that long).
>
> Somebody here offered up WinASO as a Registry Cleaner. I bought a 5-site
> license and am pleased with the product. Well, as pleased as one can be
> after messing with something for a couple of hours. Thanks for that ... >
> I cleaned up hundreds of "registry errors" in three machines so far, my
> wife's machine had 1750 total errors, more than 200 of them ranked as
> "serious" by WinASO Registry Optimizer.
>
>
> NEW QUESTION
> The Registry has a structure. Are there any resources out there where I
> can look up what the structure is, and then I would be able to do stuff to
> the Registry with less stress. I've done surgery to the Registry on other
> machines, and on one I turned the machine into a paper wieght. I'd like to
> understand what I'm looking at when I poke around in the Registry. I'm
> thinking a book titled Registry for Dummies would be what I am looking
> for. (I resist the temptation to buy anything with "dummies" in the title > ...)
>
>
>
>
>