The Scratching Post

The short of it, my computer is slow. [skip to the bottom if you don't feel like reading my ramblings]

What? 512MB you say, in this day and age? That's your problem right there sonny.

Well, 512MB is where I started with on this computer but I upgraded eventually. I'd hate to be running this ancient monolith of a computer on those specs. Actually, I'm running 1.2GB of RAM, but is that still really enough? No, and in fact it feels as if my computer is dependent on some 56kbps dial-up modem these days.

[but that's not a really a ram issue...]

Of course I know that. In the 5 years I've ran this laptop, it's accumulated gigabytes of miscellaneous software (that I use) and weathered two (maybe three) really nasty viral infections without refreshing the OS. So yeah, there's a ton of background noise echoing in there. All those little things accumulate and eat up the RAM. All of the little processes are so delicately packed in there, I have to be careful which I take out lest I worry about some other program collapsing because it was dependent on that process.

Even in through the apex of the worst viruses, my computer has proved resilient time and time again, functioning at a decent pace coming out of an attack or through meditated heavy use.

This past week however, my computer has been crawling No, it has no limbs to speak of. It's inching along at whatever pace a self-satisfied old geezer that has no arms or legs feels like moving at. It's so excruciatingly slow to do almost anything anymore.

Oh, that's killed whatever time I've had trying to get the root of this consuming issue. I want to keep this computer going, and that means weeding out all those little bugs and annoying programs that won't go away. I've spot checked for a while, but I've lived with other little start up programs and other notify this, or notify that things for so long now. I've seriously had it, no more of this. I'm clearing it out starting with the registry and moving on to startup items, uninstalling old programs, defragging, etc. I'm doing it manually, but it's the only way I can keep all the programs I want in tact. (Unless someone knows of a better way to go about it?)

I'm working on the job thing, but I kinda wish I had this computer to work on it. The only reason I've been so reluctant to move to a new computer is that pretty much all my software packages are tied to this machine, but I'm probably going to have to face reality soon.

I know posting this will take eons, so I pre-composed it so I can post it in one fell swoop that takes maybe 4-9 minutes. Yeah, words are dragging.

It's funny since it wasn't this slow a month ago, but it has been getting noticeably slower. Maybe another virus? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it's just age catching up with the little clunker. Either way I still want to do some weeding just to see what I can muster out of it.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If you've read through my rambling, (or didn't, that's quite alright) quick question for those experienced with tablet PCs: what would you recommend? If I get a new laptop, I'm making it a tablet.