Making Windows XP run on 256MB of RAM

I have a Windows XP system which has only 256 MB of ram, and unfortunately upgrading the RAM is not an option (it needs DDR, a DDR2 chip didn't fit and I'm not in town long enough to order one online). As you would expect, the system runs at the speed of molasses. It belongs to my 8-year-old nephew who'd love to be able to run basic programs, play flash games, etc. Is there anything I can do, short of adding more memory, to make it at least feel more responsive?

While Windows XP lists 128MB as the minimum recommended amount, I'm waiting 3-4 seconds for the start menu, and that is somewhat ridiculous.

Mala

Posted 2010-03-04T18:03:04.707

Reputation: 5 998

Out of curiosity, what processor it it running? – Chris_K – 2010-03-04T18:18:10.833

i have no idea. it's underneath a giant green plastic thing that attaches to the vent, and don't feel like burrowing under the hood any more than necessary – Mala – 2010-03-04T18:27:29.313

right-click "My Computer", choose "Properties". Let windows tell you... – Chris_K – 2010-03-04T18:29:22.553

You could also download Speccy... (but that just uses more RAM. heh) – Wesley – 2010-03-04T18:34:06.480

well it's in several pieces right now so i won't check just yet, but it was from back in the day when one stick of 256 DDR was considered acceptable, and pentium 3's didn't have that giant green thing so i'm going to guess a pentium 4 – Mala – 2010-03-04T18:37:42.797

Pf, I ran XP on 224MB of RAM for years! Sure, it wasn't as fast as my current machine, but it was workable. I'd, though, recommend going with some lightweight linux distro. – Phoshi – 2010-03-04T18:50:57.623

Actually I don't thinks 256 RAM IS very Slow. I own a PC with Windows XP and only 256 RAM and I posted this answer while working on it. Just try to tweak your registery. You can use TweakUI. Also you can try using msconfig. Don't ever try to delete the prefetch. You can adjust some virtual memory as well. That worked for me. – Amr Mohamed – 2011-02-03T10:31:19.043

@Mala: Even if you get this system otherwise performing acceptably, Flash-based kids games are going to be painful on a system that old. I've got a 1.6 GHz Pentium-M system w/ 2 GB of RAM and Flash-stuff online isn't much fun to do. – afrazier – 2011-06-05T01:28:12.983

Answers

With nothing else running, XP runs quite well with 256MB. Thus, I'd wonder what else is running. Grab something like Autoruns from SysInternals and see how many apps/utils/bloatware you have running at startup and prune that back.

You might also make sure you have current video drivers to ensure that start menu "lag" isn't video driver related.

Final note: Turn off that default crayola theme and run it in "Classic" mode. That'll make a huge difference.

Chris_K

Posted 2010-03-04T18:03:04.707

Reputation: 7 943

1is Autoruns any different from just going the msconfig route? – Mala – 2010-03-04T18:28:35.863

Autoruns gives more details and looks in more places. – Chris_K – 2010-03-04T18:29:44.097

Also, make sure that you run a lightweight anti-virus software. I'm using Avast free version on an older system, and it seems to work well. – Joe Internet – 2010-03-05T02:31:36.110

there are hacks/registry tweaks for speeding up the speed of menus in Windows XP. My old machine used to run Windows XP on just 256 MB of RAM, and the hack worked pretty well. Mostly, you just have to be patient with it...I would recommend running msconfig and clearing out ALL non-essential startup stuff; also look at the list of services running, and disable ones that you don't need. Google anything in msconfig and services that you are not sure about.

Also try tweaking various graphical effects etc Microsoft has an article: http://www.xpmaximized.com/archives/speed-up-xp-menu-display.html

Here is an article about speeding up the menu display in XP: http://www.xpmaximized.com/archives/speed-up-xp-menu-display.html

studiohack

Posted 2010-03-04T18:03:04.707

Reputation: 13 125

While Windows XP lists 256MB as the minimum system requirements

Totally wrong, Windows XP requires at least 64MB of RAM.

There were reports about tweaked Windows XP versions being able to run on 18MB RAM only.

geek

Posted 2010-03-04T18:03:04.707

Reputation: 7 120