A great tip on how to speed up your Windows XP start up times. Just clean out your prefetch folder. Windows XP keeps track of your frequently used programs and sets them up so that they start up faster. However, sometimes a lot of junk gets into the prefetch folder and can slow things down. Try this:
1.. Open the Windows Explorer and go to c:\WINDOWS\Prefetch folder.
2.. Click the View menu and then click the Select All command. This should highlight all the files in the folder. Once all the files in the Prefetch folder are selected, press the DELETE key on the keyboard to delete these files. Click Yes to send the files to the Recycle Bin.
3.. Restart your computer. You should find that Windows XP starts a lot faster!
Do this once a week and your Windows XP startups will always be snappy.
Let me know it you do it if it makes any difference:-)