windows installation question

I am having computer slowdowns, etc and I want to either reinstall
windows to erase any issues, or just upgrade it to repair any issues,
etc. I am wondering, does reinstallation (by upgrade) of windows
cause issues with currently installed programs? (outlook, etc), that
might use windows folders? OR does it just reinstall the windows/
system folder?

Not sure what you meant "by upgrade".

A "Clean Install" will cause you to loose everything
previously installed (Applications, Data, Documents,
Photos, User Accounts, Etc). In short its a totally new
(Fresh) installation of Windows XP.

A "Repair Install" may save your Applications and
User Accounts. Data, Documents, Photos should remain
intact. Not a 100% guaranty thought and you will need to
re-install your drivers for most devices.

Since you are experiencing a slowdown suggest you try the
following first.
1) Run 'Disk Cleanup'
2) Defragment your hard drive.

If the PC is still slow then it could be a sub-process or
application that's running in the background and
taking all the CPU resources thus slowing down you PC.

To find and display what could be the problem try Process Explorer:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx

Once you have Process Explorer installed and running:
In the taskbar select View and check:
'Show Process Tree' and the 'Show Lower Pane' options.
Move your mouse cursor over any column in the right hand pane and
right click and check the following boxes:
'Command Line' and 'Version'.

Then expand the process named 'Explorer' (click on the + sign)
In the column on the left named 'CPU', look for any high CPU usage.
Next click on the CPU column to sort the processes by %CPU usage
(Highest to Lowest).

Move the mouse cursor over any process,
you should see a popup with some detailed info.
Then mouse over the process that's using most or all the CPU %.
Then click on that process to highlight it,
Now that it's highlighted, right click and from the options listed select:
'Search Online'.
This should display what out there on the web about that process.
You can also double click on any process to open up a more detailed
'Properties' window.
Note: some entries like Explorer, System/Services, and Svchost
may need to be expanded to show the detail (sub processes),
in this case click on the + located to the left of the entry.

An alternate method when using Process Explorer
is to double click on the Graph just below the Menu bar.
This will open the 'System Information' window, which has a larger display
of all three graphs. Move your mouse over any spike in the
CPU Usage graph to see what process/application or service is the cause
of the spike.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com



"Ratedr" wrote in message
...
I am having computer slowdowns, etc and I want to either reinstall
windows to erase any issues, or just upgrade it to repair any issues,
etc. I am wondering, does reinstallation (by upgrade) of windows
cause issues with currently installed programs? (outlook, etc), that
might use windows folders? OR does it just reinstall the windows/
system folder?

Not sure what you meant "by upgrade".

A "Clean Install" will cause you to loose everything
previously installed (Applications, Data, Documents,
Photos, User Accounts, Etc). In short its a totally new
(Fresh) installation of Windows XP.

A "Repair Install" may save your Applications and
User Accounts. Data, Documents, Photos should remain
intact. Not a 100% guaranty thought and you will need to
re-install your drivers for most devices.

Since you are experiencing a slowdown suggest you try the
following first.
1) Run 'Disk Cleanup'
2) Defragment your hard drive.

If the PC is still slow then it could be a sub-process or
application that's running in the background and
taking all the CPU resources thus slowing down you PC.

To find and display what could be the problem try Process Explorer:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx

Once you have Process Explorer installed and running:
In the taskbar select View and check:
'Show Process Tree' and the 'Show Lower Pane' options.
Move your mouse cursor over any column in the right hand pane and
right click and check the following boxes:
'Command Line' and 'Version'.

Then expand the process named 'Explorer' (click on the + sign)
In the column on the left named 'CPU', look for any high CPU usage.
Next click on the CPU column to sort the processes by %CPU usage
(Highest to Lowest).

Move the mouse cursor over any process,
you should see a popup with some detailed info.
Then mouse over the process that's using most or all the CPU %.
Then click on that process to highlight it,
Now that it's highlighted, right click and from the options listed select:
'Search Online'.
This should display what out there on the web about that process.
You can also double click on any process to open up a more detailed
'Properties' window.
Note: some entries like Explorer, System/Services, and Svchost
may need to be expanded to show the detail (sub processes),
in this case click on the + located to the left of the entry.

An alternate method when using Process Explorer
is to double click on the Graph just below the Menu bar.
This will open the 'System Information' window, which has a larger display
of all three graphs. Move your mouse over any spike in the
CPU Usage graph to see what process/application or service is the cause
of the spike.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com



"Ratedr" wrote in message
...
I am having computer slowdowns, etc and I want to either reinstall
windows to erase any issues, or just upgrade it to repair any issues,
etc. I am wondering, does reinstallation (by upgrade) of windows
cause issues with currently installed programs? (outlook, etc), that
might use windows folders? OR does it just reinstall the windows/
system folder?