How to speed up the computer?

[Strangers]

Hi friends, I am in trouble here, automatically my desktop is working very slow. I can’t understand how does it happen? What can I do to speed up my personal computer? My configuration is: Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.5 GHz Processor, Ram: 2GB, Hard disk: 350 GB, Mother Board: Giga Byte, Operating System: windows XP. I have enabled the firewall, can I disable it? Please help I am quite worried about it, I just newly have the system. please help

[Deep23]

Go to the task manager and check whether which process is gaining the more memory and the CPU resources. If it is something you unable to recognize then try to remove it. Also check your page file usage too. Practically any firewall other than the Windows firewall makes the computer quite leggy. Avira antivirus has seemed to me be the least leggiest to me. The biggest threat to a computer is the one between the screen and the chair. If you can keep yourself from downloading random programs from random sites, then you'll most likely be fine without any firewall/AV.

[Wiro]

Try out this task to perform your computers faster:
1) Remove Spyware and Viruses: Update the anti virus and remove your spyware and virus software every after 10 days. Spyware and viruses most of the time are the leading causes of slowdown of the computer. so remove the spyware and viruses.
2) Defragment Your Computer: This will place same files physically closer on to the hard disk and will help to improve load speeds.
3) Perform a disk clean up:clean up the disk, it removes all the temporary files and useless files.
4) Remove unwanted and unneeded software which may be the reason for slowdown of the computer.
5)Stop unwanted Start-Up programs: stop all the unwanted programs

[switchblade327]

Steps to Speed Up Your Computer’s Performance:
1) Make Sure Your Hardware is Sufficient: Allow some free spaces in to your hard drive. don't full up your drives, this may also slow down your system.
2) Clean Your Desktop: Is your Windows screen dotted with the files? Have you noticed that your computer has been running slower and slower? Do you see the hard drive light often flashing while you wait for the computer to respond to an action?
3) Scan Your Windows System for Errors: scan your system regularly with updated anti virus.