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n26q

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I have an older Windows computer that runs extremely slow. The computer was purchased surplus from my employer. It is used for Internet access and general home office use. There are a number of leftover files that I can't identify and do not have any use for. I suspect one, or some, of these files causes the computer's slowness. I am not very knowledgeable about the internal workings of a computer.

The computer has 512 MB of RAM and a 14GB hard drive of which 6+ GB is free space. XP Pro SP 3 with Office 2003.

My idea is to remove all the various files but, if possible, retain the operating system. From what I read here it appears that Eraser will do that but, I'm not completely sure that is the case.
Any suggestions or advice, related to Eraser or not, will be appreciated.

Thanks.

P.S. "Extremely slow": 6+ minutes to boot; 30 to 40 seconds to open a Word document with no other files open; 1 1/2 to 2 minutes to shutdown, CPU easily and frequently spikes to 100% although CPU useage less than 10% also results in the same slow performance.
 
Eraser will not solve your slowness problem. It will only delete files such that they cannot be recovered.

If you have the Windows XP install disk, disks for the other programs you need, and you have all useful data on the machine backed up externally then I recommend a fresh install.

Before doing that, trying downloading and running CCleaner to see if that helps. Regardless, I'd still do a fresh install, you don't know what's been left on that computer before you had it (malicious programs, spy programs, other programs slowing it down, etc).
 
Thanks. Previous runs of CCleaner had no effect.

Will Eraser delete files and leave XP and Office in place? Can Eraser delete only selected files? Looking around the website I'm unable to to find information on how Eraser works.
 
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