The System Idle Process indicates how much of your processor is
not being use. A high number there is a good thing.
If you're experiencing an overall system slowdown, try the standard computer maintenance routine first to see if things improve:
1. Run Disk Cleanup; Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup and let it get rid of everything listed there
2. Go to
this page download lspfix.exe and save it to the harddrive. You may not need it but if you do, you'll be real glad you got it
3. Go go into Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs and uninstall anything there you KNOW you don't need. If you see anything about Newdot net and/or Gator, dump it.
4. Download, install,
immediately update and then run
Spybot and/or
AdAware (you can use them both.) Let whichever one you choose clean up any spyware it finds.
5. Also get
CWShredder and run it (link to the download is near the bottom of the page).
Note: If you cannot get online after steps 4 and 5, run the lspfix file you downloaded in Step 2 which should fix that problem.
6. Turn off XP's unnecessary services - a good guide is on
Black Viper's site.
7. Stop unnecessary programs from loading on startup. Try to do that through each program's options/preferences. For those that don't offer that feature, use msconfig (Start>Run>type in "msconfig" (without the quotes), click OK, go to the Startup tab and uncheck those you are sure are not needed on startup). If you make changes in msconfig, ignore the warning message when you reboot. Just check the tiny box in the lower left referring to showing that warning on every boot and tell it "yes" you want to start in selective mode.
7. If problems still exist, do a complete system scan with at least two up-to-date antivirus programs. You can download the free AVG from
Grisoft and you can do an online scan at either
Housecall or
Panda .
6. After scanning, close all running programs (right click on their icons in the System Tray - the area by the clock - and choose "Exit" or "Close" or whatever word that program uses to stop the program) so you can run the defragger.
7. Go to Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter and run it. If it's been a while since it's been run, it could take quite a while...an hour or more.