I have some p4 3.0ghz 1gb ram pc's that are only used for internet use at work, as usual they are getting bogged down with crap is there away to install the absolute minimum amount of stuff and to remove a lot of the running services that I don't need?

All I need is chrome, firefox, internet explorer and office ( i have office 97 which does the job fine).

I don't need to run anything else, is it still possible to have these pc's running ok or are the modern versions of flash and newer versions of browsers just going to kill them?

 

"Should" be dooable, I would test this on one PC and see how it runs.

If a work machine I would also install Anti-virus (this will however slow the machine, but if machine has an internet connection.....) and make sure the user does not have Admin rights

 

http://tweakhound.com/xp/installxp/installXP1.htm

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks1.htm

These guides are meant for home use but may be worth a read.

 

Install SuSe or Ubuntu and have a lightning fast machine, in comparison to XP.

 

Ubuntu with Open Office.

 

Got to stick to xp, I'm dealing with people that will have a meltdown if I changed the OS I have actually got ubuntu installed on an old pc but I have got to have Internet explorer

 

Ubuntu here, revelation after the misery of Vista !

 

your PC is faster than mine! i just rebuild a compaq D510 which has a P4 2.40GHz and with 1GB memory. XP runs fine with Office 2003, IE8, Firefox and MSE.

 

It will run fine now but trust me in a few months it will be chugging along like an old steam train. I have already don fresh installs twice and still they grind to a halt!

 

Well I have done some fresh installs and following the links above , xp is absolutely speeding through all programs, I'm going to try and create a disk image so I can roll it back every 6 months.

no msn or adobe crap and only running ms essentials for virus protection but how long will it last............

 

If you do this again, take a look at this.

 

I was going to suggest that......but being nitpicky its not for coporate use

I'm being petty I know

Ace prog though....and I doubt anyone would find out

 

If the PC's are different hardware this may help with imaging

http://www.vernalex.com/tools/spdrvscn/index.shtml

use the drivers from here

http://driverpacks.net/