How To Increase Performance of Windows XP

Start > right-click on My Computer and select Properties.

Click on the "Advanced" tab.

See the "Performance" section? Click "Settings".

Disable the following:

Fade or slide menus into view
Fade or slide ToolTips into view
Fade out menu items after clicking
Show Shadows under menus
Slide open combo boxes
Slide taskbar buttons
Use a background image for each folder type
Use common tasks in folders

Now Windows will still look nice and perform faster.