A+ Technician's on the Job Guide to Windows XP

In a nutshell, the application performance in Windows XP is determined by a few simple things:

• Compatibility  Sure, you can try to run applications that are not written for Windows XP, and you may have some success, but the best way to avoid application problems is to simply use programs updated for Windows XP. If you need to use custom applications that were written for a previous version of Windows, try using Windows XP’s Program Compatibility feature, which you can learn more about in Chapter 5.

• Memory  Like system processes, applications require physical memory in order to function—and they must have enough of it. Before installing and running applications, be sure to check the requirements and see if the computer meets them. Keep in mind that multimedia applications consume a lot of RAM and will not perform well without it.

• CPU  Like memory, the processor must be powerful enough to handle the needs of the application. If not, the application will run very slowly.