several issues

What kind of PC do you have? CPU? Memory? Do you know how to find your system info? What kind of maintenance do you do on it? Have you ever defragged you Hard drive. Viruses and spyware are a frequent source of system slow downs. Microsoft has a free PC optimizing service(Live One Care) which I will suggest - it scans your PC for viruses and optimizes it.
Here's the link WWW Link

I would suggest you set aside a block of time to do this since, depending on how large you data storage is, it can take several hours. After using Microoft's free service try defragging your hard drive. 

And, to answer your question are there any widget clocks with stop watch functions and alarm functions, there are. Here's one WWW Link and here's another WWW Link  

thanks for the links.
i have a win xp pro sp 2 machine. 1.53 gigahhurtz amd athlon
608 md ram
i know pc maintenance and defrag every week and scan for virus etc.. the prob aint my machine and wish ppl would stop thinking it is.
sorry i posted the question now.

604 meg of ram is not very much... i would try turning off extras running in the background, services and etc.... crtl/alt/del will bring up the windows task manager, in the processes tab look at the bottom of the window it will say {Processes:28} for example the number tells you how many thngs are running on your pc at any given time .. the larger the number, the less free resources there are for running stuff like DX ...

try turning off some extras like Quicktime media player and stuff that run in the systray...

thanks. i know.
why do you all think i'm so dumb?

well for one i don't know you . so i can not by Vulcan mind meld tell if you know these things .. it's not assuming you are dumb,in fact ive yet to see any body call you dumb.... it's called following a typical routine .. start with the basics and go from there. and too many running services is the most common culprit of PC slowing.. so it was a valid question.. not an inference to your mental abilities.

Noboday said/thought you were dumb, Blonde37 ....in fact, these were genuine, helpful and though-out answers/assistance that members here provided to your questions..

With the minimal amount of ram you have ...it's quite possible you DO have too many processes running...

I'd try closing DX objects one at a time to see if one of those is causing a slowdown. Some objects operate in real time and can use a lot of either cpu, ram or both.

There are many routes to follow when trying to diagnose a problem. Kicking-off at those trying to help is not likely to bring many answers   

BLOND37 ...when you're asking a question/for assistance the trick is to expect you will receive advice/assistance.

The quality/suitability of the assistance will work on the GIGO principle.  If/when people are required to assume/guess what system specs and/or computer experience you have you may get the impression people my think you are naive or a novice.

Your question is 'how do I make my computer run faster/better with DesktopX?'

The answer will be - optimize your system, eg, defrag/cleaning/memory upgrades/etc., and not necessarily 'press button 'X' on the left side of a proggy for an instant speed-boost'.

Generally speaking all systems will be slowed by what is currently loaded/running....so the answer for you is much the same as for any other program.

First you need to document all your relevant system specs, not just ram and CPU.  You 'may' be suffering some actual program incompatibility/conflict that is bogging things down [I know I do....often]...

My computer is very slow too. It seems like it got slower when I loaded Objectdock. I did the defrag and virus scans, it's still slow. I dont have a lot of RAM, I dont know how much, just that I get a message saying my virtual memory is low when I do too much at once. I looked at the processes running, I have 38 of them. Is that alot? I'm not a programmer so I wouldnt know which ones do what, or which ones I can turn off. Most of those abbreviations are greek to me.

My question is this...Is there anywhere I can go to find out what all those processes are? A website or maybe somewhere in my computer? That way, I can at least turn off the stuff I dont need running. Thanks for any help.

www.google.com

Sometimes I overlook the simple things..  

Link-a-roo

Thanks for the link Bichur!

  

Blond37 you posted:


To this question, I gave you this response:


You gave me your response.


In addition to recommending a valid solution based on your criteria of speeding up your PC without spending money for more RAM, I took the time to provide you with a link to Microsoft's free PC optimization and security service. I stand by what I suggested. If you don't wish to use the free service that's your choice. However, based on your response, I don't think I will be as likely to go out of my way to provide you with any valid ideas, suggestions or links in the future.   

cuz ya can't spell blonde?

WWW Link black vipers Services list.. very comprehensive

Very helpful site. Thanks HG!!