why can't I speed up my computer?

Sounds like a bad case of micromanagement. Computers don't need defrag these days, and there are no necessary startup programs. Use Msconfig's Diagnostic Startup to test the startup situation.

If you have restored the computer to factory fresh and the speed is the same as when it was new, there is no problem. Otherwise consider disconnecting from the Internet, turning off your antimalware and antivirus, and seeing if that works better. It's quite possible to tweak Windows into molasses, and automated registry editors are famous for turning a decent machine into a doorstop.

The main problem most people miss is the definition of "slow" when referring to a computer. What isn't running at adequate speed. Is it slow just doing things in the operating system, or is there slowness while trying to run programs.

In the future, post your full system spec to help get better answers. I'll take a guess that you have the standard dual core CPU and 1GB of RAM. If I am right, this is your problem, no matter how much memory you believe is being used.

Vista is a resource pig. It can barely operate itself adequately with only 1GB of RAM, much less the other things that you will install and try to run. I don't recommend that anyone try to run Vista with less than 2GB of RAM.

In addition, there are some programs that are going to be very taxing to a laptop because laptops lack a dedicated video card. I don't know what you are using the laptop for, but there are games that will not work well, or work slowly.

Also, if you are using your laptop on the battery (not plugged in to AC power) it will always be slow. This is a normal built in trade-off between performance and battery life. Plug it in to run at full speed.

You have run all these third party utilities on a factory reinstall of Vista - to what end? These tools have nothing to improve on a system that was just freshly re-installed. The registry has no errors after you just installed the OS.

Finally, if your comparison is slowness vs XP on the same hardware, that is the unfortunate truth about Vista. Win7 and XP are both faster on the same hardware than Vista is.

EDIT: 32bit Vista will go up to 4GB of memory, however I believe it counts only 3.5GB. Perhaps 2GB is the limitation of your hardware.

Again... Vista will barely function adequately on 1GB of physical RAM. Processexplorer should tell you everything that is running in memory, but you're saying it's all essential stuff.

You shouldn't need defragging that often - fragmentation only comes from writing and deleting files, and happens over a long period.

If your powersupply is plugged in, your CPU should not be running at a slower clock speed. If your hard drive is constantly working, that is another sign that you have inadequate RAM. CPU instructions are stored in RAM, or VRAM.

I wish I could tell you something other than that Vista had horrible memory management. Both Win7 and XP run better on the same hardware.

There are many causes leading for a slow PC;

Part 1: For the software cause

1. Startup overload

2. Improperly BIOS setting

3. Bloated windows registry

Part 2: For the hardware cause

1. Insufficient memory

2. Badly Fragmented Hard Drive

3. For the CPU problem

Part 3: For the Spyware & Viruses cause

Go to Multi-method to Speed Up PC Performance:

http://www.system-tools-software.com/knowledge/mul...

Delete resident programs.

The so-called resident programs can be loaded automatically when computer is booting. Such resident programs can not only slow down computer speed but also expense computer resource and memory more quickly. Although those programs are quite useful for your computer, do you really want to use them at the expense of computer speed? As a matter of fact, you do not need to delete them but just disable to load when starting up computer.

And for system restore point, it has its own advantages and disadvantages. It can create general backup files for system and program files and set checking points for them. When system goes crash or is affected by virus, it is easy for you to use system restore function to set many checking point to protect your computer. The users can restore any normal system state by choosing the points.

Though it is quite useful, it is good for computer to turn it off in certain condition. For example, if the computer is affected, system restore may back up the virus as well. That is to say your computer is likely to go back to the affected state when using this function in the future. Besides, such points have to occupy disk space. When the hard disk space is too low, it is wise for you to close down this function.

More to http://ezinearticles.com/?Disk-Defragment---Why-I-...

how much ram do u have? add like 2 gigs of ram. and what is your cpu? try and get a dual core