Increasing Graphics Performance

By default, XP turns on a lot of shadows, fades, slides etc to menu items. which will slow down your PC.

To turn these off selectively:

1. Right click on the My Computer icon
2. Select Properties
3. Click on the Advanced tab
   
4. Under Performance, click on the Settings button
5. To turn them all of, select Adjust for best performance

My preference is to leave them all off except for Show shadows under mouse pointer and Show window contents while dragging