I installed Office XP on my computer-450mHz AMD K-6. It slowed my other programs down considerably. I uninstalled and reinstalled Win 98se. It still runs slow and my other programs still run slow. If anyone has some ancient advice I would appreciate it.

I think that's probably due to three things. Reduced disk space, much larger registry, and disk/swap file fragmentation, only one of which you really have any control over.

What I would do is uninstall Office, delete all temp, browser cache, and unnecessary files, empty the recycle bin, defragment the hard drive, set the swap file to a fixed size (~500MB), install Office, defragment again. That may make a moderate difference.

I agree with that but I'm a little confused if everstar uninstalled Office XP or Win98. Like I said what I suggested will only give some modest improvement by reorganizing the HD. His system is rather slow to begin with. I've noticed Office 2k upon install to my system slows it down, not much but I can notice it. I think a lot of it has to do with the big increase in the size of the registry and all those integrated features that get hooked into the OS when you install office.

everstar, I don't know what your budget is. if you are running the original drive you may speed things up by getting a newer, faster drive ($60) and doing a fresh install on it. Remember to set a fixed swap file in the beginning to keep it from fragmenting all over the place. With Win 9x that really makes a big difference.