A couple questions- Follow up to "Openoffice update"

Hi, sorry I disappeared there but I was on a mini vacation.
So, these questions are about making my 19 GB Windows XP 'puter run faster.
Someone mentioned that they put the stuff they use all the time in a flash drive. We have a 2TB external harddrive- same concept?
I don't remember if RealPlayer gives one the option to download it anywhere but the C drive , but if I could, would it still be able to open RM files from the internet?
And OO, too. Is it just a habit I have to have my document writer on the C drive?
Potentially I could move that, RP, & Nero player, & winamp to the external HD.
But the weird thing is, I cleared a GB from the C drive, but the computer is running slower than when we only had 2.28 GB left. There's like 3.51 now.
We do disc cleanup once a week. I keep the recycle bin empty, & we did a Defrag recently. I scanned for malware & there was nothing.
Our "faster" internet made the internet slower, mostly for flash programs like Pixlr.com. It's like pulling teeth getting anything done on there now. I'm not in charge of that so I can't change it back to our old service.
Thanks.

 

I'm gonna suggest to you the concept of portable apps. Smaller than the install versions, they could reside on your C drive or the external USB device. Along with the files they create...

A good source for these is:

http://portableapps.com/

As far as Open Office (OO) goes, the project has been mostly replaced by Libre Office(LO). I have been a big user and fan of OO. I made the change to LO. I haven't seen any difference so far, and I believe the support and development is quite a bit more robust.

Using portable apps means you can keep the HD freer, no registry writes but at the cost of speed. Not much cost, but some. If this small HD environment is likely to be your future for a while, this may be an alternative you could explore...

The list of apps available as portable is impressive. Firefox, LO, Filezilla...

For a peek at the list see:

http://portableapps.com/apps