Lenovo T61 clean up/overhaul. All advice is appreciated.

Hello all.
I have a Lenovo T61 Thinkpad. It’s a few years old and runs XP. It’s started to be a little ‘sticky’ (quite slow, long time to boot up and such). I’d like to be able to restore it to ‘factory settings’. I’ve saved any programs and apps that I use onto an external drive.
The major problem is that I’m not very confident in doing it. I don’t have original Windows discs as I bought it from a friend. Ideally, I’d even like to give Windows 7 a try…….but I’m not going to push my luck! I just want it to run quickly and smoothly. It’s mainly used for internet and downloading.
What should/can I do? (Apart from stop being useless and learn how to do these things myself. However…..my tiny brain doesn’t function like that!).
All suggestions are gratefully received.
Thanks in advance.
LM
Answer #1
tiny brain
the try “Tiny7 rev01”
only a 700mb D/L
other drivers not installed by 7 are here
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/default.page?
Answer #2
Thanks Edwoodweb. However, I was talking about the tiny brain that runs me!
Answer #3
try a linux distro.
such as ubuntu. it would be kinder to your laptop and it will run faster.
If your still keen on windows, find a gaming version or XP on warez-bb, it will have most of the crap removed and your laptop won’t be as sticky.
Otherwise, you can try to clean it up a bit with Piriform CCleaner, I use it
Answer #4
Thanks Voryzen.
Answer #5
I was talking about the tiny brain that runs me!
I knew that, so thot a tiny OS would fit you sensibility
and Tiny7 & TinyXP have all the crap removed
run both on my T500