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 Windows XP Tweaks

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JuleGOD
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JuleGOD


Posts : 174
Join date : 2009-06-19
Age : 34
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Windows XP Tweaks Empty
PostSubject: Windows XP Tweaks   Windows XP Tweaks I_icon_minitimeFri Jun 26, 2009 10:10 pm

DISABLE INDEXING SERVICES
Indexing Services is a small little program that
uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and
noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are
on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on
your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. If you don't
search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service
is completely unnecessary. To disable do the following:
1. Go to Start
2.
Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Double-click Add/Remove
Programs
5. Click the Add/Remove Window Components
6. Uncheck the Indexing
services
7. Click Next


OPTIMISE DISPLAY SETTINGS
Windows XP can
look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To
optimise:
1.Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4.
Click System
5. Click Advanced tab
6. In the Performance tab click
Settings
7. Leave only the following ticked:
- Show shadows under
menus
- Show shadows under mouse pointer
- Show translucent selection
rectangle
- Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
- Use visual
styles on windows and buttons


DISABLE PERFORMANCE COUNTERS
Windows
XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC's
performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good
idea.
To disable:
1. download and install the Extensible Performance
Counter List(http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/remove404.mspx)
2.Then
select each counter in turn in the 'Extensible performance counters' window and
clear the 'performance counters enabled' checkbox at the bottom.button
below.


SPEEDUP FOLDER BROWSING
You may have noticed that everytime
you open my computer to browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is
because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers
everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing
significantly:
1. Open My Computer
2. Click on Tools menu
3. Click on
Folder Options
4. Click on the View tab.
5. Uncheck the Automatically
search for network folders and printers check box
6. Click Apply
7. Click
Ok
8. Reboot your computer


IMPROVE MEMORY USAGE
Cacheman
Improves the performance of your computer by optimizing the disk cache, memory
and a number of other settings.
Once Installed:
1.Go to Show Wizard and
select All
2.Run all the wizards by selecting Next or Finished until you are
back to the main menu. Use the defaults unless you know exactly what you are
doing.
3.Exit and Save Cacheman
4.Restart Windows


OPTIMISE YOUR
INTERNET CONNECTION
There are lots of ways to do this but by far the easiest
is to run TCP/IP Optimizer.
1. Download(www.speedguide.net/files/tcpoptimizer.exe) and install
2.
Click the General Settings tab and select your Connection Speed (Kbps)
3.
Click Network Adapter and choose the interface you use to connect to the
Internet
4. Check Optimal Settings then Apply
5.
Reboot


OPTIMISE YOUR PAGEFILE
If you give your pagefile a fixed
size it saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file.
1.
Right click on My Computer and select Properties
2. Select the Advanced
tab
3. Under Performance choose the Settings button
4. Select the Advanced
tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
5. Highlight the drive
containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the
Maximum Size of the file.
Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the
amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with
smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop
system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less
than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB
or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory
size.


RUN BOOTVIS - IMPROVE BOOT TIMES download from(www.majorgeeks.com)
BootVis will significantly improve boot
times
1. Download and Run
2. Select Trace
3. Select Next Boot and
Driver Trace
4. A Trace Repetitions screen will appear, select Ok and
Reboot
5. Upon reboot, BootVis will automatically start, analyze and log your
system's boot process. When it's done, in the menu go to Trace and select
Optimize System
6. Reboot.
7. When your machine has rebooted wait until
you see the Optimizing System box appear. Be patient and wait for the process to
complete


REMOVE THE DESKTOP PICTURE
Your desktop background
consumes a fair amount of memory and can slow the loading time of your system.
Removing it will improve performance.
1. Right click on Desktop and select
Properties
2. Select the Desktop tab
3. In the Background window select
None
4. Click Ok


REMOVE FONTS FOR SPEED
Fonts, especially
TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance,
trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and
fonts that applications may require.
1. Open Control Panel
2. Open Fonts
folder
3. Move fonts you don't need to a temporary directory (e.g.
C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The
more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will
gain.


DISABLE UNNECESSARY SERVICES
Because Windows XP has to be
all things to all people it has many services running that take up system
resources that you will never need. Below is a list of services that can be
disabled on most machines:
Alerter
Clipbook
Computer
Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Fast User Switching
Help and
Support - (If you use Windows Help and Support leave this enabled)
Human
Interface Access Devices
Indexing Service
IPSEC
Services
Messenger
Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra
security)
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
(disabled for extra security)
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote
Registry (disabled for extra security)
Remote Registry Service
Secondary
Logon
Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra
security)
Server
SSDP Discovery Service - (Unplug n' Pray will disable
this)
Telnet
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Upload Manager
Universal Plug and
Play Device Host
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration (Do not disable
if you use a wireless network)
Workstation
To disable these
services:
Go to Start and then Run and type "services.msc"
Doubleclick on
the service you want to change
Change the startup type to
'Disable"


TURN OFF SYSTEM RESTORE
System Restore can be a useful
if your computer is having problems, however storing all the restore points can
literally take up Gigabytes of space on your hard drive. To turn off System
Restore:
Open Control Panel
Click on Performance and Maintenance
Click
on System
Click on the System Restore tab
Tick 'Turn off System Restore on
All Drives'
Click 'Ok'


DEFRAGMENT YOUR PAGEFILE
Keeping your
pagefile defragmented can provide a major performance boost. One of the best
ways of doing this is to creat a separate partition on your hard drive just for
your page file, so that it doesn't get impacted by normal disk usage. Another
way of keeping your pagefile defragmented is to run PageDefrag. This cool little
app can be used to defrag your pagefile, and can also be set to defrag the
pagefile everytime your PC starts. To install:
Download(www.sysinternals.com) and
Run PageDefrag
Tick "Defrag at next Reboot",
Click
"Ok"
Reboot


SPEEDUP FOLDER ACCESS - DISABLE LAST ACCESS
UPDATE
If you have a lot of folders and subdirectories on your computer, when
you access a directory XP wastes a lot of time updating the time stamp showing
the last access time for that directory and for ALL sub directories. To stop XP
doing this you need to edit the registry. If you are uncomfortable doing this
then please do not attempt.
Go to Start and then Run and type
"regedit"
Click through the file system until you get to
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Cur rentControlSet\Control\FileSys
tem"
Right-click in a blank area of the window on the right and select 'DWORD
Value'
Create a new DWORD Value called 'NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate'
Then
Right click on the new value and select 'Modify'
Change the Value Data to
'1'
Click 'OK'


DISABLE SYSTEM SOUNDS
Surprisingly, the beeps
that your computer makes for various system sounds can slow it down,
particularly at startup and shut-down. To fix this turn off the system
sounds:
Open Control Panel
Click Sounds and Audio Devices
Check Place
volume icon in taskbar
Click Sounds Tab
Choose "No Sounds" for the Sound
Scheme
Click "No"
Click "Apply"
Click "OK"


IMPROVE BOOT
TIMES
A great new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot
defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow
for faster booting. By default this option in enables but on some builds it is
not so below is how to turn it on.
Go to Start Menu and Click Run
Type in
"Regedit" then click ok
Find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\M
icrosoft\Dfrg\BootOpt imizeFunction"
Select "Enable" from the list on the
right
Right on it and select "Modify"
Change the value to "Y to
enable"
Reboot


Last edited by jule on Sat Aug 08, 2009 8:06 pm; edited 2 times in total
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JuleGOD
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JuleGOD


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Join date : 2009-06-19
Age : 34
Location : Cebu City

Windows XP Tweaks Empty
PostSubject: Re: Windows XP Tweaks   Windows XP Tweaks I_icon_minitimeFri Jun 26, 2009 10:11 pm

IMPROVE SWAPFILE PERFORMANCE
If you have more than 256MB of RAM this tweak
will considerably improve your performance. It basically makes sure that your PC
uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using
the swap file.
Go to Start then Run
Type "msconfig.exe" then ok
Click
on the System.ini tab
Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus
sign
Click on new then in the blank box type"ConservativeSwapfileUsage
=1"
Click OK
Restart PC


MAKE YOUR MENUS LOAD FASTER
This is
one of my favourite tweaks as it makes a huge difference to how fast your
machine will 'feel'. What this tweak does is remove the slight delay between
clicking on a menu and XP displaying the menu.
Go to Start then Run
Type
'Regedit' then click 'Ok'
Find "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel\Desktop\"
Select "MenuShowDelay"
Right click and select
"Modify'
Reduce the number to around "100"
This is the delay time before a
menu is opened. You can set it to "0" but it can make windows really hard to use
as menus will open if you just look at them - well move your mouse over them
anyway. I tend to go for anywhere between 50-150 depending on my
mood


MAKE PROGRAMS LOAD FASTER
This little tweak tends to work for
most programs. If your program doesn't load properly just undo the change. For
any program:
Right-click on the icon/shortcut you use to launch the
program
Select properties
In the 'target' box, add ' /prefetch:1' at the
end of the line.
Click "Ok"
Voila - your programs will now load
faster.


IMPROVE XP SHUTDOWN SPEED
This tweak reduces the time XP
waits before automatically closing any running programs when you give it the
command to shutdown.
Go to Start then select Run
Type 'Regedit' and click
ok
Find 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\'
Select
'WaitToKillAppTimeout'
Right click and select 'Modify'
Change the value to
'1000'
Click 'OK'
Now select 'HungAppTimeout'
Right click and select
'Modify'
Change the value to '1000'
Click 'OK'
Now find
'HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop'
Select
'WaitToKillAppTimeout'
Right click and select 'Modify'
Change the value to
'1000'
Click 'OK'
Now find 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Cur
rentControlSet\Control\'
Select 'WaitToKillServiceTimeout'
Right click and
select 'Modify'
Change the value to '1000'
Click 'OK'


SPEED UP
BOOT TIMES I
This tweak works by creating a batch file to clear the temp and
history folders everytime you shutdown so that your PC doesn't waste time
checking these folders the next time it boots. It's quite simple to
implement:
1. Open Notepad and create a new file with the following
entries:
RD /S /q "C:\Documents and Settings\"UserName without quotes"\Local
Settings\History"
RD /S /q "C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local
Settings\History"
RD /S /q "D:\Temp\" <–"Deletes temp folder, type in the
location of your temp folder"
2. Save the new as anything you like but it has
to be a '.bat' file e.g. fastboot.bat or deltemp.bat
3. Click 'Start' then
'Run'
4. Type in 'gpedit.msc' and hit 'ok'
5. Click on 'Computer
Configuration' then 'Windows Settings'
6. Double-click on 'Scripts' and then
on 'Shutdown'
7. Click 'Add' and find the batch file that you created and
then press 'Ok'


SPEED UP BOOT TIMES II
When your PC starts it
usually looks for any bootable media in any floppy or cd-rom drives you have
installed before it gets around to loading the Operating System from the HDD.
This can waste valuable time. To fix this we need to make some changes to the
Bios.
1. To enter the bios you usually press 'F2' or 'delete' when your PC
starts
2. Navigate to the 'Boot' menu
3. Select 'Boot Sequence'
4. Then
either move your Hard drive to the top position or set it as the 'First
Device'
5. Press the 'Escape' key to leave the bios. Don't forget to save
your settings before exiting
Note: Once this change has been made, you won't
be able to boot from a floppy disc or a CD-rom. If for some strange reason you
need to do this in the future, just go back into your bios, repeat the steps
above and put your floppy or CD-rom back as the 'First Device'


SPEED
UP BOOT TIMES III
When your computer boots up it usually has to check with
the network to see what IP addresses are free and then it grabs one of these. By
configuring a manually assigned IP address your boot time will improve. To do
this do the following:
1. Click on 'Start' and then ''Connect To/Show All
Connections'
2. Right-click your network adapter card and click
'Properties'.
3. On the 'General' tab, select 'TCP/IP' in the list of
services and click 'Properties'
4.I n the TCP/IP properties, click 'Use the
following address' and enter an IP address for your PC. If you are using a
router this is usually 192.168.0.xx or 192.168.1.xx. If you are not sure what
address you could check with your ISP or go to 'Start/run' and type 'cmd' and
then 'ipconfig/all'. This will show your current IP settings which you will need
to copy.
5. Enter the correct details for 'Subnet mask', 'Default gateway'
and 'DNS Server'. Again if you are not sure what figures to enter use
'ipconfig/all' as in stage 4.


FREE UP MEMORY
I found this useful
app via FixMyXP. ClearMem Is an Excellent Tool for speeding up your XP Computer
(especially if your system has been on for awhile and you have a lot of
applications open). What it does, is it Forces pages out of physical memory and
reduces the size of running processes if working sets to a minimum. When you run
this tool, the system pauses because of excessive high-priority activity
associated with trimming the working sets. To run this tool, your paging file
must be at least as large as physical memory. To Check your Paging File:
1.
Go to your control panel, then click on 'System', then go to the 'Advanced' Tab,
and Under 'Performance' click 'Settings' then the 'Advanced' Tab
2. On the
Bottom you should see 'Virtual Memory' and a value. This is the value that must
be at least as large as how much memory is in your system.
3. If the Virtual
Memory Value is smaller than your system memory, click Change and change the Min
Virtual Memory to a number that is greater than your total system memory, then
click 'Set' and Reboot.
4. Once you have rebooted install
ClearMem


ENSURE XP IS USING DMA MODE
XP enables DMA for
Hard-Drives and CD-Roms by default on most ATA or ATAPI (IDE) devices. However,
sometimes computers switch to PIO mode which is slower for data transfer - a
typical reason is because of a virus. To ensure that your machine is using
DMA:
1. Open 'Device Manager'
2. Double-click 'IDE ATA/ATAPI
Controllers'
3. Right-click 'Primary Channel' and select 'Properties' and
then 'Advanced Settings'
4. In the 'Current Transfer Mode' drop-down box,
select 'DMA if Available' if the current setting is 'PIO Only'


ADD
CORRECT NETWORK CARD SETTINGS
Some machines suffer from jerky graphics or
high CPU usage even when a machine is idle. A possible solution for this, which,
can also can help network performance is to:
1. RightClick 'My
Computer'
2. Select 'Manage'
3. Click on 'Device Manager'
4.
DoubleClick your network adaptor under 'Network Adapters'
5. In the new
window, select the 'Advanced' tab
6. Select 'Connection Type' and select the
correct type for your card and then Reboot


REMOVE ANNOYING DELETE
CONFIRMATION MESSAGES
Although not strictly a performance tweak I love this
fix as it makes my machine 'feel' faster. I hate the annoying 'are you sure?'
messages that XP displays, especially if I have to use a laptop touchpad to
close them. To remove these messages:
1. Right-click on the 'Recycle Bin' on
the desktop and then click 'Properties'
2. Clear the 'Display Delete
Confirmation Dialog' check box and click 'Ok'
If you do accidently delete a
file don't worry as all is not lost. Just go to your Recycle Bin and 'Restore'
the file.


DISABLE PREFETCH ON LOW MEMORY SYSTEMS
Prefetch is
designed to speed up program launching by preloading programs into memory - not
a good idea is memory is in short supply, as it can make programs hang. To
disable prefetch:
1. Click 'Start' then 'Run'
2. Type in 'Regedit' then
click 'Ok'
3. Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Cur
rentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\
'
4. Right-click on "EnablePrefetcher" and set the value to '0'
5.
Reboot.

-------------------------------
adding up new
tweaks...

SPEED UP YOUR HARDDISK
speed up your hard disk speed we need
to configure a special buffer in the computer's memory in order to enable it to
better deal with interrupts made from the disk.
This tip is only recommended
if you have 256MB RAM or higher.
Follow these steps:

1. Run
SYSEDIT.EXE from the Run command.
2. Expand the system.ini file window.
3.
Scroll down almost to the end of the file till you find a line called
[386enh].
4. Press Enter to make one blank line, and in that line
type
Irq14=4096

Note: This line IS CASE SENSITIVE!!!

5. Click
on the File menu, then choose Save.
6. Close SYSEDIT and reboot your
computer.

Speed improvement will be noticed after the computer
reboots.
Update: The most speed improvement is visible with IDE drives,
however there are reports that this tweak also does good for SCSI disks. In any
case, it won't harm your system, so why not try it yourself and let me know what
you find.


this is the tweaks i use in my pc! tweak at your won risk!
Note: some links might not work anymore! this is an old tweak i use in my windows XP SP2
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