[zoom_vroom]

Hey guys
Searched for a similar thread with"Windows XP",did not find one so starting another.
Here are some tips to pace up your XP machine.

1. Defrag and Run Disk Clean up too.
2. Disable 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"

3.Disable last update.You might not like to do it.

Go to Start and then Run and type "regedit"
Click through the file system until you get to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contr ol\FileSystem"
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'

4. Improve boot time

Go to Start Menu and Click Run
Type in "Regedit" then click ok
Find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOp timizeFunction"
Select "Enable" from the list on the right
Right on it and select "Modify"
Change the value to "Y to enable"
Reboot


5.Improve swap file performance

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



8. Make Your Menus Load Faster

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


9. 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.


10. 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\CurrentControlSet\Contr ol\'
Select 'WaitToKillServiceTimeout'
Right click and select 'Modify'
Change the value to '1000'
Click 'OK'

11. Ensure XP Is Using DMA Mode

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\CurrentControlSet\Contr ol\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\'
4. Right-click on "EnablePrefetcher" and set the value to '0'
5. Reboot.

[aaggoswami]

Nice list!
I have done most of the modifications, but still not able to get what I want.
I want certain applications to use more resources but not able to achieve it.

[Rehaan]

Nice list. Few more off the top of my head :

1. TURN OFF Data Execution Prevention (DEP)
These is a noticable lag even when doing something like opening a .txt file when DEP is on (default).

The easiest way to turn off DEP is to right click My Computer > Advanced tab > Startup & Recovery Settings > click the Edit button to edit the boot.ini file :
Replace the text that says /NoExecute=OptIn
so that it says /NoExecute=AlwaysOff


2. Turn off recent documents history

Originally Posted by I forget which site i got this from

The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that Windows XP has to calculate what should be put there each time you boot Windows, which can slow things down. So, if you never use the Recent Documents History, it's a good idea to disable it. Here's how:

1. Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK).
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
3. Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it once it is created.
4. Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction.
5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the change to take effect.

3. Page file / "Virtual" memory
You've mentioned a variation on this above, but if your system has tons of RAM, turn it OFF altogether!
My system runs photoshop / illustrator etc without a problem.
Only bad point is that WHEN your comp does need more memory than you have available, it will probably give a program error (so saving work should be a habit!). I cant even remember the last time i got an error like that... i have 2.5gigs of ram.

4. Get TweakUI
... and play with it. There are tons of settings (including an easy way to do the menu-delay you mentioned in point 8 above.
(The installer is on the right side of the screen - Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP)

5. Go easy on the menu graphics
Right click My Computer > Advanced tab > Performance settings > Visual effects tab >
"Adjust for best performance" or choose the options you want from the custom list.

Thats all i can think of for now.
cya
R

[zoom_vroom]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

5. Go easy on the menu graphics
Right click My Computer > Advanced tab > Performance settings > Visual effects tab >
"Adjust for best performance" or choose the options you want from the custom list.

Hey Rehaan
This one helps a lot but you get the look of Windows 2000 in Windows XP, which everyone might not like.
I prefer allowing Windows to manage it for me.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

5. Go easy on the menu graphics
Right click My Computer > Advanced tab > Performance settings > Visual effects tab >
"Adjust for best performance" or choose the options you want from the custom list.

Thats all i can think of for now.

Well, its not right click on my computer. It wont lead you to " Advanced Tab ".
It would go like this :
Keep the windows button presssed and press the break button. This will give system properties window. Then go to Advanced > performance ( press settings button ) > visual effects.

But if one wants to go to system properties, then right click on my computer and them go to properties.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

Well, its not right click on my computer. It wont lead you to " Advanced Tab "....

I left out the word properties

Right click My Computer > Properties > Advanced tab > Performance settings > Visual effects tab >

cya
R

[muralisk]

I tried many such tweaks, but I could notice considerable performance, only after enhancing the memory and cleaning up the registry to get rid of all the freeware and other shareware software.

[RAC]

Originally Posted by muralisk

I............... and cleaning up the registry to get rid of all the freeware and other shareware software.

Hi
How do you clean-up the registry. Which tool do you use.

[rjvora_2000]

This is nice information.

[benbsb29]

To perform any of these tweaks, one needs to use the regedit. However, i face a problem which may sound rather stupid but which has me foxed. When i installed XP on my PC, i dont remember the password which i had used as Administrator. Now, i use a profile to log in, which has permissions for all installs and so on, EXCEPT the regedit function.

Can someone please help me with a workaround? :( This has literally rendered me helpless.

[NetfreakBombay]

Can you reset admin password from that profile? Type:

control userpasswords2

This would bring up user management UI. See if can change admin password.

Or you can use command line to modify registry.

[hyper123]

Run>msconfig - disable all the unnecessary programs from the startup tab.

Run> services.msc - disable or choose manual for these services:

Automatic Updates
Computer browser
Error reporting service
Fast user switching capability
Help & support
HID access
Indexing service
Network DDE, DDE DSDM
NLA
Performance logs & alerts
Portable media serial number
Print spooler (if you do not have a printer)
QoS RSVP
Remote desktop help session manager
Remote registry
Security centre
SSDP discovery service
Sys event notification
TCP/IP net bios helper
Telnet
Terminal services
UPS (if you do not use one)
uPnP device host
Volume Shadow copy
Webclient
Firewall/ICS
Windows time
Wireless zero config (if no wireless connection)
WMI performance adapter

For more tweaks: goto TweakGuides.com and search for XPTC (XP Tweaking Companion)

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Can you reset admin password from that profile? Type:

control userpasswords2

This would bring up user management UI. See if can change admin password.

This worked, and i was able to successfully change the Administrator password. Now, how do i log in using the Administrator profile? At the login screen, the only profile which shows up is my current one.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

This worked, and i was able to successfully change the Administrator password. Now, how do i log in using the Administrator profile? At the login screen, the only profile which shows up is my current one.

OK, log off from the present profile you are in.
As soon as you log off, there will a screen where the profile from which you just logged off will be visible.
Now press Ctrl+Altr+Del once and if you cannot see a new dialog box for login, press the three buttons once again.
Now you will be presented with the login of Administrator and then used the new password.

[Bass&Trouble]

I am trying to free up space on my boot drive of 30 GB.

When I open C:, I can see 3 folders.

1st is "Documents and Settings", which shows to be occupying 2.75 GB of hard disk space on doing right click > properties.

2nd is "Program Files", which is 4.4 GB

3rd is "Windows", which shows up as another 4.75 GB.

1 + 2+ 3 totals to about 12 GB, whereas if I right click and see the properties of C drive itself, it shows 16.5 GB as occupied. There is nothing else in the root folder.

So I assumed that there must be some hidden files which are probably not being accounted for when I am checking the properties of C (although I have a feeling it doesnt work that way. Anyway I tried to enable viewing of hidden files and folders. But I couldn't find any. So I opened the folder view menu again to check the "show hidden files and folders" setting, and surprisingly, it had gone back to "do not show hidden files and folders". I tried setting it back to show, but it goes back to the "do not show" thing again and again.

Any idea what's going on here? Btw, I tried logging on as administrator to see if he had the privilege of seeing hidden files but it seems like he doesn't either.