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Update Infomation Release Plan

Many may think that increasing RAM, upgrading to Core 2 Duo, can lead to a super fast Computing stuff. But after doing a little research in Internet I have found out that XP is the most tweakable OS which if properly tweaked can lead to a much faster performance witout upgrading ur parts. So in a nutshell I will tell you some of the tweaks which You yourselves can try it out.......................

 

Adjust Graphics for Speed:

  • Windows XP has a lot of new cool looking visual elements, however, those new elements take up more RAM and cause your computer to be less responsive. By tweaking your graphics settings, you can increase the performance of your computer.

    To get started, Let's reduce the color quality.  This setting determines how many colors are displayed on your screen. 

  • Right click on your desktop and select properties.
  • Click on the settings tab and adjust the color quality drop down box to Medium (16 Bit).
  • Click OK.

Next, let's use the windows performance settings to optimize your computer for performance.  This will revert back to the old Windows 2000 look as well as take away a lot of the fancy graphics effects.  However, if you are really into performance, this is the price you have to pay.

  1. Right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop or in your start panel and select properties.
  2. Next, Click on the Advanced tab and hit the setting button under performance.
  3. On the visual effects tab, select Adjust for Best Performance and hit OK.
  4. Hit OK once more to exit system properties.

Now your computer will run slightly faster!

Classic Start Menu Mode (Browsing Boost)

 

WARNING: Keep in mind that this tweak is intended for people using the "Classic Start Menu" mode to browse trough the Start Menu.

If your Start Menu loads right away when you click on it, but goes slow while you browse trough it, this will certainly solve your problem. It's quite simple actually, just follow these steps:

1. Right Click on your taskbar and choose "Properties"
2. Choose the "Start Menu" Tab and then click on "Customize"(Classic Start Menu :) Obviously)
3. Scroll Down the "Advanced Start Menu Options" list and uncheck the "Use Personalized Menus" option, click "OK", then "Apply" and "OK" to finish.

There's no need to reboot, you'll see the difference right away. Another good advice to keep you start menu working smooth is to restrict the number of programs and icons listed as much as possible, keep in mind that it works just like any other regular folder, the less you index, the faster it gets.

 

Clean your prefetch to improve performance

This is an unique technique for WinXP. We know that it is necessary to wash registry and TEMP files for Win9X/ME/2000 periodly. Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP some time, the prefetch folder can get full of rarely used or obsolete links which can slow down your computer noticeably. My suggestion is: open C(system drive):/windows/prefetch, delete all files (or at least those more than 3 weeks old), reboot. I recommended that you do this every month.

Editor Note:  Deleting prefetch files too often (Every reboot) can decrease system performance!

 

Decrease your Applications startup time

By default, Microsoft includes the /prefetch:1 switch to speed up it's Windows Media Player application start time.  This switch can be used for other Windows applications and also many third party programs.

Example #1

You have AOL 8.0 installed on the computer. Complete the steps outlined bewlo to add the /prefetch:1 switch to AOL's Target path.

1. Right click on the AOL shortcut and select properties from the menu.

2. In the Target: Field add the /prefetch:1 switch to the very end of the path, like this:  "C:Program FilesAmerica Online 8.0aol.exe" /prefetch:1 and then click ok.

Now start AOL. It would load at least 50 times faster than ever before.

Example #2

1, Go to the Start button/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools

2. Right click on System Restore and select properties from the menu that appears. Add the /prefetch:1 to the Target Path entry so it looks like this %ystemRoot%System32 estore strui.exe /prefetch:1 and click ok.

Now System Restore will start immediately when executed.

Note: This switch will only work with some programs. Others will return a message saying the program in the target box is invalid. Just remove the switch (by Allan, forum admin).

 

Disable automatic updating

 

 

 

To save memory and CPU time turn off the automatic update system in windows.  You can always check manually for updates and most users have no problem with that.  For those of you lazy bums out there you can leave this feature on but I warned you.
Open control panel.
(if using XPstyle control panel, click onperformance and maintenance.)

Click onSystem.

Then click on the automatic updates tab and selectTurn off automatic updating. If Service Pack 1 is installed uncheckKeep my computer up to date.
ClickOk

 

Gaming Machine: Hardware Profile to free up System Resources

Instead of disabling HW and stopping services, let's say for gaming, create a Hardware Profile.

Right click on My Computer - select Properties. Select Hardware Tab, then click Hardware Profiles.

Mark "Original Configuration", then Copy and then Rename to e.g "Game" Now you have created a menu that shows up when you boot your computer. Set the properties for your boot option in the "Hardware profiles selections" You normally would boot with the Original Configuration. Never delete your "Original Configuration" if you boot in another profile. Reboot your computer to see that this takes effect.

Now, to tweak the different services for a Game Machine listed in this document

http://www.tweakxp.com/tweakxp/display.asp?id=114

Select each service to configure, right-click, select Properties, Choose "Log on" tab. In the lower part of this box select "Disable" or "Enable" dependent on which hardware profile you configure. If you configure for "Game" you choose "Disable" to free  up system resources.

Careful: You can also disable/enable different hardware in the Device Manager - "Device Usage" box according to what Hardware profile you boot on, this is only recommended if you have any hardware that causes problems for games, etc.

Also; if you configure Virtual Memory according to this documenthttp://www.tweakxp.com/tweakxp/display.asp?id=203
you should set "Initial Memory" and the "Maximum" to be the same to avoid this pagefile to be defragmented, i.e you get better performance. Use 384 MB pagefile if you have installed 256 MB RAM. (256MBx1.5=384MB, Microsoft.)

If you used XP "clean-up" on  your hardisk, then defragmented it, the PC would perform even better. Enjoy.

 

Disable Indexing Services

 

Indexing services is a small program that hogs HUGE amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy.  This system process indexing and updates lists of the files on your system, so you can search for them quickly, but it's completley unnessesary.

To disable it, go to the Control Panel and click Add/Remove Programs.  Click the Add/Remove Window Components.  Simply unclick the Indexing services and click next!

Indexing service creates a database index of all files on your system when the system is otherwise idle. Unless you do frequent searches, it is suggested you disable this service.


Disable Recent Documents History

Normally when you open or access a document or file it is added to the list of recent documents on the Start Menu. This tweak will stop files from being added to the list.

Open your registry and find the key below.

Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value called 'NoRecentDocsHistory' set the value to equal '1' to enable the restriction.

Exit your registry, you may need to restart for the changes to take effect.

Registry Settings:

 

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
Value Name: NoRecentDocsHistory
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disable restriction, 1 = enable restriction)

 

Disable Search from looking in zip (compressed) files

Windows XP Search can get slow if you have a lot of compressed files on your hard drive. Speed up your searches by disabling this. Open the Run command and type the following:

regsvr32 c:\winnt\\system32\zipfldr.dll /u or

regsvr32 c:\windows\\system32\zipfldr.dll /u if installed in the windows directory

To turn this feature back on:

regsvr32 c:\winnt\\system32\zipfldr.dll or

regsvr32 c:\windows\\system32\zipfldr.dll if installed in the windows directory

 

Open Outlook Express faster

For some users when they remove windows messenger or just disable it from starting up automatically they experience a great slow down when launching Outlook express. Users who experience such a slow down will find a error in the system error log saying The server {FB7199AB-79BF-11D2-8D94-0000F875C541} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

The solution to this problem is quite simple. Just Open up regedit and search for the string {FB7199AB-79BF-11D2-8D94-0000F875C541} and modify the keys InProcServer32 and LocalServer32 default key to a empty string.