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