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Tweaking your copy of Windows.



This is mainly aimed at Windows XP. Over the past few years i have repeatedly installed windows and messed around with the setup to try and get it running as fast as possible.

NOTE: I accept no responsibility for any harm you may cause to your pc by carrying out any of these tasks. I have never experienced problems carrying them out myself, or on the systems of friends and family. You do so at your own risk.


Tweaking the Swap File - 256mb RAM Minimum

Start, Run, msconfig.exe
SYSTEM.INI tab
in the 386enh add "ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1"

Boot time and xp general speed Link

Start, Run, regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
EnablePrefetcher, Decimal, 3

Memory Performance Link

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
DisablePagingExecutive, Decimal, 1
LargeSystemCache, Decimal, 1
Right Click, New Dword, IOPageLockLimit
Hexadecimal

Reducing the strain of CPU hungry apps Link

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl
Right Click, New Dword, IRQ8Priority
Set to 1

Improving NTFS Performance Link

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem
Right Click, New Dword, NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate
Set to 1

Free up memory from programs that have been closed Link

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer
Right Click, New Dword, AlwaysUnloadDLL
Set to 1

Extended file names Link

Start, Run
fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1
OK

Download the complete set Link


Disk Cleanup

I will also reccommend using

cleanmgr /sageset:x

where x is a number, tick all the boxes which you would like diskclanup to tidy, then run

cleanmgr /sagerun:x

where x is the number you used for sageset. This is entered in the start, run. or WinKey + R

Defragment Regularly

I personally do not defragment my drives enough, the windows disk defragmenter works perfectly fine, running othe rprogframs in the background to defragment when the pc is idle are a good idea, but it means they are running in memory, constantly seeking if the computetr is idle.

Virus Software

Another thing that sits there and uses resources. If your one of those people who constantly downloads software and apps from the internet, then i would reccomend leving your virus softwaref doinfg its job, if you think nah what are the chances i'll take a risk! then just don't have any.
If your pc isnt't the greatest spec in the world, and runs a tad slow anyway, maybe removing your virus software may help. It usually scans files on creation, such as files downloaded from the internet, modification, execution, and possibly emails. This all takes time, memory usage and processing power away from your use.
The only viruses i've ever had are over msn, and thats because i clicked the silly "omglook at these pictures of us" link, and let the thing install anyway. Only to see what it actually does. Usually they're not very complex at all, and are quite good at spreading the word about themselves over msn, but you thing the person(s) who made it would do something a bit more interesting and annoying than just sending the link everywhere.
Anyway, i find virus programs such as norton, sluggish. My family uses it, and it thier pc's are rather slow. even AVG free seems to use less resources than norton does.

MSCONFIG

If you go to start, run, msconfig.exe
You get some crazy box with loads of options. The most useful tab you will find, is the startup tab. This has all the crap and the few useful things that run whe you startup your system.
Things in the C:\WINDOWS directory you probably want to leave running. Your graphics manufacturers one too, things could be nwiz for nvidia, and ati one or even maybe igfxtray for intel. i dont know what yours is so lets not fuss over it.
Most things are there to allow thier pogram to launch quicker, quickstart programs. msmsgs is msn messenger, that slows the pc down to hell on load, i mean, how much effort is it to click it on your desktop, or in your start menu? video accelerators, office quicksarts are there too. On close, you will be asked if you want to restart or not. Thats up to you.
When you next boot, a box will come up, tick the checkbox and click OK.

Microsoft Bootvis

This is only for xp, not vista or windows 7.
It analyses the time it takes fort windows to load and its files and drivers, then will lay them out across the hard disk to improve the boot time.
Softpedia Bootvis Link