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
OPTIMIZE 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
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
OPTIMIZE 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
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 create a seperate 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 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_MACHINESystemCur rentControlSetC ontr olFileSystem"
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' Done!
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" Done!
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_MACHINESOFTWAREM icrosoftDfrgBootOpt imizeFunction"
Select "Enable" from the list on the right
Right on it and select "Modify"
Change the value to "Y to enable"
Reboot
Subject: Tips for a Faster PC! 
Sun Mar 04, 2007 8:34 pm
