Tweaking Windows XP - Part 1
These tweaks are valid for Windows XP Home and Pro only. The following settings will help you to decrease slowdowns and high CPU usage on your XP machines.
* Indexing Service - Makes searching for information on your local disk or a network faster than the Windows search. If you don’t use this function – disable it.
1. Press START.
2. Select Control Panel.
3. Select Administrator Tools.
4. Select Services.
5. Find and double click on Indexing Service.
6. Select General Tab.
7. In the Startup type select Disabled and press OK button.
* Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Sharing – gives access to your computer from anther Windows based computer. For security reasons it is recommended to disable this feature.
1. Press START
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select System
4. Select Remote Tab
5. Uncheck Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Sharing options, after that press OK button to change the settings.
* Themes – Displays new XP themes and colors on your desktop. Themes service takes 4 to 12mb of RAM. This tweak is recommended to slower and older computers.
1. Press START.
2. Select Control Panel.
3. Select System.
4. Select Advanced Tab.
5. Under Performance press the settings button.
6. Select Adjust for best performance and press OK button.
Now stop and disable the Themes service:
1. Press START.
2. Select Control Panel.
3. Select Administrator Tools.
4. Select Services.
5. Find and double click on Themes service.
6. Select General Tab.
7. In the Startup Type select Disabled and press OK button.
* Disk Defragmentation - Defragment your HDD for faster file access, especially if you copy/delete lost of files. Recommended to run defragmentation at least once in a month.
1. Open My Computer.
2. Right click the HDD that you want to defragment and click Properties.
3. Select Tools Tab and click on Defragment Now option.
4. Press the Defragment button.
* Error Reporting service – When an application has to close because of an error, message popups asks that a report be sent to Microsoft. Such messages can be annoying, there is a way to get rid of them:
1. Press START
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select System
4. Select Advanced Tab
5. Click on Error Reporting button
6. Select Disable Error Reporting option and click OK
* Convert FAT32 to NTFS file system. Change from FAT32 to NTFS for more security, stability, less fragmentation:
1. Press START and select Run
2. Type: Convert C: /FS:NTFS
C – Is your HDD you want to convert. Note that there is a space between C: and the slash “/”. Once you pressed ENTER you will be asked for confirmation, so press Y. After that press Y once more to reboot your machine.
Registry Tweaks
* Optimize NTFS file system. NTFS file system will automatically update timestamps whenever the directory is traversed. This feature is not necessary and it slows down the large volumes.
1. Press START, select Run, type Regedit.
2. Navigate to KHEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\
3. Select NtfsDisableLastAccessupdate which is on the right side.
4. Right click on it and select modify option.
5. Change the value to 1
* START menu display speed up. There is a tweak which will help to decrease delay between different tiers of the menu hierarchy:
1. Press START, select Run, type Regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
3. From there select MenuShowDelay which is on the right side.
4. Right click on it and select Modify option.
5. Change the value to 200, 100, or even lower.
6. Reboot your computer.
* Unload .DLL’S to free memory. Windows explorer caches .DLL’s in memory for a period of time after the application using them has been closed. This can be inefficient use of memory.
1. Press START, select Run, type Regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
3. On the right side create a new key named AlwaysUnloadDLL and set the value to 1.
4. Reboot your computer.
That’s all for this time, happy tweaking.
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