Archives for the 'Computer Tweaks' Category

Speed up Your XP with a few tweaks.

With a bit of know-how and a bit of editing, you can speed up your XP’s load up time, shut down time, and improve its overall performance with just a few steps. While these tips are sound and will do as promised, you should be careful to follow these steps precisely as I do not wish to be responsible for any damages incurred if done wrong.

I tested these on my Windows XP Home SP2 and they worked great. They managed to shave off 30-40% off of start up time and 25-30% off of shut down time. While improving those two, it also increased my general/overall performance quite significantly.

Tweak #1: Reducing System Lag on Start Up:

Have you noticed that when you log into your XP, that there is a noticeable amount of lag or delay before you can do anything? This is usually attributed to either too many things on your start up menu loading up, or it could possibly be linked to a few ’services’ that are running and that are useless to the average user.

So lets start with the services. Go to the start menu by clicking the icon at the bottom corner, you should see a program called “Run…” right on that screen (without going through your program files). Click it and a small box will open up with a text field. Type in MSconfig and hit enter. That will bring you to a Systems Configuration Utility.

In this utility, there are tabs along the top, click on “Services”. In this screen, there would be a long list of services, try un-ticking the following:

• Background Intelligent Transfer Service - If you use Automatic Updates, do not disable this. If you go to Microsoft’s website to update, do not disable this. I often disable this and then re-enable when I need to go update something at Microsoft. I noticed a considerable change in overall performance when this was disabled, and I have SP2 (when this should have been corrected years prior, according to microsoft). This also accounts for some of the lag/delay at start up, at least in my case.
• Indexing Service - It speeds up ’searches’ when looking for files, though it decreases performance. So unless you use the search program often, this is not needed.
• Messenger - Disable this one. In no way is this related to MSN messenger. What it allows is people to send you spam over the internet and clog up your connection. (In a nutshell, of course - but I am partly cynical in the matter ).
• Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing - This is a bit dangerous to leave on actually, for all those hackers out there. It basically lets anyone (with enough programming knowledge) with NetMeeting have access to your system, and people with netmeeting include anyone who has windows XP. Better be safe than sorry, I guess? I mean, when is the last time you used NetMeeting. hehe.
• QoS RVSP - Though was skeptical with this one at first, it basically is involved with “Load Balancing” which shifts the amount of bandwidth needed between applications. Sad part is, this, in itself, was reported to take up about 20-25% of your overall bandwidth.
• Remote Registry - This should definitely be disabled. Unless you are editing your registry from a different computer (for some unknown reason), this should be off. Why? It is like giving anyone the opportunity to edit your computers brain/soul from a different computer. >_<

Another thing that you should probably do, while still in MSconfig, is to check out what is in your “Startup” tab. Various things that you take for granted can be cluttering up your start up and slowing down your PC. If you do not know what one of those items on your start up list are, then google it! It will usually return a few which can tell whether or not it is a spyware or a legit program. Do not be alarmed, this is normal. Click the link and see what it is related to.

After applying the settings to MSconfig, it will ask you to restart. Take the time to do this and then when your Windows restarts it will be changing around all the settings for the first time. A box will appear which states that you have changed settings through MSconfig, there should be a tick-box (check the tick) and hit ok. Restart again and hopefully you will see some performance improvements. It may take a bit for the operating system to kick in however generally, you will be more safe and performance-ready.

If errors appear, it may be part of what you took off from Msconfig (start up). Just be careful while going through these options, as it is modifying important parts of your Operating System.

Tweak #2: Delay Menu’s to increase performance and kill lag.

Although, it sounds weird, here we will attempt to slow down the speed of how quickly your start up menu loads, in order to save you from lag and delays on everything else. This tested and worked out. If your taskbar icons try to load up too fast, it will cause lag ( comparison: trying to force a football into a hole the size of a baseball) .

• Go to the start menu, click on Run.., and type in Regedit. This one is a bit more complicated and puzzling to navigate for the first timer, so I will go in steps. There should be a sidebar with a bunch of menu’s (with + signs beside them to expand).
• Click and Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
• Click and Expand Control Panel
• Click and Expand Desktop
• Find MenuShowDelay on the list (shown on Right-side)
• Right click and select Modify (or double-click)
• Change the Value from anywhere to 80, 90, or 100. (Default, I think, is 20)
• Reboot Computer.

I was fairly surprised on how well this worked. I experienced less lag and better performance. My average ram usage for system tasks appeared less than normal. (at least, in my case).

Tweak #3: Create a Script to Decrease Shutdown Speed time by 3 seconds

This one is a little interesting as it managed to help out quite nicely. This one needs to be done in Four Steps. (Easy steps, if you know your way around Windows).

First Step: To Allow the use of seeing extensions.

On your desktop, click on “my computer” or “my documents”. In the new window, at the top should be a menu.

• Click on Tools at the Top.
• Click on Folder Options (A new Menu Box will pop up at this point).
• Click View on the new Top Menu Tab.
• Scroll down and find “Hide Extensions for Known File Types” and Untick it.
• Click Apply.

What this will do is allow you to see and modify the extensions of files for future reference. I find this quite useful for a general experience as I often change extensions to .html/.php for my websites, from notepad (yes, I use only notepad for my websites, I’m a geek).

Second Step: Creating the Bat File with Script.

• Go to your desktop and Rightclick and hover over “New”, then click on “Text Document”. This will create a new text document on your desktop with the name of “New Text Document.txt”.
• Modify The field in Red. (If you do not know it, just delete the first line. You can use my computer to click on these to find out what your user name is). Usually it is set to “Admin”RD /S /q “C:\Documents and Settings\Admin\Local Settings\History”
  RD /S /q “C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\History”
  RD /S /q “C:\WINDOWS\Temp\”Once finished, copy and Paste it into the document.
• Save it and exit out of the document.
• Right click on the document and click on “Rename”.
• Rename the text file to, “DelTemp.bat”

Step Three: Move it to the C:/Windows folder.

• Double Click on My Computer
• Double Click on Local Drive [C] (or whichever your local drive is).
• On the screen, you should see a Windows folder. Move the whole Window to the side so you can see your desktop, and just drag/drop the document into the Windows Folder for safe-keeping. It should be in your Windows Folder now.

Step Four: gpedit.

• Click on Start on the bottom corner.
• Click on Run and type in gpedit.msc (This will bring you up into a new screen).
• Double Click on “Computer Configuration” on the Right Side.
• Double Click on “Windows Settings” on the Right Side.
• Double Click on “Scripts (Startup/Shutdown)” on the Right Side.
• Double Click on “ShutDown”. (A new window will Pop Up)
• Click on “Add”
• Copy + Paste into the text field.C:\WINDOWS\DelTemp.batNote: If you changed the name of the Bat File, rename it to whatever needed. It is case-sensitive.
• Click on Ok. Click on Ok again. Close everything down. Restart.

This managed to work wonders for me, and it automatically deletes all of your temporary files and history which often clogs up your internet. Its pretty neat. If done every time you shut down, you should not notice any difference as it is only deleting a small amount before shutting down.

I know, I know, a lot of work just to shave off 3 seconds. However, I feel accomplished when I manage to make my XP just a bit faster.

Tweak #4: Disable Windows XP Start up Logo/Loading Screen

Yea, some of us find it a nice thing to have, we can change how our Windows Start up Logo looks and what is on it through various resources; however, that logo adds an extra 3-5 seconds onto your Load up time.

Please Note that this should only be attempted if you do not have any concurrent/serious problems on your system. If you do, then this should be avoided until they are fixed. (the most common problems I am talking about is boot up problems).

• Click on Start and Click on Run.
• Enter in MSConfig and click ok. (The MSConfig window will pop up).
• Under the top tabs, go to “Boot.ini”.
• There should be an option which says “/noguiboot” with a check box beside it. Tick it. Your done.

While restarting, you will notice that the splash screen is gone. It will be a dark void which may seem like it takes longer to load up (because of the no splash screen), however, it was timed and it shaves off on average between 3-5 seconds.

You can re-enable this by going to MSConfig and un-checking/un-ticking the same field.

Tweak #5: The “My Computer” Tweak

This one is fairly simple, though I can see why people would hesitate when trying to change these settings (as some of the ‘eye candy’ of XP will be lost when navigating through My Computer). So it is up to you if you want to do this, it will not impact your overall performance that much, but more so your “My Computer” performance.

• Right Click on “My Computer” either from your desktop or under the start menu and click on Properties.
• Go to the Advanced Tab.
• Click on “Settings” under the Performance Options section.
• Look through the list and untick as many of those as you think you might not need.
  for example:
  1. Fade or slide menus into view
  2. Fade or slide ToolTips into view
  3. Fade out menu items after clicking
  4. Show Shadows under menus
  5. Slide open combo boxes
  6. Slide taskbar buttons
  7. Use a background image for each folder type
  8. Use common tasks in folders

By Unticking these, My Computer will load up quicker and work faster. Not only this but there will be less delay with the more programs you have opened up. I think it is a quick and easy fix, if you do not mind losing a bit of eye candy.

Conclusion:

There are many tweaks available (for free) that can improve your XP’s overall performance. Doing a simple google search can help with this. These are just some of the ones I found most useful in my case. When looking through these tweaks, you should keep in mind the date they were published in, as some of the information might not be accurate anymore. (However, do not let the date fool you, some of these tweaks are from years ago that I have been using and with no problems).

If you have any Tips/Tricks/Comments/Suggestions/Complaints:

Leave a Comment and I will modify this post accordingly, or make a new post and give you credit to it. I am always interested in learning about new tweaks which can be done to boost the overall performance of an operating system.

Disclaimer:

While these tweaks should improve the performance of your Windows XP Home/Pro, please note that with each tweak comes a risk. You should be aware of this prior to doing any of these tweaks and access the severity of the situation in case if something goes wrong. Now, mind you, I have been doing these for quite some time and I have had no problems, but I am familiar with how Windows XP works and some of its back-end features which I often change/tweak myself. If you are not comfortable with doing some of these, then do not.

17 February 2008 | Computer Tweaks | 9 Comments