All possible tips to speed up your XP

Necessary do’s to speed-up your pc[xp]*.

Sometimes a well configured system fails to give a good performance. In this tech post I enclosed all possible tips & tricks to improve the speed . This article deals with Windows XP.

Tip 1:REMOVE YOUR DESKTOP BACKGROUND & SOUND SCHEME

Your Desktop Background and sound scheme will consume fair amount of system resources

To remove Desktop Picture:

• Go to Control Panel and Click Display
• Click on Desktop tab
• In the Background type select ‘none’

• Click ‘OK’.

To remove Sound Scheme:

• Open Control Panel
• Click on ‘Sounds and Audio devices’
• Select ‘Sounds’ tab.
• Under ‘sounds scheme ‘ choose ‘No sounds’
• Click ‘Apply ‘ to see changes

Tip 2: REMOVE VISUAL EFFECTS

XP version gives a gorgeous look . Disabling some Display effects increase graphics performance .

To remove those Visual effects:

• Right click on My Computer
• Point to ‘properties ‘and click on ‘Advanced ‘ tab.
• Under ‘Performance’, click on ‘Settings’.
• Click on ‘Visual effects’ tab.
• Select only the following items

- 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 button

• Leave other effects unselected. And click ‘ Apply’.

Tip 3: CUSTAMIZE FOLDER VIEWS.

Change your folder options to disable option for your computer to check the Advanced Settings and improve Windows XP performance .

To Turn off this options:

• Open ‘My Computer’
• On ‘Tools’ menu select ‘Folder options’.
• Click on ‘view’ tab.
• Under ‘Advanced settings’ uncheck the option ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers’
• Then click ‘Apply’

Tip 4: NOT TO DISPLAY LOG ON, LOG OFF, SHUT DOWN, START UP AND WINDOWS BOOT SCREEN

Not displaying these status messages and windows Boot screen help the system to start-up/ shutdown quickly

Not to display logon ,logoff , shut down, startup status messages:

• Go to Start>Run
• Type in Regedit and click ‘Ok’
• Go to ---------HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/policiessystem ( by expanding ‘+’ sign)
• Create a DWORD named “DisableStatusMessages” if not present.
• Give it a value “1”

Turn off Windows Boot Screen:

• Go to Start>Run
• Type in MSCONFIG
• Then Click on BOOT.INI tab
• Uncheck the option for NOGUIBOOT.

Tip 5: IMPROVE THE SPEED OF SHUT-DOWN PROCESS.

By following these following tricks you can speed up the shut-down process. By following this Guidelines you can shut –down your system within 10 seconds*.

First Guideline:

• Click on the start button then press R it will take u to Run well go to run

and type Regedit and press enter

• now look for the key

HKEY_LOACAL_MECHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex

• Double click on the key “Startup Delay”
• Select ‘Decimal ‘ and change its Default value(4800000) to 40000
• Click Ok and reboot your Computer

Second Guideline:

• Go to Start and select ‘Run’
• Type in Regedit and click ok
• Find the key ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
• Double click the key ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’ and Change the value to ‘1000’
• And click ok
• Now Select the key ‘HungAppTimeout’ in the same window and modify its value to’1000’
• Then click Ok.
• Similarly Go to “HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\System\Current Control set\’
• Find the same keys ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’ and ‘HungAppTimeout’
• Modify those values to ‘1000’
• Click Ok

Tip 6:REMOVE CONFIRM FILE DELETE MESSAGES

Removing annoying confirmation messages like ‘Are you sure you want to delete ****** file ‘ will increase system performance to little extent.

• Right click on the Recycle Bin and point to ‘properties’.
• Uncheck the option ‘Display delete confirmation dialog’
• Click ok.

You can restore the deleted files by restoring those files in recycle bin

Tip 7:DISABE INDEX SERVICES

Indexing services is a small program but utilizes system resources like RAM e.t.c.. To disable this Indexing services

• Go to Start
• Click Settings
• Click Control Panel
• Double-click Add/Remove Programs
• Click the Add/Remove Window Components
• Uncheck the Indexing services
• Click Next

Tip 8: DISABLING PAGING EXECUTIVE

It is applicable only to the systems which have more amount of RAM than 512 MB.

To disable this option

• Run “Regedit”.
• Find the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\MemoryManagement\
• Double click on “DisablePagingExecutive”
• Change itz value to “1”.

Tip 9:INCREASING THE BOOTING TIME

When your computer starts it automatically looks in bootable devices like CD drive , floppy drive ,USB drive e t c . To disable this option……

• To enter the bios you usually press ‘F2′ or ‘delete’ when your PC starts
• Navigate to the ‘Boot’ menu
• Select ‘Boot Sequence’
• Then either move your Hard drive to the top position or set it as the ‘First Device’
• Press the ‘Escape’ key to leave the bios. Don’t forget to save your settings before exiting

Note: Once this change has been made, you won’t be able to boot from a floppy disc or a CD-rom. If for some strange reason you need to do this in the future, just go back into your bios, repeat the steps above and put your floppy or CD-rom back as the ‘First Device’

Tip 10: SPEEDING UP MENUS IN XP

This tweak makes to load menus faster

• Go to Start --> Run --> Regedt32
• Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
• Locate the key called "MenuShowDelay" and it is probably set to 400.
• Change that value to 150.
• Reboot your computer.
• You should notice a slight increase in the speed of your menus

Tip 11: KERNEL EXPERIMENT

what is the kernel? kernel is a piece of code that is considered as the "heart" of the operating systems. It's responsible for managing system resources and the basic communication between hardware and software. It translates any functions between the applications and the CPU, main memory and other devices.

Accessing the kernel from the hard disk is usually the default on any operating system. You can set it to automatically load in the system's RAM at the boot and get better performances.

First open the Regedit tool (Start Menu - Run - regedit.exe). By using the icons in the left panel, navigate to HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management (by clicking the + sign near each and expanding it).

In the right panel you can see the values assigned. Double click the DisablePagingExecutive to edit that field and change it to 1. Be sure to make the change in decimal.

This will make all drivers and kernel to run from system's memory.

You can also edit LargeSystemCache value and change it to 1 in decimal. This will improve kernel access time.

Then you can edit IOPageLockLimit field. Change it according to these rules:

• 4000 if you have 128 RAM or less
• 10000 if you have 256 RAM installed
• 40000 for more

This will change the number of bytes for input-output operations and will increase system performance.

Tip 12: DISABLING SYSTEM RESTORE

System restore option consumes gigabytes of memory on your hard disk which ultimately effect your system performance.

To disable this option

• 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’

Tip 13: IMPROVE FOLDER ACCESS

This registry tweak will make load the folders more faster

• Go to Start and then Run and type "regedit"
• Click through the file system until you get to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\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’

Tip 14: IMPROVE SWAP FILE PERFORMANCE

This registry tweak will work on systems that have more than 256 Megs of RAM. Using this trick you can notice the increase in your system’s performance.

• Go to Start then Run
• Type "msconfig.exe" then ok
• Click on the System.ini tab
• Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
• Click on new then in the blank box type"ConservativeSwapfileUsage =1"
• Click OK
• Reboot PC

Tip 15: DISABLE UNNECESSARY SERVICES

Windows Operating systems are used world wide. Microsoft has a great deal to satisfies its wide range of users. It provides many services for different applications . But some services can be disabled which makes to speed up your boot time and resources.

List of services can be disabled:

The following services can be disbled by

Go to Start and then Run and type "services.msc"

Doubleclick on the service you want to change

Change the startup type to ‘Disable"

• Alerter
• Application Management
• Clipbook
• Fast UserSwitching
• Human Interface Devices
• Indexing Service
• Messenger
• Net Logon
• NetMeeting
• QOS RSVP
• Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
• Remote Registry
• Routing & Remote Access
• SSDP Discovery Service
• Universal Plug and Play Device Host
• Web Client

Tip 16: USING FEW FONTS

It is better to use few fonts and remove the unused fonts . Using Scripts Managers e.t.c utilities which increase / import more number of fonts to your system should be strictly prohibited.

Useless fonts can disabled by moving them to a temporary folder.

To remove the excess fonts:

· Open Control Panel

· Open Fonts folder

· 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.

Tip 17: TURN OFF HYBERSYS.FILE

In Windows XP, a Hyberfile.sys file is intended to receive the contents of RAM memory when the computer passes in prolonged deactivation. It happens to most users of Windows XP. One day you are searching for a file or cleaning up the PC's hard drive and you encounter a huge file - hiberfil.sys. This file is mostly located inside (often c:\). You try to delete the file - it's not a good idea to delete files you don't understand - but Windows won't oblige anyway. But we will help you with our tip, and we will explain how to remove this file.

Hyberfile.sys takes a size equal to the quantity of read-write memory installed on the computer, but one can decontaminate the prolonged deactivation and thus the creation of this file, if your disk space is limited. For that:

Click Start menu and then choose Control panel,

Double-click Power Options

Then on the tab “Hibernate”,

Inside this tab de-select the 'Enable hibernate support' check box, and then click Apply to confirm changes

If, from any reason in future you want to turn on hibernation but you don’t know how, the easiest way is to go to the Windows Help & Support Center and search for 'enable hibernation'.

GENERAL TIPS:

# Conserve HDD space. ¼ th of total hard disk space must be free.

#Delete any garbage files .To do this run a duplicate file founder utility

# Run scan disk , if windows is not properly shut down

# Delete temporary files periodically by going to

Start>Run> type in “temp”.

Delete all temporary files

Or you can use any system utilities to clean up these temporary files

# Defrag all your disk drives which enormously increase your systems speed.

To defrag use utilities like Diskeeper,

Note: Run this utility after deleting all temporary, and trash files.

#Use registry utilities like registry mechanics for better results.

# Stop using software pigs like Norton system utilities, etc. This place files everywhere and can be a real system resource hog on lower end PCs.

#Periodically clear Prefetch files by going to start > Run> type in “Prefetch” and click Ok. Now delete all files in the new window.

P S: Registry editing is dangerous . Pls back up your registry before doing it.

To backup registry

· Goto Start > Run

· Type in “Regedt32” to open registry editor

· Select ‘My computer”

· Then point to File menu and click Export

· Specify the Location C drive> and click save.