Make Your Windows Fast As Never Before
Disable CD Autorun
( WinXP PRO Only)
1) Click Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC
2) Go to Computer Configuration,
Administrative Templates, System.
3) Locate the entry for Turn autoplay off and
modify it as you desire.
Speed Up Browsing
When you connect to a web site your computer
sends information back and forth. Some of this
information deals with resolving the site name
to an IP address, the stuff that TCP/IP really
deals with, not words. This is DNS information
and is used so that you will not need to ask for
the site location each and every time you visit
the site. Although Windows XP and Windows
XP have a pretty efficient DNS cache, you can
increase its overall performance by increasing
its size. You can do this with the registry
entries below:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache
\Parameters]
"CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001
"CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180
"MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000fa00
"MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000012d
Make a new text file and rename it to
dnscache.reg. Then copy and paste the above
into it and save it. Merge it into the registry.
DISABLE INDEXING SERVICES
Indexing Services is a small little program that
uses large amounts ofRAMand can often make
a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This
system process indexes and updates lists of all
the files that are on yourcomputer.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
OPTIMISE DISPLAY SETTINGS
Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all
the visual items can waste system resources.
To optimize:
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
thedesktop
- Use visual styles on windows and buttons
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
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 theBackgroundwindowselect None
4. Click Ok
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 &RemoteAccess(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"
REMOVE ANNOYING DELETE CONFIRMATION
MESSAGES
Although not strictly a performance tweak I
love this fix as it makes my machine 'feel'
faster. I hate the annoying 'are you sure?'
messages that XP displays, especially if I have
to use a laptop touchpad to close them. To
remove these messages:
1. Right-click on the 'Recycle Bin' on the
desktop and then click 'Properties'
2. Clear the 'Display Delete Confirmation
Dialog' check box and click 'Ok'
If you do accidently delete a file don't worry as
all is not lost. Just go to your Recycle Bin and
'Restore' the file.