Windows XP Tweaks

Windows XP performance

Here are 24 suggestions that can enhance the performance and reliability of your PC. Best of all, most of them will cost you nothing! But before diving in with both feet, please bear in mind that some of the tips on this page are not recommended for beginners, therefore please use some common sense & if in any doubt at all, then ask in our Forum.

There is always some discussion over what is the best value for money upgrade for a PC, in terms of improved performance & speed. Many people fall into the expensive trap of thinking that upgrading the processor (CPU) will give them enhanced speed & performance, when the truth of the matter is, in most cases it will not make any noticeable difference & if you’re one of the lucky few that it does make a difference for, that difference is negligable when compared to other possible upgrades.

1.

Without a doubt If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, then adding more memory is the single best upgrade you can possibly opt for. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance. To help you understand what your RAM does, try to imagine 2 buckets, one full of water (bucket A equivalent to your hard drive) & the other empty (bucket B equivalent to you processor). When running any program (the water) on your PC, it must pass from bucket A (hard drive) to bucket B (processor) & after being processed must then return to bucket A for storage. Now your RAM (Random Access Memory), is equivalent to a hose connecting the 2 buckets, everything that takes place on your PC must pass back & fore through this hose (memory).

Therefore if the RAM in your PC is for example 256mb & it takes X amount of time for bucket A to empty it’s data (water) into bucket B via your 256mb hose, then to upgrade your RAM to 1gb (1,024mb) would basically equate to bucket A to bucket B via 1gb RAM (hose) = X/4. So in conclusion, basically the bigger your RAM (hose) the quicker you can move data (water) between your hard drive & the processor. If you think of the 256mb as equivalent to a 2.5″ pipe & the 1,024mb as equivalent to a 10″ pipe, then it becomes pretty obvious!

2.

Most PCs running a Windows OS (operating system), Will be using either the FAT32 or the NTFS file management system. In order to decide which is best for your system, we need first to look at what you do with your system. NTFS allows you to work with files in excess of 4gb (1,024mb=1gb), whilst FAT32 does not recognise files of such size. However, FAT32 is a faster file management system than NTFS. Therefore if you plan to do a lot of work with DVD, then without a doubt you will need to use NTFS, but if your main objective is a gaming machine, then I would suggest you use FAT32 for added speed. This is usually decided at the format stage of a hard drive, however it is also possible to convert a drive whilst there is data already on it. This is not recommended for beginners, as it will require the use of some disk management software, such as Partition Magic 8, however we will cover this again & go more in depth in a later article about formatting your hard drive.

3.

Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a “searchable keyword index.” As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system. The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the file name of the document they want. Windows XP’s built-in search functionality can still perform these kinds of searches without the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the time of the request to help find what the user is looking for. Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a large corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least one server. But if you’re a typical system builder, most of your clients are small and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I recommend disabling it.
Here’s how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Uncheck “Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching.” Next, apply changes to “C: subfolders and files,” and click OK. If a warning or error message appears (such as “Access is denied”), click the Ignore All button.

4.

Update the PC’s video and motherboard chipset drivers. Also, update and configure the BIOS. Again not for beginners, but will be covered in a future article.

5.

Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can “prefetch” portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That’s fine. But over time, the prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance, by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this folder and the entire contents are safe to delete.

6.

Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here’s how: Double-click the My Computer icon. Then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk Cleanup button, it’s just to the right of the Capacity pie graph, and delete all temporary files.

7.

In your System Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then click the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode is set to “DMA if available” for both Device 0 and Device 1. Then repeat this process with the Secondary IDE Channel.

8.

Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology improves, the cabling requirements to achieve these performance boosts have become more stringent. Be sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your IDE devices with the connectors properly assigned to the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A single device must be at the end of the cable; connecting a single drive to the middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause signalling problems. With Ultra DMA hard drives, these signalling problems will prevent the drive from performing at its maximum potential. Also, because these cables inherently support “cable select,” the location of each drive on the cable is important. For these reasons, the cable is designed so drive positioning is explicitly clear.

9.

Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are installed, be sure to check for and download any updates before starting your search. Anything either program finds can be safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer function once the spyware portion has been removed. If you really want the program even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it.

10.

Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Start up routine using the MSCONFIG utility. Here’s how: First, click Start, click Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the Start Up tab, then uncheck any items you don’t want to start when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks Process Library. It contains known system processes, applications, as well as spyware references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the filenames using Google or another Web search engine. For beginners I would recommend you use the PC Pitstop website to run a full optimize scan of your system as the results will actually tell you which processes can safely be disabled.

11.

Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel. There is little point in bogging down your system with dozens of programs that may only get used once in 6 months, this is pure laziness! It is far better to remove any programs that you do not use regularly & store them on CD / DVD so that they can be re-installed whenever needed.

12.

Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP offers many different settings in this area. Here’s how to do it: First click on the System icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select the Settings button located under Performance. Feel free to play around with the options offered here, as nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the computer  only its responsiveness.

13.

If you are more of an advanced user who is comfortable editing their registry, then we will be doing an article covering many of the registry tweaks that are available, but a word of warning, DO NOT GO PLAYING AROUND IN THE REGISTRY, until you have read that article !

14.

Visit Microsoft’s Windows update site regularly, and download all updates labelled Critical. Download any optional updates at your discretion.

15.

Update your anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis. Most antivirus software will have the option to auto update, just check your software and make sure this option is selected. Please ensure you have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance and reliability.

16.

Make sure your system has fewer than 500 type fonts installed. The more fonts you have, the slower the system will become. While Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous versions of Windows, too many fonts — that is, anything over 500 — will noticeably tax the system.

17.

Check the system’s RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I recommend using a free program called FreeRAM-XP-Pro. An excellent little program for ompimizing & checking your RAM. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced.

18.

If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer’s Web site for updated firmware. In some cases you’ll be able to upgrade the recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it’s free.

19.

Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that you most likely do not need. To determine which services you can disable on your PC, visit the PC Pitstop website and run a free check with their optimize program.

20.

If you’re sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab. Scroll down to “Launch folder windows in a separate process,” and enable this option. You’ll have to reboot your machine for this option to take effect.

21.

At least once a year, open the computer’s cases and blow out all the dust and debris. While you’re in there, check that all the fans are turning properly. Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks. For more information on this leaking-capacitor phenomena, you can read numerous articles on the internet.

22.

To decrease a system’s boot time and increase system performance, I would suggest that the second best upgrade you can opt for after RAM, is to equip your PC with a Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer. The access times for data transfer on these Serial ATA drives, is far superior to the standard ATA hard drives. However, not all Mother Boards are equipped to take these SATA drives, so before spending your hard earned cash, check with the manufacturer to ensure that your Motherboard can accommodate these SATA drives.

23.

Defragment your hard drive/s regularly ie at least once per month, a heavily fragmented drive will slow a PC down to a crawl, especially when working with large files.

24.

Oh and I almost forgot one of my pet hates, The quick launch taskbar or as I like to call it, The lazy mans taskbar ! What a total waste of resources this is, just place your cursor on the blue taskbar at the bottom of the screen, then right click & then de-select quick launch taskbar. You will not lose any programs, it just means you may have to browse to Start/Programs/? In order to find a program, if there is no short cut already on your desktop. In addition to killing off this quick launch taskbar, it is also advisable to turn off as many as possible of the little icons that quietly creep their way across the bottom of your screen, the ones near your PC clock, that on some computers I have actually seen them meet in the middle of the screen with the afore mentioned quick launch taskbar! Hahaha and the owner of the PC felt the need to enquire why his PC was running so slow.

Following any of these suggestions should result in noticeable improvements to the performance and reliability of your computer.