The file system is how Windows stores your files on your hard drive, and it’s akin to the way a library arranges books on a shelf. Older versions of Windows used a file system called FAT32 (File Allocation Table, if you must know). Newer versions use one called NTFS (New Technology File System).
NTFS has several benefits. Most importantly, files don’t get fragmented as much, so you won’t have to defrag as often.
You can’t tell which way your drive is set up just by using it. But to get the most out of your machine, you’ll want to make sure that you’re using NTFS.
Losing FAT
First, check to see if you’re already using it. Go to My Computer, then right-click on your hard drive and choose Properties. On the window that appears, you’ll see either “File system: FAT32? or “File system: NTFS.”
If it’s FAT32, you should convert it. Here’s how:
* Shut down any running programs.
* Click Start, then choose Run.
* In the box, enter cmd, which will bring up a black command-line window. You’ll see a prompt that says something like “C:\WINDOWS” with a blinking cursor. (If you’ve ever used DOS, you’ll recognize this.)
* Enter the following: convert c: /fs:ntfs (If your hard drive isn’t drive C:, substitute the correct letter, and don’t forget the space between the colon and the slash.)
* When you press Enter, you’ll probably see a message saying the conversion will take place next time you start Windows. So click Start, choose Shut Down, and choose Restart. Windows will convert your drive--and it will also reboot your computer twice.
Hook into DMA
Next, let’s make sure your computer is transferring data efficiently by using a technology called DMA (direct memory access).
* Go to your Control Panel and double-click System, then choose the Hardware tab. Click Device Manager. This will bring up a list of every type of hardware your computer has, from “Computer” to “Disk Drives” to “Monitors,” and more.
* Click the plus sign next to “IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers.”
* Double-click “Primary IDE Channel.” (If you have two of them, don’t worry. Just repeat this procedure.)
* Click the Advanced Settings tab. You’ll probably see two devices listed (0 and 1).
* For each one, click the drop-down arrow next to Transfer Mode and choose “DMA if available.” Then click OK. (If you have another Primary IDE Channel, repeat this procedure.)
* Close Device Manager and reboot your computer.
Clean the Registry
For now, let’s just clean out anything that doesn’t belong. There are a lot of Registry cleaners out there, and my favorite--because it’s (a) easy to use and (b) free--is EasyCleaner.
* Download and install it. When you start the program, you’ll get a grid of 16 things from which to choose.
* Click the Registry button.
* Click the Find button on the bottom. EasyCleaner will search your Registry for the leftovers of old programs and other detritus. This could take several minutes.
* When it’s done, click the Delete All button. (You can’t click it till it’s finished.)
* Click Yes to confirm you really want to delete the bad entries.
That’s it! Click Close and let’s move on.
Seek and destroy
Here’s how to get rid of these unnecessary start-up programs:
The first and easiest way to seek and destroy unnecessary start-up programs is to look in your Startup folder.
* Click Start, then choose All Programs or Programs (depending on your setup).
* Find the Startup folder on the list and hover your mouse over it.
* The list of programs that automatically start will appear. Check this list, and if you see something you don’t want or need to start automatically — such as some Microsoft Office task — right-click it and choose Delete.
Repeat as necessary.
Stop automatic starts
Now let’s go a little deeper.
* Start the program and click the Startup button.
* You’ll see a list of all the programs that start automatically with Windows. Most of these should start: your anti-virus
program, a Windows program called HDAShCut, maybe a driver or two. But some things just waste resources.
* Most notorious for loading themselves are media players such as Quicktime and RealPlayer. There’s no need for them to be loaded until you need them. If you see things like that which don’t belong, select them and click the Delete button. When you’re done, click Close and close EasyCleaner.
Deep cleaning
That done, let’s go even deeper. Besides programs that run automatically when you start up, Windows also launches services — internal software that does important things, such as making your network run, managing users, and a host of other things.
But there are some services you just don’t need; running them is a waste of resources.
* To get to the list of services, click Start, then Run.
* Enter services.msc in the box.
* OR right click on my computer on desktop and manage then to services & applications then to services.
The screen that pops up is a bit intimidating at first, but it’s actually pretty straightforward. It lists every service on your machine and tells you whether it starts automatically or manually, among other things.
* Click the Extended tab on the bottom, which will create a space that will give you a description of each service.
* Now click on the words “Startup Type” at the top of that column, which will sort the services. The ones that say “Automatic” are — obviously — the ones that start when Windows does. They’re the only ones you care about.
ALERT:
Some services are critical for your computer to run. So don’t disable anything that’s not on the list below unless you’re absolutely sure that it’s an expendable item.
The following lists services you can probably do without. Of course, if you recognize one that you use such as Windows Messenger or Telnet, don’t turn it off.
Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Error Reporting Service (if you don’t want to be asked to send error reports to Microsoft anymore)
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Access Devices
IPSEC Services
Messenger
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry
Routing & Remote Access
Secondary Logon
Server
SSDP Discovery Service
Telnet
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Upload Manager
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Workstation
Pick one from the list and double-click it. You’ll see a drop-down menu next to “Startup type” that is currently set to Automatic.
Change it to Manual and click OK. This way the service will start only if it’s needed, not all the time.
Special services
Two services deserve special mention: the indexing service and Windows themes.
The indexing service’s job is to keep track of every file on your computer, so if you use Windows’ search function you’ll be able to find things faster. But if you don’t use search that often, the indexing service is a waste of resources and will slow you down.
That’s why disabling the indexing service is high on the list of many speed tweakers. To do that, go back to your list of services (Start, Run, enter services.msc — see above), scroll down to Indexing Service, and set the Startup type to “Disabled.”
Finally, if you’re using the Windows Classic theme you can free up some memory. Scroll down the list of services to Themes and set it to “Disabled.”
The Registry stores all sorts of information about your system in what are called “keys.” A key might describe how Windows handles a particular type of file, or how it manages memory, and many other things. You get into the Registry by clicking Start, choosing Run, and entering regedit in the box that appears. Then welcome to the Registry, perhaps the most intimidating part of Windows. Here you can make all sorts of internal changes to the way Windows operates.
Note:
Changes made to the Registry will not take effect until you restart Windows.
ALERT:
Be very cautious editing the Windows Registry. Changes made here can completely disable your computer if they’re done incorrectly. We recommend that you follow the instructions below very carefully, and encourage you to back up your data files before proceeding.
Saving your configuration
Before you do anything else, set up a System Restore Point. That tells Windows to save everything about your current configuration, so if something goes awry you can tell it to revert back to that point — kind of like a big “undo” button.
To set a Restore Point:
* Click Start and choose either Programs or All Programs.
* Go to Accessories, then System Tools, and choose System Restore.
* On the welcome screen, you’ll be asked whether you want to restore or create a restore point. Choose Create a Restore Point.
* Name it something you’ll remember, such as “Before CNET Changes.”
* Click Create.
* Now if something doesn’t work, you can repeat these steps and choose “Restore” instead, to return to the status you just saved.
That done, let’s tweak.
The first things you’ll see are the five main sections of the Registry’s entries. They have cryptic names: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and so on. Next to each of those five sections is a small plus sign. Click that to view that section’s subsections. Note that you can end up going several levels deep before getting to the key you want to change. The standard way to point to a key is to list the various levels separated by slashes. For example, if you see:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / Desktop
it means you should click the plus sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then the plus sign next to Control Panel, then look for Desktop.
Make your menus load faster
For your first trip to the Registry, we’ll do something simple: Make your menus work faster.
* Start regedit (see above).
* Navigate to the following key by clicking the plus signs next to the name of each level:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel
* Click “Desktop.”� A list of entries will appear on the right side.
* Double-click “MenuShowDelay”� and change the Value data to 0.
* Click OK.
Free up memory from closed programs
When you shut down a program, Windows will often keep part of it in memory even if it’s not being used. Called dynamic link libraries (DLLs), they take up memory and sometimes cause other problems. You can change a Registry key to prevent Windows from doing this.
* Start regedit, following the instructions in this lesson.
* Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion
* Under CurrentVersion, right-click on Explorer, then choose New->Key.
* In the box that appears (”New Key #1″), change the name to AlwaysUnloadDLL.
* Hit Enter. On the right side, double-click the word (Default).
* For the value data, enter 1.
* Click OK.
* Close regedit (unless you want to tweak some more).
Speed program startup
Windows can be set to load information about some applications to make them start up faster by changing how much work a program called the Prefetcher does.
* Using regedit (instructions above), navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control / Session Manager / Memory Management / PrefetchParameters
* When you click PrefetchParameters, the right side of the editor will display a list of entries.
* Double-click “Enable Prefetcher” and change the value data to 5 (in decimal, not hexadecimal).
* Click OK.
* Close regedit.
Reduce Windows’ workload
If you have many folders and subfolders, every time you access one, Windows will spend a lot of time updating the “last accessed” time for that folder and all its sub-folders. Stopping that process will buy you some time.
* Using regedit (see instructions above), navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / System / CurrentControlSet / Control
* Under Control, right-click on FileSystem, then choose New, then DWORD Value.
* Replace “New Value #1″ with NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and hit Enter.
* Double-click NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and change the Value data to 1.
* Click OK.
Improve Swapfile performance
Many programs use a lot of memory, and if you run more than one or two at once, Windows might run out of RAM. In that case, it will start using a section of your hard disk called the “swapfile” to store information. It’s a lot slower than RAM, but it beats not being able to run a program. But sometimes Windows uses the swapfile before it has to. This tweak will tell it to wait till the last moment before doing that.
* Click Start, then Run.
* Enter msconfig in the box.
* Click on the System.ini tab.
* Click the plus sign next to 386enh.
* Click New, then type “ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1″ in the box that appears.
* Click OK.
Improve your Internet browsing
If you have Windows XP Professional, follow these instructions to disable QoS:
- Click Start, then Run.
- Enter gpedit.msc in the box.
- Under “Local Computer Policy,” click the plus sign next to “Computer Configuration,” then the one next to “Administrative Templates.”
- Click the plus sign next to “Network” and select “QoS Packet Scheduler.”
- In the right-hand box, double-click on “Limit Reservable Bandwidth.”
- On the Settings tab, choose Enabled.
- In the “Bandwidth Limit %” box, set it to 0%. (Do not leave it blank.)
- Click OK.
If you have Windows Home Edition, follow these instructions to disable QoS:
- Click Start and then the “Settings” option.
- Select the Control Panel, and open up “Network Connections”
- Right-click “Local Area Connection”and choose Properties.
- On the General tab, uncheck QoS.
Windows XP has a lot of new cool looking visual elements, however, those new elements take up more RAM and cause your computer to be less responsive. By tweaking your graphics settings, you can increase the performance of your computer.
To get started, Let's reduce the color quality. This setting determines how many colors are displayed on your screen.
- Right click on your desktop and select properties.
- Click on the settings tab and adjust the color quality drop down box to Medium (16 Bit).
- Click OK.
Next, let's use the windows performance settings to optimize your computer for performance. This will revert back to the old Windows 2000 look as well as take away a lot of the fancy graphics effects. However, if you are really into performance, this is the price you have to pay.
- Right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop or in your start panel and select properties.
- Next, Click on the Advanced tab and hit the setting button under performance.
- On the visual effects tab, select Adjust for Best Performance and hit OK.
- Hit OK once more to exit system properties.
Now your computer will run slightly faster!
Shutdown XP Faster Start - Run - Regedit
Navigate to the following Registry key:
HKEY CURRENT USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Double click on the AutoEndTasks entry and replace the 0 with a 1 in the Value data text box
For the next two, if the dword value indicated does not exist, create it:
Double click on the WaitToKillAppTimeout entry in the right pane and change the Value data to 2000
Double click on the HungAppTimeout entry in the right pane and change the Value data to 1000
Reboot
If still having a problem, make the next change:
2) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Right-click on WaitToKillServiceTimeout and change it to 2000
NOTE: The lowest value Windows will recognize is 1000 (1 second)
ADVISORY: While rare, the "WaitToKillService" tweak can cause problems. If an application is in the process of saving data and the associated service is stopped prematurely, the data will not be saved and may be lost. (Tweak, Note and Advisory from Forum Admin)
Speed Boot
I found that creating a script to run on shutdown that deletes the temp folder and history shaved 2.5 seconds on my boot time, down do 10.5 secs.
Create a batch file by doing the following:
1) Open notepad and enter the following lines:
RD /S /q "C:\Documents and Settings\"UserName without quotes"\Local Settings\History"
RD /S /q "C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\History"
RD /S /q "D:\Temp\" <--"Deletes temp folder, type in the location of your temp folder"
2) Save the file and then rename is something like deltemp.bat
3) Now click Start, Run and type in gpedit.msc --->Computer Configuration --->Windows Settings --->Scripts and double click on Shutdown --->Click Add and find the batch file you created and press ok to set the script
Tweak worked wonders for me, hope it works well for you.
Cheers
