Speed This Thing Up!

So llike my Grandfather had his knee replaced today, and us being 70 miles from home, i decided to bring my toughbook cf-28, and put it towrds some use, and give me something to do. Anyways, is ther anyway to speed this thing up temporarily until i get home(win-xp fixes, software fixes)? Thanks.

 

visit www.tweakxp.com for some tips.... Some good reading there.

 

Check out Black Viper's web site on how to cut off unneeded services. Use the "Safe" settings at first, personally I have never went past them.

Then image the HDD with Acronis or Ghost and cut off System Restore. You will be surprised at the difference.

 

Alright. i triedsome of those and it sped it up pretty good. Thanks for quick responces.. I guess i need to change the title as im a bout to list some ideas for internal GPS/WI-FI/Bluetooth/

 

You made your own Hard drive caddy? What materials did you use? probably cheaper than buying a new one

 

I bought a used cf-27 caddy for ten dollars off of Ebay to get the shock gel, cable and, foam. Tore the cf-28 apart and grinded/filed down the area around the hard drive mainly around where the hard drive plugs in the the mobo. This allowed when the toughbook was re assembled to push the harddrive abouve the connector and seat flatly to allow the bottow cover to be put on... The foam was put under the hard drive and the gel to be cut and stuffed around the dead space around the hard drive... The only problem is you have to take the whole toughbook apart to remove your hard drive... But im fine with that. Ill post an actual thread with detailed instructions and pictures later on

Thanks,
Danny

 

Take a LONG hard look a your HD temps we well as your CPU during your first few strenuous operations....

 

Ive noticed it to be a little warm at times, but nothing to serious, only when i was running google earth, could this be why its running slow at times, or the fact that i have 192mb of RAM?

 

Most likely.... Both!

 

Here's the first thing I do to a computer running Winblows.

Uninstall the crappy programs that MS and other OEM's want you to have to deal with (has anyone actually ever used that crap?) Get rid of Adobe anyting (except flash or paid for editing software) and install an older version of FoxitReader (the new one is too big and slow), as well as any toolbar installed as an addon to anything. Delete that dam prog files/internet folder that always installs even when you tell it not to, as well as any other "offers" that are almost always not the best deal (installed or shorted on the desktop).

Delete anything non essential in the "startup folder"
Do not install any help assistants or shortcut toolbars (I make my own shortcut bar in quicklaunch, and dock it at the top of the screen)

Services.msc - filter by startup type, go to automatic startup types, go through and turn anything I think doesn't have to run to manual (why do I need a BT & Wifi manager on a desktop with no BT or Wifi?)
I personally like to leave indexing service turned on by default, as I believe it is better for what I do, and I also turn off automatic updates, task scheduler, and system restore (I do actually use the system restore points. I get my pc how I want, set a restore point, find that file, save it somewhere else, and then turn off system restore. You can then, later on, turn on system restore, drop your file back in the right location, and restore it, although, that was a quick n dirty summary of howto)

MSCONFIG -
startup services, filter out MS services, turn off everything (I don't do this everytime), go back through and turn on items that are needed.
Selective startup, turn off everything, and go back to turn on only what is needed.

Internet options-
change the IE cache to 10mb
empty temp files on exit

Install the MVPS host file (and make my personal changes to it)
And then I install Firefox and make it the default browser (screw IE) with download status bar, Adblock plus, and a whole slew of no resource "search engines"

I try to find smaller programs to do what I do (utorrent, foxit, gimp, firefox, ccleaner, defraggler) instead of the mainstream bloatware.

And once a week/twice a month, I run GlaryUtilities, CCleaner, WindowWasher (webroot), Malwarebytes, Defraggler, and whatever version of Norton I have installed (NIS 2010 is very nice BTW, and much better on resources than past versions).

I avoid any specialty software for Blackberries and ipods and the like. If I want to use my ipod, I use rythmbox instead of itunes. And I have a designated beater box that I try out all my downlo... I mean software I've never used before, to make sure I like it, that it works, and it's clean. That's also where I install all the specialty software (like for the wife's blackberry). And I have an iso of that box's os, and all the personal files and program files on a seperate drive (makes re-imaging really easy).

And that keeps my TB running pretty quick.