XP tips and tweaks guide.

Tweaking XP for performance ​

These tweaks are from both my own knowledge, and from numerous sources on the internet. A noticable performance boost should be apparent.
​

TWEAKS​

Optimize visual affects:
For those who want the XP graphical user interface but with max performance.
Control Panel >>System >> Advanced >> Visual Affects
Deselect everything except 'Use Visual Styles on windows and buttons.'

Disable Error Reporting
Purpose: Free up system/network resources. This “feature” calls home to Microsoft and sends info about system errors. It rarely serves a puirpose for the average user. You may also want to disable error reporting for privacy concerns.
Press the Windows & Pause Break keys > click on the Advanced tab > Click on the Error Reporting button on the bottom of the window > check the box that says Disable Error Reporting > uncheck the box that says But notify me when critical errors occur. click OK to close the window.

Don't Hide Inactive Icons.
Right click start button > click on properties > click on the Taskbar tab > uncheck the box that says “Hide inactive icons” > If you don't like the fact that XP puts all the same type of open windows into one group in the taskbar, uncheck "Group similar taskbar buttons" > click OK to exit out of these screens.

Turn Off Remote Assistance.
Purpose: Security. Free up system resources. The Remote Assistance feature in Windows XP lets you share control of your computer with someone else over a network or the Internet. For the average user this feature is unnecesary.
Press the Windows & Pause Break keys > Click on the Remote tab. Uncheck both check boxes and click Apply and then OK .

Disable user tracking:
The user tracking system built into Windows XP is useless to 99% of users (there are very few uses for the information collected other than for a very nosy system admin), and it uses up precious resources to boot, so it makes sense to disable this "feature" of Windows XP.
To do so-
start >> run >> type regedit and hit enter.
browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer and find the DWORD "NoInstrumentation". You may need to create this value if it is not there. The default setting is 0, but setting it to 1 will disable most of the user tracking features of the system.

Update your service pack:
If you're not using XP SP3, download and install from:
http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/windows-xp-service-pack-3.html
(remember if you're using an amd processor, install the hotfix first from:
http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/windows-xp-sp3-amd-stop-0x0000007E.html)

Disable balloon tips
These are little information pop ups that you get from time to time by Windows user interface from your system tray. Some of them initially look to be very useful, but soon some people get irritated with them. Besides being a cause of irritation, they are also a drain on precious resources of your Windows.
* Click Start > Run
* Type GPEDIT.MSC > Press enter.
* Go to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu & Taskbar
* Double-click on Remove Balloon Tips on Start Menu Items and choose Enabled.
* Click OK.

Disable indexing:
Indexing services is a small program that hogs HUGE amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexing and updates lists of the files on your system, so you can search for them quickly, but it's completley unnessesary.
Control Panel >>Double-click Add/Remove Programs >>Click the Add/Remove Window Components >>Uncheck the Indexing services >>Click Next

Stop search for network folders/ printers:
Open My Computer >>Click on Tools menu >>Click on Folder Options >>Click on the View tab. >> Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box >>Click Apply >>Click OK.

Disable Performance Counters:
Performance counters are the tools used by Windows to monitor and track the errors and bottlenecks in the speed and performance of Windows. But they are too technical in nature and are difficult to be used by a common Windows user. They keep on gathering their data from Windows in the background but in the process gobble up precious system resources.
Download and install the performance counter list from:
http://vasiliosfreeware.blogspot.com/2007/12/extensible-performance-counter-list-for.html
Navigate to:
C:\Program Files\Resource Kit and click on the app.
Select each performance counter in turn, and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox.

Clean up disk space and defrag:
Download Ccleaner and Deffragler from:
http://www.filehippo.com/software/cleaning/
Install and run each app in turn – make sure to scan for and fix registry issues in ccleaner, aswell as running the cleaner itself. In the 'cleaner' section of ccleaner, I normally check everything except 'autocomplete form history'.

Optimise your internet connection:
Install and run TCP/IP Optimizer >>Click the General Settings tab and select your Connection Speed (Kbps) >>Click Network Adapter and choose the interface you use to connect to the Internet >> Check Optimal Settings then Apply
If you do not know your connection speed check at: http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/speedtest/

Optimise your pagefile:
Stops windows automatically resizing pagefile. Reduces fragmentation.
Right click on My Computer and select Properties
Select the Advanced tab
Under Performance choose the Settings button
Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.

Speed up XP boot:
BootVis can defragment the files accessed during boot to improve startup performance.
Download and Run Bootvis
Select Trace
Select Next Boot and Driver Trace
A Trace Repetitions screen will appear, select Ok and Reboot
Upon reboot, BootVis will automatically start, analyze and log your system’s boot process. When it’s done, in the menu go to Trace and select Optimize System
Reboot.
When your machine has rebooted wait until you see the Optimizing System box appear. Be patient and wait for the process to complete

Disable Unnecessary Services:
For the general user, the following services are unnecessary. If you are unsure about whether a service is needed by you or not, search for it @ http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
Start>> Run>> services.msc
Click on each of the following services and change the startup type to disabled.
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 & Remote Access (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
Workstation

Disable unnecessary boot screen, and remove programs from startup:
Start>> Run>> msconfig
On the Boot.ini tab select 'no gui boot'
On the startup tab untick everything (unless you really want something to load on startup)

Turn Off System Restore:
(If you really think you'll need it, leave it enabled)
1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Performance and Maintenance
3. Click on System
4. Click on the System Restore tab
5. Tick ‘Turn off System Restore on All Drives’
6. Click ‘Ok’

Defragment Your Pagefile
Keeping your pagefile defragmented can provide a major performance boost. One of the best ways of doing this is to creat a separate partition on your hard drive just for your page file, so that it doesn’t get impacted by normal disk usage. Another way of keeping your pagefile defragmented is to run PageDefrag. This cool little app can be used to defrag your pagefile, and can also be set to defrag the pagefile everytime your PC starts. This only needs to be done once if you've used the 'Optimise your pagefile' tweak listed above. To install:
1.Download (from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.aspx) and Run PageDefrag
2.Tick “Defrag at next Reboot”,
3.Click “Ok”
4.Reboot

Disable System Sounds
Surprisingly, the beeps that your computer makes for various system sounds can slow it down, particularly at startup and shut-down. To fix this turn off the system sounds:
1. Open Control Panel
2. Click Sounds and Audio Devices
3. Check Place volume icon in taskbar
4. Click Sounds Tab
5. Choose “No Sounds” for the Sound Scheme
6. Click “No”
7. Click “Apply”
8. Click “OK”

Improve Swapfile Performance
If you have more than 256MB of RAM this tweak will considerably improve your performance. It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.
1.Go to Start then Run
2.Type “msconfig.exe” then ok
3.Click on the System.ini tab
4.Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
5.Click on new then in the blank box type”ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1″
6.Click OK
7.Restart PC

Make Your Menus Load Faster
This is one of my favourite tweaks as it makes a huge difference to how fast your machine will ‘feel’. What this tweak does is remove the slight delay between clicking on a menu and XP displaying the menu.
1.Go to Start then Run
2.Type ‘Regedit’ then click ‘Ok’
3.Find “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop”
4.Select “MenuShowDelay”
5.Right click and select “Modify’
6.Reduce the number to around “100″

Improve XP Shutdown Speed
This tweak reduces the time XP waits before automatically closing any running programs when you give it the command to shutdown.
1.Go to Start then select Run
2.Type ‘Regedit’ and click ok
3.Find ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop’Select ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’
4.Right click and select ‘Modify’
5.Change the value to ‘1000′
6.Click ‘OK’
7.Now select ‘HungAppTimeout’
8.Right click and select ‘Modify’
9.Change the value to ‘1000′
10.Click ‘OK’
11.Now find ‘HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop’
12.Select ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’
13.Right click and select ‘Modify’
14.Change the value to ‘1000′
15.Click ‘OK’
16.Now find ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control’
17.Select ‘WaitToKillServiceTimeout’
18.Right click and select ‘Modify’
19.Change the value to ‘1000′
20.Click ‘OK’

Turn on write-caching:
Ticking this setting can improve hard drive I/O performance by enabling the use of the hard drive write-back cache.
Control Panel >>Sytem >>Hardware >>Device Manager >>Expand 'disk drives' >> Double click on your hd >> On the 'policies' tab select 'enable write caching on the disk.'

Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system.
If you're not sure, here's how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This process may take a while; it's important that the computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.

Update drivers:
Make sure the drivers for your motherboard, and graphics card are up to date – this can really improve performance. Here I'll even provide the links for your gfx drivers:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.HTML

Turn off disk performance monitors
In Windows 2000 and XP Performance Monitor disk counters for physical disks are turned on by default, disk counters for logical disks are turned off by default.
Start >> Run >> type 'DISKPERF -N' and hit enter

Autologin:
Extremely recommended if you are the sole user of computer, and where data security isn't a must. This can speed up boot quite a bit.
1.Click Start, and then click Run.
2.In the Open box, type control userpasswords2, and then click OK.

Note When users try to display help information in the User Accounts window in Windows XP Home Edition, the help information is not displayed. Additionally, users receive the following error message:
Cannot find the Drive:\Windows\System32\users.hlp Help file. Check to see that the file exists on your hard disk drive. If it does not exist, you must reinstall it.
3.Clear the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" check box, and then click Apply.
4.In the Automatically Log On window, type the password in the Password box, and then retype the password in the Confirm Password box.
5.Click OK to close the Automatically Log On window, and then click OK to close the User Accounts window.

Optimise NTFS:
NTFS is a great filesystem, but its feature-set comes at a slight cost in performance. You can negate this a little with the following tips:
For the following to open regedit: start >> run >> type regedit and hit enter.

Stop XP automatically updating timestamps.
By default NTFS will automatically updates timestamps whenever a directory is traversed. This isn't a necessary feature, and it slows down large volumes.

Disable it by pointing regedit to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem and set 'NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate' to 1.

If the value doesn't exist, you'll need to add it. Select New | DWORD Value from the Edit menu. The new value will appear in the right pane, prompting you for a value name. Type NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and press [Enter]. Double-click the new value. You'll then see the Edit DWORD Value screen. Enter 1 in the Value Data field and click OK. When you're done, close Regedit.

Stop MFT becoming fragmented.
NTFS uses disparate master file control tables to store filesystem information about your drives. Over time these core MFT files grow and become fragmented, slowing down all accesses to the drive. By setting aside a little space, MFT's can grow without becoming fragmented. In the same key where you disabled the last access feature create a new DWORD value called 'NtfsMftZoneReservation' and set it to 2.

Stop XP storing filenames in the old compatibility.
Open regedit and navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem

In the right pane, look for the value named NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation. If the value exists, it's probably set to 0. To change the value, double-click it. In the Edit DWORD Value screen, enter 1 in the Value Data field and click OK.

If the value doesn't exist, you'll need to add it. Select New | DWORD Value from the Edit menu. The new value will appear in the right pane, prompting you for a value name. Type NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation and press [Enter]. Double-click the new value. You'll then see the Edit DWORD Value screen. Enter 1 in the Value Data field and click OK. When you're done, close Regedit.

No more low disk space messages
go into registry with REGEDIT.EXE, go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\
and (if not already there) add DWORD (without quotes) "NoLowDiskSpaceChecks" and change the value to 1. Restart.

Memory Performance Tweak
These Settings will fine tune your systems memory
management -at least 512MB of ram recommended
go to start\run\regedit -and then to the following key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
1.DisablePagingExecutive -double click it and in the decimal put a 1 - this allows*XP to keep data in memory now instead of paging sections of ram to harddrive yeilds faster performance.
2.LargeSystemCache- double click it and change the decimal to 1 -this allows XP Kernel to Run in memory improves system performance*alot
Reboot and watch your system fly ..happy tweakin
Note: This tweak may cause problems with ATI cards *this is documented by ATI(tweak forum Admin)

Disable compression:
Computer >> Right click your system drive >> Select properties >> Untick “compress files to save disk space”

Increase speed by tweaking prefetcher settings
This is an unique technique for XP, which could improve the performance significantly by tweaking the prefetcher (which is a cache folder). It should decrease the boot time and the time it takes to load programs.
1. run "regedit";
2. goto [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher];
3. Set the value to either 0-Disable, 1-App launch prefetch, 2-Boot Prefetch, 3-Both ("3" is recommended).
4. reboot.

Disable automatic updates:
What it does: Stops Microsoft messing with your computer at inconvenient times. You can re-enable this when _you_ feel like an update.
Go to: Start
Right click: My Computer.
Select: Properties > 'Automatic Updates' tab.
Select: Turn off automatic updates.
Click: Apply.

Don't have XP clear your paging file at shutdown.
For security reasons, you can have XP clear your paging file (pagefile.sys) of its contents whenever you shut down. Your paging file is used to store temporary files and data, but if extreme security isn't a high priority, you might not want to clear it. To shut down XP without clearing your paging file, run the Registry Editor (click Start > Run, then type regedit in the Run box) and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Change the value of ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 0. Close the Registry, and restart your computer. Whenever you turn off XP from now on, the paging file won't be cleared, and you should be able to shut down more quickly.

EXTREME TWEAKS​

Do not use these tweaks before reading through the information provided, and doing some of your own research. These tweaks are only recommended for advanced users. Anyone contributing to the benchmarks explained at the very top of this post should not incorporate this tweak in their testing. Have fun!​

Use minlogin to halve XP boot time
Follow my guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=252599

reps much appreciated!

 

Feel free to post benchmarks/results, as well as report any bugs you come across
i think i've listed about 41 seperate tweaks. if there's any more you come across let me know

 

Wow, thanks so much! I'm going to get a chance to use this on Friday so I'll let you know how everything goes!

 

GJ!

I would link Blackviper's site, very very resourcefull

Also possibly tunexp from driver heaven. You can really cut your boot and shut down times using their app

 

awesome job jisaac, did them all and am flyin now. thanx, needs to be a sticky

 

Awesome guide, I was just looking for one of these. I'll use it when I plan to clean up my old Dell laptop this weekend back home.

 

Lovely tips.

This needs to be stickied!

 

This is another tweak that I've used on my personal systems and I've incorporated into my tweak batch script. A lot of "professionals" and "administrators" say that this does absolutely nothing, but I've experienced drastic increases in bootup time on XP. It involves rebuilding the prefetch information and removing all prefetch entries. A lot of other sites have already mentioned this tip, and so I take no credit for it. I am only sharing the information as well as my experience with it.

-- This is for XP only and does not work on Vista --

Steps:
1.) Navigate to %windir%\Prefetch
2.) Delete all files within this directory (including the layout.ini)
3.) Go to Start->Run "cmd"
4.) In the command prompt that appears, type the following exactly (case-sensitive): "start /wait rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks"

* This should rebuild the prefetch and return to the command line when it is finished. Occasionally the command may have to be run twice.

On my system, after applying this tweak and rebooting, the loading screen quickly disappears after one or two cycles of the status bar.

In my opinion, it helps to clear out old entries, and thus overall improves your system's performance. XP is suppose to do this occasionally, anyway, but I I have never seen it.

Programs may be slow loading the first time you open them while they are being "re-prefetched", but after the first time, it's quicker. I found after rebooting that programs tend to be slow opening the first time, regardless if they are in prefetch or not, so I don't think it really matters if you clean it out or not. Everytime it's going to make that loading screen go away faster, though.

I still have not conducted actual results on the tweak, though. The loading screen may go away quicker, but does it still take just as long or longer to load the OS? Maybe some of you guys can conduct this experiment? I still like the loading screen going away quickly, though, because it makes it seem like it's faster. To customers', that would be the case as well.

 

I use TweakUI (Microsoft's product) and xp-AntiSpy, which both have checkboxes for 80% of this list, and Black Viper's list of services to disable. Nice compiled list though, but I wanted to mention those two above, which catch a few more things.

A few things:I don't have any error reporting button in the specified location (it's just gone - I might have yanked it out already through another method). The "Hide inactive icons" procedure should say "right click start -> select properties -> click taskbar" (missing the select properties part).

I didn't do some of these tweaks, since I found them to be of questionable benefit and/or might cause me problems: for example, disabling server & workstation (black viper also has it on automatic), and 'stop xp from storing files in old file system name' - really inconvenient for people that use msdos/cmd.exe in any way. My pagefile is also set to 1.5X size of my ram (3063, recommended setting).

Nice list though! Might want to add in this:

1) Disable "F1" from linking to the Help Center and/or giving an error when that's disabled:
http://www.hydrous.net/weblog/2007/06/23/disable-f1-in-windows-exporer
(registry edit + download dummy.exe (which does nothing)). Handy for people that use F2 for the 'rename' function, and occasionally bring up help center and/or the error.

2) Display Start Menu Program files in alphabetical order (instead of randomizing them, grr!):

http://malektips.com/xp_taskbar_start_0001.html

1. Click "Start" -> "All Programs".
2. Right-click on any entry in the "All Programs" menu.
3. Choose "Sort by Name".

3) Stop hiding my inactive program shortcuts in the start menu!

1. Right click 'start' -> 'properties'
2. Start menu tab -> customize classic menu
3. Uncheck both 'Scroll Programs' and 'use personalized menus'

Just some of my major XP irritations that I change asap.

 

How much RAM usage is considered normal for XP...?

I'm feeling a little worried because even after applying all these tweaks, I'm still using 500+ MB of RAM on startup, which is quite close to Vista's RAM usage.

 

Nice guide - quite a bit of stuff that's different from what I usually see elsewhere. Can't test it all right away of course, but looks like it'll be quite useful. I definitely shouldn't apply the "no low disk space warnings" one though! +rep

One question: Am I correct that the performance tweaks involving the paging file are irrelevant if you've disabled virtual memory? A controversial practice I know but it's worked well enough for me.

 

So I just used nLite...most this guide and more is available on it (except some techniques like defragging and stuff of course). I'd also like to know if disabling page file is recommended with 3.5GB of RAM...

Also, with a freshly nLite'd OS, task manager says 68MB of RAM is being used...LOL wow, talk about a difference form Vista.

 

Very nice indeed. I've implemented most of the solution to my Thinkpad, some of those I was already aware of their existence, let's see if the trick of the Prefecth cuts boot time dramatically.

 

Loving It! Rep

 

Yes, that's a bit much for XP. Could be bloatware could be a virus.... Look through your servcies by running services.msc, and check for unnecessary entries that have been added by eg. the laptop's oem. The processes tab in task manager should give you a fair clue about what's eating up your memory.

I used to use nlite quite alot, however i always came into issues where i had removed necessary components, the chances of this of course can be reduced by making sure you know what you're removing/disabling....but 68mb? good job

I'll borrow this from Les's tips and tweaks guide rather than repeating it :

have a look at these benchmarks and decide for yourself.... it seems the 'feeling' that your computer is faster after disabling the pagefile was more of a placebo effect. I'd only recommend it if you have 3gb+ of ram, and are really low on hd space. You may think 3gb+ is a rather large amount however, try removing the pagefile on a 2gb machine and running crysis, and you'll see why i recommend at least that amount.

These bugs have now been corrected

linked!

thanks for everyone's comments! anymore questions dont hesitate to ask!
cheers,
Joshua D.

 

Hi guys, deed the some of the tweaks on my girls EEE with XP. Everything seem to go well, but when I booted up the next day it was a nightmare. Every little setting was forgotten. XP didn't remember the theme, background, objectdock, regional setting and so. And worst of all, it is slower than ever. Now it seems like it won't even recognize the new settings I save (tried changing regionals, without luck).

Any idea where I could have gone wrong? I suspected Bootvis, but I'm not sure anymore. Any help is highly appreciated. I wouldn't really want to re-install XP all over again, as I have done it so many times. Of course, that is still an option.

 

Looks like the registry is messed up big time there.

I don't know what you could do, but in this case, I think a clean reinstall would be the easiest and sure fix way.. and when you tweak *again* after that, I recommend not doing any tweaks that you are not sure about... Because even with some very basic, harmless stuff like turning off services, reducing the number of startup programs and such, your XP should be a charm to work with.. Anything more than that I wouldn't recommend if you are not sure about what is happening.

As for cleaning up stuff and other things, you could always use a disk cleanup utility from within XP or CCleaner for the reg (though make a backup, from withing CCleaner, since it gives you an option) and a defrag... even just this should be fine, for *starters*....

 

System restore.

 

excellent, well done!

 

I have so far done steps 1 thru 11 of this guide and my computer is running much faster. At this rate I'm not even gonna have to do a clean Install. Infact, I might just quit while I'm ahead and stop here. I cant imagine my computer running much faster than it already is. Smoking, somebody stop me. (sorry fonduekid, this thread is even better than your Hitler video)

 

Well since I dont Know how to quit while I'm ahead, here is my next question==Registry Cleaner is saying that some files will be permantley deleted from my computer. If I set a system restore point before running the registry cleaner , will the computer be able to revert back to it's previouse state using system restore AFTER running registry cleaner? Question #2, I assume that if something goes wrong that it wont affect the factory partitions ability to do a complete system restore operation ?? I have heard some horror stories about registry problems and even how "experts " get hung out to dry when it comes time to try to backtrack the mistakes they made. ( my friends Dell desktop was never the same once he started fooling around with the registry)

 

That is normal, its basically removing old entries e.g. left by uninstalled programs

yes

yes -should work fine if u wish to do a complete restore.

thanks for posting your experience

 

hi i still get a baloon that automatic updates are off when i start pc, any idea why?

 

Because that ballon is using nitrogen gas instead of helium

 

I converted my C drive from FAT32 to NTFS using the command line utility running XP SP3. Now the start up is slow (more than a minute, used to be 35 secs). Also the files are fragmented. I ran the disk defrag, but still the % defragmentation is 10%. Any suggestions to improve start up time.

 

**UPDATE**
This thread is now included as a minor sticky, under the 'Windows OS and Software Forum General Index Sticky.'
I hope this will persuade more people to use this guide, to speed up their computer in a significant way at no cost

 

Do a full defragment, NTFS is the way to go.

 

ANYONE WHO DOES THE FOLLOWING WILL BE GIVEN A REP
I'm looking for people who haven't already used this guide to perform some benchmarks for me, to show what sort of performance increase can be acquired through using these tweaks . Follow this method:
1)
Download and install passmark from http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm
2)
Run the full performance test and record/ take a screenshot of your results. (either just the end result or individual results aswell would be helpful).
3)
Perform all these tweaks (if you miss out a few make sure to post them).
4)
Redo step 2.
5)
PM me / post the results on this thread. I will include a table in my original post to show different user's results.

 

I can't use your Speed up Boot Time teak. I downloaded bootvis and followed your directions but it never worked. I said Optimize Boot and it restarted and the just froze with it saying that it was doing something. I opened 'process explorer' and it said that my I/O was ranging between 3 and 17 kb/s. (and it was being used by my anti virus and something else) AND NO MY ANTI VIRUS WAS NOT SCANNING. The CPU usage was low and it just freezes there doing nothing. The HD is not making any noise or anything (it's not going back and forth reading and writing files like it should be). I tried to do it twice but it didn't work either time and I just had to end the process.

I want to do this but I can't figure out how.

Please Help,
Jeff

 

Sounds Like Fun!!!!! Sure!!!!!:d

 

now is this a must download for tweak? ive only experienced bull** with that upgrade. ?XP3?
Can i just go on to the next step............and i do run with the Amd Sempron?
p.S......im running Sp2

 

might try this tomorrow.

 

went thru the steps and here are my results .Took a good minute.......the (missing steps) are (xp3) download. (BOOTVIS WAS NOT MUCH HELP) NOT THAT I COULD TELL BY STARTING UP.......but there is a significant change . For the better i have not seen any flickering caused by the memory settings.Yes, i have a compaq presario v2000 1.79ghz 1.12g ram AMD sempron......(ATI Radeon xpress 200M) .....O and by the way IM NOT REALLY SURE WHAT HAPPEN WITH THE (((((((PAGE DEFRAG)))))))) BLACK SCREEN DURING START UP.......default..........A little hands on experience is great.... thanks GUYS!!!!@ the benchmarks are below

 

great stuff

boot time now very very very fast

performance test results:

before tweaks 517.5

after tweaks 575.5

 

thanks for posting your results guys... i'll update the thread with a table when i get home today. So far the improvement in overall performance has ranged from 4% to 11%. This is quite a good result, however I expect the difference you "feel" after using this guide would be more pronounced.
cheers,
Joshua D.

 

Before: 440.7
After: 451.1

But laptop now boots really fast

 

Not for nothing right from the beginning I didn't like the way my desktop icons looked after the 1st tweak (so I changed it back, checking all boxes even though one was unchecked but I forgot) Then once you had me editing the registry without specific instructions I stopped tweaking.

I disabled error reporting
Skipped not hiding inactive icons
Turned off remote assistance before.
You lost me at disabling user tracking
All ready installed SP3
I like balloon tips
I did stop search for folders and printers
Skipped disabled performance counters (enough of installing programs without investigating)
I use PC Pitstop Optimize
TuneXP
Used eldergeeks disable service guide
CCleaner
Like system restore
Like sounds
Not ****ing with my registry
Blah,blah, blah
Prefer auto updates
All ready disabled compression

Anyway after using a couple of your tweaks my system inproved slightly according to the benchmark test

 

LOL, after trying few of these tweaks my IE is gone!!!!

Edited: Never mind, it was disabled from add&remove components.

Greats tweaks. GL

 

guide updated with table If you can't see the image clearly, try the direct link below the picture

 

After having super slow boot times and some hanging-up on boot issues I decided to go through this thread and implement everything I could to fix these issues. I ended up implementing all but the pop-up balloons as the value I was to tweak didn't exist. All others were easy enough to figure out if there were some slight discrepancies from the directions to how the stpes worked out.

Here are my results:
Before 865.6
After 897.7
Change: 3.58%

The systme boots a little faster now, but only by a few seconds at best. I think something's bad with the install, so hopefully the new computer with Vista 64 comes in so I don't have to reinstall everything to fix the problem.

Thanks for the work compiling this tweak guide.

 

Good luck with Vista 64

 

thx for the guide bro.
just have a small question, after i run the page file my computer seems to be stuck in a blank screen for a couple of seconds after the xp bar. what's the problem? thx before ^^

 

Just found this thread now. As an avid XP user (and hater of Vista), I have used many of these tweaks already. Some are new to me though, and will be implemented when I get home later. Thanks, and rep for you!

 

64MB RAM & 30 MB video memory & ur XP can run stable & fast.

But this aside, what I wanted to say is where is nLite? you do know that you can shrink ur Win XP install disc to 80 - 100 Mb & can still install & use ur daily programs & stuff with only 1 difference: ur PC will be a lot faster. & will also boot up in a blink of an eye.

So why is nobody mentioning XP component removing in this topic also?

 

because it essencially kills your xp down to some level that you may still think that's enough for you, but normally isn't for most. i don't want my systems to be castrated. tweaks is about changing thing, not about taking away things.

Eric618: you're a vista hater? and? more cool now?

 

I just think it's ridiculous to be a hater of an os, even more if it's merely sheep behaviour. both xp and vista are perfectly well working os. hating it is just .. dump? and most of all, useless..

 

Kind of like slagging someone for no good reason on an internet board?

 

so did you slag vista for no good reason on an internet board? anyways, lets forget about it (or go pm instead).

i think the tweak-list in here is quite good. haven't had seen much others that are worth noting. there was one topic i found about removing unnessesary stuff in xp (like deleting the helpfiles and such). it worked very well. but as it does affect the system in a way not restorable without reinstall, i won't link it in here.

 

Please do link it.