Simple ways to speed up Windows XP. ------------------------------------- 1) Disabling Indexing Services The Indexing services are used by Windows to make lists of all files on your computer. This requires quite a lot of RAM memory and processor power. However, if your computer isn't cluttered and when you use the defragmentation option once in a while, this service doesn't speed up the search function at all. Here is how it works: Go to the Control Panel. Click the Add/Remove Programs. Click the Add/Remove Windows Components tab. Uncheck the Indexing services. Click Next. 2) Optimizing Display settings. Windows XP looks great, but most of those fancy visuals slow your pc down a lot. Let's turn a few of those option of. Here is how it works: Go to the Control Panel. Click System. Click the "advanced" tab. Click "settings" in the performance part. Uncheck everything except for these: "Show shadows under menus", "Show shadows under mouse pointer", "Show translucent selection rectangle", "Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop", "Use visual styles on windows and buttons". Click OK. Click Apply. 3) Faster Folder Browsing You may have noticed that every time 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 every time you open Windows Explorer. This can be turned of to speed up your folder browsing. Here is how it works: 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. Reboot your computer. 4) Optimize your Page File. If you give your pagefile a fixed size it saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file. Here is how it works: 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. Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size. 5) Remove Fonts you don't use. Fonts might look like tiny files, but when you combine them all, and realize that they have to be loaded every time you start a typical program, it can cause quite a lot of slowdown. Here is how it works: Go to Control Panel. Open the Fonts folder. Move all Fonts that you don't use to a temporary folder, but don't remove any of the standard ones, like "Arial" and "Times New Roman". You can only remove the Fonts that you have added yourself, or Fonts that a program you no longer have installed on you computer added. 6) Clean your System Registry. The Registry is the hearth of your computer, but just like a human hearth, it can get cluttered with all kinds of crap. Don't go messing around in there, unless you are an expert, but then you wouldn't be reading this guide. Here is how it works: Download Eusing Registry Cleaner. It's one of the best specialized tools out there. Install the program. Run it. Choose "Skip" when asked to register, this is Freeware, so we don't want to pay for this. Choose "Scan Registry Issue" in the top left corner. After scanning, choose "Repair Registry Issue". Exit the program. Repeat this about every two weeks, you will notice that the program finds less errors over time, and your computer's speed will increase A LOT. 7) Remove Start Menu Delay Have you noticed that the start menu always needs some time to open? That's not because your computer is to slow, it's because the computer is programmed to do so. It's possible to remove these delays, which is great for people who want to browse a bit faster. Here is how it works: Open the start menu. Wait for it to open for the last time. Click on run. Type "regedit" (without quotes). Click run. Find the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Find the string value MenuShowDelay. Right-click on it and choose Modify. The value that you shoold see now is 400, which means that your computer always waits 400 milliseconds (almost half a second) before opening a menu. You can lower this number, but I wouldn't go any lower then 50, because that can mess up you computer. 50 should be fast enough anyway, since your hand can't even react any faster then that. Exit the registry editor by using the menu. (sometimes it won't save the changes if you use that little X in the corner) Restart your computer. 8) Restarting Not Always Needed. A lot of programs tell you they you need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. That's just not true. What those programs often actually want to do, is restart the windows explorer. That can be done much faster then by restarting your computer. Here is how it works: Use the ctrl+alt+del (or ctrl+shift+esc, whatever one you like best) command to open the task manager. Switch to the processes tab. End the "explorer.exe" process. Choose "new task" and the menu and type "explorer.exe". That's it. It should'nt take more then a few seconds, and restarting your computer and all aplications takes a lot longer, doesn't it? That's it for now. More will be added soon. Suggestions are always welcome. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Disclaimer: I (Fo®Saken), nor starcraft2forum.org are responsible for any damage done to your computer by following these instructions. Do not come to me or the site administrator with questions about programs listed here, they are not our responsibility. However, if you follow these instructions carefully, you should be fine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Update* It's not a large update, but points 7 and 8 are newly added. I could add a lot more, but I will only place relevant information, not tweaks everybody already knows about. It's a tutorial, not an encyclopedia.
Thread of the year. This deserves a sticky for people with low end comps. I'm on a SEVEN year old laptop. I can run SC2. Mutalisks lag bomb me.
When I install XP, I use a tool called nLite. I use it to really REALLY tweak how XP installs and is configured out of the box. I can disable things like themes support, and uninstall CRAP like Windows Messenger, Movie Maker, etc. While most people wouldn't go to such extremes, you can even uninstall Internet Explorer (which breaks pretty much everything from Steam to... yeah Steam). You can integrate your drivers so they are installed during installation (which saves butt loads of time in itself!), remove built in Windows drivers (who in the heck needs ATM network drivers?!)... If you REALLY know what you are doing, you can even get all of your Windows Updates (meaning, more then a Service Pack) installed before hand. I've been thinking of making a custom "distro" of Windows XP/Vista/7 with my special tweaks, etc, already installed.
Isn't it possible already to make a windows (xp) setup disk with all service pack updates on it? Forgot how the method is called, but an quite positive I made one once for a friend.
Its a simple enough thing to do when you have a decent base image to work with. nLite automates the process even more, so all you need is the Network Distro of the Service Pack to integrate it. On top of that, nLite can slipstream individual Windows Updates AND new drivers. I have manually added drivers to an installation disc before, and its a PAIN in the butt. Screw you $oem$ folder!~!! I got that crap in drivers.cab now!
