Here is a WAY to get XP go faster :
There are quite a few services you can disable from starting automatically.
This would be to speed up your boot time and free resources.
They are only suggestions so I suggestion you read the description
of each one when you run Services
and that you turn them off one at a time.
DO AT YOUR OWN RISK
Some possibilities are:
Alerter
Application Management
Clipbook
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Devices
Indexing Service
Messenger
Net Logon
NetMeeting
QOS RSVP
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Routing & Remote Access
SSDP Discovery Service
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Web Client
Cleaning the Prefetch Directory :
Windows XP has a new feature called Prefetch. This keeps a shortcut to recently used programs.
However it can fill up with old and obsolete programs.
To clean this periodically go to:
Star / Run / Prefetch
Press Ctrl-A to highlight all the shorcuts
Delete them
Not Displaying Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages To turn these off:
Start Regedit
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\policies\system
If it is not already there, create a DWORD value named
DisableStatusMessages
Give it a value of 1
Not Displaying Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages
To turn these off:
Start Regedit
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\policies\system
If it is not already there, create a DWORD value named
DisableStatusMessages
Give it a value of 1
Clearing the Page File on Shutdown :
For regedit users.....
If you want to clear the page file on each shutdown:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session
Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Set the value to 1
No GUI Boot :
If you don't need to see the XP boot logo,
Run MSCONFIG
Click on the BOOT.INI tab
Check the box for /NOGUIBOOT
Speeding the Startup of Some CD Burner Programs :
If you use program other than the native WindowsXP CD Burner
software,
you might be able to increase the speed that it loads.
Getting Rid of Unread Email Messages :
To remove the Unread Email message by user's login names:
Start Regedit
For a single user: Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\UnreadMail
For all users: Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\UnreadMail
Create a DWORD key called MessageExpiryDays
Give it a value of 0
Decreasing Boot Time :
Microsoft has made available a program to analyze and decrease the
time it takes to boot to WindowsXP
The program is called BootVis
Uncompress the file.
Run BOOTVIS.EXE
For a starting point, run Trace / Next Boot + Driver Delays
This will reboot your computer and provide a benchmark After the reboot, BootVis will take a minute or two to show graphs
of your system startup.
Note how much time it takes for your system to load (click on the
red vertical line)
Then run Trace / Optimize System
Re-Run the Next Boot + Drive Delays
Note how much the time has decreased
Mine went from approximately 33 to 25 seconds.
Increasing Graphics Performance :
By default, WindowsXP turns on a lot of shadows, fades, slides etc to menu items.
Most simply slow down their display.
To turn these off selectively:
Increasing System Performance :
If you have 512 megs or more of memory, you can increase system
performance
by having the core system kept in memory.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session
Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive
Set the value to be 1
Reboot the computer
Increasing File System Caching :
To increase the amount of memory Windows will locked for I/O operations:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management
Edit the key IoPageLockLimit
There are quite a few services you can disable from starting automatically.
This would be to speed up your boot time and free resources.
They are only suggestions so I suggestion you read the description
of each one when you run Services
and that you turn them off one at a time.
DO AT YOUR OWN RISK
Some possibilities are:
Alerter
Application Management
Clipbook
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Devices
Indexing Service
Messenger
Net Logon
NetMeeting
QOS RSVP
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Routing & Remote Access
SSDP Discovery Service
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Web Client
Cleaning the Prefetch Directory :
Windows XP has a new feature called Prefetch. This keeps a shortcut to recently used programs.
However it can fill up with old and obsolete programs.
To clean this periodically go to:
Star / Run / Prefetch
Press Ctrl-A to highlight all the shorcuts
Delete them
Not Displaying Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages To turn these off:
Start Regedit
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\policies\system
If it is not already there, create a DWORD value named
DisableStatusMessages
Give it a value of 1
Not Displaying Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages
To turn these off:
Start Regedit
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\policies\system
If it is not already there, create a DWORD value named
DisableStatusMessages
Give it a value of 1
Clearing the Page File on Shutdown :
- Click on the Start button
- Go to the Control Panel
- Administrative Tools
- Local Security Policy
- Local Policies
- Click on Security Options
- Right hand menu - right click on "Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory
- Pagefile"
- Select "Enable"
- Reboot
For regedit users.....
If you want to clear the page file on each shutdown:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session
Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Set the value to 1
No GUI Boot :
If you don't need to see the XP boot logo,
Run MSCONFIG
Click on the BOOT.INI tab
Check the box for /NOGUIBOOT
Speeding the Startup of Some CD Burner Programs :
If you use program other than the native WindowsXP CD Burner
software,
you might be able to increase the speed that it loads.
- Go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services
- Double-click on IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
- For the Startup Type, select Disabled
- Click on the OK button and then close the Services window
If you dont You should notice
Getting Rid of Unread Email Messages :
To remove the Unread Email message by user's login names:
Start Regedit
For a single user: Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\UnreadMail
For all users: Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\UnreadMail
Create a DWORD key called MessageExpiryDays
Give it a value of 0
Decreasing Boot Time :
Microsoft has made available a program to analyze and decrease the
time it takes to boot to WindowsXP
The program is called BootVis
Uncompress the file.
Run BOOTVIS.EXE
For a starting point, run Trace / Next Boot + Driver Delays
This will reboot your computer and provide a benchmark After the reboot, BootVis will take a minute or two to show graphs
of your system startup.
Note how much time it takes for your system to load (click on the
red vertical line)
Then run Trace / Optimize System
Re-Run the Next Boot + Drive Delays
Note how much the time has decreased
Mine went from approximately 33 to 25 seconds.
Increasing Graphics Performance :
By default, WindowsXP turns on a lot of shadows, fades, slides etc to menu items.
Most simply slow down their display.
To turn these off selectively:
- Right click on the My Computer icon
- Select Properties
- Click on the Advanced tab
- Under Performance, click on the Settings button
- To turn them all of, select Adjust for best performance
- My preference is to leave them all off except for Show shadows under mouse pointer and Show window contents while dragging
Increasing System Performance :
If you have 512 megs or more of memory, you can increase system
performance
by having the core system kept in memory.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session
Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive
Set the value to be 1
Reboot the computer
Increasing File System Caching :
To increase the amount of memory Windows will locked for I/O operations:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management
Edit the key IoPageLockLimit