Turn off Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop:
Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> System -> Remote -> Uncheck ‘Allow Remote Assistance invitations to be sent from this computer’, and ‘Allow users to connect remotely to this computer’ -> Click ‘OK’
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Turn off Windows Automatic Updates:
Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> System -> Automatic Updates -> Select ‘Turn off Automatic Updates.’ -> Click ‘OK’
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Disable System Restore:
Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> System -> System Restore -> Check ‘Turn off System Restore’ -> Click ‘OK’
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Set Your Virtual Memory To 1.5-3.0 Times Your Computer’s Memory:
Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> System -> Advanced Tab -> Performance Settings -> Advanced Tab -> Change -> Select Custom Size -> Set the Initial size to 1.5 x amount of memory installed in your computer (I have 1024mb, 1GB of RAM installed so I’d set it to 1.5 x 1024 = 1536 MB) -> Set the Maximum Size to 3 x amount of memory installed in your computer (I have 1024mb, 1GB of RAM installed so I’d set it to 3.0 x 1024 = 3072 MB). -> Click ‘Set’ -> Click ‘OK
This makes sure the paging file stays put, by doing this it will perform better, and it is optimized for the amount of memory you have so Windows XP doesn’t have to keep adjusting the paging file automatically. It also helps prevent the paging file from becoming fragmented.
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Disable Windows Error Reporting:
Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> System -> Advanced Tab -> Error Reporting -> Select ‘Disable error reporting’ -> Check ‘But notify me when critical errors occur’ -> Click ‘OK’
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Turn off Indexing Service:
Start Menu -> My Computer -> Right Click Local Disk (C
(or available hard drives) -> Properties -> Uncheck ‘Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching’ -> Check ‘Apply To All Files And Folders’ -> Click ‘OK’
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Change maximum size of the Recycle Bin to something more manageable, and get rid of the display delete confirmation dialog:
Desktop -> Right click Recycle Bin -> Properties -> Set ‘Maximum size of Recycle Bin’ to a smaller, more manageable percentage like 3-5% -> Uncheck ‘Display delete confirmation dialog’ -> Click ‘OK’
Lowering the maximum size of the recycle bin makes sure that it doesn’t use up more than a gig or few, because it’s normally set to 10% of each drive you have, and 10% of 250GB is 25GB, that’s a lot of space to be dedicated to your recycle bin. Unchecking the display delete confirmation dialog stops Windows from asking you every time if you’re sure you want to delete the file that you want to delete, which of course we always say yes. If you accidentally delete something it’ll still be in your recycle so you don’t have to worry.
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Disable Hibernation:
Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Power Options -> Hibernate Tab -> Uncheck ‘Enable Hibernation’ -> Click ‘OK’
Hibernation is one of those things that you’re just never going to use, unless you have a laptop, it makes it so that when you put your computer into hibernation mode it saves everything that was in your memory onto your hard disk. It sounds handy, but they don’t make it to put it into hibernation and it just mostly wastes space and processing power. Just put your computer in stand by if you don’t want to use it for awhile.
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Disable automatic search for network folders and printers:
Start Menu -> My Computer -> Tools Menu -> Click ‘Folder Options’ -> View Tab -> Uncheck ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers’
By disabling automatic search for network folders and printers when you open up Windows explorer your computer will not automatically search for network folders and printers that may or may not be there. Chances are you have no network printers or folders, and if you do Windows wouldn’t need to search for them every time you want to get into My Computer. This speeds up file browsing, access and Windows responsiveness.
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Defragment at optimize your hard drive: (Powerdefragmenter + Contig)
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Har ... nter.shtml
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/C ... 40913.html
Defragmenting your hard drive is very important to the performance health of your computer, it can speed up Windows XP significantly if you never have defragmented your computer before. It takes your folders and files and moves them around on the hard drive so Windows XP can have better and faster access to them, the more files you have the more they need to be organized on the hard drive.
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Check your hard drive for errors with Disk Check:
Start Menu -> My Computer -> Right Click ‘Local Disk (C
’ -> Click ‘Properties’ -> Tools Tab -> Click ‘Check Now’ -> Check ‘Automatically fix file system errors’, and ‘Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors’ -> Click ‘Start’
The Disk Check will require a reboot, and it certainly takes some time to check the disk (1-2 hours). Disk check allows Windows to scan your hard drive for any errors, and automatically fix any errors if they are found. If you hard drive contains errors it can slow down your computer and your overall Windows XP experience.
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Delete unused fonts in the fonts folder:
Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> Fonts Folder
Delete any unnecessary or fonts that you will never ever use. As a precaution first move the unused fonts to a different folder so you make sure there are no side-effects, because you could move a system font that’s needed for Windows by accident. Feel free to delete Wingdings and Symbol and all those Eastern/Western fonts that you’re never going to use. Windows checks this folder each time it loads, and then it loads the fonts into Windows memory so they’re easily accessible with the click of a button, by deleting these fonts you save system memory and increase start up time.
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Disable unused Windows sounds:
Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> Sound and Audio Devices -> Sounds Tab
Set all the unused Windows/Application sounds to ‘None’. I just go through each sound and listen to it, and if I don’t need it’s disabled, some sounds you hear all the time, those are the ones I don’t disable, but the ones that are for Net meetings or Windows startup I disable, the more you disable the greater the performance boost.
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Uninstall unused Windows Components/Programs
Start Menu -> Add/Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components
Uncheck the Windows Components that you don’t use. I uncheck Fax Services, Indexing Service, Internet Information Services, Management and Monitoring Tools, Message Queuing, Other Network File and Printer Services, Windows Messenger, Outlook Express, and MSN Explorer. They’re probably handy tools and services for businesses, but I will never need Message Queuing and Fax services. Also while you’re in the Add/Remove Programs menu look for any programs that you don’t use and uninstall them as well, it’ll save disk space and increase performance.
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Set all of your ATAPI drives to DMA:
Start Menu -> Right Click ‘My Computer’ -> Click ‘Manage’ -> Click ‘Device Manager’ -> Click ‘IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers’ -> Right Click on each individual IDE Channel -> Click ‘Properties’ -> Advanced Settings Tab -> Select ‘DMA if available’ for ‘Transfer Mode’
This setting changes your IDE device’s transfer mode to DMA. Switching all of your IDE devices over to DMA provides a significant performance boost compared to PIO only transfer mode, DMA is much faster.
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Disable unused devices in Device Manager:
Start Menu -> Right Click ‘My Computer -> Click ‘Manage’ -> Click ‘Device Manager’ -> Right Click unused devices -> Click ‘Disable’
Be careful when disabling unused devices that you don’t disable something that may be important to the necessary functions of your computer. Only disable something if you have an onboard sound card, or an onboard ethernet adapter that you’re not using because you have PCI slots filled with a sound card or network adapter.
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Defragment your page file:
Download PageDefrag at Microsoft TechNet
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 97426.aspx -> Open the .zip and run PageDefrag -> Click ‘Accept’ -> Select ‘Defragment at next boot’ -> Click ‘OK’
Just like the Microsoft TechNet website said one of the problems of Windows XP/2000/NT is that files that are in use cannot be defragged, and that includes the pagefile. This program will defrag your pagefile at the next boot to ensure it’s working to it’s maximum efficiency.