Ten Windows XP Performance Tweaks - Manual Tweaks
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Before using any program to do your down and dirty work for you, you should do everything you can by hand first. There are a number of things that you can do in Windows to improve your performance, including changing system services and programs that start up when your operating system loads and back-end adjustments to Windows that provide blanket changes.
Three simple tweaks occur in one place and this is the most common method of adjusting your computer system's performance: the Microsoft System Configuration Utility or simply "MSCONFIG." This particular utility is designed to troubleshoot problems with third party programs in Windows but can also be used to improve the overall performance of your system. <Start -> Run -> MSCONFIG>
There are two tabs that we are going to focus on: the "Startup" and "Services" tabs. Now, we're not going to adjust or change any Windows behaviors in here as much as we're going to make changes to the way it interacts with third party applications. The first place we're going to start is on the "Startup" tab.
In this tab you will see a whole list of checked off items that are starting up when Windows does. Usually the number of programs listed here correlates with the amount of time Windows spends on its splash screen. Additionally, a large number of these programs leave icons down next to the time in the system tray. Also, an immediate indicator of viral or malicious infections can be found here with nonsensical listings of random characters and numbers or with blank entries. Be on the lookout for these. But how do you figure out what can stay and what can go?
A number of the programs listed there are quite easy to identify either by the name or by sliding over to its Location and reading its address. However, some are not as easily identified. There are a number of sites out there that strive to maintain an exhaustive list of startup entries, but rather than provide you with a plethora of links, the best to go is Google. Put the name of the startup item into Google's search engine and it will provide you with the best link to answer your question. Naturally this can be an exhausting method if you have a list as long as your arm, as most people often do.
A simpler method is to leave checked only the items that relate to your anti-virus products. This method, of course, is not without risks as some programs do require the startup component to be running in order to function (i.e. HotSync Manager if you have a Palm Pilot) and laptops have a number of programs that need to be running, unlike most desktops. You may have to go back and forth between this program and rebooting your system to determine what you need and what you don't.
Your next stop is the Services tab. Now, this is certainly an area in which you do not want to make a mistake, but it goes hand in hand with the changes you have made in the Startup tab. For now we are going to leave the Microsoft services alone and check off "Hide All Microsoft Services" to shorten the list and provide us only with information regarding third party applications and services that start up when the system does. There are some services you want to leave in here, such as printer services, anti-virus services, and even the Office Source Engine, but there are plenty of services that end up here that aren't necessary. As with the Startup tab, some services need to be running for some hardware to function properly, so care should be taken when disabling features.
Additionally, another way to change which services are running is to use the services.msc tool found in the Administrative Tools section of your Control Panel or by typing "services.msc" in Run instead of MSCONFIG. This will provide you with more information about what each service is and what it does. By double-clicking on the service you can then choose to disable it permanently. This is a little more time consuming than the alternative method in MSCONFIG but can be much more thorough.
The last step in this area is found on the "Boot.ini" tab. On this tab you will see a choice near the bottom of the window that says "/NOGUIBOOT." Put a check mark in the box next to it. This will turn off the Windows splash screen when your computer boots up, shaving a small but significant one or two seconds of your load time. This may not seem like much time shaved but when you add up all these reductions you will see significant improvements. Once you're done in there be sure to hit Apply and Close to save your changes and be sure to reboot in order to see these changes in your system's performance.
Our next step in manually tuning the operating system is in the Control Panel. From the Control Panel we will go into the System Properties area. In there we will find a tab labeled "Advanced." On this tab there are two areas we are going to make adjustments to: Performance and Startup/Recovery. In the Performance area the default option is "Let Windows Decide What is Best for My Computer" and all the options below that are checked off. If you choose "Adjust for Best Performance" you will see all these features become unchecked. Wow. Personally, I then choose the last option of "Custom" and turn on the last four on the list out of personal preference.
After this step under the Startup/Recovery section we are going to make one change. We will uncheck the "Automatically Restart" option under System Failure. You want to make this change because Windows XP is designed to automatically reboot when a catastrophic failure occurs in Windows. These failures would normally produce a dreaded BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) but Windows XP is designed to automatically reboot in order to correct the problem. It's a great idea except on those many occasions when the problem is bigger than a simple reboot can correct and your system will just continuously reboot and reboot until you notice because the problem lies not with Windows but with either your hardware or a third party application. Especially in the case of many viruses this can result in out of control infection rates as a lot of viruses "reproduce" when the computer reboots. What this will do instead of cause you to have a Blue Screen of Death is provide you with the information you need to properly troubleshoot your issues.
After this it is worthwhile to turn off the Remote Assistance options under the Remote tab and to disable Automatic Windows Updating. As a matter of performance the ability of Windows to automatically update itself can result in software problems from updates and their often unexpected side effects. For example, they may draw on bandwidth you'd rather put into your MMORPG or video downloads. Many will argue the importance of keeping your Windows product up-to-date, but as a performance consideration unnecessary updating can cause significant decreases in the speed of your system and most updates address very specific problems (outside of some cumulative security updates) that may or may not affect you. If it isn't broke, why fix it?
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