Windows XP Speed UP!

[tomo222]

I know im new and all that it doesnt mean i cant give advice so heres a guide what ive written it will hopefully help you speed up your computer without formating and reinstalling Windows its mainly for Windows XP .

Please reply to let us Know what you think
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1. Convert a volume to NTFS

To convert a volume to NTFS from the command prompt
Open the Command Prompt window.
In the command prompt window, type
convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

For example, typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: with the ntfs format.

Notes

To open a command prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
You can convert FAT or FAT32 volumes to NTFS with this command.

I also Recommend you to run your OS in a HDD or Partition NOT bigger than 15 GB. ( I'm not gonna discuss this or any other recommendations LOL) Txs
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2.Disable the XP loading screen

To speed up your boot process slightly, disable the Windows XP loading screen. This can be accomplished easily by opening the MSCONFIG utility ('start\run and type msconfig'), selecting the 'boot.ini' tab and checking the /NOGUIBOOT option.

When you boot your system, you will see a black screen in between POST and the welcome screen from now on.

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3. Eliminate unwanted fonts to increase boot speed

The Windows XP control panel contains a 'fonts' directory which holds all the fonts currently installed on your system. These can come from Windows itself or from an application such as Word.

Windows checks and loads these fonts during the startup process, therefore having a large amount of font files can cause performance to drag during startup. The simple solution for this (if you do not expect to use the majority of these fonts constantly) is to move the unnecessary fonts to a new directory elsewhere on the hard disk, preserving them in case they are needed, but preventing them from loading upon startup.

To do this:

Create a new directory called 'font backup' or something similar on your c: drive.

Go to 'start\control panel\fonts' and select all fonts (for now, we will be more selective later). Drag and drop all the fonts into the backup folder you just created. Things will get garbled for a moment, never fear. Windows XP will automatically re-install the base fonts that it needs to display text into the fonts folder in a second or two.

Now you have the bare minimum of fonts installed. Go through the backup folder and cherry pick the fonts that you are sure to use (like Times New Roman or Arial).

If you removed a large volume of fonts, your system should now boot faster.
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4. Disable unneeded devices in device manager

A quick fix that can make XP boot faster is to disable any unused devices in the Windows XP device manager. For example if you have a integrated sound card or video card that you have upgraded, or if you do not use a floppy drive on your system, it pays to disable these devices in device manager.

The same goes for extra network cards. Of course, the standard rule of thumb applies here: If you do not know what it is, leave it alone.

To disable unneeded devices in device manager:

Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.' From the 'hardware' tab, select 'device manager.' Expand the various categories to locate unused devices. Right click the devices and select 'disable.'
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Increasing shutdown speed by reducing wait times part 1

Windows XP stores a couple of values in its registry which are responsible for determining how long to wait before shutting down (killing) open applications and services once the shutdown command has been given.

By editing these two settings and changing them to lower values, you can considerably decrease the amount of time that Windows XP needs to successfully shut itself down. The first part of this tweak deals with setting the amount of time Windows will take to kill open applications on shutdown.

Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\'
Highlight the 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' (the default should be 20000).
Now highlight the 'HungAppTimeout' value
Set it to '1000' also.
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Increasing shutdown speed by reducing wait times part 2

The second part of this tip changes the same settings, this time for all users on the system.

Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop'
Highlight the 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' (the default should be 20000).
Now highlight the 'HungAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' also.
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[tomo222]

Auto kill tasks on shutdown


To allow Windows XP to close non-responsive applications automatically upon shutdown:

Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop'

Highlight the value 'AutoEndTasks.'

Change the value to '1'

XP will now be able to close hung applications without user input during the shutdown process.
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1. run "regedit";
2. goto [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\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.
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BROWSING SPEEDUP

Then run Regedit and go to:


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace
In the left hand pane highlight these 2 subkeys:


{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF} = Scheduled Tasks
{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} = Shared Printers

and delete them: right-click on each -> select Delete -> click OK.

RECOMMENDED: Export (BACKUP) this Registry key to a REG file FIRST, to be able to restore it (by running the REG file) if necessary. In Regedit: highlight the key name in the left hand pane -> click "Registry" from the menu -> select "Export Registry File..." -> type a file name in the "File name" field -> browse to the destination of your choice -> push the Save button.

This Registry change takes effect immediately.
Just start MS IE while connected to the network/internet to see the difference.

FYI: Upgrading to a future MS Internet Explorer release or reinstalling it may add these values to your Registry *again*, therefore you may need to delete them *again* after (re)installing MS IE.

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Windows NT4/2000/ME/XP/2003 users ONLY:
"This Registry hack might fix your CPU Priority if you don't have a PnP BIOS.
increasing CPU priority by 50 to 100%.
Run Regedit and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\PriorityControl

or create it if not present: right-click on an empty spot -> select New -> Key -> paste "PriorityControl" (no quotes) into the type-in box -> click OK to save.
Now highlight this key, and in the right hand pane create a new DWORD [REG_DWORD] Value called "Win32PrioritySeparation" (no quotes) -> double-click on it -> check the Decimal box -> type 1 -> click OK to save.
When this baby is set to 1, the foreground (active) application has more CPU power than the background (inactive) apps (if any), and if you set the value to 2, you get even more power to the foreground app:


0 = Foreground and background applications equally responsive.
1 = Foreground application more responsive than background.
2 = Best foreground application response time.
The maximum value allowed is 26 (Hex) or 38 (Decimal).
Play around with these values till you find your own "sweet spot".
BEWARE: Higher settings will drag down system resources considerably.
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Launch apps with desired priority setting

This tweak will launch most executables with the priority setting you want it to have.

Let's say you have a game installed called HIGH NEEDS and the executable is called HN.exe

Here's what to do:

-Create a new textfile in the game-app wathever-directory (let's say C:\HN), but instead of giving it the .txt extension you name it HN.bat
-Right-click this file and choose 'Edit', you'll see it'll open notepad. Put this line in:
cmd /c start /High HN.exe
-Save (make sure you save it as .bat, not as .txt) and close.

Now create a shortcut to this file and place it on your desktop. Every time you doubleclick this shortcut HIGH NEEDS will open with priority set to 'high'. (ofcourse you can also create a batchfile on your desktop, containing the full path of the app you want to start but the nice thing of creating a shortcut is you can give it an icon).

These are all the settings: Realtime, High, AboveNormal, Normal, BelowNormal, Low.
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Disable Balloon Tips in Windows XP.

Start the Registry Editor (go to Start, Run and type Regedt32). Find the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\Advanced and add the DWORD value EnableBalloonTips. To turn of Balloon Tips the value should be set to 0.
To turn on Balloon Tips set the value to 1.
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Speeding Up the Display of Start Menu Items


An easy way to speed up the display of the Start Menu Items is to turn off the menu shadow.

Right click on an open area of the Desktop

Select Properties

Click on the Appearance tab

Click on the Effects button

Uncheck Show shadows under menus




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[tomo222]

Disable performance counters

Like Windows 2000, Windows XP has a performance monitor utility (found in administrative tools) which can track several areas of your PC's performance. Everything from CPU use to hard drive access can be tracked and graphed. The information for this utility comes from several performance counter services which run behind the scenes, gathering data for the monitor.

If you have no use for this information, it's a good idea to disable the counters, since they take up system resources. Unfortunately, this is rather hard to do without the use of additional software. Fortunately, Microsoft has made the necessary software freely available on their website.

The Extensible Performance Counter List utility can be used to permanently disable these performance counters.

First download and install the utility, then run the Exctrlst.exe utility, found in 'c:\program files\resource kit\'



Select each line in the 'Extensible performance counters' window and clear the 'performance counters enabled' button below. You must do this separately for each counter. When done, just exit the utility.

Now if you load the performance monitor, you will see that it has no information available to it.
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Microsoft claims Longhorn will be, er, faster

The only reason why its faster is they added a superfetch feature to the prefetcher. If you look at the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\Prefetcher

you will notice in windows xp

EnablePrefetcher = 3 and you will notice in windows longhorn
EnableSuperfetch = 1

Well, guess what? You can put the EnableSuperfetch = 1 in windows xp and get the same speed.

Wow, Microsoft just added a feature that was already there in xp.
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Speed up the Start Menu

The default speed of the Start Menu is pretty slow, but you can fix that by editing a Registry Key. Fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ MenuShowDelay

By default, the value is 400. Change this to a smaller value, such as 0, to speed it up. (The perfect value in my opinion is 150)

If this doesn't work for some reason, then you might try the following: Navigate to Display Properties then Appearance then Effects and turn off the option titled Show menu shadow. You will get much better overall performance
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This tweak removes the shortcut arrow

Open Regedit.exe and navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Shell Icons

Backup the key.
In the right-pane, create a new String value named "29"
Double-click 29 and set it's value as follows:
C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll,50 (an empty icon)

Close Registry Editor.
To apply the changes instantly, follow this

Right-click Desktop, choose Properties
Click the Appearance Tab.
Click Advanced button
Choose Icon from the drop-down list
Set it's size to 31 and press OK, OK.
The changes will be applied now. Repeat the above steps and then set the Icon size back to 32 (defaults). The above steps are required to force Windows to redraw the icons. Even Tweak UI does this.

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Disable Disk Performance Counters
Press the Windows + R keys > type diskperf -n > reboot
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Thats it youve just read the ultimate guide to making Windows XP run faster !