Introduction
In this article you will learn how to make Windows XP work at its full potential for several years! There are many articles on this topic on the Internet, but I assure you that none of this is serious! Some are packed with a lot of tips that do not speed up the system, and sometimes even slow down your work!
Well, now to the point! You all know that all system and program data is in the registry..... You have to be very careful with the registry, otherwise we won’t see the system! Yes, but why do we need a registry? The registry contains parameters that have a “default” value, therefore, by changing the parameter to a non-standard one, we can speed up the operation of the program and system! So what are we waiting for!? Let's begin! We will need straight hands, a sober appearance and composure :)
Work fast!
1) Disable System Restore
I don’t know if you use this dubious function, but I always disable it, since the constantly running System Restore service monitors all file operations on the disks and writes changes to its folder for possible further restoration of the original state. But how does it slow down the system if the activity of this service coincided with the activity of the user playing Max Payne 2... Therefore, I strongly advise you to disable system recovery as soon as possible. To do this, in System Properties > System Restore, check the Turn off System Restore on all drives box. You can also turn it off this way: Start-Run, write msconfig in the Services tab, disable “System Restore”.
2) Disable automatic updates
The majority of Runet users already have a worse connection to the Internet, and if Windows XP secretly downloads tens of megabytes of updates for itself, loading the already frail communication channel... Disable it like this.....Start-run-msconfig - services and uncheck the " Automatic update."
3) Increasing the speed of menu appearance
We point to Start – All programs……… tired of waiting….Then do this…
Start - execute - regedit.exe and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Control Panel\ Desktop\ MenuShowDelay put any number in place of 400....the lower the faster. I recommend "0".
4) Disabling visual effects
They say that XP is like a decorated Christmas tree! Compared to Windows 98, it is! Various effects slow down the memory and system. We need to turn them off!
Right-click My Computer, select Properties, then Advanced.
You saw a window in front of you in which there were the items “Performance”, “Download and Recovery”, “User Profiles”. We need “Performance”…click on “Options” and then “Visual Effects”. Turn off everything except
Smooth list scrolling
Using common button tasks
Using Button Styles
Click Apply...Saw the effect!? The windows open faster!! This is what we needed!
5) Optimizing work with NTFS
If you open a folder in Explorer located on a disk with the NTFS file system, then Explorer will certainly update the “last access time” stamp for each file in this folder! But there are very large folders with several hundred, or even thousands of files. And the procedure for updating these labels may take a long time... In any case, we do not have a server where information about the last access to all files is important, so we disable unnecessary brakes. To do this, create a key in the registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate
and assign it the value 1 (type dword). Honestly, this is a useless option, but sometimes it helps!
6) Disable sending errors
To send or not to send? That's the question! Of course, don’t send it.... And even disable this function! Climb here:
My Computer - Properties - Advanced - Error Reports. And turn it off!
7) Disable disk autorun
When we insert a disk, a window appears (autorun). Personally, I disabled this feature. If you want to disable it, then set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom\AutoRun to 0.
You probably guessed where you need to climb.
8) Disable zip files
By default, the main archiver is the standard Windows ZIP. But we are cool hackers and we use Winrar. Let's disable ZIP support. Press WIN+R and enter the command
regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll
Memory is most precious!
This is how we optimized our work in Windows. Let's now move on to freeing memory. XP contains many services that sit in memory all the time, thereby occupying it! Some of them are simply useless! Click on the familiar WIN+R combination and enter msconfig.exe. And we go to Services. No need to turn everything off! I disabled the following.....
DHCP client
DNS client (if you don't have a network)
Help and support (we're hackers)
NetBios support module (if you don't have a network!)
Wireless setup
Determining the serial number….
Job Scheduler
Removable memory
Smart cards
Secondary login
You can experiment with other services, but feel free to disable these!
I'll tell you a secret. I've had XP for two years now! No glitches, works quickly!
Why!? Well, I did everything described above and, of course, I use optimizer programs. I recommend you the following software
PCBugDoctor– a very necessary thing!! Finds broken shortcuts, files and heals them! The speed of the program is very high! I've been using it for a year now and not a single glitch!
RegOrganizer- every optimizer should have this program! It is a set of tools for working in the registry. Includes a registry cleaner and file cleaner! Very fast and reliable! You can easily find it on the Internet.
Ad-Aware SE Personal- If you have access to the Internet, then this program is indispensable. Removes advertising spies from the system. Constantly updated! Fast work speed! Doesn't waste resources!
Here, in principle, is my set of frequently used programs. Hope you enjoy them!
If you delve into the registry and find a couple of interesting programs, you can achieve the desired result. I hope you make even more changes to speed up the system! The main thing is to know what to do! And then you will succeed!
P.S Windows XP on old computers is not very fast, but I noticed that this optimization method significantly speeds up work on such computers...
This operation is only possible on Windows XP, because only here programmers
We took care of the possibility of disabling CPUID checking. To do this, you should at the very beginning Windows installations XP, when the screen says "checking
equipment" on a black background, press F5 and from the proposed list of processors
select i486 and continue installation. I did it purely spontaneously. I tested this method on several computers. The effect was one! It really works!!!
Good luck to you in your difficult task as a user!
Kurt95
kurt95 (a) bk.ru
09
/03.2005
Having purchased Windows disk, and also having installed it on their computer, many notice that the developers have configured the system to achieve its greatest compatibility at the expense of performance. But I would like the computer to boot faster, and programs to turn on sooner, and when opening pages on the Internet, the computer “thinks” less. It is to speed up Windows that you have to change the Windows operating parameters yourself. Now we will describe this whole process.
Resizing pagefile.sys
In modern computers (laptops), to determine the size of this file, users launch all software applications that are frequently turned on on the computer (laptop). Each loaded program opens the largest file. Then, which will show the amount of occupied RAM space (Performance tab). To the amount of occupied RAM space, you need to add another 20% of memory (for unforeseen situations) and subtract the amount of RAM installed on the computer from the result. The resulting result is the volume of pagefile.sys.
To set the size of pagefile.sys, go to the “System” control panel, open the “Advanced” tab and there click the “Options” button on the “Performance” tab. In the window that opens, open the “Advanced” tab.
Click the change button in the “ Virtual memory" Next, exit the pagefile.sys modification window and in the “Performance Options” window we redirect Windows performance in favor of background services. This will make switching between apps faster and multitasking smoother.
Disable all graphic excesses
To do this, go to the “Visual effects” tab and configure it for maximum performance. In the list of effects, all items will have no checkmarks. Then you can select and enable the “Display window contents while dragging” option (a very convenient option to work with).
Disables debugging information
In the control panel, open the “System” again, and in it - the “Advanced” tab. Next, click on the “Restore and Setup” button. In this window, disable “Saving debugging information” and uncheck the “save events in the log” and “send administrative alerts” checkboxes. After this, click the “Environment Variables” button in the “Advanced” tab and set the TMP and TEMP variables there with the values C:\TEMP (this is done twice: for the system and for users as a whole). After this, the folder C:\TEMP is created and we restart the computer (laptop).
Setting up the desktop
Open Control Panel and go to Screen. In the window that opens, select the Classic Windows theme and remove the picture from it ( main reason computer slowdown). Click OK.
Unnecessary programs are removed
First, the MSN Messenger app is uninstalled. To do this, click on Start, open Run and enter what is shown in the figure.
Then the Notepad application opens, and in it - the sysoc.inf file (inf folder in the Windows root folder). In this file, change the line “hide” to “,” After that, open “Add or Remove Programs” in the Control Panel and remove everything you need.
Disable the welcome screen
The Welcome Screen is, of course, beautiful, but it consumes computer resources and slows down the loading of the computer (laptop) by more than 5 seconds. So, if there is no need to quickly change users, you can open the Control Panel, and in it – User’s accounts and, after clicking on “change login method”, uncheck two “checkboxes”. This will allow the system to boot faster.
Setting up disks
You can reduce disk fragmentation and also disable disk indexing. In this case, the file search systems built into Windows will be unavailable, and the size of blocks selected for writing files will increase. All this will significantly increase Windows performance. To perform this operation, you must click Start, open Run and enter regedit in the input field. In the system registry window that opens, you need to go to the FileSystem section (see figure below) and change the parameter values:
Speed up your work on the Internet
To do this, you need to disable the sending of ARP packets performed to verify the uniqueness of the IP address of a computer (laptop) connected to the Internet. This process is quite lengthy. Therefore, this function can be disabled. To do this, open RegEdit again and change the value of the ArpRetryCount parameter to 0. To do this, enter RegEdit in the Run input field and go to the Parameters section in the system registry.
Internet pages will open faster.
I'm tired of seeing articles about optimizing Windows XP, which are replete with either lengthy discussions about nothing, or advice based on myths and misconceptions, or such petty advice, following which will give no more than a theoretical increase in performance, but will cause significant inconvenience to the user... That's why I decided to write this article. An article about how I optimize my Windows XP immediately after installation.
This article is intended for more or less experienced users who know how to work with the registry editor, execute commands from the command line and be aware of their actions; in a word, for those with straight arms.
Basically, the names of system elements are given for the English version of Windows XP; Sorry, I don’t have the Russian version at hand. Most settings go through the System Properties dialog, which is called by a simple keyboard shortcut Win+Pause, and the command line, called Win+R. All settings, of course, must be made from account with administrator rights.
Disable System Restore
I don’t know if you use this dubious function, but I always disable it, since the constantly running System Restore service monitors all file operations on the disks and writes changes to its folder for possible further restoration of the original state. But how does it slow down the system if the activity of this service coincides with the activity of a user playing Max Payne 2... It's just a song! Therefore, I strongly advise you to disable System Restore as soon as possible. To do this, in System Properties > System Restore, check the Turn off System Restore on all drives box.
And for really full recovery systems, I advise you to use more advanced and reliable programs like Symantec Ghost.
Disable automatic updates
Most Runet users already have a worse connection to the Internet, and if Windows XP secretly downloads tens of megabytes of updates for itself, loading the already frail communication channel... So let's disable this function designed for lazy bourgeoisie, to do this, uncheck System Properties > Automatic Updates > Keep my computer up to date.
In case you still need to download latest updates, just go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com and download only what we need.
Disable automatic system reboot
By default, Windows XP is set to automatically reboot when the system kernel fails. If a kernel crash occurs, the system reboots without even explaining the reasons; For an untrained user, this behavior of the system looks more than strange, especially if this is not the first time. And if you disable auto-reboot, then if the kernel fails, the system will display a suicide note - a blue screen of death, the information of which may be useful in eliminating the cause of the failure. To disable auto-restart, uncheck System Properties > Advanced > Startup and Recovery > Settings > Automatically restart.
Disable error reporting
If a program crashes, which happens quite often, Windows XP is always eager to send a bug report home to Microsoft. To do this, of course, you will need to connect to the Internet. Do you need it, especially if you have a lot of buggy programs that often crash? If not, then set the System Properties > Advanced > Error Reporting switch to the Disable error reporting position.
Setting up the TEMP environment variables
In order to avoid problems when installing some old programs, I strongly recommend setting the TEMP and TMP variables to a short path in System Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables, for example C:\Temp
Cutting visual effects
Some people may be excited about the new design of Windows XP, so if you like it, enjoy it to your heart's content! But for some reason I much prefer the ascetic, classic look, like in Windows 2000. And all sorts of effects like shadows, animation and the like have not been impressive for a long time. If you agree with my opinion and don’t mind speeding up the interface, then set the System Properties > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Visual Effects switch to the Adjust for best performance position. Just don’t forget to then turn on screen font smoothing back in the screen properties - the only useful effect.
To change the speed at which various menus appear when their animation is enabled, use the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Control Panel\ Desktop\ MenuShowDelay, the default value of which is 400 milliseconds.
Turn off the sound
Not only are all the sound files included in the sound design scheme constantly loaded into memory, the system, under certain conditions, cannot continue to perform actions until the corresponding sound plays. A live example - a user logging into the system with the sound circuit disabled is much faster than when playing a sound when logging in... The system simply will not allow the user to use the desktop until it plays the assigned sound file to the end...
For example, I can’t imagine working at a computer without constantly playing background music... What if the music is on very loud, then it is likely that due to some minor user action, the atmosphere created by the music will be disrupted by some standard Windows XP sound... So I strongly recommend choosing the best sound scheme No Sounds in Control Panel > Sound and Audia Devices > Sounds.
Disable fast user switching
This Windows XP feature allows a new user to log in without having to log out another user. On the one hand, this is convenient, on the other, all data loaded into memory by the first user is saved in memory while the second user is working. It turns out that the second user will no longer be able to work fully (play with heavy toys). If your computer has at least 512 meters of memory and there is a need for quick switching, then this function may come in handy. If you don’t need it or the memory is less than 512 meters, I recommend disabling fast user switching. To do this, uncheck Control Panel > User Accounts > Change the way... > Use Fast User Switching.
Disabling simplified access control
By default, Windows XP enables the so-called simplified access control to shared objects, in which the Security and Sharing tabs are unavailable in file properties. This is done to protect clueless housewives from such complex concepts as “access rights” and “shared resources”. But we are not dull housewives and we need all the power of the system! Therefore, immediately uncheck Control Panel > Folder Options > View > Use simple file sharing.
Setting up sleep mode
Hibernation is a terribly useful feature for me when, for example, I urgently need to turn off my computer (thunderstorm), but I don’t want to close running applications and unload downloaded data. The system will save the contents of the RAM to disk in the file hiberfil.sys (located in the root of the system disk) and shut down, and upon subsequent startup it will completely restore its state before shutdown. One problem is that the size of the hiberfil.sys file is equal to the size of the RAM installed in the computer, and if there is a lot of this memory (1024), then the file wastes precious space on the system partition. Therefore, if you do not use sleep mode, you can disable it by unchecking Control Panel > Power Options > Hibernate > Enable hibernation. This way you will free up space on the system partition equal to the size of the installed RAM.
Automatic login
I can’t afford this, but if the computer is used at home, by the only user and there is nothing to hide from others, then it is reasonable to configure the system to automatically log in without entering a password or greetings. To do this, run the command
control userpasswords2
and in the dialog box that appears (remaining from Windows 2000), uncheck the Users must enter...
Enable DMA for all disks
It may happen that after installing the system, some disks (HDD, CD, DVD) will have the extremely useful DMA (Direct Memory Access) mode disabled, which allows these devices to directly access the system memory bypassing the processor. When the device is running with DMA disabled, terrible slowdowns are observed all systems. In order to check DMA activity and, if necessary, enable this mode, go to the device manager: System Properties > Hardware > Device Manager, where we check the properties of IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers > Primary IDE Channel and Secondary IDE Channel. The Transfer Mode parameter value must be DMA if available.
Optimizing work with RAM
Subsystem Windows memory XP is configured by default to work more or less acceptably on both weaker and more powerful machines. But we want to get the most out of our system... Therefore, universal settings are not for us. And if your system has at least 256 memory (and most likely even more), then I advise you to perform the following steps.
Prevent writing the system kernel, drivers and applications to the paging file. By default, the system writes all these objects to the swap file in order to somehow free up memory on weak machines with 128 meters of memory or less. But why do we need extra brakes, because the speed of reading from a hard drive is hundreds of times less than the speed of accessing memory! Therefore the registry key value is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ Session Manager\ Memory Management\ DisablePagingExecutive
set equal to 1.
Even in this case, the system continues to keep some files of its kernel in the swap file, which slightly slows down absolutely all actions (after all, everything rests on the system kernel). To disable this “useful” function, assign the value 1 to the following registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ Session Manager\ Memory Management\ LargeSystemCache
The same effect can be achieved by setting the System Properties > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Memore Usage switch to the System Cache position.
Optimizing work with NTFS
If you open any folder in Explorer located on a disk with the NTFS file system, then Explorer will certainly update the “last access time” stamp for everyone file in this folder! But there are very large folders with several hundred, or even thousands of files. And the procedure for updating these labels may take a long time... In any case, we do not have a server where information about the last access to all files is important, so we disable unnecessary brakes. To do this, create a key in the registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate
and assign it the value 1 (type dword).
Disable CD/DVD autorun
I hate it when things run on my computer without my consent. The enemy just needs to insert a disk with a virus into the drive, and the system itself will launch the virus. Disorder! I advise you to disable autorun for all CDs to avoid the above and many other troubles. If necessary, we can always activate autorun for a specific disk manually. To disable autorun for all CD/DVD-ROMs, you need to enter 0 in the value of the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom\AutoRun.
Removing Windows Messenger
If you do not use this program (and most likely you do), then I am sure that you are already quite tired of it because it always starts, if not when the system boots (can be disabled in the options), then when you start Outlook Express (can be disabled via group policy, but then Outlook Express will take half a minute to load). And it’s unpleasant to look at the extra tray icon. And you can permanently remove the annoying Windows Messenger with the following command
rundll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msgs.inf,BLC.Remove
(press Win+R, copy this text into the field and click OK)
Removing ZIP support
Windows XP Explorer has built-in support for ZIP files, which allows you to work with them as fully as with packs. This, of course, is great... But if we use WinRar to work with archives, or even better, paired with Total Commander... Then we absolutely do not need such support, and the ZIP support library is still loaded every time the system starts. To disable support for ZIP files in Explorer, just run on the command line:
regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll
To return support for ZIP files:
regsvr32 zipfldr.dll
Disable unnecessary services
Actually, this is the topic of a separate large article, but here I will give only the basics.
- Services are configured in the window called up with the srvices.msc command.
- Windows XP boots quite by default large number services that are unnecessary at first glance, but they have very modest memory requirements.
- When disabling services, you need to use common sense, and not greed for every byte of memory!
- It is much better to leave a useless service enabled than to disable a useful one, which can cause everything from error messages to the inability to boot the system.
- Therefore, leave “doubtful” services running and disable only the most malicious and useless ones.
- You should not disable those services that are not even running at the time of configuration (Stopped is written in the Status field).
Myths
Freeing up disk space
Many “optimizers” often advise deleting the windows\ driver sasne\ i386 and windows\ system32\ dllcache folders, which takes up about 400 megabytes, through tricky registry operations that ultimately disable the System File Protection function. Do not do this under any circumstances, no matter what they tell you! Microsoft somehow solved the famous “dll-hell” problem (any program can do anything with system libraries) by creating System File Protection. We can say that the lifetime of the system largely depends on this function.
Disabling the Indexing Service
The same “optimizers” often advise disabling the Indexing Service in Windows XP, presenting it to an inexperienced user as a monster consuming all the computer’s resources... To do this, they suggest doing tricky operations by changing the attributes of all files on NTFS volumes. It seems that these "optimizers" do not even realize that in Windows XP the indexing service is completely disabled by default! See for yourself by running Computer Management > Services and Applications > Indexing Service... Or on the desktop, press F3, then > Back > Change preferences > With Indexing Service... So? Is the indexing service eating up resources even when it's not running?
Speed up your Internet connection
And for this you don’t need to do absolutely anything! Windows XP is configured for maximum performance when working with a modem. The MTU, TTL, RWS parameters are determined dynamically during the communication session. And don’t try to hard-code them, listening to optimizers who have been using the same optimization methods since Windows 95.
And one more thing... On the Internet, at almost every step, “optimizers” insist that Windows XP simply eats up 20% of the communication channel bandwidth. Here's the thing: don't believe the myths! Someone blurted it out out of inexperience, and the rest picked it up and spread it all over the Internet. “Tips” immediately appeared on how to disable QoS through group policy... Don’t torture the system in vain, don’t mess with group policy, no 20% of the communication channel is reserved when using conventional equipment!
At this point, I think it’s time to finish our optimization, otherwise very often further optimization can lead to
- a useless pursuit of every byte of memory and processor cycle, sacrificing real usability
- cries for help in eliminating the consequences of “over-optimization” if you carelessly used advice of dubious origin or third-party optimization programs...
And now the time has come for so-called customization - setting up purely user, non-global parameters of Windows XP. But in this matter I am not your adviser, everyone has their own tastes...
PS: This article is still very “raw” and, naturally, requires editing. If you have any questions, suggestions or criticism, I'd love to hear it; write to us or use the feedback form.
Today we will talk about why optimization of Windows XP is needed and what points it actually consists of. Many modern programs also support work in XP, which indicates its relevance even today.
Some users use Windows XP on modern hardware - there is nothing wrong with that, but in this case, optimizing Windows XP to improve performance is of dubious benefit - it will already work very quickly. Very much, because modern computers are tens of times more powerful than those for which Windows XP was developed.
Personally, I have already switched to Windows 10 (one might even say that it was forced), but I would never have thought that I would ever leave my beloved Windows XP, with which I spent more than ten years of my life. Well, that’s all lyrics, let’s move on directly to optimization. As I already wrote, even if you don’t configure anything after a clean installation (provided that you have at least 1 GB of RAM and at least a dual-threaded processor - I mean Hyper-threading technology), then you are already guaranteed high performance of Windows XP. But there is no limit to perfection - you can do it even faster, and today I will tell you how.
Where can optimizing Windows XP for better performance come in handy?
Optimizing Windows XP Performance
There are several ways to increase the performance of Windows XP, the main ones I will list below. Will the effect be strong? Well, to be honest, it’s noticeable. Personally, before, when I used XP, I used all the methods, I also advise you to try them, there is nothing complicated, at least I will try to describe everything in an accessible language.
Keep in mind that I will give all the working methods in my opinion and at the same time I do not take into account the security that may decrease after such a setup.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, the parameter has a name MenuShowDelay
Change its value to 0 (default is 400):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem, parameter name - NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate, the value must be assigned 1 .
Open the registry (using Win+R, then enter the command Regedit) and change the value (if this parameter does not exist, then create it - with the right mouse button - DWORD parameter- and indicate the name NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom, parameter AutoRun— set the value 0 , with this we disable disk autorun in Windows XP:
Now let's go to the thread:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer, there is a key NoDriveTypeAutoRun(if it doesn’t exist, you need to create it), this parameter is responsible for autorun on many devices. Here is a list of values that can be applied to this parameter:
0x4— disable autostart of removable devices;
0x8— disable autostart of non-removable devices;
0x10— disable autorun of network drives;
0x20— disable autorun of CD drives;
0x40— disable autorun of RAM disks;
0x80— disable autorun on drives of unknown types;
0xFF— disable autorun of all disks;
regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll:
If the command is executed successfully, you will see a window like this.
WikiHow works like a wiki, which means that many of our articles are written by multiple authors. This article was produced by 48 people, including anonymously, to edit and improve it.
Is your Windows XP computer running slow? It's not his fault. At correct use Windows XP can be a fast and efficient system. You can significantly improve your computer's performance by configuring your system correctly. Installing needed programs and removing unused programs can improve system performance.
Steps
-
Remove unnecessary programs. Click “Start” - “Control Panel” - “Add or Remove Programs”. Remove unnecessary programs and this way you will free up space on your hard drive.
- Deleting temporary files also leads to a slight speedup of the system. To do this, click “Start” - “Run”, enter Temp and delete temporary files.
- Defragment your drive after following the recommendations in this article.
- Most changes take effect after a reboot.
- You can create a restore point by clicking “Start” - “Accessories” - “System Tools” - “System Restore”. Here you can create a restore point or restore the system using a previously created restore point. This will be needed if, after speeding up the system, it works with errors.
- The wireless setting can be disabled if it is used by a program other than Windows.
- Before speeding up your system, back up your important data. You will be insured in case of system failure.
- To open the Run dialog box in Windows Vista or Windows 7, type Run in the search box and press Enter (or press Windows + R).
Convert hard system disk in NTFS. If your drive is formatted as FAT16 or FAT32, you can improve performance by converting the system to NTFS.
Remove malware. Malicious programs are downloaded along with free software available on the Internet. They can greatly slow down the system. Download and install Spybot Search & Destroy, boot your computer in safe mode and run a full system scan for malware. A list of other programs that increase system security can be found.
Disable the indexing service. The indexing service scans your hard drive and indexes files to make them easier to find. It runs in the background using RAM and loads the processor (and is considered unnecessary by most advanced users). To disable the indexing service, open My Computer, right-click on the drive, select Properties and uncheck the box next to Allow the drive to be indexed for quick search. Click OK. Disabling the service may take some time.
Turn off some or all visual effects. Visual effects consume system resources. Therefore, to disable them, click “Start”, right-click on “My Computer”, select “Properties”, go to the “Advanced” tab, in the “Performance” section click on “Settings” and check the “Get the best performance” option. If you want to retain some of the visual appeal of Windows XP, check the Special Effects option and check the last 3 effects. Disable all effects when installing powerful programs (such as Adobe programs). Sometimes turning off all effects allows you to view photos, movies, or listen to music without problems.
Speed up browsing of folders. Open “My Computer” and click “Tools” - “Folder Options” - “View”. Uncheck “Automatically search for network folders and printers” and “Open each folder in a separate window. Click Apply and then click OK.
Increase your download speed. Open your browser and enter tcp optimizer in the search bar. Open the first link. Download the program and run it. Click “File” - “Backup current settings”. After saving the backup, set maximum speed connection, which is declared by your Internet provider. Then click on “Optimal settings”, apply the changes and reboot. Download speed should increase.
Speed up menu opening. Press Windows + R, type Regedit and press Enter. Now open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, double click on MenuShowDelay and reduce the number to 100 (but not less).
Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP runs a lot of services that you don't need but that consume system resources. The following is a list of services that may be disabled on most computers: Secondary Logon, Shipping Manager, Remote Desktop Help Session Manager, Performance Logs and Alerts, Routing and Remote Access, NetBIOS over TCP/IP Help Module, Computer Browser, Announcer, Network Login, Exchange Folder Server, Portable Media Device Serial Number, Windows Time Service, Indexing Service, SSDP Detection Service, Error Logging Service, Messaging Service, Help and Support, Remote Registry, Background Intelligent Transfer Service, NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing, Telnet. To disable these services, press Windows + R and type services.msc, double click on the service you want to disable and change the startup type to Disabled.
Speed up access to folders by disabling Last Access Update. Press Windows + R and type regedt32, open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem, in the right pane of the window, right-click the empty area and select New > DWORD Value. Enter the name of the new entry: "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate" and then double-click on it and change the value to "1". Press Enter.
Reduce boot time (1). Many computers come with pre-installed software (trial versions) that are loaded when the system boots. Not only do these programs use a significant portion of RAM, but they are loaded from the hard drive, increasing loading times. To find out which programs start during system boot, open the system configuration window. To do this, press Windows + R and enter MSCONFIG. Go to the “Startup” tab and uncheck each program whose startup you want to disable. Do not disable antivirus and antispyware programs as this will make your computer vulnerable to viruses and malware.
Reduce loading time (2). You can also make your system boot faster by preventing it from moving files during boot. To do this, press Windows + R and type regedt32, then press Enter. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction, in the right pane of the window, select the “Enable” entry, double-click on it, change the value to “Y”, press Enter and close the window.
Improve page file performance (1). Many computers have at least 2 local drives. In this case, improve the performance of the page file by moving it to the local D: drive (so that access to it does not conflict with loading programs from the local C: drive).
Improve page file performance (2). If you have 4GB of RAM, then Windows XP will not be able to use all of this capacity. Windows XP uses a maximum of 3.25GB of RAM, so you have 0.75GB of hidden RAM that can be used as a high-speed page file. To access this hidden RAM, use the free utility “VSuite Ramdisk Free Edition”.
Improve page file performance (3). Note: Some users believe that this method only works in Win9x and is useless in WinXP and Win2000. This method ensures that your computer will use all of its RAM (without any leftover) before the system starts accessing the page file.
Speed up system shutdown. This setting reduces the time it takes for the system to automatically shut down all running programs (when you turn off your computer). Press Windows + R, type regedt32 and press Enter. Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, double-click WaitToKillAppTimeout, change the value to 1000 and press Enter. Double click on HungAppTimeout, change the value to 1000 and press Enter. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control, double-click WaitToKillServiceTimeout, change the value to 1000 and press Enter.
Remove wallpaper from your desktop. Right-click on the desktop, click Properties and go to the Desktop tab. Under Wallpaper, select none. This will significantly speed up Windows operation XP. Also go to the Options tab and under Color Quality select Medium (16-bit).
