Ways to speed up Windows XP's Performance

1. Defragment Your Pagefile

Keeping your pagefile defragmented can provide a major performance boost.  One of the best ways of doing this is to creat a separate partition on your hard drive just for your page file, so that it doesn't get impacted by normal disk usage.

Another way of keeping your pagefile defragmented is to run PageDefrag.  This cool little app can be used to defrag your pagefile, and can also be set to defrag the pagefile everytime your PC starts.  To install:

    i.  Download and Run PageDefrag

    ii.  Tick "Defrag at next Reboot",

    iii. Click "Ok"

    iv. Reboot

2. Speedup Folder Access - Disable Last Access Update

If you have a lot of folders and subdirectories on your computer, when you access a directory XP wastes a lot of time updating the time stamp showing the last access time for that directory and for ALL sub directories.  To stop XP doing this you need to edit the registry.  If you are uncomfortable doing this then please do not attempt.

    i.Go to Start and then Run and type "regedit"

     ii.Click through the file system until you get to        
         "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\\\System\\\\CurrentControlSet\\\\Control\\\\FileSystem"

    iii.Right-click in a blank area of the window on the right and select 'DWORD    
    Value'

    iv.Create a new DWORD Value called 'NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate'

     v.Then Right click on the new value and select 'Modify'

    vi.Change the Value Data to '1'

    vii.Click 'OK'

3. Disable System Sounds

Surprisingly, the beeps that your computer makes for various system sounds can slow it down, particularly at startup and shut-down.  To fix this turn off the system sounds:

1. Open Control Panel

     ii.Click Sounds and Audio Devices

     iii.Check Place volume icon in taskbar

     iv.Click Sounds Tab

     v.Choose "No Sounds" for the Sound Scheme

     vi.Click "No"

     vii.Click "Apply"

     viii.Click "OK"

4. Improve Boot Times

A great new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow for faster booting. By default this option in enables but on some builds it is not so effective. Below is how to turn it on.

1. Go to Start Menu and Click Run

     ii.Type in "Regedit" then click ok

     iii.Find  
        "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\\\SOFTWARE\\\\Microsoft\\\\Dfrg\\\\BootOptimizeFunction"

     iv.Select "Enable" from the list on the right

     v.Right on it and select "Modify"

     vi.Change the value to "Y to enable"

     vii.Reboot

5. Improve Swapfile Performance

If you have more than 256MB of RAM this tweak will considerably improve your performance.  It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.

1. Go to Start then Run

     ii.Type "msconfig.exe" then ok

     iii.Click on the System.ini tab

     iv.Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign

     v.Click on new then in the blank box type"ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1"

     vi.Click OK

     vii.Restart PC

6. Make Your Menus Load Faster

This is one of my favourite tweaks as it makes a huge difference to how fast your machine will 'feel'.  What this tweak does is remove the slight delay between clicking on a menu and XP displaying the menu.

1. Go to Start then Run

     ii.Type 'Regedit' then click 'Ok'

     iii.Find "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\\\ControlPanel\\\\Desktop\\\\"

     iv.Select "MenuShowDelay"

      v.Right click and select "Modify'

     vi.Reduce the number to around "100"

This is the delay time before a menu is opened.  You can set it to "0" but it can make windows really hard to use as menus will open if you just look at them - well move your mouse over them anyway.  I tend to go for anywhere between 50-150 depending on my mood 

7. Make Programs Load Faster

This little tweak tends to work for most programs.  If your program doesn't load properly just undo the change. For any program:

     i.Right-click on the icon/shortcut you use to launch the program

     ii.Select properties

     iii.In the 'target' box, add ' /prefetch:1' at the end of the line.

     iv.Click "Ok"

8. Improve XP Shutdown Speed

This tweak reduces the time XP waits before automatically closing any running programs when you give it the command to shutdown.

1. Go to Start then select Run

     ii.Type 'Regedit' and click ok

     iii.Find 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\\\Control Panel\\\\Desktop\\\\'

     iv.Select 'WaitToKillAppTimeout'

      v.Right click and select 'Modify'

     vi.Change the value to '1000'

     vii.Click 'OK'

     viii.Now select 'HungAppTimeout'

     ix.Right click and select 'Modify'

     x.Change the value to '1000'

     xi.Click 'OK'

     xii.Now find 'HKEY_USERS\\\\.DEFAULT\\\\Control Panel\\\\Desktop'

     xiii.Select 'WaitToKillAppTimeout'

     xiv.Right click and select 'Modify'

     xv.Change the value to '1000'

     xvi.Click 'OK'

     xvii.Now find 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\\\System CurrentControlSet\\\\Control\\\\

     xviii.Select 'WaitToKillServiceTimeout'

     xix.Right click and select 'Modify'

     xx.Change the value to '1000'

     xxi.Click 'OK'

9. Removing built-in zip function

This tweak will remove the built-in zip function and only useful to those who use alternative software like winzip or winrar.

Just click start, click run, and type "regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll" and click ok.

You should now see a noticeable speed improvement if you make all of these changes correctly.   Hopefully you'll have more pleasant computing experience.

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