How to Make be Faster Windows XP

 

Some tips to make your Windows XP faster

A. DISABLE UN-NEEDED SERVICE

Select the extended tab at the bottom. Here you see the services that are running or not if they have been stopped already. So, which ones do we not need to have running all the time if at all. Windows XP tweaks aplenty. To disable unneeded startup services for a safer, faster XP, use the “Services” Admin Tool (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services).

• Alerter
• Clipbook
• Computer browser
• Error reporting service
• Indexing service
• IPSEC service
• Messenger
• Netmeeting Remote Desktop sharing
• Remote Registry
• Routing & Remote Access
• Security Center
• System event notifikation
• Task Scheduler
• Telnet
• WINDOW TIME
• Window Firewall/internet connection

B. 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.

• Go to Start and then Run and type “regedit”
• Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | System | CurrentControlSet | Control | FileSystem
• Right-click in a blank area of the window on the right and select DWORD Value
• Create a new DWORD Value called NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate
• Then Right click on the new value and select Modify
• Change the Value Data to 1 then click Ok

C. MAKE YOUR MENUS LOAD FASTER

This is my favorite 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.

• Go to Start then Run
• Type “Regedit” then click “Ok”
• Go to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Control Panel | Desktop”
• Select “MenuShowDelay”
• Right click and select “Modify”
• 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

D. DISABLE INDEXING SERVICES

Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. If you don”t search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service is completely unnecessary. To disable do the following:

• Go to Start
• Click Settings
• Click Control Panel
• Double-click Add/Remove Programs
• Click the Add/Remove Window Components
• Uncheck the Indexing services
• Click Next

E. OPTIMISE DISPLAY SETTINGS

Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimise:

1. Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Click System
5. Click Advanced tab
6. In the Performance tab click Settings
7. Leave only the following ticked:

• Show shadows under menus
• Show shadows under mouse pointer
• Show translucent selection rectangle
• Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
• Use visual styles on windows and buttons

F. SPEEDUP FOLDER BROWSING

You may have noticed that everytime you open my computer to browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing significantly:

• Open My Computer
• Click on Tools menu – Folder Options
• Click on the View tab.
• Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
• Click Apply – Ok
• Reboot your computer

G. ENSURE WINDOWS XP IS USING DMA MODE

Windows XP enables DMA for Hard-Drives and CD-Roms by default on most ATA or ATAPI (IDE) devices. However, sometimes computers switch to PIO mode which is slower for data transfer – a typical reason is because of a virus. To ensure that your machine is using DMA:

• Open “Device Manager”
• Double-click “IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers”
• Right-click “Primary Channel” and select “Properties” and then “Advanced Settings”
• In the “Current Transfer Mode” drop-down box, select “DMA if Available” if the current setting is “PIO Only”

Disclaimer: Modifying the windows XP can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your Windows XP. We cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the Windows XP can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.