What tweaks are you XP Users using ?

[Godfather]

I was wondering, what tweaks everyone is using and why. I'm looking to tweak my system after I fix the reboot problem im having.

Pat.

[jayson]

Well i use one whre u can edit the menu speed the lowerr it is the faster menus appear including start menu also if you want to speed up your files appearing in a folder open my computer then click tools menu then folder options then the view tab then uncheck the first one that reads auto search for network files/folders there are more tweaks at www.theeldergeek.com (http://www.theeldergeek.com) have some fun

[SaskSask]

http://web.archive.org/web/20041128084144/www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Pick one....

[paak]

Quite a few :)

Heres a few to start with:

1) turn off alot of the extra 'eye candy'
--control panel--system--advanced--performance settings--uncheck everything but the last 3...xp will still look the same, but use less resources towards the visual styles.

2) turn off uneeded services (like 'help and support', 'ssdp discovery', 'remote registry' and a few others)
--start--run--type in 'services.msc'(without the quotes)--click ok--find the above mentioned services and select 'disabled' as the startup type.

3) --my computer---right click main hard drive--properties--uncheck 'allowing indexing service...'

...there are many many more, just google it and there is tons of information on the subject of tweaking.

[Lemme_LQQK]

Quite a few :)

Heres a few to start with:

1) turn off alot of the extra 'eye candy'
--control panel--system--advanced--performance settings--uncheck everything but the last 3...xp will still look the same, but use less resources towards the visual styles.

2) turn off uneeded services (like 'help and support', 'ssdp discovery', 'remote registry' and a few others)
--start--run--type in 'services.msc'(without the quotes)--click ok--find the above mentioned services and select 'disabled' as the startup type.

3) --my computer---right click main hard drive--properties--uncheck 'allowing indexing service...'

...there are many many more, just google it and there is tons of information on the subject of tweaking.

And this does what , makes for a faster boot up and speed pc up some?

[paak]

And this does what , makes for a faster boot up and speed pc up some?

Yes and yes.

:-)

[Godfather]

I have a couple sites for Windows XP Users for tweaking and a small circle of close friends who are all computer geeks like myself and others that we pass info on between us. I was curious to see what everyone else had. Paak, thanks for the info, I am running a couple tweaks so far, but obviously not enough.

Pat.

[paak]

There are soooo much more..

Normally, I turn off the themes completely. I never use system restore, so off with that also(if you do use it though, adjust the size allocated, you only really need one or two restore points). Off with hibernation too. As for automatic updates, I usually reinstall fairly often(and I redo my XP disk and slipstream all the latest security updates) so I turn off the updates as well. Off with wireless service if I dont intend to use a wireless ethernet. Off with almost everything on startup(even tray icons for video and audio)

I usually do a boot trace with bootvis to see what drivers/apps/services cause boot delays.

Also, switch the pagefile to another physical hard drive if you have one(switching to another partition on the same drive will actually slow it down a hair, so avoid that).

I can usually get XP down to using 65-75MB ram as apposed to 200+mb ram by default(can get it lower, but then lose too much functionality), which makes it very peppy.

[Godfather]

Paak, tell me more about this bootvis you use, how do you use it anyways ??

By the way I shut down some more services that aren't being used such as the ones you mentioned, I'm about to re-boot my system to see the difference. I'm sure it will make a big difference. The only thing I keep is themes, everything else you previously mentioned is done.

Keep posting the tweaks my friend. Everyone can profit from this information.

Pat.

[paak]

Bootvis is a Microsoft program(they don't support it anymore though, so you wont find it on their site). Basically, it traces programs, services and drivers on bootup and graphs the delays. It will show pretty much everything that loads, in what order and the time it takes for each. Its great for trying to find out what is slowing down your computer on bootup.

Its here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664

A tutorial on how to use Bootvis:
http://www.gilsmethod.com/htspeedupboottimeswithbootvis

[Godfather]

When I get home tonight, I'll sit down with a smoke and a beer and have a look at this Bootvis program, I'm sure something can be done about my machine running semi-slow. I remember tweaking something in the registry through regedit and I think it was under HK_Users_Machine not entirely sure, thats what comes to mind, but its a hexidecimal number that had to be put in 40000 and this would free up some memory so that windows would use a specific amount or something to that effect, its a memory tweak. I'll have to check that out as well. Thanks Paak.

WOOT

Pat.

[paak]

http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/memory-winxp/memory-2.shtml

[Godfather]

Haven't had a chance to do some more tweaking last night, I wanted to play World of warcraft and build on my toon. Go figure. Anyways I'll try it tomorrow, Eugene and I are supposed to connect tomorrow (saturday) and see if there's anything else I have that might help him. FYI, Eugeneb is from the ISJ as well, a gentleman I helped with a twisted pair RJ-45 cable for his black Comtrends Box which works just fine, I think the cable was 10-15 feet long but it works.

On another note Paak, I did notice a difference on some of the tweaks I have done that you have suggested. I'm sure if I removed "themes" I would see a substantial difference but I do like a nice desktop, to each their own I suppose.

Keep the tweaks coming people, anything and everything that you have done to tweak your XP that might help others out.

Pat.

[paak]

try reading the tweakguide here:

http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html

[Godfather]

try reading the tweakguide here:

http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html

My god, the whole companion book on tweaking XP, I never would have thought such a book existed unless someone would have posted the Url link Paak, I'm DL'ing it right now and will peruse it. Another thing that helps me understand XP are the courses at Xerox that I am able to take that are free at no cost, There are 14 of them starting at beginner going to Advanced. I did pretty well in all 14, I think there is 1 that I had difficulties and that was with XP Protocols. Networking isn't one of my strengths. OH well. Thanks Paak.

Pat.

[Godfather]

The system file checker is another built in function of Windows XP that allows the system to go through and check all the major protected Windows Xp system files against the original versions stored on a valid Microsoft Windows XP CD. This is extremely useful if you suspect corrupted/tampered system files that are leading to unusual Windows behavior.

To Access the system file checker follow this procedure:

1. Go to Start>Run and type "SFC/scannow" (without quotes) then press enter to start an immediate scan of your system files.

2. The System file checker will go through all of your important system files and make sure they have not been altered in any way. Where major system files are corrupted or shown to be different from original, they will be replaced with the original files from your \windows\System32\Dllcache directory and/or your Windows XP CD.

3. If prompted to reboot your PC, reboot as required.

NOTE that you can use the switches /scanonce (to scan after the next reboot) or /scanboot (to scan on every reboot) instead of /scannow. if you choose /scanboot and then want to stop a scan after every reboot at some point, use the /revert switch.


This is awesome Paak if your system is preventing you from doing something that you normally could do or blue screens of death as well call them, even possible system reboots intermittently like mine, I must check this, got this from that URL Manual on Tweaking Windows XP that you posted a couple posts before.

Thanks good buddy.

Pat.

P.S. That tweaking manual that I downloaded has 172 pages total.

[paak]

Like I mentioned quite a few posts ago...there is SOOO MUCH MORE information out there...enjoy :)

[Godfather]

This program is free, it checks 454073 Signatures, 325859 different trojans, 41158 Dialers, 70009 Worms and 17046 spywares all at once. This was also in the Link Paak provided a couple threads above which is also recommended because of it's diversity. I trust AVG and Spybot, but since my system is intermittently rebooting from time to time and sometimes chuggs along, I am currently downloading this and will do a complete check to be on the safe side, you never know. By the way, it updates automatically at the beginning and the download is 12 MB's. Give it time to DL.

Just additional info for users out there experiencing odd PC behaviors.

Pat.

[Godfather]

This program is free, it checks 454073 Signatures, 325859 different trojans, 41158 Dialers, 70009 Worms and 17046 spywares all at once. This was also in the Link Paak provided a couple threads above which is also recommended because of it's diversity. I trust AVG and Spybot, but since my system is intermittently rebooting from time to time and sometimes chuggs along, I am currently downloading this and will do a complete check to be on the safe side, you never know. By the way, it updates automatically at the beginning and the download is 12 MB's. Give it time to DL.

Just additional info for users out there experiencing odd PC behaviors.

Pat.

Just additional info: If you are doing an update and it freezes, just simply click the close button at the bottom right and go back to start>programs and find the program in the listing of whats installed on your PC and it will prompt you again to update. It worked fine for me.

thanks.

pat.

[Godfather]

Hey Kit, I hope the info I posted above and what Paak did as well as many others has been of some help. I'm going to write me another book and keep track of the most common software that I use.

keep it coming gang. :) WOOT.

Pat.

P.S. Glas you could open that pdf document Kit, Version 4 is old and if the PDF was created in a newer version, older versions won't be able to open them.

[KIT]

Thanks Pat,for the info on the .pdf file and you too Paak for posting the site.
I won't be trying anything yet but it is interesting!
..Kit

[Godfather]

No worries Kit, I tried everything Paak mentioned excluding removing the themes which does take up resources, but that's just me. to each their own. Don't forget to gimme a jingle if your unsure of something, you got my number or post it here and we can help you out. Paak is your best bet but my father always said "you can teach an old dog new tricks" and thats me. :)

Peace.

Pat.

[sunnyd]

paak....I would love to know how you got it down to 65 mb......i got 200 and thought it was hard to pick and choose what was the right ones to do

[Godfather]

here's a question, how do you know how much resources and memory you saved from XP. I hope the wording is fine. I've been thinking about this for sometime now, is it in the task manager ?

Pat.

[sunnyd]

yes it is its the commit charge on the bottom right hand side of task manager

[Godfather]

AHHH the commit charge, i'm gonna have to have a look at that tonight before I hop on warcraft. I downloaded the new AVG version 7.5, my other one expired, of course that's nothing new to the ISJ members who use it. remember sunnyd, he isn't using any themes either and he shut everything down that he doesn't use. This can vary from system to system based on what your purpose with the PC is. The standard would prolly be located in the URL linked in this thread that Paak posted earlier which is in PDF format, something like 171 pages long.

I'll have to check my commit charge tonight in the task manager, im sure its somewhere around 130 megs.

pat.

[serialspell]

anymore tweaks to list? my commit charge is still at 314, was over 500

[sunnyd]

Bill......Reformat....LoL