Windows 2K and XP tweaks

[Kureboy99]

Just to help out others, if they don't already know about them, here are some simple tweaks you can do to your OS to speed it up:

Services Tweaks - Black Viper (http://www.blackviper.com)

Memory, Page File, Etc Tweaks - Tech Spot Guides (http://www.techspot.com/guides-os.shtml)

[ThugsRook]

services doesnt make your system faster ~ it only makes windows faster.


top 3 tweaks for WinXP....

disable prefetch
disable WFP (and delete about a gig of WinXP garbage)
disable paging executive

HTH :beer:




[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]
"EnablePrefetcher"=dword:00000000


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"DisablePagingExecutive"=dword:00000001

use XPlite to disable WFP

[Kureboy99]

true...but eliminating unnecessary services frees up more memory for programs to be able to use so they can use physical instead of virtual memory more, especially in gaming and audio/video editing. :yup:

Thanks for the WFP disable tip :thumb:

[ThugsRook]

true...but eliminating unnecessary services frees up more memory for programs to be able to use so they can use physical instead of virtual memory more, especially in gaming and audio/video editing. :yup:
while that may be true ~ it will do nothing for test benchmarks (both gaming and encoding benchmarks) it will however make windows faster.

but if you really wanna make windows faster, disable prefetch.
its redundant and stupid, especially if you own a fast HD.
(you can delete the prefetch folder contents once disabled)

:beer:

[Kureboy99]

I hear ya and agree on the benchmark thing :)

Hmmm...I think I disabled the prefetch... *check s registry to be sure* :bonk:

[ThugsRook]

disabling prefetch will also decrease your boot time by about 75-80% :yup:
(my boot time is 1/4 distance of the blue boot bar :eek: thats including networking enabled)


also....
if you disable WFP you can delete the contents of your dllcache folder.

:beer:

[Kureboy99]

I set it to "0" (was set to 3 in my registry)...can you also delete the registry folder or should you leave it there just in case?

[ThugsRook]

registry folder? :scratch:
whats that?
part of system restore?
i dont use that junk either ;)

hehe~ ;)

[Kureboy99]

hehe, yeah same. :D

I meant the registry location PrefetchParameters, I guess I will keep it there as is otherwise Windows will decide to take a dump on me most likely... :hide:

[ThugsRook]

no, do not delete anything from the registry.

:wave:

[ThugsRook]

reboot, and post back with comments on how well the lack of prefetch is (not) working for you ;) (again, its not benchable)

you should see a nice decrease in boot times and program launches if you are on at least a decent HD.

:beer:

[Kureboy99]

I noticed a dramatic time in booting into windows but when it started up it took a while longer since they weren't prefetched...I think the time it took everything to load when all said and done was quicker though...thanks again :D

[ThugsRook]

i guess that would depend on how much you load at bootup.

i load nothing except for my LAN and ExperTool, yours may vary depending on whats in your sys tray / startup ;)

(im a VERY serious XP tweaker)

:beer:

[ThugsRook]

another great XP tweakin site....
http://www.tweakxp.com

:thumbs:

[Kureboy99]

yeah, I try to load only the essentials that I will end up using anyway...I think the main hog is Norton AV auto-protect...then Zone Alarm maybe...I have four others but that's it :yup: