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Windows XP Tips & Tricks
- Thread starter ekwikum
- Start date
Convert Your Hard Drive to NTFS
If your drive is using FAT16 or FAT32, you can gain performance by converting it to NTFS.
* Click on the Start
* Click Run
* Type cmd
* Enter
* Type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS
* Enter
Follow the instructions and your drive will be converted to NTFS.
NOTE: NTFS drives can only be accessed by Windows 2000/NT/XP and Vista. Older versions of Windows are only compatible with FAT, FAT16 and FAT32
If your drive is using FAT16 or FAT32, you can gain performance by converting it to NTFS.
* Click on the Start
* Click Run
* Type cmd
* Enter
* Type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS
* Enter
Follow the instructions and your drive will be converted to NTFS.
NOTE: NTFS drives can only be accessed by Windows 2000/NT/XP and Vista. Older versions of Windows are only compatible with FAT, FAT16 and FAT32
Remove Malware from your System
Spyware comes bundled with a lot of free software found on the Internet. It can slow your machine down to a crawl. Download and install [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] , start your computer in Safe Mode and give your machine a full scan for spyware.
Spyware comes bundled with a lot of free software found on the Internet. It can slow your machine down to a crawl. Download and install [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] , start your computer in Safe Mode and give your machine a full scan for spyware.
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:
* Click Start
* Click Settings
* Click Control Panel
* Double-click Add/Remove Programs
* Click the Add/Remove Window Components
* Uncheck the Indexing services
* Click Next
* Click OK
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:
* Click Start
* Click Settings
* Click Control Panel
* Double-click Add/Remove Programs
* Click the Add/Remove Window Components
* Uncheck the Indexing services
* Click Next
* Click OK
Reduce Visual Effects
Visual Effects can make Windows XP look good but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources.
* Click Start
* Right click My Computer
* Go to the Advanced tab in the Performance area
* Click Settings
* Choose "Adjust for best performance"
If you still want to keep the look of Windows XP, you can leave the last 3 check boxes selected. It is recommended that you do uncheck these boxes when installing a big or graphics heavy program (like the Adobe programs). Sometimes unchecking these will help rendering pictures, movies or listening music.
Visual Effects can make Windows XP look good but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources.
* Click Start
* Right click My Computer
* Go to the Advanced tab in the Performance area
* Click Settings
* Choose "Adjust for best performance"
If you still want to keep the look of Windows XP, you can leave the last 3 check boxes selected. It is recommended that you do uncheck these boxes when installing a big or graphics heavy program (like the Adobe programs). Sometimes unchecking these will help rendering pictures, movies or listening music.
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
* Click on Folder Options
* Click on the View tab
* Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
* Click Apply
* Click Ok
* Reboot your computer
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
* Click on Folder Options
* Click on the View tab
* Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
* Click Apply
* Click Ok
* Reboot your computer
Improve Swapfile 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.
* Click Start
* Click Run
* Type msconfig
* Enter
* Click on the System.ini tab
* Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
* Click on new
* In the blank box type ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
* Press Enter
* Restart your PC for the changes to take effect
It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.
* Click Start
* Click Run
* Type msconfig
* Enter
* Click on the System.ini tab
* Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
* Click on new
* In the blank box type ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
* Press Enter
* Restart your PC for the changes to take effect
Remove the Desktop Picture
Your desktop background consumes a fair amount of memory and can slow the loading time of your system. Removing it will improve performance.
* Right click on Desktop and select Properties
* Select the Desktop tab
* In the Background window select None
* Click Ok
Your desktop background consumes a fair amount of memory and can slow the loading time of your system. Removing it will improve performance.
* Right click on Desktop and select Properties
* Select the Desktop tab
* In the Background window select None
* Click Ok
Optimize Display Settings
Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimize the display settings:
* Click Start
* Click Settings
* Click Control Panel
* Double-click System
* Click Advanced tab
* In the Performance tab click Settings
* Leave only the following ticked:
1. Show shadows under menus
2. Show shadows under mouse pointer
3. Show translucent selection rectangle
4. Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
5. Use visual styles on windows and buttons
Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimize the display settings:
* Click Start
* Click Settings
* Click Control Panel
* Double-click System
* Click Advanced tab
* In the Performance tab click Settings
* Leave only the following ticked:
1. Show shadows under menus
2. Show shadows under mouse pointer
3. Show translucent selection rectangle
4. Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
5. Use visual styles on windows and buttons
Optimise Your Pagefile
If you give your pagefile a fixed size it saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file.
* Right click on My Computer and select Properties
* Select the Advanced tab
* Under Performance choose the Settings button
* Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
* Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.
Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.
If you give your pagefile a fixed size it saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file.
* Right click on My Computer and select Properties
* Select the Advanced tab
* Under Performance choose the Settings button
* Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
* Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.
Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.
How to Hide Folders without any Software
In this post i want to show you a very simple, but really cool and pretty useful trick to keep folders hidden, and best of all, no software needed.
Its really easy... just follow these steps:
1. Create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive.
2. When you name it hold down "Alt" and press "0160" this will create and invisible space so it will appears as if it has no name.
3. Right click it and select "Properties" select the tab "coustimize" and select "change icon" scroll along and you should a few blanc spaces click on any one and click ok and save it.
4. When you have saved the settings the folder will be invisible to hide all your personal files.
Do you have questions, comments, or suggestions? Feel free to post a comment!
In this post i want to show you a very simple, but really cool and pretty useful trick to keep folders hidden, and best of all, no software needed.
Its really easy... just follow these steps:
1. Create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive.
2. When you name it hold down "Alt" and press "0160" this will create and invisible space so it will appears as if it has no name.
3. Right click it and select "Properties" select the tab "coustimize" and select "change icon" scroll along and you should a few blanc spaces click on any one and click ok and save it.
4. When you have saved the settings the folder will be invisible to hide all your personal files.
Do you have questions, comments, or suggestions? Feel free to post a comment!
TEMPORARILY DISABLE "RESTART NOW" DIALOG FROM XP'S AUTOMATIC UPDATES
[FONT=Garamond,Garamond]Automatic Updates is a great feature. Your computer stays protected from threats without worrying about it… but if it's 3am and I'm trying to play a video game, the last thing I want is for the automatic updates to pop up and remind me every 5 minutes that I need to reboot, interrupting my game… Drives me crazy!
If you want to temporarily disable this popup message and delay rebooting, you can go about it one of two ways. I'm a command line junkie, so I just type this into a command prompt (make sure you use the quotes)
[/FONT][FONT=Garamond,Garamond]net stop "automatic updates"
[/FONT][FONT=Garamond,Garamond]Or you can open Control Panel \ Administrative Tools \ Services and click Stop on automatic updates.
Do not disable the automatic updates service, just stop it. The next time you start up your computer, it will restart.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Garamond,Garamond]Automatic Updates is a great feature. Your computer stays protected from threats without worrying about it… but if it's 3am and I'm trying to play a video game, the last thing I want is for the automatic updates to pop up and remind me every 5 minutes that I need to reboot, interrupting my game… Drives me crazy!
If you want to temporarily disable this popup message and delay rebooting, you can go about it one of two ways. I'm a command line junkie, so I just type this into a command prompt (make sure you use the quotes)
[/FONT][FONT=Garamond,Garamond]net stop "automatic updates"
[/FONT][FONT=Garamond,Garamond]Or you can open Control Panel \ Administrative Tools \ Services and click Stop on automatic updates.
Do not disable the automatic updates service, just stop it. The next time you start up your computer, it will restart.
[/FONT]
