Jackie Stewart

• Homepage

• Email Tech Help

• Leave Feedback

• Diabetes Page
• Earn Extra Cash
• Extra Stuff
• Free PC Help
• Free Software
• Games
• Holiday Stuff
• Illusions
• Jokes
• Kids Colour In
• Mobile Stuff
• Memorials
• News/Events
• Ntl/Virgin Help
• O2 Help
• Recommend Site
• Sites I Designed
• Weight Watchers

Speed Up Your Computer Running Windows XP Optimize It To Run Faster

KEEP YOUR COMPUTER SAFE AND GET RID OF VIRUSES AND ALL OTHER FORMS OF MALWARE. All pcs need to be protected from Viruses, Trojans and Spyware and need real-time protection running. Never have 2 virus protection or 2 firewalls on one system, one of each only. You can however use a couple of different spyware removers. Click here to make sure comp is protected first before continuing to step 2

1. WINDOWS DISK CLEANUP
   To remove all the junk from these folders you can use the built in program called Disk Cleanup. Disk Cleanup can be accessed in 2 ways. Accessing Disk Cleanup - Start Menu, Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup, Select a drive then press OK. When Disk Cleanup starts it takes a while to scan all the files that can be removed or compressed. Once it has finished searching you will have a list of tick boxes of things that can be removed. All of these should be ticked.
2. USE THE BOOTVIS UTILITY
   It's a little known fact that Microsoft actually produced its own free utility to help speed up Windows XP boot times. Bootvis was its name, and although they later removed it from their site and claimed it was simply a design utility and would not help speed up the average PC, many XP users thought differently, enough to keep the software alive on the net. The Bootvis utility is available here. Try it out and decide for yourself! To use Bootvis download and install the program, then run it. Go to the 'trace' menu and select 'next boot and driver delays.' Bootvis will prompt to reboot. Reboot and wait for Bootvis to start again. Go to the 'trace' menu and select 'optimize.' Reboot again. Wait for Bootvis to complete its analysis. Your boot times should now be optimized.
3. REMOVE UNWANTED AUTO-START ENTRIES
   If you have a lot of icons down at your system clock then these items are auto-start entries, most can be safely un-checked and stopped except anti-virus, firewall etc. Go to Start then run and type     msconfig    and then click on the startup tab, un-check anything that is unnecessary.
4. KEEP SOME FREE SPACE ON YOUR MAIN HARD DRIVE (C:)
   Keep at least 25% of your (C:) free. Uninstall any unused program from add/remove programs in your control panel. Transfer all the music, image and video files to other drives or burn them to CD/DVD if they are taking up too much space.
5. CLEAN TEMPORARY FILES AND OLD REGISTRY ENTRIES
   Your system stores many un-needed temporary files and unwanted registry keys that can take up space on your hard drive and slow your system down. You can download this free program called CCleaner and EasyCleaner. One cleaning tool can miss some files so I recommend you use the 2 together for best results.
6. DEFRAGMENT YOUR HARD DRIVES
   Run disk defragmenter once a week. System performance is maximized when files are contiguous on the disk instead of fragmented into separate parts. After running the defragmenter files will consecutively on the Hard Drives. Windows has a built in defragmenter but there is a quicker free one Defraggler.
7. DE-CLUTTER YOUR DESKTOP
   Do not have shortcuts to many programs on your desktop it might be quicker for you but slower for the system running. Open applications from their real shortcut by going to Start > Programs. A lot of people do not like this suggestion but a blank wallpaper helps a faster startup and turn off screensaver too. Also heavy gaming puts a huge strain on your pc.
8. DISABLE WINDOWS XP SOUNDS
   Having sound effects set for common Windows XP tasks slows your system down. This affects startup and shutdown speeds the most. To disable Windows XP task sounds go to "Start", "Settings", "Control Panel", "Sounds and Audio Devices", select the "Sounds" tab, under "Sound Scheme" select "No Sounds". You will still hear music etc. it will only disable the annoying system beeps.
9. DISABLE AVI PREVIEWING
   Opening a folder containing a large number of AVI files can open quite slowly because Windows has to open each AVI file and extract information from them. If you have a large collection, you can speedup XP's folder access by disabling it from automatically extracting this info. This can also fix problems when trying to rename or move AVI files and you get an error message: "it is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again." Download, unzip and run the "Disable AVI Previewing" file and reboot.
10. REDUCE RECYCLE BIN DRIVE SPACE USAGE
    In Windows XP the Maximum size of the Recycle Bin is set by default to 10% of your hard drive, when full, this can be a big waste of drive space. Reducing the Maximum size prevents excess space from being wasted. To change the Recycling Bin Size, right-click on the "Recycle Bin", left-click on "Properties", select the "Global" tab, then "Use one setting for all drives". Move the slider to "3%"
11. IMPROVE WINDOWS XP DISPLAY
    Default Windows XP visual settings may look nice but they slow down system responsiveness. Here is how to keep the same look of Windows XP while losing the sluggish feel. Right click "My Computer" icon, select properties, click "Advanced" tab, in the "Performance" section hit the "Settings" button. Leave only the following checked:
    √ Show translucent selection rectangle
    √ Use common tasks in folders
    √ Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
    √ Use visual styles on windows and buttons
12. DISABLE INDEXING SERVICE
    The Indexing Service in Windows XP indexes your files presumably to shorten the time needed to search your hard drive if you are searching for a specific file. However, the constant indexing of files actually slows down system performance. To disable the Indexing Service open "My Computer", right-click your hard drive and select "Properties" uncheck "Allow Indexing Service" then apply, Then select "Apply changes to subfolders and files". If any files cannot be updated select "Ignore All". This may take some time but will be worth the wait. Do the same for any other hard drives you may have.
13. GENUINE WINDOWS KEEP IT UPDATED EVERY MONTH
    Do not use automatic updating of software when you want to use the program update it before use manually. Turn off Automatic Update feature and check manually for Windows patches once or twice every month. To turn off Automatic Updates, go to Start > Control Panel > Automatic Updates > Turn off Automatic Updates and then go to Start > Control Panel > Security Center > Change the way Security Center alerts me. Untick the box next to Automatic Updates.
14. JAVA MACHINE REMOVAL AND SUN JAVA DOWNLOAD
    Auto-installing Spyware infections (CoolWebSearch) occurs due to exploits in Microsoft's discontinued Java Virtual Machine. Infection occurs by simply browsing the wrong website. Java is used to play online games including Yahoo, streaming videos and many other java applets. Java was originally licensed from Sun Microsystems but later modified by Microsoft. Microsoft's modifications to the Java code are the suspected reasons these exploits exist. There are no patches from Microsoft to fix this. To protect yourself uninstall Java using this tool and uninstall MSJVM registry using this tool. Once you have this then install the safe Sun Java Console.
15. WINDOWS SHUTDOWN FASTER REGISTRY FIXES
    Windows XP stores values in its registry which are responsible for determining how long to wait before shutting down open applications and services once the shutdown command has been given. By editing these settings and changing them to lower values, you can considerably decrease the amount of time that Windows XP needs to successfully shut itself down. Always be careful when editing the registry.
    
    Go to start then run and type in   regedit   and navigate to
    
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop - then double click the 'AutoEndTasks' value and set it to 1
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop - then double click the 'HungAppTimeout' value and set it to 1000
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop - then double click the 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value and set it to 1000
    HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop - then double click the 'HungAppTimeout' value and set it to 1000
    HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop - then double click the 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value and set it to 1000
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control - then double click 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value and set it to 1000
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINES\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem - then double click 'NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate' value and set it to 1
16. DISK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
    The performance monitor for hard drives is turned on by default. You can disable disk monitoring by running this command. Go to start then run and type in DISKPERF -N  To turn it on again run this command DISKPERF -YD
17. HOW MUCH RAM YOUR COMPUTER HAS/PAGEFILE DEFRAG/LOW VIRTUAL MEMORY ERRORS AND RAM UPGRADES
    Random access memory (RAM) is a general indication of performance that is measured either in MB or GB the larger the number the more ram installed. Right click you "My Computer" icon and select properties, in the general you can view the amount of RAM your computer has. For WinXP computers connected to the Internet you should preferably have 512MB or 1GB for gaming. For upgrades try Crucial Memory Scanner to find the maximum ram and type for your motherboard. Do not use ram optimizers that claim to free ram as they have a negative affect on your system. Windows manages the size automatically, but you can manually change the size of virtual memory if the default size is not enough for your needs. Open System by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking System. Click on the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings. Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Virtual memory, click Change. Put a tick on Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box. Hi-light the drive you want to set the page file on. Click custom size, in the Initial size (MB) put 1.5 times your installed ram (i.e. 256mb ram installed then put in the figure 384). In the Maximum size (MB) box put 3 times your installed ram (i.e. 256mb ram installed then put in the figure 768). Then hit "set". Follow the same process for any other hard drives. It is also worth defragmenting the paging file to prevent "out of virtual memory" errors. One of the limitations of the WinXP's defragmenter is that it does not defrag or show you how fragmented your paging files are. To defrag page files download PageDefrag and then run it and select "Defrag at next Reboot" then "Ok" and reboot. Notes - this only needs to be run once unless you re-adjust the paging file size again.