Faster PC - Tweaks For a Faster Computer
| Big Geek Daddy |
| Get a Faster Windows XP System with these simple PC Tweaks These tips are listed in no particular order and you should be able to comlpete them in 10-15 minutes. I also encourage you to do the steps listed on my computer maintenance page as this will help your PC run faster as well. Reduce Recycle Bin size By default the Recycle Bin can eat up 10% of your hard drive. By allocating less space for this you will be keep more free disk space which can improve computer performance if properly de-fragmented. Right Click on the Recycle bin and click on properties. Select Global Tab. Click Use one setting for all drives. Move the slider to the left to allocate less space. Improve Windows XP Performance Default Windows XP visual settings may look nice but they slow down the PC. Here is how to keep the "look" of Windows XP while losing the sluggish feel. Go to Start Settings Control Panel System Advanced tab in the Performance section select Settings Leave only the following 4 items checked: √ Show shadows under menus √ Show shadows under mouse pointer √ Show translucent selection rectangle √ Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop then select "Apply" and "OK". Speed Up Internet Explorer 1. Reduce the size of your Web page history - Internet Explorer stores visited Web pages to your hard drive, organizing them within a page history by day. The more days of web pages you store the more you can slow down IE's performance. The default setting is 20 days worth. I store 0 days. Here's how to change the setting: Open Internet Explorer Click on Tools in the menu bar at very top of browser page. Select Internet Options You should now have Internet Options open and be looking at the General Tab. At the bottom is History Click the Clear History button. Then change the number of days to whatever you prefer - I suggest no more than 5. |
| 2. Don't save Encrypted Web pages - Encrypted pages ask for user names and passwords. These pages scramble information to prevent the reading of this sensitive information. You can set Internet Explorer to not save these pages. You'll be saving fewer files to your hard drive, as well as keeping sensitive information off your computer. Open Internet Explorer Click on Tools Select Internet Options Select the Advanced Tab (Top Right) Under Settings scroll down to Security Put a check next to "Do not save encrypted pages to disk" Click Apply Click OK Uninstall Useless Windows Components Windows XP installs some components by default that are not needed. Go to Start Settings Control Panel Add or Remove Programs select Add/Remove Windows Components uncheck: Indexing Service Windows Messenger - Unless you use this as your IM or VOI program instead of Yahoo IM or Skype. MSN Explorer - If you use MSN as your ISP leave "MSN Explorer" checked. Then select "Next" and "Finished". Reduce System Restore Drive Space Usage System Restore creates periodic snapshots of your critical system files (like the registry files, COM+ database, user profiles, and such) and stores them as a "restore point." In case something goes wrong with your system you can revert back to a previous working state. The default size that System Restore can take up can be quite large. Go to Start Settings Control Panel System System Restore tab For each drive partition highlight it then select Settings under Drive Space Usage adjust the slider so System Restore is only using roughly 5% or a minimum of 1000 MB of disk space per partition. select OK Enable DMA for Your System First a definition of DMA: Short for direct memory access, a technique for transferring data from main memory to a device without passing it through the CPU. Computers that have DMA channels can transfer data to and from devices much more quickly than computers without a DMA channel can. This is useful for making quick backups and for real-time applications. Go to the Device Manager of your PC and take a look at the Properties of your Primary IDE Channel. On the “Advanced Settings” tab, make sure that DMA, if available, is checked for both devices. Do the same thing with the “Secondary IDE Channel.” File Indexing The newer version of NTFS introduces some new "features" One of these is a file indexing thing that enables you to search for files and also text within files very quickly. How is this done? Every time you add a file it is logged into a DB that can eat away at your drive space rather quickly and slows you down while doing so. I would suggest everybody turn this off because I don't know of anybody who does enough searches on their drives to sacrifice as many resources as this does. Browse to your hard drive either through Windows Explorer or through My Computer Right click your hard drive icon and select properties. At the bottom of this window you'll see "Allow indexing service to index this disk for faster searches," turn this feature off for all of your drives by unchecking the box and clicking ok. After that a window will appear and you'll want to choose apply to all folders and sub folders if you want the full benefit. You could turn this on for selective folders that you search frequently. For the most part you want this off for all of your folders. Set the Swap File size in Windows XP Right-click My Computer and select Properties. On the Advanced tab under Performance, click Settings. In the Performance Options box, select the Advanced tab. Under 'Virtual memory', click the Change button. Select Custom size, enter the same value for the initial and maximum sizes, and click the Set button. I like to set the swap file at a fixed size of either 2048 MB if using 1 GB or less of RAM or 3072 MB if using 2 GB of RAM. Close the dialog boxes by clicking OK then restart Windows. Don't Use Wallpaper Have a high-resolution picture sitting on your desktop? Doing this takes up quite a bit of memory (RAM). The easiest way to get to this is Right click the desktop --> Properties --> Desktop tab. Now select "None" and your desktop should be a solid blue color. If you want to use Wallpaper then use the Image Resizer Power Toy to reduce the size of the photo as described on BGD Home page. 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 all Windows XP task sounds go to: Start Settings Control Panel Sounds and Audio Devices select the Sounds tab under Sound Scheme select No Sounds. |