Windows XP Performance Tweaks for a Faster PC
These tips are listed in no particular order and you should be able to comlpete them in 10-15 minutes.
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.
If you have a larger drive you could easily go down as low as 3% but for smaller drives I wouldn't
suggest using less than 5%.
Improve Windows XP Performance
Default Windows XP visual settings may look nice but they slow down system responsiveness. 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. 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.
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