WinXP: The resource hog

[MaxPower]

Man i thought 256MB of ram would be enough to run any OS. But Xp is ram hungary. I'm thinking about upgrading to 512MB of ram. But prices have gone up so i'm forced to wait. I'm all for the stability ,and the pretty interface. But now i wish i had gone with Win2K Pro.

Can anyone tell me which programs i can shutdown without my system going Ape Poo-Poo!?!?

[rogerdugans]

I don't have the links right now (just rebuilt this rig) but do a google search; there are a bunch of tweaks.

One way I find them is to set services to manual and then turn them off, one at a time, and then run through the software that I use to make sure everything I need runs correctly. Once I have determined that I don't need a service I set it for manual.

[redduc900]

Like "rogerdugans" suggested, one of the most effecient means of recovering lost resources is to set certain running services to "Manual" (from the default setting of "Automatic"). To access "System Services", right-click "My Computer" and select "Manage" | expand "Services and Applications" | select "Services". To modify a Service, right-click it and select "Properties" | change "Startup type" to "Manual". Instead of stopping each individual Service, I've found that setting them to "Manual" and then rebooting is the most efficient means of stopping a Service (some Services will hang your PC if just stopped).

These can be set to Manual unless you know for an *actual fact* that your using them. In any case, you can always set them back on.

DHCP Client - if you're not using DHCP from a server then this goes to manual.

Distributed Link Tracking Client - if you don't have another WinXP server which handles this, these go to manual > Distributed Transaction Coordinator - ditto

DNS Client - if you're not using a DNS server somewhere on your network, set to manual. This is not for a dial-up connection, which will have it's own dns server information.

FTP Publishing Service - unless you want an FTP server - manual > IIS Admin Service - if you don't use the www service or ftp, set to manual.

IPSEC Policy Agent - no WinXP domain, set to manual.

Message Queuing - no MSMQ?, set to manual.

Remote Registry Service - don't handle remote registries? set to manual.

RIP Listener - probably set to manual, unless your machine is used as a router.

RunAs Service - probably set to manual unless you have apps which can *run-as* something else

Simple Mail Transport Protocol - this is a mail server, probably set to manual > Simple TCP/IP Services - ditto > SNMP Service - ditto

World Wide Web Publishing Service - if you don't need a web server then set to manual and use a batch file to start and stop as necessary.

[Grande Juan]

Here's a site from another thread about the same thing, looks promising. http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicefg.htm

[Marsovac]

try this...
www.tweakxp.com

good luck...

[David]

Originally posted by Marsovac
try this...
www.tweakxp.com

good luck...

Tweak XP is Brilliant.

I must say that RAM increases work wonders - I went from 384 to 512 and noticed faster booting times. RAM is the key to XP tho. 128, and now 256, wont do for long.

[Cooler666]

Getting more RAM will significantly increase the speed especially that you're on 256MB at the moment. Tweaks are not cures, they don't always work and when they do the performance increase is not great.

[phungilax]

now and days memory is crucial

no pun intended of course :)

[Marsovac]

Originally posted by Cooler666
Getting more RAM will significantly increase the speed especially that you're on 256MB at the moment. Tweaks are not cures, they don't always work and when they do the performance increase is not great.

Of course that increasing the memory is the better way to speed up your PC, but since the prices went up and if you dont want to spend the money... hmmm...
anyway tweaking XP can help... on that site you can find useful tips and tricks on how to disable some stupid services that are running in the background by default. (and M$ thinks you need them ?!?!?!)
Let me just say this. When I installed the XP without any tweaking it used around 90MB of RAM (256 in my Cely@1,1 GHz) then I disabled some services (see the reducc900s post) that I dont need and after that it used only 55MB...
Well it surely cured my Cely...
;)

[David]

Originally posted by Cooler666
Getting more RAM will significantly increase the speed especially that you're on 256MB at the moment. Tweaks are not cures, they don't always work and when they do the performance increase is not great.

The best tweaks are the annoying little things that you can remove eg 'Shortcut to' and the arrows etc. Speed tweaks are a load of rubbish.

[Subzer0]

Originally posted by PenguinFreak


The best tweaks are the annoying little things that you can remove eg 'Shortcut to' and the arrows etc. Speed tweaks are a load of rubbish.

im not sure i know what you mean?
id like to know what you mean as im thinking of tweaking it.