- Joined
- Dec 20, 2000
- Location
- Pensacola, Florida USA
Retired Sticky
Just a lil project I'll be working on over the next few days. I'll move it to public once it's finished.
A compendium of tips and tricks that I've collected from the net and magazines which may help to get you up and running, or running faster. This is in no way meant to be the final word on any tweak, and most of these will be argued one way or the other. You'll also find a TON of tweaks at www.tweakfiles.com and www.tweak3d.net .
Shift Right click any file in 9x to get the "open with" option.
Shift delete completely removes a file instead of moving it to the recycle bin.
Alt F4 closes annoying pop up banners (of course it will also close any other open window if you hit it too many times)
Ctrl + X will cut text
Ctrl + C will copy text
Ctrl + V will paste text
Have several windows open? Try Alt + Tab to switch between them.
Ctrl + Esc will bring up the start menu
Windows key + E will bring up Explorer
Windows key + D will minimize all windows
windows key + f will bring up the windows search window. (or F3)
shift + right click adds some choices to the menu like run as. (win 2k) (thanks kendan!)
Type overclockers in the address bar of IE then hold down the ctrl key and hit enter. This will enter the www. and the .com. (thanks kendan!)
Ctrl + D will automatically make a page you are viewing your home page for your browser.....as well as dragging the lil blue E in the address to your home button.
To get a screen shot, press the Print Scrn button, then open Paint (or a similiar program), Click edit, then paste. This will take a pic of everything (including tool bar) on your monitor. If you want to take a pic of a specific window, hold down the alt key when you press Print Scrn.
Changing what it says in System Properties (right click my computer...select properties) In NT/2K/XP go to start.....select run and type in Regedit. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion and change RegisteredOrganization's value to whatever you like. You can also change RegisteredOwner as well. In 9x go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion and change the same values. Check this thread to also learn how to change the pic in that window.
XP moves the most used apps to a faster section of your hard drive. But it only does it about once every 3 days. To move them "on call" to the fastest part, go to run and type Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll, ProcessIdleTasks.
To speed XP boot times, go to www.microsoft.com/HWDEV/fastboot/ and download bootvis. This will optimize slow loading drivers.
TWEAK UI!!! Can't say enough about how handy this utility is. Down load it from Microsoft here. I also recommend Power Toys and many of the other tweaks found here.
Wanna uninstall Internet Explorer? 98lite.com has your utility. It's called IEradicator.
Why would you want to get rid of Internet Explorer? Well for one it's extremely bulky. Unless you're pushing the heavy horspower of today's modern processors, this may be a major "bog" to your system. All those nifty features and flashy buttons, tend to add up to a lot of extra garbage you'll probably never use. Opera is one alternative that comes to mind which is a rather popular alternative to Internet Explorer. Find out more about Opera here.
Think Internet Explorer is heavy? You should see how well Windows runs w/o the bulk of Explorer. Although there are a few alternatives, I've found Lite Step to be a favorite. Let me warn you tho, this is not for the average tweaker. Can take quiet some time to set up.
Got a bad CD/DVD that you can't read? CD/DVD Diagnostic may be able to help.
All 9x systems should be set up to run as a network server. I'm not positive why there even is another option, but here's how to check yours. Right click My Computer and select properties. Under the Performance tab click File System. There's a drop down menu by the "Typical role of this computer" which should say Network Server. If it doesn't, change it and be sure to click apply.
Ever End a task and have to wait 30 seconds for an End Now window to appear? Start....Run....type in regedit. Under HKEY_Current User\Control Panel\Desktop highlight desktop in the right window. Now look for HungAppTimeout and double click that. Change the value to 3000 (3 seconds). You'll also need to Right Click the right hand window and Creat a new String Value called WaitToKillAppTimeout (just like I typed it). Double click your new string and set the value to 3000 as well.
Windows has a delay built in to the time it takes the start menu to actually display what you want it to. To get rid of this delay and speed the start menu, go to Start...run...regedit. Under HKEY_CURRENT USER\Control Panel\Desktop, creat a new string called MenuShowDelay. Set the value from 0-999 (milliseconds).
Swap file management. There's a thousand different opinions on what size your swap file should be, but I'll try to get you started with a basic rule of thumb setting. For 9x, right click My Computer and select Properties. Under the Performance tab click Virtual Memory. Choose Let my specify my own virtual memory settings. If you have 128 megs or less, it's a good idea to set the minimum to around 128 megs (or double your memory size) and max to the same number. If you have more than 128 (up to 512) you can probably get away with a swap file the same size as the memory you have, and if you have 512 or more, you may consider running your system with no virtual memory at all. Change the settings and play with your system a bit. This is only a starting point from which to begin tweaking, as everyone's needs are different. You'll have to reboot after each change.
In the bios, disable video shadowing. It's old school. Nuff said. While you're at it, also disable System bios cacheable, Video bios cacheable and video ram cacheable. If your L1 and L2 cache aren't enabled, enable them. If you have ECC enable, disable it. Software is already set up to do it's own error correction, and this is just another (however small) resource hog. This is NOT specific to ECC Memory...that's a whole nother story.
One of the essentials for OC'ing your Vid card.....PowerStrip.
Take controll of the bloated Swap file in 9x by opening your SYSTEM.INI file and under the header [386Enh] add the line ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1. While you're there, go to the [vcache] header and create the line MaxFileCache=8192 and MenuFileCache=8192. These direct windows to only use 8 megs of memory to cache the hard drive.
If you're running a VIA chipset, after a fresh OS install, the first thing you should install are new 4 in 1 drivers. I've seen really crazy problems w/o these drivers, such as hard drives not being recognized or modems causing system reboots. Pick up there drivers here.
Want to know if your system will run XP? Get the compatability checker here.
Not so much a tweak, but finding and removing spyware from your computer can be rather important. Download AdAware.
Changing Drive letter assignments explained perfectly by Jon here
in WinXP/2k , go start/run and type in "gpedit.msc" to be able to edit a ton of windows options. Most useful for XP but there is still some good stuff there if you have 2000.
Also, if for whatever reason you want pure DOS in windows nt4/2k/xp , goto http://www.winternals.com/ and download NTFSDOS. very useful sometimes. (thanks Emericana!)
Excellent speed testers and tweak sites for high speed access.... www.2wires.com www.speedguide.com www.toast.net
Here is a free image editing program that can resize change format and lots of other good things. IrfanView
Did I mention that it is free. (thanks Kendan!)
Thanks jbell, plague, fearless
Just a lil project I'll be working on over the next few days. I'll move it to public once it's finished.
A compendium of tips and tricks that I've collected from the net and magazines which may help to get you up and running, or running faster. This is in no way meant to be the final word on any tweak, and most of these will be argued one way or the other. You'll also find a TON of tweaks at www.tweakfiles.com and www.tweak3d.net .
Shift Right click any file in 9x to get the "open with" option.
Shift delete completely removes a file instead of moving it to the recycle bin.
Alt F4 closes annoying pop up banners (of course it will also close any other open window if you hit it too many times)
Ctrl + X will cut text
Ctrl + C will copy text
Ctrl + V will paste text
Have several windows open? Try Alt + Tab to switch between them.
Ctrl + Esc will bring up the start menu
Windows key + E will bring up Explorer
Windows key + D will minimize all windows
windows key + f will bring up the windows search window. (or F3)
shift + right click adds some choices to the menu like run as. (win 2k) (thanks kendan!)
Type overclockers in the address bar of IE then hold down the ctrl key and hit enter. This will enter the www. and the .com. (thanks kendan!)
Ctrl + D will automatically make a page you are viewing your home page for your browser.....as well as dragging the lil blue E in the address to your home button.
To get a screen shot, press the Print Scrn button, then open Paint (or a similiar program), Click edit, then paste. This will take a pic of everything (including tool bar) on your monitor. If you want to take a pic of a specific window, hold down the alt key when you press Print Scrn.
Changing what it says in System Properties (right click my computer...select properties) In NT/2K/XP go to start.....select run and type in Regedit. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion and change RegisteredOrganization's value to whatever you like. You can also change RegisteredOwner as well. In 9x go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion and change the same values. Check this thread to also learn how to change the pic in that window.
XP moves the most used apps to a faster section of your hard drive. But it only does it about once every 3 days. To move them "on call" to the fastest part, go to run and type Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll, ProcessIdleTasks.
To speed XP boot times, go to www.microsoft.com/HWDEV/fastboot/ and download bootvis. This will optimize slow loading drivers.
TWEAK UI!!! Can't say enough about how handy this utility is. Down load it from Microsoft here. I also recommend Power Toys and many of the other tweaks found here.
Wanna uninstall Internet Explorer? 98lite.com has your utility. It's called IEradicator.
Why would you want to get rid of Internet Explorer? Well for one it's extremely bulky. Unless you're pushing the heavy horspower of today's modern processors, this may be a major "bog" to your system. All those nifty features and flashy buttons, tend to add up to a lot of extra garbage you'll probably never use. Opera is one alternative that comes to mind which is a rather popular alternative to Internet Explorer. Find out more about Opera here.
Think Internet Explorer is heavy? You should see how well Windows runs w/o the bulk of Explorer. Although there are a few alternatives, I've found Lite Step to be a favorite. Let me warn you tho, this is not for the average tweaker. Can take quiet some time to set up.
Got a bad CD/DVD that you can't read? CD/DVD Diagnostic may be able to help.
All 9x systems should be set up to run as a network server. I'm not positive why there even is another option, but here's how to check yours. Right click My Computer and select properties. Under the Performance tab click File System. There's a drop down menu by the "Typical role of this computer" which should say Network Server. If it doesn't, change it and be sure to click apply.
Ever End a task and have to wait 30 seconds for an End Now window to appear? Start....Run....type in regedit. Under HKEY_Current User\Control Panel\Desktop highlight desktop in the right window. Now look for HungAppTimeout and double click that. Change the value to 3000 (3 seconds). You'll also need to Right Click the right hand window and Creat a new String Value called WaitToKillAppTimeout (just like I typed it). Double click your new string and set the value to 3000 as well.
Windows has a delay built in to the time it takes the start menu to actually display what you want it to. To get rid of this delay and speed the start menu, go to Start...run...regedit. Under HKEY_CURRENT USER\Control Panel\Desktop, creat a new string called MenuShowDelay. Set the value from 0-999 (milliseconds).
Swap file management. There's a thousand different opinions on what size your swap file should be, but I'll try to get you started with a basic rule of thumb setting. For 9x, right click My Computer and select Properties. Under the Performance tab click Virtual Memory. Choose Let my specify my own virtual memory settings. If you have 128 megs or less, it's a good idea to set the minimum to around 128 megs (or double your memory size) and max to the same number. If you have more than 128 (up to 512) you can probably get away with a swap file the same size as the memory you have, and if you have 512 or more, you may consider running your system with no virtual memory at all. Change the settings and play with your system a bit. This is only a starting point from which to begin tweaking, as everyone's needs are different. You'll have to reboot after each change.
In the bios, disable video shadowing. It's old school. Nuff said. While you're at it, also disable System bios cacheable, Video bios cacheable and video ram cacheable. If your L1 and L2 cache aren't enabled, enable them. If you have ECC enable, disable it. Software is already set up to do it's own error correction, and this is just another (however small) resource hog. This is NOT specific to ECC Memory...that's a whole nother story.
One of the essentials for OC'ing your Vid card.....PowerStrip.
Take controll of the bloated Swap file in 9x by opening your SYSTEM.INI file and under the header [386Enh] add the line ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1. While you're there, go to the [vcache] header and create the line MaxFileCache=8192 and MenuFileCache=8192. These direct windows to only use 8 megs of memory to cache the hard drive.
If you're running a VIA chipset, after a fresh OS install, the first thing you should install are new 4 in 1 drivers. I've seen really crazy problems w/o these drivers, such as hard drives not being recognized or modems causing system reboots. Pick up there drivers here.
Want to know if your system will run XP? Get the compatability checker here.
Not so much a tweak, but finding and removing spyware from your computer can be rather important. Download AdAware.
Changing Drive letter assignments explained perfectly by Jon here
in WinXP/2k , go start/run and type in "gpedit.msc" to be able to edit a ton of windows options. Most useful for XP but there is still some good stuff there if you have 2000.
Also, if for whatever reason you want pure DOS in windows nt4/2k/xp , goto http://www.winternals.com/ and download NTFSDOS. very useful sometimes. (thanks Emericana!)
Excellent speed testers and tweak sites for high speed access.... www.2wires.com www.speedguide.com www.toast.net
Here is a free image editing program that can resize change format and lots of other good things. IrfanView
Did I mention that it is free. (thanks Kendan!)
Thanks jbell, plague, fearless
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