[Retired Sticky] Windows Tweaks

[Taylor]

Jigpu asked: Shadow... I can't find that the HungAppTimeout key... Is it just an NT thing or should it also be there for 9x? If it is for both, can I add it without killing something?

If you didn't already try it, don't. I did and there was a problem.

 

[shadowdr]

tired of reformating and reinstalling windows?when things go bad like missing or corrupted system files.system files over written(wrongly) by other software.better than a system restore because it doesn't use disc space.better than a system repair because it is easier.

use system file checker.fairly well know in 98 invironments it searches all system files and replaces corruted (or over written)files.allthough 98's version would be hard to explain here in detail you can go here for complete instrutions.

as for the nt environment (win 2000 and xp as far as i know)it exist as a command prompt.this is a part of windows nt that is supposed to be done at system startup,however it uses the windows cache which is allready corrupt at that point and is really useless.i am not sure why but this feature is wrongly documented as being only in win 98 by the link above and as far as i could tell even by ms itself.anyway at command promt type in sfc /scannow,sfc for system file checker /scannow to scan immediatley.to find all the swithches and language,click help,type in system file checker and click on the subject.my mistake after farther research i found this for 2000.and for xp go here .

not related but i found this for uninstalling internet explorer 6.

hope this helps someone avoid the dreaded reinstall.

 

[The VTech]

One thing most overlook but Shadow did include is a reg cleaner for spyware.
All those tweak programs one or teo are bound to have something in to mess things up later.


In addition to Ad-Aware check these out.

Spybot Search and Destroy

And

Swat It


Both Spybot and SwatIt are free to download and use, however SwatIt also has a purchase option to open up a little more snooping.

 

[s[H]sIkuA]

How about this

Go to Control Panel - Sounds and Multimedia(or whatever it call in other OS) and select No Sounds from the Scheme drop-down menu

This sounds serves little useful purpose and should be disable

Turn of Wallpaper to increase performance

Use a lower resolution and lower the colour depth (16bit)

 

[Calavera]

If the shortcut arrow in the icons in the desktop bother you, here's a simple solution. I'm sure most of you know this but here goes anyway.

regedit-->HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT--> find "lnkfile" and "piffile" folder. Delete the key that says something along the lines of "shortcut" on each.

Reboot and small arrows are gone. =)

 

[Amedeo602]

Editing the "Send To" command on the context menu (aka right-click popup menu) in XP (works in other OS's too, but you have to goto a diff folder):

goto your documents and settings folder, then click your username, then open the SendTo folder. In here you can add shortcuts for folders, apps, etc



Adding "Copy to folder..." and "Move to folder..." to the context menu: You can do it yourself thru the registry or copy/paste this text into a *.reg file and merge it (backup registry first...not responsible for accidents!)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Copy To]
@="{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Move To]
@="{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Send To]
@="{7BA4C740-9E81-11CF-99D3-00AA004AE837}"

(I got this somewhere on a tweak site...I think it was ntfs.org)

 

[angeltazman]

Re: MSTCP Tweak

asside from 49152 value, can i put a different value to make it more faster and what is the value that i can put asside from 49152?..... this tweak is working well for me, it did made my downloading fast, but i was thinking if i increase the value higher would it make it faster?...... i'm using WIN98 SE..... hope to hear from u soon?.......

Would you like to very easily improve your download speeds? On my last job I did some installations for SpeedChoice (.com) and one of the very easy registry entries that we used to do is;

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP]
"DefaultRCVWindow"="49152"

By defaut the MSTCP Receive socket size is 4K up it to the max of 48K. This means you'll receive 1/10th of the packets. Therefore more of the data contained in the packets is usable and not filled with TCP header and footer information.

This works withThis is tested with Win95/98/Me If you have an NT Kernel I don't know where to enter this.

 

[angeltazman]

Re: virtual memory

i'm having problem with my system, i'm using Win98 SE, i just added up a memory, my total memory is 640mb SDRAM PC133, and virtual memory is set to MAX/MIN to 520mb, my computer is freezing or it hangs........ can u give me a hand, should i disable my virtual memory?...... before my total memory is 512mb SDRAM PC133(2 pcs. of 128mb and 1 pc. of 256mb) and now my memory is 640mb SDRAM PC133(2 pcs. of 256mb and 1 pc. 128mb)...... what can i do to resolve this?...... hope to hear from u soon.....

It wasn't too clear above, but the more system memory you have, the less virtual memory you need. On greater than 128 but less than 512 (384 or 256), you can probably get away with 200 or 300MB for virtual memory. Above, it was stated as the same amount as your system memory, which is a pretty good guideline, however with 512 or even 384 you shouldn't need more than 100 or 200MB, and with 192 or 256, you'd need at least 300 or more for 192. The reason the min and max values should be set to the same size, is so windows doesn't have to adjust the size of the pagefile constantly, and use resources to do so.

My own personal formula is to shoot for a total of 644MB for system memory + pagefile size.

 

[angeltazman]

DUAL OS.....

i've partioned my 20gig harddisk to 10mb and installed win98 SE to partioned D: and windows XP on partioned c: how come when i boot up on win98 SE i can still see the partioned c: and all windows XP files...... my purpose of Dual OS is because if one of my sis or bro mess up WIN98 SE it would not effect WINDOWS XP coz they cant go to partioned C: and i can boot up and we use WIN98 SE for games..... i've formatted my harddrive 10 times last year and reinstalled win98 SE becuase of accidentally erasing some system's files....... is there a way to resolve this?.....

 

[White Star]

Windows tweak.

Windows is loud. At MIT whenever the network slows to a crawl, they all start looking for the dumb@$$ who's transfering files via SMB. Windows doesn't have to be that loud. Atleast 2k and XP don't. Here's what we do. The instructions may be a little different from XP. XPs Netsh.exe is distinctly different from 2k, as somethings are added and some removed.

Go into cmd.exe
c:\>netsh dump >>whatever.txt
That'll give you your original pre-tweaked configuration. Always a useful step.
Then
c:\>netsh
netsh>routing
routing>ip
routing ip>dump
And then it will list off a whole bunch of need stuff. If you scroll back towards the top of the dump, you'll notice this little line.
set filter name="Local Area Connection" fragcheck=disable
It's a packet defragger. Why it's disabled by default is beyond me. I haven't done a whole lot of testing with it to see exactly how useful it is, however one thing I did note that it took my computer about 17 packets to re-connect to a couple of network drives. With the frag check enabled, it took about 6 packets. So here's what we do.
routing ip>set filter name="Local Area Connection" fragcheck=enable
And you should be good to go.
I had a paper written about all sorts of different stuff you can do with netsh.exe. Where it went off to I don't know. I tried having someone post it on their web page but the guy said that it was too confusing for his target audience. So I thought I'd just put this little tweak here to see if it interests people. If it does, I'll try to find that paper again, or write it again, and take another crack at getting it out on the internet.

 

[s[H]sIkuA]

angeltazman , your problem not really on virtual memory
u overclock ?? if yes than maybe ur ram cause instability.
With 3 memory modules , it is a common problem when u overclock

 

[angeltazman]

yup. my system is overclocked, but i overclocked it just 100mhz from 1.1ghz to 1.2ghz....... the techsupport of my board said its the 512mb windows limit thats causing my system to be unstable........ and i had my 256mb memory replace with a differrent brand and by replacing it, it lessened the problem...... and now i'm just experiencing jolts or it like pausing once in a while........ do u have any idea how i can fix this jolt....... the tech support suggested to just make my memory up to 512mb........ i'm using win98 SE........ and in my bios setting, the memory features are in default......... by the way, thanks for replying......

angeltazman , your problem not really on virtual memory
u overclock ?? if yes than maybe ur ram cause instability.
With 3 memory modules , it is a common problem when u overclock

 

[s[H]sIkuA]

well u can ask at general computer forum or maybe memory forum

 

[angeltazman]

k, i'll try that...... thanks again........

well u can ask at general computer forum or maybe memory forum

 

[Shuruga2]

here is another shutdown command i dug up (for xp) since
C:\windows\system32\shutdown.exe -s -t 00
wasnt working for me.

c:\windows\system32\taskkill /im pq.exe /t /f
kills any running program. /t = thread tree (gets rid of all the child processes as well). /f = forces the closure of the process. /im = specifies the process to kill.
pq.exe (progress quest) is an example of a program that ingores most normal 'kill' commands.

c:\windows\system32\tsshutdn 5 /powerdown
this is great for those whose computer doesnt power down when they use shutdown. the 5 is the delay in seconds (default is 60)

 

[ssprncvegeta]

yea, i've memorized every one of those and a few more. i never use my mouse for anything other than games.

 

[mojhÅle]

2k tweak

Shadow,
i read your post... sweet idea compiling all the info for tweaking/customizing. i've been doing a lot of tweaking to 2k pro, and it was really a pain. make sure you mention ResHacker. good utility. i also couldn't find anyone who knew how to change the start button icon. i finally found it in system root/system32/user32.dll. disabling file protection is a pain too. it's not necessary if you change the registry to read new system files. ie: make a copy of explorer.exe and name it explorer1.exe and edit the registry to read explorer1.exe instead. it would probably be a little safer than disabling file protection as well.
keep up the tweaks

mojhÅle

 

[Fiz]

Re: Re: virtual memory

i'm having problem with my system, i'm using Win98 SE, i just added up a memory, my total memory is 640mb SDRAM PC133, and virtual memory is set to MAX/MIN to 520mb, my computer is freezing or it hangs........ can u give me a hand, should i disable my virtual memory?...... before my total memory is 512mb SDRAM PC133(2 pcs. of 128mb and 1 pc. of 256mb) and now my memory is 640mb SDRAM PC133(2 pcs. of 256mb and 1 pc. 128mb)...... what can i do to resolve this?...... hope to hear from u soon.....

Win 9X can only use 512 megs of ram normally. I think if you run MSCONFIG there is an option in there that will help you. Look for one called "Limit memory to XXX". When you find it, slap your amount of ram in there, you should be all good.

Fiz

 

[sourskittles]

to change the start button on the lower left corner go to http://www.kibria.de/frhed.html and download frhed. use it to open up explorer.exe found in the windows folder. look on the left and and look for something that starts with "0412ad" It might be a little different but it should start with "0412" after you find it look over to the left on the same row there should be the word start separated by periods so something like this s.t.a.r.t. Change the start to any five letter word you want and then click on file, save as, and save it as explorer1.exe make sure you type in the .exe too otherwise you might screw up ur comp. once it is saved open regedit and look in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SOFTWARE, Microsoft, Windows NT, Current Version folders, then go to the winlogon subfolder and a list of values should appear in the right pane. Right click on shell and change Explorer.exe to explorer1.exe save the changes and reboot. This tweak only works with WinXP to my knowledge. And you might want to back up your explorer.exe just in case something goes wrong.

 

[sangapski]

winguides nice collection of tweaks

for win XP