Create a Gaming Profile in XP

How to Create and Boot Up Into a Gaming Profile Using Windows XP.

This guest tutorial was prepared by Gilberto J. Perera from LaptopLogic.com. Go there if you are interested in reading the latest laptop reviews. If you are interested in best gaming laptops, you can check them out here.

 

Whenever you load your favorite video game you want to get every last ounce of performance out of your computer right? So why let Windows default services hog up some of that precious RAM and CPU time? With Hardware profiles you can create a separate boot profile that you can customize with just the barebones services that are required for XP to operate correctly, this way Windows services have a minimal footprint on your RAM and CPU time and your video game can take full advantage of every resource available. You will also be able to switch between hardware profiles by simply rebooting.

The how-to below will walk you through the process of creating multiple hardware profiles in Windows XP and how to boot into them. The guide will also reference a great reference for those of you that are not familiar with the services that can be disabled safely. If you have any comments or questions please let us know.

1. Click on Start and right click on My Computer, select Properties from the drop-down menu.

2. Click on the Hardware tab and click on the Hardware Profiles button.

3. Click on the Copy button to copy the current profile.

4. Name the new profile (I chose Gaming), click OK.

5. Directly below the hardware profiles listing you can select how the available profiles will be chosen;

A. Wait until I select a hardware profile

B. Select the first profile listed if I don’t select a profile in (use the arrows to specify the time before the system automatically chooses the first profile listed).

After you’ve made your selections, click OK to proceed.

6. When you reboot next time you will be prompted to select a Hardware profile to boot into. Choose the Gaming profile we just created.

Once the computer boots up then you can begin to disable services to gain precious memory and CPU cycle time.

7. When you reboot next time you will be prompted to select a Hardware profile to boot into. Choose the Gaming profile we just created.

8. When you reboot next time you will be prompted to select a Hardware profile to boot into. Choose the Gaming profile we just created.

Now you can go and disable the services you don’t need. I suggest you visit the site referenced below for a good resource with recommendations which services to disable.

bstcomputers

About Joe Citarella 242 Articles
Joe Citarella was one of the founders of Overclockers.com in 1998. He contributed as a site administrator and writer for over 10 years before retiring. Joe played an integral part in building and sustaining the Overclockers.com community.

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