- Joined
- Dec 29, 2003
- Location
- Florida, USA
Well guys here is a way to tweak windows Xp Home or professional addition by doing some of these tweaks. I have personally done them myself and have noticed a big difference in the subjects these tweaks are ment for e.g my PC now boots, shuts down and general desktop work is ALOT faster. also the increase of the 20% bandwith (with windows doesnt let you use!!) is now at your free will and the internet and alike is noticeably faster. but who knows you guys mite get different results but try it out and it would be nice if you posted and let us know how it went and if you noticed any speed increse etc.
Happy Reading (and tweaking!!)
Tweak 1- Removing Restore Points on your Hard Drive
XP creates things called "Restore Points" that help restore the information should your computer crash. Unfortunatly, this little thing tends to create many unnecessary restore points and keep them on file. This can add up to gigabytes worth of hard drive. You can delete all the restore points up to the most recent ones though by going to Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Cleanup. Under the system restore section, click cleanup and
everything will be deleted up to the most recent point.
Tweak 2- How to startup quickly
A lot of programs you install on your computer will put a tray icon in your system tray. What this does is loads the program every time you start your computer. This is why some computers take awhile to boot up even though they are "awsome". To fix this, you can go to Start->Run->Type: msconfig ::enter:: This will bring up the System
Configuration Utility box. Click on the Startup tab. Every item
listed that has a check next to it starts up every time your
computer starts. You can disable them all by clicking the check
or disable all button. I kept a few active, like pop-up stopper,
Powerstrip, and PCBooster. This is always a good tweak. Be sure
to check it every time you install a program though.
Tweak 3- How to Shutdown Quickly
You can also dramatically decrease the amount of time is takes to shutdown your computer. To do this, you need to edit your registry. Go to Start->Run->Type: regedit ::enter:: This will bring up your Registry. In your
registry, tree out your navigator to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel\Desktop\
When you get there, you will see something labeled
\"HungAppTimeout\". This value should be set to 5000 as default.
In this same folder, look for the \"WaitToKillAppTimeout\"
setting. Right click on \"WaitToKillAppTimeout\" and click edit
string. The value data should be 20000 as default. Set this to
4000. Now navigate to the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ folder and
find \"WaitToKillServiceTimeout\" and change its value to 4000.
Tweak 4- Menu Lag
A very minor tweak, but nonetheless a tweak. Open your
registry again and navigate to the folder
HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop. The change the value of
the \"MenuShowDelay\" to 0. **YOU MUST REBOOT FOR THIS TO TAKE
EFFECT**
Tweak 5- The Mystical Prefetcher
I was always amazed by this until I learned it actually existed.
Windows has a built in service called a Prefetcher which fetches
programs frequently used by the user more than others. The tweak
is though, improving its performance. Open your registry and
navigate to
KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
In there you will find something called \"EnablePrefetcher\". The
default value data should be set to 3, but I recommend around
5-6.
Tweak 6- Another Shutdown Tweak
This will automatically close programs when you shutdown your
computer instead of recieving that nasty little message saying a
program is still running. Open your registry and navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop and find \"AutoEndTasks\".
Set this value to 1 and woohoo, your done. Easy tweak.
Tweak 7- Hibernation
I hate hibernation...I would leave my computer and it would be hibernating and I would curse myself for not just shutting down the computer because the performance would just suck. This happens because windows reserves an amount of hard drive space that is equivelant to your RAM for it to hibernate. Disabling this is easy, just go Start->Settings->Control Panel->Power Options->click on the Hibernate tab. In the little check box that says
Enable hibernation next to it, just uncheck it and problem
solved.
Tweak 8- Multi-Memory Performance Tweaking Section
**ALL MEMORY TWEAKS LOCATED IN REGISTRY IN
\"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEM CurrentControlSetControlSession
ManagerMemory Management FOLDER**
People who do these 2 tweaks must have at minimum 256 mb of ram,
otherwise its pretty much useless.
#1- "DisablePagingExecutive"
This tweak disables XP from blocking your RAM off into segments
to store information. We want to disable this to improve
performance. All you do is change this files value from 0 to 1.
#2- "LargeSystemCache"
What this tweak does is strap everything but 4mb of system memory
to the system cache. This will greatly improve it's speed. This
tweak is very good, but in some very demanding programs such as
3d graphics rendering programs or graphic intense games
performance can be degraded. I wouldnt worry though, I have never
noticed. To do this all you do is change the key value to 1 from
0.
Tweak 9- Want 20 percent more Bandwidth?
Got your attention? Listen to this one, cause your gonna love me for it. Unfortunatly this is for PRO users only, because Home did not come with the GPEDIT.MSC ability. Regardless, XP sets aside 20 percent of your bandwidth for QoS applications, which no one ever uses. To rectify this, go to Start->Run-> Type: Gpedit.msc ::enter::
Navigate to Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->Network->QoS Packet Scheduler. Now double click \"Limit Reserve
Bandwidth\" and set it to \"Enabled\" AND set the Bandwidth Limit
to 0 percent. Hooray! 20 percent more bandwidth!
Tweak 10-A Tweak My Grandma Can Do
This tweak my Grandmother can do. She can't even find her mouse
75 percent of the time on the computer either. This is the
easiest tweak that helps the most. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del to open up
your Windows Task Manager. Click on the Processes tab. This will
list and process running at that time. Run any program you want,
find its process, and right click on it. Go to the Set Priority
option and set its priority. So if you were running
Counter-Strike, right click on its process, go to Set Priority,
then click high. This tells the computer to pretty much \"Pay
more attention and attend to this program\" more than others.
Dont go prioritize crazy though, I only recommend 2 high
prioritys at a time...
Tweak 11- The Final Tweak...Yet Amazingly Helpful
This tweak shouldn't be ignored, since it will improve
performance all across the board. The computer will assign whats
called an IRQ number to the main components of your
computer(i.e.-graphics card, processor, etc). Im going to tell
you how to prioritize these. There are two parts, figuring out
which component you want to prioritize, and prioritizing it.
To find out what component you want to give more performance to
open up your control panel and open the System panel. Click the
Hardware tab, then on Device Manager. Right click on the
component you want to know the IRQ of by going to its
properties.(I suggest starting out by branching out the System
Devices and choosing the \"System CMOS/real time clock\" since it
will do the most) When in properties, click on the resources tab
and the IRQ number should be blatently obvious. (Some devices
don't have IRQ numbers, sorry, your outta luck there. You just
have to go on searching for one with an IRQ). Write down the IRQ
and close everything. Open up your registry again and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlPriorityControl.
In this folder, right click and create a new DWORD value called
IRQ(insert IRQ number here without parenthesis)Priority So it
should be named like IRQ08Priority. Set the data to 1. Restart
your computer and the changes will take effect. The CMOS is the
best tweak for sure, and is a sure fire bet, so I recommend it.
Also, be sure not to do more than 3 of these!!! Any more than 3
can cause computer instability.
Tweak 12- Performance Downloads
I recommend downloading these programs to upgrade performance:
BootVis - Great program that helps boot your computer up amazing fast.
PowerStrip - You can't go wrong with this program, it lets you tweak your
graphics card in every way your card was enabled to be tweaked.
Meaning you can do stuff your driver doesn't even give you the
option to do.
PCBooster - Just the ability to recover ram manully from thsi program is
awsome, but recovering it at a certain resource point?!??!
Well worth the download just for that.
And These programs can be useful as well:
hdspeed
RegCleaner
Cacheman
-Conclusion-
Well, after many forum chit-chats and much reading I figured out
some useful tweaks for XP. I thought that sharing them with the
comunity would be helpful since pretty much everyone is looking
for better performance. So I hope everyone enjoys them as much as
I have. theres also more stuff to be found at www.tweakxp.com and www.tweaktown.com
Happy Reading (and tweaking!!)
Tweak 1- Removing Restore Points on your Hard Drive
XP creates things called "Restore Points" that help restore the information should your computer crash. Unfortunatly, this little thing tends to create many unnecessary restore points and keep them on file. This can add up to gigabytes worth of hard drive. You can delete all the restore points up to the most recent ones though by going to Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Cleanup. Under the system restore section, click cleanup and
everything will be deleted up to the most recent point.
Tweak 2- How to startup quickly
A lot of programs you install on your computer will put a tray icon in your system tray. What this does is loads the program every time you start your computer. This is why some computers take awhile to boot up even though they are "awsome". To fix this, you can go to Start->Run->Type: msconfig ::enter:: This will bring up the System
Configuration Utility box. Click on the Startup tab. Every item
listed that has a check next to it starts up every time your
computer starts. You can disable them all by clicking the check
or disable all button. I kept a few active, like pop-up stopper,
Powerstrip, and PCBooster. This is always a good tweak. Be sure
to check it every time you install a program though.
Tweak 3- How to Shutdown Quickly
You can also dramatically decrease the amount of time is takes to shutdown your computer. To do this, you need to edit your registry. Go to Start->Run->Type: regedit ::enter:: This will bring up your Registry. In your
registry, tree out your navigator to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel\Desktop\
When you get there, you will see something labeled
\"HungAppTimeout\". This value should be set to 5000 as default.
In this same folder, look for the \"WaitToKillAppTimeout\"
setting. Right click on \"WaitToKillAppTimeout\" and click edit
string. The value data should be 20000 as default. Set this to
4000. Now navigate to the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ folder and
find \"WaitToKillServiceTimeout\" and change its value to 4000.
Tweak 4- Menu Lag
A very minor tweak, but nonetheless a tweak
. Open yourregistry again and navigate to the folder
HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop. The change the value of
the \"MenuShowDelay\" to 0. **YOU MUST REBOOT FOR THIS TO TAKE
EFFECT**
Tweak 5- The Mystical Prefetcher
I was always amazed by this until I learned it actually existed.
Windows has a built in service called a Prefetcher which fetches
programs frequently used by the user more than others. The tweak
is though, improving its performance. Open your registry and
navigate to
KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
In there you will find something called \"EnablePrefetcher\". The
default value data should be set to 3, but I recommend around
5-6.
Tweak 6- Another Shutdown Tweak
This will automatically close programs when you shutdown your
computer instead of recieving that nasty little message saying a
program is still running. Open your registry and navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop and find \"AutoEndTasks\".
Set this value to 1 and woohoo, your done. Easy tweak.
Tweak 7- Hibernation
I hate hibernation...I would leave my computer and it would be hibernating and I would curse myself for not just shutting down the computer because the performance would just suck. This happens because windows reserves an amount of hard drive space that is equivelant to your RAM for it to hibernate. Disabling this is easy, just go Start->Settings->Control Panel->Power Options->click on the Hibernate tab. In the little check box that says
Enable hibernation next to it, just uncheck it and problem
solved.
Tweak 8- Multi-Memory Performance Tweaking Section
**ALL MEMORY TWEAKS LOCATED IN REGISTRY IN
\"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEM CurrentControlSetControlSession
ManagerMemory Management FOLDER**
People who do these 2 tweaks must have at minimum 256 mb of ram,
otherwise its pretty much useless.
#1- "DisablePagingExecutive"
This tweak disables XP from blocking your RAM off into segments
to store information. We want to disable this to improve
performance. All you do is change this files value from 0 to 1.
#2- "LargeSystemCache"
What this tweak does is strap everything but 4mb of system memory
to the system cache. This will greatly improve it's speed. This
tweak is very good, but in some very demanding programs such as
3d graphics rendering programs or graphic intense games
performance can be degraded. I wouldnt worry though, I have never
noticed. To do this all you do is change the key value to 1 from
0.
Tweak 9- Want 20 percent more Bandwidth?
Got your attention? Listen to this one, cause your gonna love me for it. Unfortunatly this is for PRO users only, because Home did not come with the GPEDIT.MSC ability. Regardless, XP sets aside 20 percent of your bandwidth for QoS applications, which no one ever uses. To rectify this, go to Start->Run-> Type: Gpedit.msc ::enter::
Navigate to Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->Network->QoS Packet Scheduler. Now double click \"Limit Reserve
Bandwidth\" and set it to \"Enabled\" AND set the Bandwidth Limit
to 0 percent. Hooray! 20 percent more bandwidth!
Tweak 10-A Tweak My Grandma Can Do
This tweak my Grandmother can do. She can't even find her mouse
75 percent of the time on the computer either. This is the
easiest tweak that helps the most. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del to open up
your Windows Task Manager. Click on the Processes tab. This will
list and process running at that time. Run any program you want,
find its process, and right click on it. Go to the Set Priority
option and set its priority. So if you were running
Counter-Strike, right click on its process, go to Set Priority,
then click high. This tells the computer to pretty much \"Pay
more attention and attend to this program\" more than others.
Dont go prioritize crazy though, I only recommend 2 high
prioritys at a time...
Tweak 11- The Final Tweak...Yet Amazingly Helpful
This tweak shouldn't be ignored, since it will improve
performance all across the board. The computer will assign whats
called an IRQ number to the main components of your
computer(i.e.-graphics card, processor, etc). Im going to tell
you how to prioritize these. There are two parts, figuring out
which component you want to prioritize, and prioritizing it.
To find out what component you want to give more performance to
open up your control panel and open the System panel. Click the
Hardware tab, then on Device Manager. Right click on the
component you want to know the IRQ of by going to its
properties.(I suggest starting out by branching out the System
Devices and choosing the \"System CMOS/real time clock\" since it
will do the most) When in properties, click on the resources tab
and the IRQ number should be blatently obvious. (Some devices
don't have IRQ numbers, sorry, your outta luck there.
You justhave to go on searching for one with an IRQ). Write down the IRQ
and close everything. Open up your registry again and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlPriorityControl.
In this folder, right click and create a new DWORD value called
IRQ(insert IRQ number here without parenthesis)Priority So it
should be named like IRQ08Priority. Set the data to 1. Restart
your computer and the changes will take effect. The CMOS is the
best tweak for sure, and is a sure fire bet, so I recommend it.
Also, be sure not to do more than 3 of these!!! Any more than 3
can cause computer instability.
Tweak 12- Performance Downloads
I recommend downloading these programs to upgrade performance:
BootVis - Great program that helps boot your computer up amazing fast.
PowerStrip - You can't go wrong with this program, it lets you tweak your
graphics card in every way your card was enabled to be tweaked.
Meaning you can do stuff your driver doesn't even give you the
option to do.
PCBooster - Just the ability to recover ram manully from thsi program is
awsome, but recovering it at a certain resource point?!??!
Well worth the download just for that.
And These programs can be useful as well:
hdspeed
RegCleaner
Cacheman
-Conclusion-
Well, after many forum chit-chats and much reading I figured out
some useful tweaks for XP. I thought that sharing them with the
comunity would be helpful since pretty much everyone is looking
for better performance. So I hope everyone enjoys them as much as
I have. theres also more stuff to be found at www.tweakxp.com and www.tweaktown.com
Last edited:
