Turn off Indexing to speed up XP

Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of searches on your hard drive then I suggest turning this feature off:

1. Open my computer
2. Right click your hard drive icon and select properties.
3. At the bottom of the window you'll see "Allow indexing service to index this disk for faster searches," uncheck this and click ok.
4. A new window will pop up and select apply to all folders and sub folders. It will take a minute or two for the changes to take affect but then you should enjoy slightly faster performance.

DMA Mode on IDE Devices

Just like Windows 2000, Windows XP still fails to set the DMA mode correctly for the IDE device designated as the slaves on the primary IDE and secondary IDE channels. Most CD-ROMS are capable of supporting DMA mode, but the default in XP is still PIO. Setting it to DMA won't make your CD-ROM faster, but it will consume less CPU cycles. Here's how:

1. 1. Open the Device Manager. One way to do that is to right click on "My Computer", select the Hardware tab, and Select Device Manager.
2. Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and double-click on "Primary IDE Channel"
3. Under the "Advanced Settings" tab, check the "Device 1" setting. More than likely, your current transfer mode is set to PIO.
4. Set it to "DMA if available". Repeat the step for the "Secondary IDE Channel" if you have devices attached to it. Reboot.

Speed up menu display

When using the start menu the you will notice a delay between different tiers of the menu hierarchy. For the fastest computer experience possible I recommend changing this value to zero. This will allow the different tiers to appear instantly.

1. Start Regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop
3. Select MenuShowDelayfrom the list on the right.
4. Right Click on it and select Modify.
5. Change the value to 0.
6. Reboot your computer.

Cleaning your prefetch directory to improve performance.

This is an unique technique for WinXP. We know that it is necessary to wash registry and TEMP files for Win9X/ME/2000 periodically Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP some time, the prefetch directory can get full of junk and obsolete links in the Prefetch catalog, which can slow down your computer notably. Open C(system drive):/windows/prefetch, delete those junk and obsolete files,reboot. It is recommended that you do this every month.

Load Internet Explorer the fastest way possible

Edit your link to start Internet Explorer to have -nohome after it. For Example: "C:Program FilesInternet ExplorerIEXPLORE.EXE" -nohome This will load internet explorer very fast because it does not load a webpage while it is loading. If you want to go to your homepage after it is loaded, just click on the home button.

Msn Messenger Removal

Some people do not want to use MSN Messenger for chatting and would like to remove it from their computers. With Windows XP, this is not always so easy.

In the Run box, type "RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%INFmsmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove" Will remove the msn messenger from XP

Get more processing power.

In the Run box, type "Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks". This frees up any idle tasks running in the background so that Windows XP can devote its full attention to what you want it to do. For example playing graphic intensive games.

Unload .dll's to Free Memory

Windows Explorer caches DLLs (Dynamic-Link Libraries) in memory for a period of time after the application using them has been closed. This can be an inefficient use of memory. Run Regedit

1. Find the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorer].
2. Create a new DWORD sub-key named 'AlwaysUnloadDLL' and set the default value to equal '1' to disable Windows caching the DLL in memory.
3. Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

Virtual Paging File

This tweak can increase the amount of RAM significantly used on your computer. What this tweak actually does is it uses your hard-drive disk-space to emulate RAM. This is called caching, or in Microsoft terms - The Virtual Paging File Size.

1. Go into Control Panel and into Performance and Maintenance
2. Get into System
3. Click the Advanced Tab
4. In the Performance Frame, click on Settings
5. Once in Settings click on the Advanced Tab
6. Now under Virtual Memory click on Change
7. Here you can set your RAM value. The recommended increase you should make should be achieved by multiplying your RAM by 1.5. This is already done if you have a System Managed file size. I like to increase it by 1/5 of my actual hard-drive space. This will drastically increase performance, because the system will now have a pool of cache to retrieve memory from.

Shutdown XP Faster

When a user shuts down Windows XP, first the system has to kill all services currently running. Every once in a while the service does not shut down instantly and windows gives it a change to shut down on its own before it kills it. This amount of time that windows waits is stored in the system registry. If you modify this setting, then windows will kill the service earlier. To modify the setting, follow the directions below:

1. Start Regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
3. Click on the "Control" Folder.
4. Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
5. Right click on it and select Modify.
6. Set it a value lower than 2000

Solution for power down/system shutdown

Many people have been having problems with their system not automatically closing down when they 'turn off' their PC. This is because of the APM setting which is not enabled. To enable it, right click on my computer go to properties select hardware and click device manager. Click view and then on show hidden devices. You should see the NT ATM / Legacy Interface mode with a red cross on it. Double click it and on the screen that appears at the bottom choose enable from the drop down menu. Your PC should now automatically switch off completely on shutdown.

Sacrifice Graphics for Speed

XP is very graphic-intensive which results in a large consumption of RAM. Sometimes to squeeze in the nitty-gritty megs of memory can be, by sacrificing the pretty little bits and colors that are on your screen. For starters, reducing the color density and and bit display of your screen will ultimately increase speed to your computer.

1. On your desktop, right click and go to PROPERTIES.
2. In properties go to Settings, and set your color quality to the lowest bit-rating (most likely 15 bit). This will reduce color density, and icon quality, but will heavily boast system performance.

If you really want to increase your system performance, new Windows themes are NOT the way to go, if you are ill-equipped with RAM.

1. Go into Control Panel and into Performance and Maintenance.
2. Get into System and click on the Advanced tab.
3. Now click on Performance
4. Under your visual effects, select CHOOSE BEST PERFORMANCE. T
5. This will undoubtedly increase your system performance by returning XP into Classic Style and getting rid of the fancy fading menus, shadows and whatnot.

Now your graphically challenged computer, has turned into a mean, lean, computing machine.

Memory Performance Tweak

These Settings will fine tune your systems memory management .At least 256MB of ram recommended go to start un egedit -and then to the following key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management

1. DisablePagingExecutive -double click it and in the decimal put a 1 - this allows XP to keep data in memory now instead of paging sections of ram to hard drive yields faster performance.
2. LargeSystemCache- double click it and change the decimal to 1 -this allows XP Kernel to Run in memory improves system performance .
3. create a new dword and name it IOPageLockLimit - double click it and set the value in hex - 4000 if you have 128MB of ram or set it to 10000 if you have 256MB set it to 40000 if you have more than 512MB of ram -this tweak will speed up your disk cache
4. Reboot and watch your system fly

Smooth Mouse

If you use a PS/2 mouse the following tweak will give you smoother mouse movement, which is also great for gaming.

1. Drill into Device Manager via Control Panel | System | Hardware | Device Manager and scroll to your mouse device.
2. Under Advanced Setting set the sample rate to 200.

Disable Hibernate

If you don't plan to use the 'hibernate' function, and if you're running a desktop. You can reclaim a number of megabytes equal to your RAM on the hard drive: Go to

1. Control Panel | Power Options | Hibernate
2. Deselect 'Enable hibernation' and click OK.

Disabling Automatic Updates properly A lot of people already know about Automatic Updates and how to disable them by selecting the appropriate option from within the Automatic Updates tab in My Computer. A lot of you might not realize this, but the Automatic Update service still runs even when you select to disable it here. To turn it off completely and for good do as follows:

1. Go into Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
2. Highlight the service called "Automatic Updates". You will know when you have the correct one because you will see a description about it telling you what it does.
3. Right click once highlighted and click stop to terminate the service.
4. Right click on it again and go to Properties. Half way down the first tab there is "Startup Type:" change this to disabled.C

You have now disabled Automatic Updates service. Not only will this make certain the service won't run, but by disabling it properly you are freeing up system resources as they won't be diverted to running a service that you don't use.