Tweaks to Speed Up XP

Tweaks to Speed Up XP:
One of the most frustrating aspects of working on a computer is that sometimes they seem to run so slowly you could take a nap while the machine is processing something. OK… that is a bit of an exaggeration but it does seem like you are waiting forever.
Let’s look at how we can increase the speed of your PC without having to buy and new hardware or software to get better performance. Some of the tweaks will involve editing the registry while others will not. Make sure you backup your windows registry before you make any changes. This is just a precaution in case something goes wrong. It is also a good idea to create a new restore point as well… for safety.

Making Registry Based Changes

Backing up the registry

Perform the following steps:

1. Select Start ->Run
2. Type regedit in the dialogue box that opens
3. Once the registry editor opens, select File -> Export
4. Double click on the folder where you want to save the backup file
5. Click Save.
6. Now that we have made a backup of the registry we can do something about speeding up XP

Speed up the Menus

The default value for the system to respond to you clicking on the start menu is set pretty high. Reducing this value will speed up the response time. Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\MenuShowDelay
Double click on MenuShowDelay and change the value to 0 or any other value you want. Reboot the system for the changes to take effect.  You can experiment with different values to see what works best for you.

Optimize the Prefetch Feature for FasterLoading

Prefetch allows the system to load faster by reading system boot or application launch files into the cache. Using it will reduce the time the operating system takes to load. The files are listed in the c:\windows\prefetch folder. To speed this process up, perform the following tasks:

1. Go to the registry key
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\
3. Double-click on EnablePrefetcher in the right hand window and enter one of the following values
4. Enter 0 to disable prefetching
5. Enter 1 to prefetch application launch files
6. Enter 2 to prefetch boot files
7. Enter 3 to prefetch as many files as possible

Disable 8.3 Name Creation on NTFS partitions

Unless you are actually allowing someone using an operating system that needs the 8.3 naming convention, crating them uses more clock cycles to create your directory listings. To disable this normally unnecessary feature, perform the following steps:

1. Go to the to the following key:
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\
3. Double-click on NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation in the right pane
4. Change the value of this key to 1

Non- Registry Tweaks

The other important thing to do to speed up your PC is to perform routine maintenance such as:

1. Do regular anti-virus and spy ware scans
2. De-frag the hard drive
3. Run a good registry cleaner to keep the registry optimized.

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