Friday, December 10, 2010

Top Ten Plus Tips To Improve System Speed

Top Ten Plus Tips To Improve System Speed


Top Ten Tips recommended for any system. It doesn't matter if you have 256mb RAM or 2 GB RAM.
 
Check the below tips to remove the memory junk and speedup windows os.

1. Let your PC boot up completely before opening any applications.
2. Refresh the desktop after closing any application. This will remove any unused files from the RAM.
3. Do not set very large file size images as your wallpaper. Do not keep a wallpaper at all if your PC is low on RAM (less than 64 MB).
4. Do not clutter your Desktop with a lot of shortcuts. Each shortcut on the Desktop uses up to 500 bytes of RAM
5. Empty the recycle bin regularly. The files are not really deleted from your hard drive until you empty the recycle bin.
6. Delete the temporary internet files regularly.
7. Defragment your hard drive once every two months. This will free up a lot of space on your hard drive and rearrange the files so that your applications run faster.
8. Always make two partitions in your hard drive. Install all large Softwares (like PSP, Photoshop, 3DS Max etc) in the second partition. windows all the available empty space in
C drive as virtual memory when your Computer RAM is full. Keep the C Drive as empty as possible.
9. When installing new Softwares disable the option of having a tray icon. The tray icons use up available RAM, and also slow down the booting of your PC. Also disable the option of starting the application automatically when the PC boots. You can disable these options later on also from the Tools or preferences menu in your application.
10. Protect your PC from dust. Dust causes the CPU Cooling Fan to jam and slow down thereby gradually heating your CPU and affecting the processing speed. Use compressed air to blow out any dust from the CPU. Never use vacuum.
RAM IS THE WORKING AREA (DESKTOP) OF THE CPU, KEEP IT AS EMPTY AND UNCLUTTERED AS POSSIBLE!
 
Few More Tips You Can Try....

Because Windows XP has to be all things to all people it has many services running that take up system resources that you will never need. Below is a list of services that can be disabled on most machines:

• Alerter
• Clipbook
• Computer Browser
• Distributed Link Tracking Client
• Fast User Switching
• Help and Support - (If you use Windows Help and Support leave this enabled)
• Human Interface Access Devices
• Indexing Service
• IPSEC Services
• Messenger
• Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
• Portable Media Serial Number
• Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
• Remote Procedure Call Locator
• Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
• Remote Registry Service
• Secondary Logon
• Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
• Server
• SSDP Discovery Service - (Unplug n' Pray will disable this)
• Telnet
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
• Upload Manager
• Universal Plug and Play Device Host
• Windows Time
• Wireless Zero Configuration (Do not disable if you use a wireless network)
• Workstation
To disable these services:
1. Go to Start and then Run and type "services.msc"
2. Doubleclick on the service you want to change
3. Change the startup type to 'Disable"


Turn Off System Restore

System Restore can be a useful if your computer is having problems, however storing all the restore points can literally take up Gigabytes of space on your hard drive. To turn off System Restore:
1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Performance and Maintenance
3. Click on System
4. Click on the System Restore tab
5. Tick 'Turn off System Restore on All Drives'
6. Click 'Ok'


Speedup Folder Access - Disable Last Access Update

If you have a lot of folders and subdirectories on your computer, when you access a directory XP wastes a lot of time updating the time stamp showing the last access time for that directory and for ALL sub directories. To stop XP doing this you need to edit the registry. If you are uncomfortable doing this then please do not attempt.
1. Go to Start and then Run and type "regedit"
2. Click through the file system until you get to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE..System..CurrentControlSet..Control..FileSystem"
3. Right-click in a blank area of the window on the right and select 'DWORD Value'
4. Create a new DWORD Value called 'NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate'
5. Then Right click on the new value and select 'Modify'
6. Change the Value Data to '1'
7. Click 'OK'


Disable System Sounds

Surprisingly, the beeps that your computer makes for various system sounds can slow it down, particularly at startup and shut-down. To fix this turn off the system sounds:
1. Open Control Panel
2. Click Sounds and Audio Devices
3. Check Place volume icon in taskbar
4. Click Sounds Tab
5. Choose "No Sounds" for the Sound Scheme
6. Click "No"
7. Click "Apply"
8. Click "OK"


Improve Boot Times

A great new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow for faster booting. By default this option in enables but on some builds it is not so below is how to turn it on.
1. Go to Start Menu and Click Run
2. Type in "Regedit" then click ok
3. Find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE..SOFTWARE..Microsoft..Dfrg..BootOpt imizeFunction"
4. Select "Enable" from the list on the right
5. Right on it and select "Modify"
6. Change the value to "Y to enable"
7. Reboot


7. Improve Swapfile Performance

If you have more than 256MB of RAM this tweak will considerably improve your performance. It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.
1. Go to Start then Run
2. Type "msconfig.exe" then ok
3. Click on the System.ini tab
4. Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
5. Click on new then in the blank box type"ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1"
6. Click OK
7. Restart PC


Make Your Menus Load Faster

This is one of my favourite tweaks as it makes a huge difference to how fast your machine will 'feel'. What this tweak does is remove the slight delay between clicking on a menu and XP displaying the menu.
1. Go to Start then Run
2. Type 'Regedit' then click 'Ok'
3. Find "HKEY_CURRENT_USER..Control Panel..Desktop.."
4. Select "MenuShowDelay"
5. Right click and select "Modify'
6. Reduce the number to around "100"
This is the delay time before a menu is opened. You can set it to "0" but it can make windows really hard to use as menus will open if you just look at them - well move your mouse over them anyway. I tend to go for anywhere between 50-150 depending on my mood


Make Programs Load Faster

This little tweak tends to work for most programs. If your program doesn't load properly just undo the change. For any program:
1. Right-click on the icon/shortcut you use to launch the program
2. Select properties
3. In the 'target' box, add ' /prefetch:1' at the end of the line.
4. Click "Ok"
Voila - your programs will now load faster.


Improve XP Shutdown Speed

This tweak reduces the time XP waits before automatically closing any running programs when you give it the command to shutdown.
1. Go to Start then select Run
2. Type 'Regedit' and click ok
3. Find 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER..Control Panel..Desktop..'
4. Select 'WaitToKillAppTimeout'
5. Right click and select 'Modify'
6. Change the value to '1000'
7. Click 'OK'
8. Now select 'HungAppTimeout'
9. Right click and select 'Modify'
10. Change the value to '1000'
11. Click 'OK'
12. Now find 'HKEY_USERS...DEFAULT..Control Panel..Desktop'
13. Select 'WaitToKillAppTimeout'
14. Right click and select 'Modify'
15. Change the value to '1000'
16. Click 'OK'
17. Now find 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE..System..CurrentControlSet..Control..'
18. Select 'WaitToKillServiceTimeout'
19. Right click and select 'Modify'
20. Change the value to '1000'
21. Click 'OK'

That's it. I hope you find these tips useful - you should now see a noticeable speed improvement if you make all of these changes correctly.
Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised!