Window XP
Install and Restore
1. How to Install Window XP with the help of XP bootable CD
Please perform the steps carefully to solve your problem.
1. First you must put your Windows XP CD in the drive.
Then restart your computer.
2. When it says press any key to boot from cd, Press any key on the keyboard.
3. If it doesn't ask you this then restart your computer again.
4. Go into the BIOS settings of your PC, usually by pressing the F1, F2, F10, or maybe the delete key.
5. If you are not sure watch the screen at startup and it will say, "To enter setup press...” You have to be quick and press it. If you miss it restart again. Once you are in the bios you have to change the boot options. You have to make your cd-rom the first boot option. Save and exit.
6. A blue screen will appear and you are on your way..
7. Press Enter to setup Windows XP now.
8. If there is a copy of Windows XP on your computer and you wish to overwrite it you will have to press the escape button when prompted. Do not install Windows XP in another directory unless you know what you are doing. Just overwrite the previous version, as you should have backed up your data anyway. You should also make the partition that had windows on it blue and press D to delete the partition. It will ask if you are sure.
9. Press L to confirm.
10. Then Press C to create another partition and Windows will estimate a size for you.
11. Press Enter to confirm size.
12. Then it will ask you which partition you want to install Windows on. The default is C: drive. Select this and press enter.
13. If there are no partitions it will create one for you.
Then it will ask you to format quick, normal, in fat32 0r NTFS. Fat32 suits older computers so I choose a quick format with NTFS. Quick or slow is fine. If you had errors it is better to use a slow format, which can also be known as a low level format.
From now on you just Follow the prompts and let it go..
Make sure you have your serial number ready to enter in.
2 A. Restore Steps for Windows XP.
When booting your computer, press F8 to bring up a boot menu
Select Safe Mode with Command Prompt
Select the operating system to start (if you have multiple operating systems installed)
Log on with an account that is a member of the administrators group
At the command prompt, type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe
Press Enter
This will start the "Welcome to System Restore" screen. Go through the steps of the Wizard and follow the instructions to restore your system to a previous restore point
(OR)
2 B.
To use System Restore to restore Windows XP to a previous state, follow these steps:
1. Log on to Windows as Administrator.
2. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore. System Restore starts.
3. On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Restore my computer to an earlier time (if it is not already selected), and then click Next.
4. On the Select a Restore Point page, click the most recent system restore point in the On this list, click a restore point list, and then click Next.
Note A System Restore message may appear that lists configuration changes that System Restore will make. Click OK.
5. On the Confirm Restore Point Selection page, click Next. System Restore restores the previous Windows XP configuration, and then restarts the computer.
6. Log on to the computer as Administrator. The System Restore Restoration Complete page is displayed.
7. Click OK.
3. How to undo a system restoration after you perform a System Restore
You may have unintentionally restored Windows XP to a previous configuration that you do not want. To undo the restoration, follow these steps:
1. Log on to Windows as Administrator.
2. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore. System Restore starts.
3. On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Undo my last restoration, and then click Next.
Note: A System Restore message may appear that lists configuration changes that System Restore will make. Click OK.
4. On the Confirm Restoration Undo page, click Next. System Restore restores the original Windows XP configuration, and then restarts the computer.
5. Log on to the computer as Administrator. The System Restore Undo Complete page appears.
6. Click OK. You can now run System Restore again from a different restore point.
4. Starting the Windows Recovery Console from the Windows XP CD-ROM
1. Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD drive and restart your computer. If you are prompted, select any options required to start (boot) from the CD.
2. When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts. Select the repair or recover option by pressing R.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiboot system, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
4. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password.
5. At the command prompt, type Recovery Console commands, and then you can refer to the commands that are listed in the "Available commands within Windows Recovery Console" section.
6. At any time, you can type Help for a list of available commands.
7. At any time, you can type Help commandname for help on a specific command. For example, you can type help attrib to display the help on the attributes command.
8. At any time, you can exit Windows Recovery Console by typing Exit at the command line.
5. If you have already installed the Recovery Console.
If you have already installed the Recovery Console, you can select it during your usual Windows Startup. To run the Recovery Console:
1. During Startup, select Recovery Console from the startup options menu.
2. If you have a dual-boot or multiboot system, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
3. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password.
4. At the command prompt, type Recovery Console commands, and then you can refer to the commands that are listed in the "Available commands within Windows Recovery Console" section.
5. At any time, you can type Help for a list of available commands.
6. At any time, you can type Help commandname for help on a specific command. For example, you can type help attrib to display the help on the attributes command.
7. At any time, you can exit Windows Recovery Console by typing Exit at the command line.
6. Disabling or enabling Windows System Restore
1. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel.
2. Double-click System.
3. click on System Restore Tab.
4. Clikc on the Check box "Turn off System Restore on all drive"
5. Click OK.
Problem
1. After double clicking Disk not open
Please perform the following steps.
1.Open Start>>Run and type cmd and press enter. This will open a command prompt window.
On this command prompt window type the following steps.
2. Type cd\ , it will come on the root of c drove.
3. Type attrib -r -h -s autorun.inf (C:\ attrib -r -h -s autorun.inf)
4. Type del autorun.inf
5. Now type d: and press enter for d: drive partition. Now repeat steps 3 and 4.
Similarly repeat step 5 for all your hard disk partition.
Please restart your system and your trouble will be fixed.
2. Exe problem
When you try to launch an application (.exe files), the following error message appears and the program does not run.
This problem occurs if the .exe file association in the registry is corrupt. Viruses generally cause this behavior; one of which is SirCam virus, which modifies the .exe file association in registry.
Please perform the following steps and check your problem
1 Open you’re “My Computer” from the desktop (or open any folder)
2 Click on the “Tool” option
3 Please select Folder Option.
4 Please click on “Files Type” tab.
5 Select (None) Drive and click on the New Button.
6 Please put .exe in the File extension
7. You have a box in that box select on “Advanced tab.”
8 You have found a pop box chose on them as “Application”.
9 Click on Ok.
10 Click on Ok.
Now you can open your all program.
3. Windows cannot open this file: MSN3.mailhost
Go to Start
Go to Run
Type regsvr32 c:\progra~1\msn\msncorefiles\mailui.dll
Hit OK
This will reinitiate the mailhost in the registry. Hope this helps someone out there.
4.
A. Registry Editor has been disabled by the administrator.
Please perform the following steps:
1.Click on Start -> Run (or Start Search in Windows Vista).
2.Enter GPEdit.msc and then press Enter.
3.Navigate to the following location:
4.User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System
5.In the Settings pane, locate the Prevent access to registry editing tools option, and then double-click on it to open the settings dialog.
6.Select Disabled or Not Configured.
7.Click on OK button
8.Try to run RegEdit.exe, and if required (still blocking yet), restart the computer.
(OR)
b. Change the Task Manager Option through the Run line
1. Click on Start, Run and type the following command exactly and press Enter
REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
(OR)
c. Change Task Manager through a Registry REG file
1. Click on Start, Run, and type Notepad and press Enter
2. Copy and paste the information between the dotted lines into Notepad and save it to your desktop as taskmanager.reg
------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"DisableTaskMgr"=dword:00000000
-------------------------------------
3. Double click on the taskmanager.reg file to enter the information into the Windows registry
(OR)
d. Delete the restriction in the registry manually
1. Click on Start, Run, and type REGEDIT and press Enter
2. Navigate to the following branch
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies\ System
3. In the right pane, find and delete the value named DisableTaskMgr
4. Close the registry editor
5. Hyperlinks do not work in Outlook Express or in Word
To fix this problem, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type the following command in the Run dialog box, and then click OK:
regsvr32 urlmon.dll
2. Repeat step 1 for each of the following commands:
regsvr32 mshtml.dll
regsvr32 shdocvw.dll
regsvr32 browseui.dll
regsvr32 msjava.dll
7. You cannot add a printer and you receive printer spooler error messages in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/ph/1173#tab0
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324757/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259/en-us
8. Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by
Windows or other programs
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
4. In the right pane, click UpperFilters. (Note: you may also see an UpperFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click UpperFilters only. If you do not see the UpperFilters registry entry, you still might have to remove the LowerFilters registry entry. To do this, go to step 7.)
5. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
6. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
7. In the right pane, click LowerFilters. (Note If you do not see the LowerFilters registry entry, unfortunately this content cannot help you any further. Go to the "Next Steps" section for information about how you can find more solutions or more help on the Microsoft Web site.)
8. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
9. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
10. Exit Registry Editor.
11. Restart the computer.
9. Icon Text not Transparent on Desktop
1. open System from the Control Panel,
2. select the Advanced tab
3. press the Settings button under the Performance header.
4. Make sure that on the Visual Effects tab,
5. The option Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop is selected.
6. Also make sure that Smooth edges of screen fonts is checked,
7. If this still doesn't do the trick, Right-click the desktop,
8. Point to Arrange Icons By and make sure that Lock Web Items on Desktop is un-checked.
10. Computer Reboots Without Warning
This is the default behavior when Windows XP encounters a System failure. This behavior can be changed by going to the
1. Go to System applet in Control Panel,
2. Select the Advanced tab
3. Click the Settings button under the Startup and Recovery heading.
4. Under System failure, un-check Automatically restart.
11. Disable the Windows XP Prefetcher
1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ SessionManager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters
3. Double-click the EnablePrefetcher value (remember the value that EnablePrefetcher is set to!)
4. Change the Value data to 0 to disable the prefetcher
5. Close the registry editor and reboot the computer for the changes to take effect
When done troubleshooting, you can re-enable the prefetcher by changing the Value data to its original value.
0 - no prefetch
1 - prefetch applications only
2 - prefetch boot only
3 - prefetch both applications & boot (default)
Error Message
1. "Invalid Boot.ini" or "Windows could not start" error messages when you start your computer
a). Invalid Boot.ini
b). Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: Windows\System32\Hal.dll
To resolve this issue, start the computer from the Windows XP CD, start the Recovery Console, and then use the Bootcfg.exe tool to rebuild the Boot.ini file. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Configure the computer to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.
2. When you receive the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
3. When you receive the "Welcome to Setup" message, press R to start the Recovery Console.
4. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you have to use from the Recovery Console.
5. When you are prompted, type the administrator password, and then press ENTER.
6. At the command prompt, type bootcfg /list, and then press ENTER. The entries in your current Boot.ini file appear on the screen.
7. At the command prompt, type bootcfg /rebuild, and then press ENTER. This command scans the hard disks of the computer for Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows NT installations, and then displays the results. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to add the Windows installations to the Boot.ini file.
8. For example, follow these steps to add a Windows XP installation to the Boot.ini file:
a. When you receive a message that is similar to the following message, press Y:
Total Identified Windows Installs: 1
[1] C:\Windows
Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)
b. You receive a message that is similar to the following message:
Enter Load Identifier
This is the name of the operating system. When you receive this message, type the name of your operating system, and then press ENTER. This is either Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.
c. You receive a message that is similar to the following:
Enter OS Load options
When you receive this message, type /fastdetect, and then press ENTER.
Note The instructions that appear on your screen may be different, depending on the configuration of your computer.
· Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console. Your computer restarts, and the updated boot list appears when you receive the "Please select the operating system to start" message.
2. "Access is Denied" error message when you try to open a folder
To resolve this issue, you must turn off Simple File Sharing, and then take ownership of the folder:
1. Turn off Simple File Sharing:
a. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
b. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
c. Under Advanced Settings, click to clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box, and then click OK.
2. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message, if one appears.
4. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
5. In the Name list, click your user name, Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group.
If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, click to select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
6. Click OK.
7. Click Yes.
8. Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and the folder contents.
3. Cannot Find a Device File That May Be Needed to Run Windows
1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe), Start\Run\regedit
2. Locate the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\Vshinit
Back up the Vshinit key, and then delete the entire key.
Quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer
IE Error
1. Disable script debugging
If the only sign of a problem is the error message, and Web sites are working, you can probably ignore the error. Also, if the problem only happens on one or two Web pages, it might be a problem with those pages. If you decide to ignore the errors, you can disable script debugging.
Note If this problem occurs on more than one or two sites, do not disable script debugging. Go to method 2 now.
To turn off the Scripting Debugger in Internet Explorer 6, follow these steps:
1. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
2. On the Advanced tab, click to select the Disable script debugging check box. and then click OK .
To turn off notification about every script error in Internet Explorer 7, follow these steps:
1. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
2. On the Advanced tab, click to clear the Display a notification about every script error check box, and then click OK.
2. Verify that Active Scripting, ActiveX, and Java are not being blocked by Internet Explorer
1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
3. In the Internet Options dialog box, click the Security tab.
4. Click Default Level.
5. Click OK.
3. Remove all the temporary Internet-related files
1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
3. Click the General tab.
4. Under Temporary Internet files, click Settings.
5. Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
6. Click Delete Cookies, and then click OK.
7. Under History, click Clear History, and then click Yes.
8. Click OK.
To remove all the temporary Internet-related files from your computer when you use Internet Explorer 7, follow these steps:
1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
3. Click the General tab.
4. Under Browsing History, click Delete, and when you are prompted, click Yes to confirm.
5. In the Delete Browsing History dialog box, under Temporary Internet Files, click Delete Files, and when you are prompted, click Yes to confirm.
6. Under Cookies, click Delete Cookies, and when you are prompted, click Yes to confirm.
7. Under History, click Delete History, and when you are prompted, click Yes to confirm.
8. Click Close, and then click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.
4. How to Remove Content Advisor Password in Internet Explorer
1) Click on the little plus sign to the left of H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
2) Continue to drill down, always clicking on the plus sign at the left of the named key, through Software, Microsoft, Windows, Current Version and Policies. I.e.
H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/ Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current/Version/Policies
3) Now click on the Ratings folder.
4) In the right pane of the RegEdit window, you'll see an icon called Key. Click on it and press Delete.
5) Next, choose Registry and then Exit to exit RegEdit. You've just deleted your original Content Advisor password.
6) Restart the computer and run Internet Explorer again.
7) Choose View and then Internet Options (or Options for version 3.x). For IE 5 or greater, Click on Tools, Internet Options.
8) Click on the Content tab and click on Disable. When asked for a password, don't enter anything; just click on OK. This will disable Content Advisor because there's no longer a password.
5. How to Fix Problems with Content Advisor Missing Information
In most cases, this problem occurs when the Ratings.pol file is damaged; follow the instructions below to fix this issue.
1) Quit Internet Explorer
2) Open My Computer, click on Tools, Folder Options
3) Click on the View tab and make sure "Show hidden files and folders" is selected, you may also want to uncheck the box next to "Hide extensions for known file types" and click Ok
4) Double click on Drive C in My Computer
5) Double click on the Windows folder and then double click on the System folder
6) Search for the file RATINGS.POL and right click on it and choose Rename. Rename it to RATINGS.OLD
7) Close out of the open Windows and then reopen Internet Explorer
8) Click on Tools, Internet Options
9) Click on the Content tab, then click on Settings
10) Type in the Supervisor password if necessary and click Ok
11) Select the Ratings options you would like and click Ok and close out of Internet Explorer
12) When you reopen Internet Explorer, everything should work.
6. Lost Content Advisor Password
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Pol...
Extra
New Sound Blaster Drivers
With the loads of problems reported by users with Soundblaster cards on Windows XP Creative has stepped up and offered drivers for at least some models of their Sound Blaster cards, but check your particular model closely. I have downloaded the SB128 drivers and my sound problems have been resolved..! So they do work.
Upgrading to Windows XP
You can upgrade a computer that runs Windows 98, 98SE, or Me to Windows XP Home Edition. Those same versions, along with Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows 2000 Professional, can be upgraded to Windows XP Professional.
(1).To ensure a smooth upgrade and avoid networking problems, follow these tips before starting the upgrade:
(2)Install all network cards. XP will detect them and automatically install the right drivers.
(3)Have your Internet connection available. The XP setup process will connect to a Microsoft server to download the latest setup files, including changes that have been made since XP was released.
Some programs are incompatible with XP and can cause networking problems. Un-install these programs. After the upgrade is complete and the network is working, re-install XP-compatible versions of these programs: Internet Connection Sharing, NAT, Proxy Server Anti-Virus Firewall.
Outlook Error
1. Passwords Not Saved in Outlook/Outlook Express
No matter how many times you check the Remember Password box, Outlook/Outlook Express will refuse to save passwords for your account(s). To fix:
1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Protected Storage System Provider \
3. Right-click the Protected Storage System Provider key, and from the menu choose Permissions
4. On the Security tab, press the Advanced button
5. On the Permissions tab, select the Replace permission entries on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to child objects check box. Click Apply, and then click Yes on the Security warning dialog
6. In the Name column, ensure that the user currently logged on has Full Control access. Click OK. The following message appears:
Do you want to replace the permission on all existing subkeys within Protected Storage System Provider?
7. Click Yes
8. Double-click the Protected Storage System Provider key to expand the key, click the user subkey folder that is directly below the Protected Storage System Provider key, click Delete on the Edit menu, and then click Yes in the warning message dialog box
The user subkey folder looks similar to the following example:
S-1-5-21-789336058-2025429265-1801674531-1003
Note: For every identity that you have, there may be a subkey under the Protected Storage System Provider key. To resolve this issue in all of your identities, you must delete all of the user subkeys folders under the Protected Storage System Provider key.
9. Close the registry editor
10. Log restart Windows for the changes to take effect
11. The next time you start your e-mail program, enter the password when promted and select Remember Password. This should now be retained.
System speed increment
There are different reasons by which the system was not working properly and its performance is so slow.
Disk Cleanup
For this perform the following steps-
Click on My Computer from the desktop
Right-click on drive “C”,
Click on “Properties”
Click on “General”
Click on “Disk Cleanup” tool.
The other way to do this task goes to
Go to Start
Click on Program
Click on Accessories
Click on System Tools
Click on Disk Cleanup
CheckDisk
For this do the following tasks
Double click on the ‘My Computer’ icon on your desktop.
Right click on the “C:” drive folder.
Click on ‘Properties’
It'll open C: drives properties window.
Click on the ‘Tools tab’
Then click on ‘Check Now … tab under Error-checking section.
It'll open a small Check Disk window.
Put the checkmark next to "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"
Click ‘Start’
Then a scan will start in your system.
You can complete that scan.
When it'll get complete, again click on the ‘Check Now … tab’ under Error-checking section.
This time put the checkmark next to "Automatically fix file system errors".
Click ‘Start’
Remove any unused program
Click on “Start”.
Click on “Program”.
Click on “Control Panel”
Click on “Add Remove Programs”.
Remove any programs you no longer use.
The more programs you have on the hard drive slower your applications will load.
Delete Temporary files:-
Click on ‘Start/Run’. A box will open.
Type “%temp%” (without quotes)
A window will come showing you all temporary files.
Select all those files by pressing ‘Ctrl + A’
And after selecting, delete them by pressing DEL button
Remove any unused icons from desktop
Right click on Desktop
Click on “Properties”.
Click on “Desktop”.
Click on “Customize Desktop”.
Click on “Clean Desktop”.
It will ask for confirmation press yes.
Remove Prefetch folder regularly
1. Click on start/run. Type PREFETCH and click on OK to launch Prefetch folder.
2. Under Prefetch folder select all the files and delete them all and empty the Prefetch folder.
3. To delete all the files simply press CTRL+A keys from your keyboard to select them all and then press DELETE key to delete them all.
4. Close Prefetch Folder.
Services.msc
Go to Start -> Run
Type 'services.msc'.
You should get: This is a more detailed list of processes that are starting up with Windows. All those items with 'Automatic' listed next to their names are booting with Windows.
Click on the items to find out just what they do. If you decide you don't need a certain service, you can simply right-click on it and change it's properties from 'Automatic' to 'Manual'.
Using My Computer Setting
Easy enough tweak to usually find out about it on your own, but still, some of use still don't find it right away. So here it is:
1 Start.
2 Right Click on My Computer and select properties.
3 Click on the "Advanced" tab
4 See the "Performance" section?
5 Click "Settings"
6 Disable the following:
Fade or slide menus into view
Fade or slide ToolTips into view
Fade out menu items after clicking
Show Shadows under menus
Slide open combo boxes
Slide taskbar buttons
Use a background image for each folder type
Use common tasks in folders
Optimizing Memory Management
Right click on ‘my computer’ icon //
Click on ‘Properties’ option.
Click on ‘advanced tab’.
Click on ‘Setting Option’ in Performance Visual effects, processor scheduling, memory usage, and virtual memory
It'll open Performance option window.
Now click on ‘advanced tab’.
Now click on ‘Change option’.
Now click on ‘Custom Size’.
Now edit In Initial Size (MB) with 512.
Now edit Maximum size (MB) with 1024.
Now click on ‘Set button’.
Now click on ‘Ok’.
Now click on ‘Apply’ or ‘Ok’.
Msconfig
There are some of the unnecessary programs that automatically load when our system is boot. Disabling these programs will help your computer boot faster and crash less. For this we use the msconfig command
The step-by-step instructions on how to use MSCONFIG in Windows XP,
Click on Start.
Click on Run
In the open text box, type MSCONFIG
Click on Ok to launch System Configuration Utility Window.
Under that window, click on Startup tab.
Under Startup tab,
Under the Startup Item list please uncheck all the entries except your Anti virus, Spyware and Firewall entries if you are using.
Click Apply and Ok.
Restart your system.
After restart you'll get a confirmation message.
Put the check mark next to " Do not show the message again"
Click OK
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Decrease size of system restore
By default, Windows XP's system restore utility uses a mammoth 12% of each hard drive in your system. That's a lot of wasted space. By reducing this number, you reduce the amount of restore points system restore can create, but this does not adversely affect the functionality of the program. System restore will delete older restore points to make room for newer ones.
To decrease the amount of space system restore uses:
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties' then the 'system restore' tab.
The window below contains each of the hard disks installed on your system. Highlight each one in turn and press the 'settings' key.
Move the slider to adjust the amount of drive space used. I would recommend no more than 2-4% of each drive.
Editing registry settings without restarting
Once you have made a change to the registry in Windows XP, you generally have to reboot the computer in order for your change to take effect. This is not actually necessary, as with a simple set of commands, you can cause the system to reload the registry by stopping and restarting the 'Explorer' process.
To do this:
Save and close all open files you might be working on. For example, if you are writing a document, you'll need to close this before reloading the registry.
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the task manager.
In the 'processes' tab, highlight 'explorer.exe' and click 'end process.' All windows and desktop icons will disappear except for task manager.
Now go to the 'file' menu in task manager and select 'new task (run…).' Type 'explorer' into the text box. This will relaunch explorer and load your new registry settings without restarting.
Stop the 'last access update' stamp
Every time a directory on an NTFS drive is accessed by Windows XP, it updates that directory and every subdirectory with a time stamp to indicate the date of access. In folders with a lot of subdirectories, this can add considerable overhead to whatever your PC happens to be doing.
This process can be disabled through the registry:
Open REGEDIT and Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINES \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ FileSystem.
Create a new DWORD value called 'NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate' and set the value to '1'
Disable the 8.3 naming convention
Windows XP uses two different names for each and every file on your system. One is the name that you see in explorer and in the command prompt, and the other is an MSDOS compatible 8.3 (8 character title followed by a '.' Then three more characters to indicate the type of file) name. If you are intending to run DOS only software, or connect to pre-Windows 95 computers, you will need this second set of names. If not, you are simply wasting resources.
To disable the 8.3 naming convention:
Open REGEDIT
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
Change the value of the NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation key to '1'
Note that some popular programs, including Norton Antivirus, use the 8.3 naming convention.
Keep Windows operating data in main memory
Windows XP contains several tweakable memory settings in the registry, one of which is the DisablePagingExecutive registry key. This controls whether the operating system will transfer its essential driver
and kernel files to the 'virtual memory' (the page file on the hard disk). It defaults to allowing this.
Obviously, transferring portions of the system to hard drive
memory can considerably slow things down, and it appears that Windows XP does this periodically, whether or not the system is actually low on physical memory (RAM).
If you have 256MB of system memory or more, try this registry tweak to force Windows to keep its operating data in main memory:
Open Regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management.
Select the DisablePagingExecutive value to '1'
Disable performance counters
Like Windows 2000, Windows XP has a performance monitor utility (found in administrative tools) which can track several areas of your PC's performance. Everything from CPU use to hard drive access can be tracked and graphed. The information for this utility comes from several performance counter services which run behind the scenes, gathering data for the monitor.
If you have no use for this information, it's a good idea to disable the counters, since they take up system resources. Unfortunately, this is rather hard to do without the use of additional software. Fortunately, Microsoft has made the necessary software freely available on their website.
The Extensible Performance Counter List utility can be used to permanently disable these performance counters.
First download and install the utility, then run the Exctrlst.exe utility, found in 'c:\program files\resource kit\'
Select each line in the 'Extensible performance counters' window and clear the 'performance counters enabled' button below. You must do this separately for each counter. When done, just exit the utility.
Now if you load the performance monitor, you will see that it has no information available to it.
Move the page file from system drive
The page file is the area of a hard drive which Windows reserves for use as virtual memory when there is more data than can be stored in the actual physical memory of the system.
Page file access is extremely slow as compared to standard memory, since the hard disk, as a mechanical device, is slower to read and write information than the purely electronic memory. There are still some ways to optimize your page file use so it is a bit less of a burden on your system, however.
One of the best of these methods, provided you have two physical hard drives, is to move the page file off the disk which hosts the Windows system files. This ensures that Windows is not constantly accessing the disk for the system files as well as the page file.
To do this in Windows XP:
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.'
Select the 'advanced' tab.
Under 'performance' choose the 'settings' button.
Select the 'advanced' tab again and under 'virtual memory' select 'change.'
The virtual memory window allows you to select and change the allocation of hard disk space to be used as virtual memory for your system. For best performance; if you have two physical hard disks of roughly equivalent speed, remove the page file from your system disk (c:) and place it on the other drive.
Create a 'permanent' page file
Make the minimum size of the page file the same as the maximum size. This saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file, and does not lose you any extra space, since the 'maximum' size the page file can reach is the amount of hard disk space that is reserved by the OS.
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.'
Select the 'advanced' tab.
Under 'performance' choose the 'settings' button.
Select the 'advanced' tab again and under 'virtual memory' select 'change.'
Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the 'initial size' of the file the same as the 'maximum size' of the file.
Check your hard drives with scandisk
With time and heavy use, a myriad of data problems and physical problems can develop and mar the performance of your hard drive, not to mention cost you precious space. While defragmenting the drive can help restore much of the performance you might have lost, there are other issues such as lost clusters and bad sectors which the defragmentation utility cannot touch.
Because of this, it is a good idea to run XP's built in error checking utility on your drives once in a while. This utility will scan your disks for errors and optionally attempt to correct them.
Open 'my computer.'
Right click the hard disk you wish to check and select 'properties.'
Choose the 'tools' tab and under 'error checking' select the 'check now…' button.
Check both options. You will need to restart the computer to do the full disk check.
Your disk will be fully checked for errors upon reboot, but be aware that this can take quite a while.
Force XP to unload DLL files after closing a program
Dynamic Link Libraries, or DLLs, are files containing data or functions that Windows programs can call when needed by linking to them. Every piece of windows software will include instructions to the operating system as to which DLLs it will need to access, and XP will cache these particular files in memory for faster access.
The trouble is, Windows XP keeps these DLLs cached after the relevant program has closed, wasting memory space. While DLLs are generally tiny, enough of them can make a dent, so it's worthwhile to implement this registry tweak, which will force Windows XP to unload DLLs used by a specific program when that program halts.
To do this, first run REGEDIT.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer.
reate a new key named 'AlwaysUnloadDLL' and set the default value to equal '1.'
Thaw out your desktop
Every version of Windows has suffered from occasional 'desktop freezing.' You know the symptoms... You tell Windows to do something it doesn't like and everything except your mouse pointer slows to a c-r-a-w-l. You can open the start menu but applications won't load or close. Very frustrating.
Fortunately there can be a cure for desktop freeze, at least in Windows 2000 and XP, and it's an easy one. First, save any data you are working on, the press CRTL + ALT + DEL to bring up the task manager.
Select the 'processes' tab and highlight 'explorer.exe' then click 'end process'.
Without exiting from task manager, click 'file\New Task' and type 'explorer.exe.'
You should find that your computer has thawed itself out again.
Perform a manual Application and Boot file Defrag
Windows XP has a feature which optimizes application and operating system boot times by moving the relevant files to the outer edges of the hard drive for faster disk access. This defragmentation process is actually scheduled to take place automatically every three days or so, but it can also be activated manually. Depending on your system, this can give a slight performance boost to data access from the affected drive.
Open command prompt ('start/run' and type 'cmd').
Type 'defrag (drive letter): -b'
The process may take a few minutes to complete.
Windows XP's hibernation option allows a computer to copy its current memory contents to the hard drive before shutdown, allowing the system to resume operations exactly where it left off when it was powered down. To do this, it reserves space on the hard drive equal to the amount of physical memory present. If you do not plan to use the hibernation feature, you should ensure that it is disabled, or you are wasting disk space.
To disable hibernation:
Go to 'start/control panel/performance and maintenance/power options.'
Go to the 'hibernate' tab and uncheck the 'enable hibernation' check box.
Disable automatic sensing on network cards
This tweak may help your performance by reducing occasional 'slowdown' periods of heavy CPU access for no apparent reason. By default, Windows XP automatically assesses the speed of your network card(s) and sets them accordingly. Apparently this process occurs at regular intervals, which can cause your system to slow occasionally. To remedy this, you can manually set the 'media type' of your network card to the correct value.
Right click on 'my computer' and select the 'hardware' tab.
Open 'device manager.'
Find and highlight your network card(s). Right click it and Hit 'properties.'
Go to the 'advanced' tab and highlight 'media type.' In the 'value' drop down box, select the correct speed for your network card. Press 'ok.'
Do a Windows repair install
If you are having serious performance issues with your XP system, or are getting repeated crashes and/or error messages, it could well be a problem with Windows XP's system files. If one or more of these files has become corrupted, or if the hardware configuration of the computer has changed significantly since you first installed Windows XP, performing a repair install may well be the ticket to resolving your problems.
A repair installation re-writes all essential Windows XP system files and re-detects all hardware without affecting the registry, current desktop settings or user data stored on the hard drive. This is the only way short of a full installation that can recover from errors caused by installing a different motherboard in an XP system, for example.
To perform a repair installation:
Boot the system from your XP CD.
Choose the 'press enter to set up Windows XP now' option.
Press F8 to skip through the EULA (though if you haven't read it before, you should now. See our legal article for details as to why.
Now press R to begin a repair installation.
Your system will go through the entire XP install process, but will not attempt to replace any of your existing data. It will simply reinstall the vital system files, fixing any that are corrupted or missing.
Stop hard disks spinning down
By default, Windows XP spins down all hard drives after 20 minutes of inactivity to save power. This can cause significant delays when it is necessary to access the drives after this time. To increase performance and reduce wear and tear on your drives, disable this feature in Windows XP's power options.
Go to 'start/control panel/performance and maintenance/power options.'
Set the 'turn off hard disks' drop down box to 'never.' Click 'ok.'
Reduce recycling bin reserved space
By default, Windows XP reserves 10 percent of each hard drive to store deleted files in the recycling bin. This is a bit excessive. Actually it's a lot excessive, unless you habitually delete files a gigabyte in size or more. Fortunately, there is an easy way to reduce the amount of hard disk space that is reserved for the recycling bins on each drive.
Right click on the recycling bin and select 'properties.'
Choose the 'global' tab.
The slider shows the percentage of each drive that is reserved by the recycling bin. Reduce this to a more appropriate amount, like 2-3% or more depending on the size of your drives. The larger the drives, the smaller the number you should use. If you wish to configure each drive independently, check the 'configure drives independently' button and adjust the slider to the desired amount in each of your hard disk's tabs. The advantage to doing things this way instead of using the 'global' setting is that you can see the actual amount of space on each drive that is being reserved.
Note that files larger than the recycling bin's capacity on a given drive are deleted for good. Windows XP will warn you when this condition occurs.
Enable write caching on hard disks
If it is not already selected, enabling the hard drive write-back cache setting on each of your hard drives can improve their performance by making the transferring of data between the drive and the memory more efficient. The only reasons not to enable this setting would be if the drive in question is in a hot-swappable drive rack, or if you expect your PC to be shut down incorrectly (I.E. not through the windows shutdown procedure) often.
To enable write caching right click on my computer and select 'properties.'
Select the hardware tab, then 'device manager.' From the device manager window, expand 'disk drives' and highlight your hard disk. Select 'properties' then the 'policies' tab.
Check the 'enable write caching on the disk' box.
Repeat the above steps for all hard drives in your system.
Turn off the indexing service
Windows XP includes a new feature called 'indexing' which constantly creates and updates an index of files in your PC. This index is mainly used for speeding up file searches. The indexing feature is largely useless unless you find yourself using file search a lot, and it sucks up system resources, so it is recommended that you disable it for performance purposes.
To turn off file indexing go to Control Panel\Add/Remove Programs\Windows Components. and uncheck 'Indexing Service.'
Fix the refresh rate for 3D games
Windows XP, like Windows 2000 before it, has a dirty secret. This secret is its tendency to drop the refresh rate of the screen down to 60Hz when playing full screen DirectX 3D games. So while you might not be aware of it, there is a good chance that you are playing your favourite games at only 60Hz, increasing eyestrain and capping your frames per second at 60 unless you have VSYNC disabled (see the tip below). Fortunately, the newer versions of both the ATI and Nvidia drivers come with a utility that can override this refresh rate limitation.
To override the DirectX refresh rate with an ATI video card:
Go to 'start\control panel\display' and select the 'settings' tab then hit 'advanced.
Select the ATI tab called 'displays' then click the 'monitor' button below
Set the 'refresh rate override' dropdown box to your preferred refresh rate, or 'same as desktop.' Hit 'ok.'
To override the DirectX refresh rate with an Nvidia video card:
Go to 'start\control panel\display' and select the 'settings' tab then hit 'advanced.
Select the tab that has your video card's name on it to go to the Nvidia driver settings.
Select the 'refresh rate overrides' setting.
Choose the resolutions that you commonly play games in (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024)and double click the 'default' to open a drop down box. Select your desired refresh rate for that resolution.
Network and Internet speed tweaks
Increase maximum number of simultaneous connection in Internet Explorer
By default, Internet Explorer 6 allows only two simultaneous server connections, which is fine for normal use, but can bog down when you are connecting to web pages with lots of graphical content. By increasing the number of possible connections, you can use your Internet bandwidth more efficiently, and load complex web pages
faster.
To increase IE maximum connections:
Start REGEDIT.
Navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings'
Add the following two DWORD entries:
'MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server' value equals '0000000a'
'MaxConnectionsPerServer' value equals '0000000a'
Exit and reboot.
Increase DNS cache size
As written above, Windows XP uses a DNS cache to store recently visited Internet addresses. This cache is referred to before a request is sent out over the Internet when the user requests a web page address. If the IP address corresponding to the web address is in the cache, that address gets used, saving time. If it is not, your computer needs to find out the correct IP address by asking a DNS server over the Internet.
Items are kept in the cache for a finite amount of time and are constantly bumped to make room for more recent addresses. By increasing the size of the DNS cache, you can increase the speed of your web browsing, especially if you regularly check the same web pages.
To increase the size of the DNS cache, open REGEDIT and navigate to; 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters'
Create the following DWORD values:
CacheHashTableBucketSize = 1
CacheHashTableSize = 180
MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit = ff00
MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit = 12d
Exit and restart.
Disable DHCP with DSL connections
If you use a DSL modem to connect to the Internet, and you dial the connection directly from your computer, you may notice a rather long delay between the time the Windows desktop appears when booting up and when you can actually dial your connection. This delay can sometimes be up to two or three minutes, and can be extremely frustrating since it tends to lag other applications as well. The source of this delay is Windows XP attempting to locate an IP address for the network adaptor you are using to connect to the DSL modem.
This only occurs if the adaptor in question is set to 'obtain an IP address automatically' meaning Windows will actively seek to find an IP address for that adaptor from an outside source before assigning it one of its own range of addresses.
You can halt this behavior by simply assigning the network adaptor an IP address manually. It doesn't matter which IP address, as long as it is in one of the private address ranges (like 192.168.xxx.xxx). This will not effect your Internet connection, as the DSL modem and the adaptor form a separate 'virtual' connection which is assigned an IP address by your Internet service provider.
To assign your network card a manual (static) IP address:
Right click on 'my network places' in the start menu and hit 'properties.'
Highlight the network adaptor that is connected to your modem. If you have only one network adaptor, this will be 'local area connection.' Right click and select 'properties.'
Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click 'properties.'
Check 'use the following IP address' then in the 'IP address:' field, enter '192.168.5. (Pick a number between 1 and 254)' Enter '255.255.255.0' in the 'subnet mask:' field. Click 'ok.'
The next time you reboot, the delay should be gone, and you will be able to access your connection right away.
Do not cache failed DNS entries
By default, Windows XP will cache the IP addresses connected to DNS names (such as website addresses) as they are entered into your browser. This speeds up subsequent visits to the same addresses because the system does not have to search for the IP address that the DNS name represents.
This is good for Internet performance as a whole, but it does have a downside. If you type in a valid URL that is not functioning at that point in time, Windows will cache the unsuccessful result, meaning that all attempts to access that address may fail until the failed entry is gone from the cache. This takes about 5 minutes.
You can prevent Windows XP from caching unsuccessful DNS lookups by creating three new registry values.
To do this open REGEDIT and navigate to: 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters'
Create the following DWORD values:
NegativeCacheTime= 0
NetFailureCacheTime= 0
NegativeSOACacheTime= 0
Reboot for the changes to take effect.
Get a faster network connection to Windows 9x/ME computers
When a Windows XP system attempts to connect to network shares on a remote windows 9x/ME computer, it takes a (considerable) extra amount of time to check the list of scheduled tasks and enabled printers on that system. This can make connecting to such systems extremely tedious due to the long initial delay.
Fortunately, deleting a couple of registry entries will disable this 'feature.'
To do this open REGEDIT and navigate to;
'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace'
Delete the following sub-keys:
To disable Scheduled Task Checking delete:
'D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF'
To disable Printer Checking delete:
'2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D'
Exit REGEDIT and Reboot
Remove the QoS Bandwidth Reserve Setting
This one has been subject to several rumours and considerable debate. Windows XP's networking setup includes a QOS (Quality Of Service) provision which allows certain software (anything which has been written to take advantage of QOS in Windows) to reserve up to 20% of the bandwidth of a given network connection.
This does not mean that 20% of bandwidth is withheld by the operating system at all times, as is often stated. What it means is that certain programs can reserve this percentage of bandwidth for themselves when they are running.
If you don't like this idea and wish to disable QOS, ensuring that your Internet bandwidth is strictly 'first come, first served.' Here's a registry edit to do just that:
To do this open REGEDIT and navigate to;
'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Psched'
Data Type: DWORD Value // Value Name: NonBestEffortLimit
Setting for Value Data: [Enter as a Percentage / Default Value = 20]
Exit Registry and Reboot
Disable error reporting
To make for a smoother computing experience, disable the error-reporting feature in windows XP. This will prevent error boxes popping up after application crashes, and upon restarting Windows after a fatal crash.
To disable error reporting right click on 'my computer' and select 'manage.'
Expand 'services and applications' and select 'services' to open the services window.
Highlight the 'error reporting service,' right click it and select 'properties.'
In the 'startup type' dropdown box, choose 'disabled.'
Reduce menu delays
The Windows XP start menu incorporates a built-in delay between the time your mouse pointer lands on a menu and the time that menu unfolds. This can get annoying after a while. Using the registry, you can speed up menu response, speeding up your computing experience.
First, open REGEDIT and then navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\
Edit the MenuShowDelay value.
The default is 400; lower values will speed up the start menu.
Setting it to 0 is not a good idea unless you like 5 or 6 menus popping out at you every time your mouse pointer strays, but experiment to find your favourite setting.
Increase desktop graphic performance
If you have an older computer and are unhappy with the sluggishness of the new XP interface, or if you simply want XP to be as zippy as possible, you can increase the responsiveness of the desktop by disabling some of the graphical 'frills' that are packaged with the default XP settings.
To do this, right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.'
Choose the 'advanced' tab and under the 'performance' heading, hit 'settings.'
From here you can adjust the graphical settings of the XP interface. Choose 'adjust for best performance' to turn all the non-essential features off, or you can cherry-pick from the window below.
Make 'my computer' open faster
The Windows XP operating system automatically searches for attached and network printers and remote drives and folders each time you open 'my computer.' This can cause a considerable delay before you can actually see the icons.
If you find yourself using 'my computer' often and gritting your teeth at the delay, there is an easy way to speed things up.
Open 'My Computer.' Go to 'Tools\Folder Options...'Select the view tab and uncheck the 'Automatically search for network folders and printers' box. Click OK.
'My computer' will now open much faster.
Improving Windows XP boot speed: Tips
Eliminate unwanted programs from boot up
You will find that many of the programs you install on your system set portions of themselves to run automatically when you start up your computer. Each program that runs on startup not only consume system resources but also extends the length of time it takes your PC to fully boot.
Since it is generally unnecessary to have any programs running in the background (other than security software like virus-scanners or firewalls) disable your unwanted startup programs to increase your startup speed and conserve system resources.
The easiest way to go about this task is to use the MSCONFIG utility, which may be familiar to users of Windows 9x. This handy program contains a list of software which is set to start when you boot your PC. You can then easily disable and re-enable (if necessary) these items.
Go to 'start\run' and type 'msconfig' to access the utility.
The 'startup' tab in MSCONFIG provides access to several other applications that are started at boot up and are running in the background. By examining their Filenames and directories, you should be able to get a feeling for what is necessary and what is not.
Be aware than several viruses and worms have a habit of disguising themselves with authoritative sounding Windows system file names, such as the Win32.spybot.worm as MSCONFIG32.EXE. Leave these for now if you are not sure.
The next place you should go is 'start\programs\startup' which is a directory Windows XP uses to launch application shortcuts on boot-up. If you remove the shortcuts from this directory, the applications will not load on startup. This directory can also be a repository for various badness such as spyware and virus software, so if there are files here which are not shortcuts and you don't recognize them, you may wish to consider removing them anyways, as Windows will not place critical files in this directory.
Disable the XP loading screen
To speed up
your boot process slightly, disable the Windows XP loading screen. This can be accomplished easily by opening the MSCONFIG utility ('start\run and type msconfig'), selecting the 'boot.ini' tab and checking the /NOGUIBOOT option.
When you boot your system, you will see a black screen in between POST and the welcome screen from now on.
Eliminate unwanted fonts to increase boot speed
The Windows XP control panel contains a 'fonts' directory which holds all the fonts currently installed on your system. These can come from Windows itself or from an application such as Word.
Windows checks and loads these fonts during the startup process, therefore having a large amount of font files can cause performance to drag during startup. The simple solution for this (if you do not expect to use the majority of these fonts constantly) is to move the unnecessary fonts to a new directory elsewhere on the hard disk, preserving them in case they are needed, but preventing them from loading upon startup.
To do this:
Create a new directory called 'font backup' or something similar on your c: drive.
Go to 'start\control panel\fonts' and select all fonts (for now, we will be more selective later). Drag and drop all the fonts into the backup folder you just created. Things will get garbled for a moment, never fear. Windows XP will automatically re-install the base fonts that it needs to display text into the fonts folder in a second or two.
Now you have the bare minimum of fonts installed. Go through the backup folder and cherry pick the fonts that you are sure to use (like Times New Roman or Arial).
If you removed a large volume of fonts, your system should now boot faster.
Turn off BIOS disk detection
Most modern motherboards will attempt to detect any IDE devices, such as hard drives and CD drives, during the POST sequence each time the computer boots. By configuring the BIOS with the correct drive information, you can shave a few seconds off your boot time by avoiding this detection process.
To do this enter your system's BIOS setup screen.
Depending on your motherboard, you may have an IDE drive auto-detection menu. If you do, simply select it to automatically set your drives. If not, configure the drives through the 'standard CMOS settings' menu.
Note that some motherboard chipsets (like Nvidia's Nforce 2) do not allow this auto-detection to be disabled.
Disable unneeded devices in device manager
A quick fix that can make XP boot faster is to disable any unused devices in the Windows XP device manager. For example if you have a integrated sound card or video card that you have upgraded, or if you do not use a floppy drive on your system, it pays to disable these devices in device manager.
The same goes for extra network cards. Of course, the standard rule of thumb applies here: If you do not know what it is, leave it alone.
To disable unneeded devices in device manager:
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.' From the 'hardware' tab, select 'device manager.' Expand the various categories to locate unused devices. Right click the devices and select 'disable.'
Disable auto detection for empty IDE slots
Another quick trick for a faster boot up is to disable the auto detection that Windows XP uses to determine if there are IDE devices present in any of the IDE slots on the motherboard. More specifically, disable this feature on any empty slots to prevent the operating system wasting time and resources checking them.
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.' Go to the 'hardware' tab and select 'device manager' to open the device management window.
Expand 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' and highlight the 'primary IDE channel.' Right click the highlighted entry and select 'properties.' Go to the 'advanced settings' tab.
If either IDE slot on the controller is empty, the 'device type' dropdown box will be not grayed out. Set it to 'none' to disable auto detection of IDE devices on that particular slot.
Repeat the above steps for the 'secondary IDE controller.'
Note that if you wish to add a new IDE device, you will have to reset the 'device type' setting to 'autodetect' in order for Windows to use the new drive.
94. Reduce wait time after XP boots
A common performance problem with Windows XP is 'start lag,' in which the operating system boots up normally, the desktop is visible and usable, but programs will not start, and selecting icons and using the start menu are extremely slow. This can take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes to clear up, and can make using the operating system extremely frustrating, especially if you are in a hurry after the reboot.
This delay is generally caused by Windows XP's networking services looking for other computers and advertising their functions over the computer's network connections.
If this problem is driving you nuts, there is a way to reduce or eliminate the delay, though if you are attached to a home network, it will reduce your computer's functionality on that network.
If your computer is not attached to a home network:
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'manage.'
Expand 'services and applications' and select 'services' to open the services window.
Highlight the 'workstation' service, right click and select 'properties.'
Set the 'startup type' dropdown box to 'disabled.' Click 'ok.'
Note that you will need to re-enable the workstation service should you wish to network your PC in the future.
If your computer is part of a home network:
Go to 'start\control panel\network and internet connections\network connections.'
Right click your current network connection (should be 'local area connection' unless you have more than one network adaptor) and select 'properties.'
Uncheck the 'File and Print Sharing' box and press 'ok.'
Note that this will disable your computer's ability to share files and printers over the network, though it should not affect your ability to access such resources on another system.
Windows XP stores a couple of values in its registry which are responsible for determining how long to wait before shutting down (killing) open applications and services once the shutdown command has been given.
By editing these two settings and changing them to lower values, you can considerably decrease the amount of time that Windows XP needs to successfully shut itself down. The first part of this tweak deals with setting the amount of time Windows will take to kill open applications on shutdown.
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\'
Highlight the 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' (the default should be 20000).
Now highlight the 'HungAppTimeout' value
Set it to '1000' also.
96. Increasing shutdown speed by reducing wait times part 2
The second part of this tip changes the same settings, this time for all users on the system.
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop'
Highlight the 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' (the default should be 20000).
Now highlight the 'HungAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' also.
97. Increasing shutdown speed by reducing wait times part 3
In the third part of this tip, we will alter a second registry setting to decrease the amount of time Windows XP will wait before shutting down active services after receiving a shut down command.
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\'
Highlight the value 'WaitToKillServiceTimeout'
Change this value to '1000.'
This should help to considerably speed up the time windows XP takes to shut itself down.
98. Disable the Nvidia driver helper service
This service, included with recent NVIDIA Detonator driver packages, is of indeterminate function. Nothing is found on the NVIDIA site about it, and the only thing that people in the hardware community can seem to agree on is that it can considerably slow down boot up time and especially shutdown time.
Hence, if you do have an Nvidia video card, consider searching for and disabling this service. Chances are it will improve your shutdown times.
To disable the Nvidia Driver Helper service:
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'manage.'
Expand 'services and applications' and select 'services' to open the services window.
Locate and highlight the 'Nvidia Driver Helper' service. Right click it and select 'properties.'
Set the 'startup type' dropdown box to 'disabled.' Click 'ok.'
99. Auto kill tasks on shutdown
By default, Windows XP will prompt the user for input if there are one or more applications which have crashed or are not responding and it receives a shut down command. This halts the shutdown process entirely until the user approves the stopping of the non-responsive app.
By altering the registry slightly, Windows XP can be set to close crashed applications automatically. While this does not technically speed up the shut down process, it does streamline it, and ensure that the user will not give the shutdown command then get up and leave, only to find the PC still powered on because Windows never received input on what to do with a hung application.
To allow Windows XP to close non-responsive applications automatically upon shutdown:
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop'
Highlight the value 'AutoEndTasks.'
Change the value to '1'
XP will now be able to close hung applications without user input during the shutdown process.
Clean out the prefetch folder
Windows XP uses a system called 'prefetch' to organize and preload some of the data necessary for commonly used applications and files. A folder called prefetch is used to store the information the operating system needs to carry out this operation. After several months of use, the prefetch folder may become quite overloaded with older references to software and files that may no longer be in use.
It's a good idea to manually empty the older files out of the prefetch folder every few months or so. To do this: Navigate to 'c:\windows\prefetch' and delete all .PF files that are older than a week or two.
Enable clear type
Windows XP allows you to enable Microsoft's Clear Type font smoothing method. This blends the colours at the edges of type on screen, causing the letters to appear less jagged. While it is primarily intended to increase text quality for users of laptops and desktop PCs with LCD (flat panel) screens, it is worth experimenting with even if you use a traditional CRT.
Be advised that certain ClearType settings may appear rather blurry on a CRT monitor. If you use an LCD monitor on a laptop or desktop, you should definitely enable Cleartype as the increase in text quality is considerable.
To activate ClearType: Go to 'control panel\display' and select the 'appearance' tab.
Click the 'effects' button. Ensure that the 'use the following method to smooth the edges of screen fonts' box is checked and change the drop down box to 'ClearType.' Press 'OK.'
Once you have enabled cleartype, Microsoft has provided a web location where you can fine-tune your ClearType settings
Select 'No to all' when copying files in XP
Have you ever noticed that Windows XP gives you the 'yes to all' option in its file copy dialog box, useful if you would like to overwrite files in a directory with newer files of the same name from another location, for example, but fails to offer a 'no to all' option for doing the opposite. Kind of annoying if you think about it. What if you have a lengthy file copy operation partially finished, and wish to restart it? If you use the default options, you essentially have to recopy every file, since saying 'no' to each and every duplicate file will take just as long, and cause your mouse finger to fall off.
Fortunately, there is a way to tell your computer not to copy all duplicated files with a single command:
To do this, when the file copy dialog box appears asking you whether you wish to overwrite the first file, hold down SHIFT and click 'no.' This will automatically answer no for all following files. Note that it will ask you again for the first folder it encounters, so follow the procedure again to answer no automatically for all folders. This will dramatically speed up the file copying process.
Disable simple file sharing (XP Professional only)
Windows XP uses a new streamlined method of sharing files, called 'simple file sharing,' by default. This method is similar to the system used with Windows 9x/ME in that it does not check user credentials before allowing access to the share. The only option you can specify is whether remote users have the ability to change the share by adding editing or deleting files.
If you desire more security for your shares, you can revert to the higher security method of sharing files used in Windows 2000. This allows you to specify whether individual users on your system are allowed to access each share, and whether they can change the shared data or only read and copy it.
To implement this: Go to 'my computer.' Select 'tools' from the menu and click 'folder options.' Choose the 'view' tab. Find and uncheck the 'use simple file sharing' box. Click 'ok'.
Turn autocomplete off in IE
By default, Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6 will examine what you are typing in the address bar and pop up a list of similar entries you entered recently. It also stores entries you have made on web documents and forms, including usernames and passwords. While this can help speed up your web surfing experience, it can also potentially compromise your privacy if multiple people are using the same user account on your system. Fortunately, autocomplete can be easily disabled through the IE options menu.
To do this: From Internet Explorer, go to the Tools menu, then select 'options.' Choose the 'content' tab, then click the 'autocomplete' button.
Disable the various options as you see fit. You can also clear autocomplete's memory cache for web forms and passwords from this window.
top Windows messenger from running
Windows XP was the first of Microsoft's operating systems to include a built in instant messaging application, the Windows Messenger (a variant of Microsoft's popular MSN Messenger service). Unfortunately for those who don't use instant messaging services, the program is extremely difficult to avoid, especially if you use Outlook Express as your mail client.
By default, Windows Messenger is started each time windows starts, and will attempt to log you in as soon as you connect to the internet, and every time you start Outlook Express. Worse yet, it will reappear when you start Outlook Express even in you have uninstalled it. With a combination of steps, you can disable Windows Messenger, though it is not really possible to actually remove it from the computer.
Let's look at how to do this: To stop Windows Messenger from reappearing each time you start Outlook Express, open OE then go to 'tools\options' and uncheck the 'automatically log into Windows Messenger' box. Close OE, exit from Messenger and also close any browser windows.
Now you need to find out if you have Service Pack 1 for Windows XP installed. If you are not sure, right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.' In the first Window under the system heading, your version of Windows XP will be shown. If you do have service pack 1 installed, simply go to 'start\control panel\add/remove programs' to remove the messenger service.
If you do not, go to 'start\run' and type 'RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove' To remove the program.
Disable error reporting on program crash
By default, when a program crashes in Windows XP, A window pop up asking you if you wish to send an error report to Microsoft. This tends to add extra irritation to the already annoying fact of a program crash. To disable this behaviour, a slight registry change is in order:
Open REGEDIT
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting.
Edit the following value:
Value Name: DoReport
Value: 0 to disable the error report prompt.
Automatically close non-responsive programs
With a small registry tweak, Windows XP can be set to automatically close any program that 'stops responding' (crashes), eliminating the need for you to use the task manager to close down the offending software manually.
To do this:
Open REGEDIT and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\ Desktop
Modify the REG_SZ entry AutoEndTasks with a value of 1
Disable admin shares
Windows XP creates a hidden share for every drive on your computer. C$, D$, etc. These shares are accessible only to user accounts with administrative privileges, meaning any account that you created during the installation of windows XP.
Essentially, this means that anyone with a valid username and password from your system can get access to anything on your drives remotely. While this is the number one reason why you should always use good passwords on your Windows user accounts, this feature can be disabled with a little registry tinkering.
To disable the hidden shares:
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters
Add the Dword value 'AutoShareWks' with a value of '0'
Reduce Menu Delay to Speed up the Windows Desktop
Windows XP adds a slight delay between the time your mouse pointer rests on a menu button and the time the interface opens the menu. This is necessary to keep the pointer from activating every icon and menu it passes over, but the default delay time (0.4th of a second) can seem kind of lengthy after a while for us super-geeks. You can make the Windows interface seem much, much snappier just by lowering this menu delay time slightly with a simple registry edit.
To do this open Regedit and Navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\'
Double click the 'MenuShowDelay' value. The default value is 400, with lower values reducing the menu delay time. Experiment to see what suits you best. Note that setting this to zero is not a good idea, as it will activate every menu as your pointer passes over it, which will become really annoying, fast.
By default, Windows XP's system restore utility uses a mammoth 12% of each hard drive in your system. That's a lot of wasted space. By reducing this number, you reduce the amount of restore points system restore can create, but this does not adversely affect the functionality of the program. System restore will delete older restore points to make room for newer ones.
To decrease the amount of space system restore uses:
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties' then the 'system restore' tab.
The window below contains each of the hard disks installed on your system. Highlight each one in turn and press the 'settings' key.
Move the slider to adjust the amount of drive space used. I would recommend no more than 2-4% of each drive.
Editing registry settings without restarting
Once you have made a change to the registry in Windows XP, you generally have to reboot the computer in order for your change to take effect. This is not actually necessary, as with a simple set of commands, you can cause the system to reload the registry by stopping and restarting the 'Explorer' process.
To do this:
Save and close all open files you might be working on. For example, if you are writing a document, you'll need to close this before reloading the registry.
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the task manager.
In the 'processes' tab, highlight 'explorer.exe' and click 'end process.' All windows and desktop icons will disappear except for task manager.
Now go to the 'file' menu in task manager and select 'new task (run…).' Type 'explorer' into the text box. This will relaunch explorer and load your new registry settings without restarting.
Stop the 'last access update' stamp
Every time a directory on an NTFS drive is accessed by Windows XP, it updates that directory and every subdirectory with a time stamp to indicate the date of access. In folders with a lot of subdirectories, this can add considerable overhead to whatever your PC happens to be doing.
This process can be disabled through the registry:
Open REGEDIT and Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINES \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ FileSystem.
Create a new DWORD value called 'NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate' and set the value to '1'
Disable the 8.3 naming convention
Windows XP uses two different names for each and every file on your system. One is the name that you see in explorer and in the command prompt, and the other is an MSDOS compatible 8.3 (8 character title followed by a '.' Then three more characters to indicate the type of file) name. If you are intending to run DOS only software, or connect to pre-Windows 95 computers, you will need this second set of names. If not, you are simply wasting resources.
To disable the 8.3 naming convention:
Open REGEDIT
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
Change the value of the NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation key to '1'
Note that some popular programs, including Norton Antivirus, use the 8.3 naming convention.
Keep Windows operating data in main memory
Windows XP contains several tweakable memory settings in the registry, one of which is the DisablePagingExecutive registry key. This controls whether the operating system will transfer its essential driver
and kernel files to the 'virtual memory' (the page file on the hard disk). It defaults to allowing this.
Obviously, transferring portions of the system to hard drive
memory can considerably slow things down, and it appears that Windows XP does this periodically, whether or not the system is actually low on physical memory (RAM).
If you have 256MB of system memory or more, try this registry tweak to force Windows to keep its operating data in main memory:
Open Regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management.
Select the DisablePagingExecutive value to '1'
Disable performance counters
Like Windows 2000, Windows XP has a performance monitor utility (found in administrative tools) which can track several areas of your PC's performance. Everything from CPU use to hard drive access can be tracked and graphed. The information for this utility comes from several performance counter services which run behind the scenes, gathering data for the monitor.
If you have no use for this information, it's a good idea to disable the counters, since they take up system resources. Unfortunately, this is rather hard to do without the use of additional software. Fortunately, Microsoft has made the necessary software freely available on their website.
The Extensible Performance Counter List utility can be used to permanently disable these performance counters.
First download and install the utility, then run the Exctrlst.exe utility, found in 'c:\program files\resource kit\'
Select each line in the 'Extensible performance counters' window and clear the 'performance counters enabled' button below. You must do this separately for each counter. When done, just exit the utility.
Now if you load the performance monitor, you will see that it has no information available to it.
Move the page file from system drive
The page file is the area of a hard drive which Windows reserves for use as virtual memory when there is more data than can be stored in the actual physical memory of the system.
Page file access is extremely slow as compared to standard memory, since the hard disk, as a mechanical device, is slower to read and write information than the purely electronic memory. There are still some ways to optimize your page file use so it is a bit less of a burden on your system, however.
One of the best of these methods, provided you have two physical hard drives, is to move the page file off the disk which hosts the Windows system files. This ensures that Windows is not constantly accessing the disk for the system files as well as the page file.
To do this in Windows XP:
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.'
Select the 'advanced' tab.
Under 'performance' choose the 'settings' button.
Select the 'advanced' tab again and under 'virtual memory' select 'change.'
The virtual memory window allows you to select and change the allocation of hard disk space to be used as virtual memory for your system. For best performance; if you have two physical hard disks of roughly equivalent speed, remove the page file from your system disk (c:) and place it on the other drive.
Create a 'permanent' page file
Make the minimum size of the page file the same as the maximum size. This saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file, and does not lose you any extra space, since the 'maximum' size the page file can reach is the amount of hard disk space that is reserved by the OS.
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.'
Select the 'advanced' tab.
Under 'performance' choose the 'settings' button.
Select the 'advanced' tab again and under 'virtual memory' select 'change.'
Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the 'initial size' of the file the same as the 'maximum size' of the file.
Check your hard drives with scandisk
With time and heavy use, a myriad of data problems and physical problems can develop and mar the performance of your hard drive, not to mention cost you precious space. While defragmenting the drive can help restore much of the performance you might have lost, there are other issues such as lost clusters and bad sectors which the defragmentation utility cannot touch.
Because of this, it is a good idea to run XP's built in error checking utility on your drives once in a while. This utility will scan your disks for errors and optionally attempt to correct them.
Open 'my computer.'
Right click the hard disk you wish to check and select 'properties.'
Choose the 'tools' tab and under 'error checking' select the 'check now…' button.
Check both options. You will need to restart the computer to do the full disk check.
Your disk will be fully checked for errors upon reboot, but be aware that this can take quite a while.
Force XP to unload DLL files after closing a program
Dynamic Link Libraries, or DLLs, are files containing data or functions that Windows programs can call when needed by linking to them. Every piece of windows software will include instructions to the operating system as to which DLLs it will need to access, and XP will cache these particular files in memory for faster access.
The trouble is, Windows XP keeps these DLLs cached after the relevant program has closed, wasting memory space. While DLLs are generally tiny, enough of them can make a dent, so it's worthwhile to implement this registry tweak, which will force Windows XP to unload DLLs used by a specific program when that program halts.
To do this, first run REGEDIT.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer.
reate a new key named 'AlwaysUnloadDLL' and set the default value to equal '1.'
Thaw out your desktop
Every version of Windows has suffered from occasional 'desktop freezing.' You know the symptoms... You tell Windows to do something it doesn't like and everything except your mouse pointer slows to a c-r-a-w-l. You can open the start menu but applications won't load or close. Very frustrating.
Fortunately there can be a cure for desktop freeze, at least in Windows 2000 and XP, and it's an easy one. First, save any data you are working on, the press CRTL + ALT + DEL to bring up the task manager.
Select the 'processes' tab and highlight 'explorer.exe' then click 'end process'.
Without exiting from task manager, click 'file\New Task' and type 'explorer.exe.'
You should find that your computer has thawed itself out again.
Perform a manual Application and Boot file Defrag
Windows XP has a feature which optimizes application and operating system boot times by moving the relevant files to the outer edges of the hard drive for faster disk access. This defragmentation process is actually scheduled to take place automatically every three days or so, but it can also be activated manually. Depending on your system, this can give a slight performance boost to data access from the affected drive.
Open command prompt ('start/run' and type 'cmd').
Type 'defrag (drive letter): -b'
The process may take a few minutes to complete.
Windows XP's hibernation option allows a computer to copy its current memory contents to the hard drive before shutdown, allowing the system to resume operations exactly where it left off when it was powered down. To do this, it reserves space on the hard drive equal to the amount of physical memory present. If you do not plan to use the hibernation feature, you should ensure that it is disabled, or you are wasting disk space.
To disable hibernation:
Go to 'start/control panel/performance and maintenance/power options.'
Go to the 'hibernate' tab and uncheck the 'enable hibernation' check box.
Disable automatic sensing on network cards
This tweak may help your performance by reducing occasional 'slowdown' periods of heavy CPU access for no apparent reason. By default, Windows XP automatically assesses the speed of your network card(s) and sets them accordingly. Apparently this process occurs at regular intervals, which can cause your system to slow occasionally. To remedy this, you can manually set the 'media type' of your network card to the correct value.
Right click on 'my computer' and select the 'hardware' tab.
Open 'device manager.'
Find and highlight your network card(s). Right click it and Hit 'properties.'
Go to the 'advanced' tab and highlight 'media type.' In the 'value' drop down box, select the correct speed for your network card. Press 'ok.'
Do a Windows repair install
If you are having serious performance issues with your XP system, or are getting repeated crashes and/or error messages, it could well be a problem with Windows XP's system files. If one or more of these files has become corrupted, or if the hardware configuration of the computer has changed significantly since you first installed Windows XP, performing a repair install may well be the ticket to resolving your problems.
A repair installation re-writes all essential Windows XP system files and re-detects all hardware without affecting the registry, current desktop settings or user data stored on the hard drive. This is the only way short of a full installation that can recover from errors caused by installing a different motherboard in an XP system, for example.
To perform a repair installation:
Boot the system from your XP CD.
Choose the 'press enter to set up Windows XP now' option.
Press F8 to skip through the EULA (though if you haven't read it before, you should now. See our legal article for details as to why.
Now press R to begin a repair installation.
Your system will go through the entire XP install process, but will not attempt to replace any of your existing data. It will simply reinstall the vital system files, fixing any that are corrupted or missing.
Stop hard disks spinning down
By default, Windows XP spins down all hard drives after 20 minutes of inactivity to save power. This can cause significant delays when it is necessary to access the drives after this time. To increase performance and reduce wear and tear on your drives, disable this feature in Windows XP's power options.
Go to 'start/control panel/performance and maintenance/power options.'
Set the 'turn off hard disks' drop down box to 'never.' Click 'ok.'
Reduce recycling bin reserved space
By default, Windows XP reserves 10 percent of each hard drive to store deleted files in the recycling bin. This is a bit excessive. Actually it's a lot excessive, unless you habitually delete files a gigabyte in size or more. Fortunately, there is an easy way to reduce the amount of hard disk space that is reserved for the recycling bins on each drive.
Right click on the recycling bin and select 'properties.'
Choose the 'global' tab.
The slider shows the percentage of each drive that is reserved by the recycling bin. Reduce this to a more appropriate amount, like 2-3% or more depending on the size of your drives. The larger the drives, the smaller the number you should use. If you wish to configure each drive independently, check the 'configure drives independently' button and adjust the slider to the desired amount in each of your hard disk's tabs. The advantage to doing things this way instead of using the 'global' setting is that you can see the actual amount of space on each drive that is being reserved.
Note that files larger than the recycling bin's capacity on a given drive are deleted for good. Windows XP will warn you when this condition occurs.
Enable write caching on hard disks
If it is not already selected, enabling the hard drive write-back cache setting on each of your hard drives can improve their performance by making the transferring of data between the drive and the memory more efficient. The only reasons not to enable this setting would be if the drive in question is in a hot-swappable drive rack, or if you expect your PC to be shut down incorrectly (I.E. not through the windows shutdown procedure) often.
To enable write caching right click on my computer and select 'properties.'
Select the hardware tab, then 'device manager.' From the device manager window, expand 'disk drives' and highlight your hard disk. Select 'properties' then the 'policies' tab.
Check the 'enable write caching on the disk' box.
Repeat the above steps for all hard drives in your system.
Turn off the indexing service
Windows XP includes a new feature called 'indexing' which constantly creates and updates an index of files in your PC. This index is mainly used for speeding up file searches. The indexing feature is largely useless unless you find yourself using file search a lot, and it sucks up system resources, so it is recommended that you disable it for performance purposes.
To turn off file indexing go to Control Panel\Add/Remove Programs\Windows Components. and uncheck 'Indexing Service.'
Fix the refresh rate for 3D games
Windows XP, like Windows 2000 before it, has a dirty secret. This secret is its tendency to drop the refresh rate of the screen down to 60Hz when playing full screen DirectX 3D games. So while you might not be aware of it, there is a good chance that you are playing your favourite games at only 60Hz, increasing eyestrain and capping your frames per second at 60 unless you have VSYNC disabled (see the tip below). Fortunately, the newer versions of both the ATI and Nvidia drivers come with a utility that can override this refresh rate limitation.
To override the DirectX refresh rate with an ATI video card:
Go to 'start\control panel\display' and select the 'settings' tab then hit 'advanced.
Select the ATI tab called 'displays' then click the 'monitor' button below
Set the 'refresh rate override' dropdown box to your preferred refresh rate, or 'same as desktop.' Hit 'ok.'
To override the DirectX refresh rate with an Nvidia video card:
Go to 'start\control panel\display' and select the 'settings' tab then hit 'advanced.
Select the tab that has your video card's name on it to go to the Nvidia driver settings.
Select the 'refresh rate overrides' setting.
Choose the resolutions that you commonly play games in (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024)and double click the 'default' to open a drop down box. Select your desired refresh rate for that resolution.
Network and Internet speed tweaks
Increase maximum number of simultaneous connection in Internet Explorer
By default, Internet Explorer 6 allows only two simultaneous server connections, which is fine for normal use, but can bog down when you are connecting to web pages with lots of graphical content. By increasing the number of possible connections, you can use your Internet bandwidth more efficiently, and load complex web pages
faster.
To increase IE maximum connections:
Start REGEDIT.
Navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings'
Add the following two DWORD entries:
'MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server' value equals '0000000a'
'MaxConnectionsPerServer' value equals '0000000a'
Exit and reboot.
Increase DNS cache size
As written above, Windows XP uses a DNS cache to store recently visited Internet addresses. This cache is referred to before a request is sent out over the Internet when the user requests a web page address. If the IP address corresponding to the web address is in the cache, that address gets used, saving time. If it is not, your computer needs to find out the correct IP address by asking a DNS server over the Internet.
Items are kept in the cache for a finite amount of time and are constantly bumped to make room for more recent addresses. By increasing the size of the DNS cache, you can increase the speed of your web browsing, especially if you regularly check the same web pages.
To increase the size of the DNS cache, open REGEDIT and navigate to; 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters'
Create the following DWORD values:
CacheHashTableBucketSize = 1
CacheHashTableSize = 180
MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit = ff00
MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit = 12d
Exit and restart.
Disable DHCP with DSL connections
If you use a DSL modem to connect to the Internet, and you dial the connection directly from your computer, you may notice a rather long delay between the time the Windows desktop appears when booting up and when you can actually dial your connection. This delay can sometimes be up to two or three minutes, and can be extremely frustrating since it tends to lag other applications as well. The source of this delay is Windows XP attempting to locate an IP address for the network adaptor you are using to connect to the DSL modem.
This only occurs if the adaptor in question is set to 'obtain an IP address automatically' meaning Windows will actively seek to find an IP address for that adaptor from an outside source before assigning it one of its own range of addresses.
You can halt this behavior by simply assigning the network adaptor an IP address manually. It doesn't matter which IP address, as long as it is in one of the private address ranges (like 192.168.xxx.xxx). This will not effect your Internet connection, as the DSL modem and the adaptor form a separate 'virtual' connection which is assigned an IP address by your Internet service provider.
To assign your network card a manual (static) IP address:
Right click on 'my network places' in the start menu and hit 'properties.'
Highlight the network adaptor that is connected to your modem. If you have only one network adaptor, this will be 'local area connection.' Right click and select 'properties.'
Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click 'properties.'
Check 'use the following IP address' then in the 'IP address:' field, enter '192.168.5. (Pick a number between 1 and 254)' Enter '255.255.255.0' in the 'subnet mask:' field. Click 'ok.'
The next time you reboot, the delay should be gone, and you will be able to access your connection right away.
Do not cache failed DNS entries
By default, Windows XP will cache the IP addresses connected to DNS names (such as website addresses) as they are entered into your browser. This speeds up subsequent visits to the same addresses because the system does not have to search for the IP address that the DNS name represents.
This is good for Internet performance as a whole, but it does have a downside. If you type in a valid URL that is not functioning at that point in time, Windows will cache the unsuccessful result, meaning that all attempts to access that address may fail until the failed entry is gone from the cache. This takes about 5 minutes.
You can prevent Windows XP from caching unsuccessful DNS lookups by creating three new registry values.
To do this open REGEDIT and navigate to: 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters'
Create the following DWORD values:
NegativeCacheTime= 0
NetFailureCacheTime= 0
NegativeSOACacheTime= 0
Reboot for the changes to take effect.
Get a faster network connection to Windows 9x/ME computers
When a Windows XP system attempts to connect to network shares on a remote windows 9x/ME computer, it takes a (considerable) extra amount of time to check the list of scheduled tasks and enabled printers on that system. This can make connecting to such systems extremely tedious due to the long initial delay.
Fortunately, deleting a couple of registry entries will disable this 'feature.'
To do this open REGEDIT and navigate to;
'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace'
Delete the following sub-keys:
To disable Scheduled Task Checking delete:
'D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF'
To disable Printer Checking delete:
'2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D'
Exit REGEDIT and Reboot
Remove the QoS Bandwidth Reserve Setting
This one has been subject to several rumours and considerable debate. Windows XP's networking setup includes a QOS (Quality Of Service) provision which allows certain software (anything which has been written to take advantage of QOS in Windows) to reserve up to 20% of the bandwidth of a given network connection.
This does not mean that 20% of bandwidth is withheld by the operating system at all times, as is often stated. What it means is that certain programs can reserve this percentage of bandwidth for themselves when they are running.
If you don't like this idea and wish to disable QOS, ensuring that your Internet bandwidth is strictly 'first come, first served.' Here's a registry edit to do just that:
To do this open REGEDIT and navigate to;
'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Psched'
Data Type: DWORD Value // Value Name: NonBestEffortLimit
Setting for Value Data: [Enter as a Percentage / Default Value = 20]
Exit Registry and Reboot
Disable error reporting
To make for a smoother computing experience, disable the error-reporting feature in windows XP. This will prevent error boxes popping up after application crashes, and upon restarting Windows after a fatal crash.
To disable error reporting right click on 'my computer' and select 'manage.'
Expand 'services and applications' and select 'services' to open the services window.
Highlight the 'error reporting service,' right click it and select 'properties.'
In the 'startup type' dropdown box, choose 'disabled.'
Reduce menu delays
The Windows XP start menu incorporates a built-in delay between the time your mouse pointer lands on a menu and the time that menu unfolds. This can get annoying after a while. Using the registry, you can speed up menu response, speeding up your computing experience.
First, open REGEDIT and then navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\
Edit the MenuShowDelay value.
The default is 400; lower values will speed up the start menu.
Setting it to 0 is not a good idea unless you like 5 or 6 menus popping out at you every time your mouse pointer strays, but experiment to find your favourite setting.
Increase desktop graphic performance
If you have an older computer and are unhappy with the sluggishness of the new XP interface, or if you simply want XP to be as zippy as possible, you can increase the responsiveness of the desktop by disabling some of the graphical 'frills' that are packaged with the default XP settings.
To do this, right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.'
Choose the 'advanced' tab and under the 'performance' heading, hit 'settings.'
From here you can adjust the graphical settings of the XP interface. Choose 'adjust for best performance' to turn all the non-essential features off, or you can cherry-pick from the window below.
Make 'my computer' open faster
The Windows XP operating system automatically searches for attached and network printers and remote drives and folders each time you open 'my computer.' This can cause a considerable delay before you can actually see the icons.
If you find yourself using 'my computer' often and gritting your teeth at the delay, there is an easy way to speed things up.
Open 'My Computer.' Go to 'Tools\Folder Options...'Select the view tab and uncheck the 'Automatically search for network folders and printers' box. Click OK.
'My computer' will now open much faster.
Improving Windows XP boot speed: Tips
Eliminate unwanted programs from boot up
You will find that many of the programs you install on your system set portions of themselves to run automatically when you start up your computer. Each program that runs on startup not only consume system resources but also extends the length of time it takes your PC to fully boot.
Since it is generally unnecessary to have any programs running in the background (other than security software like virus-scanners or firewalls) disable your unwanted startup programs to increase your startup speed and conserve system resources.
The easiest way to go about this task is to use the MSCONFIG utility, which may be familiar to users of Windows 9x. This handy program contains a list of software which is set to start when you boot your PC. You can then easily disable and re-enable (if necessary) these items.
Go to 'start\run' and type 'msconfig' to access the utility.
The 'startup' tab in MSCONFIG provides access to several other applications that are started at boot up and are running in the background. By examining their Filenames and directories, you should be able to get a feeling for what is necessary and what is not.
Be aware than several viruses and worms have a habit of disguising themselves with authoritative sounding Windows system file names, such as the Win32.spybot.worm as MSCONFIG32.EXE. Leave these for now if you are not sure.
The next place you should go is 'start\programs\startup' which is a directory Windows XP uses to launch application shortcuts on boot-up. If you remove the shortcuts from this directory, the applications will not load on startup. This directory can also be a repository for various badness such as spyware and virus software, so if there are files here which are not shortcuts and you don't recognize them, you may wish to consider removing them anyways, as Windows will not place critical files in this directory.
Disable the XP loading screen
To speed up
your boot process slightly, disable the Windows XP loading screen. This can be accomplished easily by opening the MSCONFIG utility ('start\run and type msconfig'), selecting the 'boot.ini' tab and checking the /NOGUIBOOT option.
When you boot your system, you will see a black screen in between POST and the welcome screen from now on.
Eliminate unwanted fonts to increase boot speed
The Windows XP control panel contains a 'fonts' directory which holds all the fonts currently installed on your system. These can come from Windows itself or from an application such as Word.
Windows checks and loads these fonts during the startup process, therefore having a large amount of font files can cause performance to drag during startup. The simple solution for this (if you do not expect to use the majority of these fonts constantly) is to move the unnecessary fonts to a new directory elsewhere on the hard disk, preserving them in case they are needed, but preventing them from loading upon startup.
To do this:
Create a new directory called 'font backup' or something similar on your c: drive.
Go to 'start\control panel\fonts' and select all fonts (for now, we will be more selective later). Drag and drop all the fonts into the backup folder you just created. Things will get garbled for a moment, never fear. Windows XP will automatically re-install the base fonts that it needs to display text into the fonts folder in a second or two.
Now you have the bare minimum of fonts installed. Go through the backup folder and cherry pick the fonts that you are sure to use (like Times New Roman or Arial).
If you removed a large volume of fonts, your system should now boot faster.
Turn off BIOS disk detection
Most modern motherboards will attempt to detect any IDE devices, such as hard drives and CD drives, during the POST sequence each time the computer boots. By configuring the BIOS with the correct drive information, you can shave a few seconds off your boot time by avoiding this detection process.
To do this enter your system's BIOS setup screen.
Depending on your motherboard, you may have an IDE drive auto-detection menu. If you do, simply select it to automatically set your drives. If not, configure the drives through the 'standard CMOS settings' menu.
Note that some motherboard chipsets (like Nvidia's Nforce 2) do not allow this auto-detection to be disabled.
Disable unneeded devices in device manager
A quick fix that can make XP boot faster is to disable any unused devices in the Windows XP device manager. For example if you have a integrated sound card or video card that you have upgraded, or if you do not use a floppy drive on your system, it pays to disable these devices in device manager.
The same goes for extra network cards. Of course, the standard rule of thumb applies here: If you do not know what it is, leave it alone.
To disable unneeded devices in device manager:
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.' From the 'hardware' tab, select 'device manager.' Expand the various categories to locate unused devices. Right click the devices and select 'disable.'
Disable auto detection for empty IDE slots
Another quick trick for a faster boot up is to disable the auto detection that Windows XP uses to determine if there are IDE devices present in any of the IDE slots on the motherboard. More specifically, disable this feature on any empty slots to prevent the operating system wasting time and resources checking them.
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.' Go to the 'hardware' tab and select 'device manager' to open the device management window.
Expand 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' and highlight the 'primary IDE channel.' Right click the highlighted entry and select 'properties.' Go to the 'advanced settings' tab.
If either IDE slot on the controller is empty, the 'device type' dropdown box will be not grayed out. Set it to 'none' to disable auto detection of IDE devices on that particular slot.
Repeat the above steps for the 'secondary IDE controller.'
Note that if you wish to add a new IDE device, you will have to reset the 'device type' setting to 'autodetect' in order for Windows to use the new drive.
94. Reduce wait time after XP boots
A common performance problem with Windows XP is 'start lag,' in which the operating system boots up normally, the desktop is visible and usable, but programs will not start, and selecting icons and using the start menu are extremely slow. This can take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes to clear up, and can make using the operating system extremely frustrating, especially if you are in a hurry after the reboot.
This delay is generally caused by Windows XP's networking services looking for other computers and advertising their functions over the computer's network connections.
If this problem is driving you nuts, there is a way to reduce or eliminate the delay, though if you are attached to a home network, it will reduce your computer's functionality on that network.
If your computer is not attached to a home network:
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'manage.'
Expand 'services and applications' and select 'services' to open the services window.
Highlight the 'workstation' service, right click and select 'properties.'
Set the 'startup type' dropdown box to 'disabled.' Click 'ok.'
Note that you will need to re-enable the workstation service should you wish to network your PC in the future.
If your computer is part of a home network:
Go to 'start\control panel\network and internet connections\network connections.'
Right click your current network connection (should be 'local area connection' unless you have more than one network adaptor) and select 'properties.'
Uncheck the 'File and Print Sharing' box and press 'ok.'
Note that this will disable your computer's ability to share files and printers over the network, though it should not affect your ability to access such resources on another system.
Windows XP stores a couple of values in its registry which are responsible for determining how long to wait before shutting down (killing) open applications and services once the shutdown command has been given.
By editing these two settings and changing them to lower values, you can considerably decrease the amount of time that Windows XP needs to successfully shut itself down. The first part of this tweak deals with setting the amount of time Windows will take to kill open applications on shutdown.
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\'
Highlight the 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' (the default should be 20000).
Now highlight the 'HungAppTimeout' value
Set it to '1000' also.
96. Increasing shutdown speed by reducing wait times part 2
The second part of this tip changes the same settings, this time for all users on the system.
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop'
Highlight the 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' (the default should be 20000).
Now highlight the 'HungAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' also.
97. Increasing shutdown speed by reducing wait times part 3
In the third part of this tip, we will alter a second registry setting to decrease the amount of time Windows XP will wait before shutting down active services after receiving a shut down command.
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\'
Highlight the value 'WaitToKillServiceTimeout'
Change this value to '1000.'
This should help to considerably speed up the time windows XP takes to shut itself down.
98. Disable the Nvidia driver helper service
This service, included with recent NVIDIA Detonator driver packages, is of indeterminate function. Nothing is found on the NVIDIA site about it, and the only thing that people in the hardware community can seem to agree on is that it can considerably slow down boot up time and especially shutdown time.
Hence, if you do have an Nvidia video card, consider searching for and disabling this service. Chances are it will improve your shutdown times.
To disable the Nvidia Driver Helper service:
Right click on 'my computer' and select 'manage.'
Expand 'services and applications' and select 'services' to open the services window.
Locate and highlight the 'Nvidia Driver Helper' service. Right click it and select 'properties.'
Set the 'startup type' dropdown box to 'disabled.' Click 'ok.'
99. Auto kill tasks on shutdown
By default, Windows XP will prompt the user for input if there are one or more applications which have crashed or are not responding and it receives a shut down command. This halts the shutdown process entirely until the user approves the stopping of the non-responsive app.
By altering the registry slightly, Windows XP can be set to close crashed applications automatically. While this does not technically speed up the shut down process, it does streamline it, and ensure that the user will not give the shutdown command then get up and leave, only to find the PC still powered on because Windows never received input on what to do with a hung application.
To allow Windows XP to close non-responsive applications automatically upon shutdown:
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop'
Highlight the value 'AutoEndTasks.'
Change the value to '1'
XP will now be able to close hung applications without user input during the shutdown process.
Clean out the prefetch folder
Windows XP uses a system called 'prefetch' to organize and preload some of the data necessary for commonly used applications and files. A folder called prefetch is used to store the information the operating system needs to carry out this operation. After several months of use, the prefetch folder may become quite overloaded with older references to software and files that may no longer be in use.
It's a good idea to manually empty the older files out of the prefetch folder every few months or so. To do this: Navigate to 'c:\windows\prefetch' and delete all .PF files that are older than a week or two.
Enable clear type
Windows XP allows you to enable Microsoft's Clear Type font smoothing method. This blends the colours at the edges of type on screen, causing the letters to appear less jagged. While it is primarily intended to increase text quality for users of laptops and desktop PCs with LCD (flat panel) screens, it is worth experimenting with even if you use a traditional CRT.
Be advised that certain ClearType settings may appear rather blurry on a CRT monitor. If you use an LCD monitor on a laptop or desktop, you should definitely enable Cleartype as the increase in text quality is considerable.
To activate ClearType: Go to 'control panel\display' and select the 'appearance' tab.
Click the 'effects' button. Ensure that the 'use the following method to smooth the edges of screen fonts' box is checked and change the drop down box to 'ClearType.' Press 'OK.'
Once you have enabled cleartype, Microsoft has provided a web location where you can fine-tune your ClearType settings
Select 'No to all' when copying files in XP
Have you ever noticed that Windows XP gives you the 'yes to all' option in its file copy dialog box, useful if you would like to overwrite files in a directory with newer files of the same name from another location, for example, but fails to offer a 'no to all' option for doing the opposite. Kind of annoying if you think about it. What if you have a lengthy file copy operation partially finished, and wish to restart it? If you use the default options, you essentially have to recopy every file, since saying 'no' to each and every duplicate file will take just as long, and cause your mouse finger to fall off.
Fortunately, there is a way to tell your computer not to copy all duplicated files with a single command:
To do this, when the file copy dialog box appears asking you whether you wish to overwrite the first file, hold down SHIFT and click 'no.' This will automatically answer no for all following files. Note that it will ask you again for the first folder it encounters, so follow the procedure again to answer no automatically for all folders. This will dramatically speed up the file copying process.
Disable simple file sharing (XP Professional only)
Windows XP uses a new streamlined method of sharing files, called 'simple file sharing,' by default. This method is similar to the system used with Windows 9x/ME in that it does not check user credentials before allowing access to the share. The only option you can specify is whether remote users have the ability to change the share by adding editing or deleting files.
If you desire more security for your shares, you can revert to the higher security method of sharing files used in Windows 2000. This allows you to specify whether individual users on your system are allowed to access each share, and whether they can change the shared data or only read and copy it.
To implement this: Go to 'my computer.' Select 'tools' from the menu and click 'folder options.' Choose the 'view' tab. Find and uncheck the 'use simple file sharing' box. Click 'ok'.
Turn autocomplete off in IE
By default, Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6 will examine what you are typing in the address bar and pop up a list of similar entries you entered recently. It also stores entries you have made on web documents and forms, including usernames and passwords. While this can help speed up your web surfing experience, it can also potentially compromise your privacy if multiple people are using the same user account on your system. Fortunately, autocomplete can be easily disabled through the IE options menu.
To do this: From Internet Explorer, go to the Tools menu, then select 'options.' Choose the 'content' tab, then click the 'autocomplete' button.
Disable the various options as you see fit. You can also clear autocomplete's memory cache for web forms and passwords from this window.
top Windows messenger from running
Windows XP was the first of Microsoft's operating systems to include a built in instant messaging application, the Windows Messenger (a variant of Microsoft's popular MSN Messenger service). Unfortunately for those who don't use instant messaging services, the program is extremely difficult to avoid, especially if you use Outlook Express as your mail client.
By default, Windows Messenger is started each time windows starts, and will attempt to log you in as soon as you connect to the internet, and every time you start Outlook Express. Worse yet, it will reappear when you start Outlook Express even in you have uninstalled it. With a combination of steps, you can disable Windows Messenger, though it is not really possible to actually remove it from the computer.
Let's look at how to do this: To stop Windows Messenger from reappearing each time you start Outlook Express, open OE then go to 'tools\options' and uncheck the 'automatically log into Windows Messenger' box. Close OE, exit from Messenger and also close any browser windows.
Now you need to find out if you have Service Pack 1 for Windows XP installed. If you are not sure, right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties.' In the first Window under the system heading, your version of Windows XP will be shown. If you do have service pack 1 installed, simply go to 'start\control panel\add/remove programs' to remove the messenger service.
If you do not, go to 'start\run' and type 'RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove' To remove the program.
Disable error reporting on program crash
By default, when a program crashes in Windows XP, A window pop up asking you if you wish to send an error report to Microsoft. This tends to add extra irritation to the already annoying fact of a program crash. To disable this behaviour, a slight registry change is in order:
Open REGEDIT
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting.
Edit the following value:
Value Name: DoReport
Value: 0 to disable the error report prompt.
Automatically close non-responsive programs
With a small registry tweak, Windows XP can be set to automatically close any program that 'stops responding' (crashes), eliminating the need for you to use the task manager to close down the offending software manually.
To do this:
Open REGEDIT and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\ Desktop
Modify the REG_SZ entry AutoEndTasks with a value of 1
Disable admin shares
Windows XP creates a hidden share for every drive on your computer. C$, D$, etc. These shares are accessible only to user accounts with administrative privileges, meaning any account that you created during the installation of windows XP.
Essentially, this means that anyone with a valid username and password from your system can get access to anything on your drives remotely. While this is the number one reason why you should always use good passwords on your Windows user accounts, this feature can be disabled with a little registry tinkering.
To disable the hidden shares:
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters
Add the Dword value 'AutoShareWks' with a value of '0'
Reduce Menu Delay to Speed up the Windows Desktop
Windows XP adds a slight delay between the time your mouse pointer rests on a menu button and the time the interface opens the menu. This is necessary to keep the pointer from activating every icon and menu it passes over, but the default delay time (0.4th of a second) can seem kind of lengthy after a while for us super-geeks. You can make the Windows interface seem much, much snappier just by lowering this menu delay time slightly with a simple registry edit.
To do this open Regedit and Navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\'
Double click the 'MenuShowDelay' value. The default value is 400, with lower values reducing the menu delay time. Experiment to see what suits you best. Note that setting this to zero is not a good idea, as it will activate every menu as your pointer passes over it, which will become really annoying, fast.
Windows Vista Repair and Restore steps
Vista Restore Steps: -
Please perform the following steps
Insert the Windows Vista DVD, and then restart the computer
When you receive the following message, press any key:
Press any key boot to from CD or DVD.
3. Set the following preferences, and then click Next:
• Language to install
• Time and currency format
• Keyboard or input method
4. Click Repair your computer, select the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
5. Click System Restore, and then click Next.
6. Click the restore point that you want to use, and then click Next.
Note- Click a restore point that will return the computer to a state where the logon is successful. After you use the System Restore feature, reinstall any programs or updates that may be removed. You will not lose any personal documents. However, you may have to reinstall programs. You may also have to reset some personal settings.
7. Confirm the disks that you want to restore, and then click Next.
8. Click Finish, and then click Yes when you are prompted.
9. When the System Restore process is complete, click Restart to restart the computer.
10. After the computer restarts click Close to confirm that the System Restore process has finished successfully.
11.Use an appropriate method to log on. For example, log on by using an older password, or log on by using another computer account.
This will restore your system to a previous state; you can choose the restore point before you install the Free Registry Fix in your system.
Recover windows vista via Recovery Manager (HP pavilion dv-6 laptop): -
Please perform following steps-
Use the following steps to recover the computer starting from the Windows Vista desktop:
1. Turn off the computer.
2. Disconnect all connected devices (such as the Personal Media Drive, USB drives, printer, and fax), remove media from drives, and remove any recently added internal hardware. Do not disconnect the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and power cord.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. From the Windows desktop click Start, and then All Programs.
5. Click PC Help & Tools.
6. Click Recovery Manager.
The Recovery Manager Welcome screen appears.
7. Click Next.
8. On the Software Program
Re-installation screen select No, and then click next.
9. On the Hardware Re-installation screen select No, and then click next.
10. On the screen that prompts for Microsoft System Restore select No, and then click next.
11. The Recovery Manager prompts if you want to restore the computer to its original factory shipped condition. Click Yes, and then click Next.
The computer restarts and opens the Recovery Manager program.
12. Click Next.
13. On the Microsoft System Restore screen select No, and then click Next.
14. Confirm that you want to run a System Recovery by selecting Yes, and then click Next.
15. The Recovery Manager gives you the option of backing up your data files. Backing up your files is recommended. To back up your files select yes, and then click Next. Follow the onscreen instructions.
If you do not want to backup your files, select No, and then click Next .
16. After the System Recovery is complete, the computer restarts and continues into Windows setup. Complete the setup screens and wait until the computer finishes the setup. Then, turn off the computer, reconnect all peripheral devices, and turn on the computer.
17. Before using the computer, update and protect your computer. Reinstall any virus and security software that was installed before the System Recovery.
Reinstall any software applications that were added after purchasing the computer, and any files that were backed up.
If you have the windows vista repair disk:
(This should be your backup copy of Vista if you made one)
PLEASE NOTE: This Vista install CD can be run from within Vista. Just insert the CD once Vista has loaded up and go to install, go > Install Now > Upgrade.
1. Boot up with the Vista install disc
2. You should see a screen that says, "Windows is loading files"
3. After a few minutes you will get a language option. Select your language and hit next.
4. On the install screen select "Repair your computer"
5. Windows will find your copy of Vista on the machine
6. Select your copy of Vista and click next
7. You will now see the following options.
· Startup repair - This automatically fixes problems that are preventing Windows from starting
* System Restore - This will Restore Windows to an earlier point in time
* Windows Complete PC Restore - This will completely restore your entire PC - programs, system settings and files - from a back up that you have previously created (Available in Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions only)
* Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool - This checks your computer's memory hardware for errors
* Command Prompt
8. Assuming you are using this option because you were unable to boot to Windows Vista select the system Restore option and then select the date you would like to go back to. If your OS is fine you can always use the startup repair option.
Pre-Installed and OEM versions: (please check with your manufacturer fist. They may have replaced these tools with their own.
1. Turn your computer on and start pressing the F8 key. If you see the Windows Vista Logo you have gone too far and need to reboot and try again
2. You will get an advanced options screen. Select the "Repair your computer option" and hit enter.
3. Select your language and hit next.
4. Enter your user name and password and then next.
5. The recovery options should now appear.
6. In most cases just using the system restore to set your computer back will solve your issue. If this is not the case try the Startup repair option.
BACK
To create a restore point in Windows VISTA: -
1. Click on the Start Pearl, and type System Restore into the Search box. Then select System Restore from the Search Results.
2. Just look for Open System Protection.
3. Select the hard-drive(s) you wish to have System Restore enabled on. System Restore will automatically reserve up to 15% of free space on your hard drive and use it whenever necessary.
NOTE: -The next step would be to click on Create to create your first System Restore point. You will then be prompted to name your Restore Point. My suggestion would be to name the major change made to your system at that time. There’s no need to enter the date or time, since that will be recorded and displayed automatically. Then all you have to do is click on Create and you are set.
Restoring from a Restore Point: -
Open the Start Pearl
2) Type System Restore in the Search Bar and select it from the Search Results
3) Choose the Recommended or Different Restore Point
4) Click Finish
BACK
Start System Restore from command prompt
1. Restart your system and press F8 key during boot-process.
2. Now, select Safe Mode with command prompt option to start your system.
3. Now, type Start your computer in safe mode with command prompt. For more information, if you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
4. At the command prompt, type rstrui.exe, and then press ENTER.
Note
If you use System Restore when the computer is in safe mode, you cannot undo the restore operation. However, you can run System Restore again and choose a different restore point if one exists.
Contacts Open In Windows Explorer instead of Mail
Clicking "Contacts" in Windows Mail does open the Contacts folder using
Windows Explorer. The reason why you're unable to see the "New Contact",
"New Contact Group" buttons is due to incorrect template assigned for the
Contacts folder.
Please perform following steps to solve this problem.
1. Open the Contacts folder
2. Right-click an empty area in the folder, and choose Customize This
Folder...
3. In the folder type drop down box, select Contacts
4. Click OK.
VISTA .EXE PROBLEM: -
Please perform following steps to solve your problem-
1. Please click on Start/Run and type regedit.exe add click Ok to launch registry editor window.
2. Under registry editor window go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ FileExts \ .exe \ UserChoice
3.There will be a value named Progid in the right pane. The Progid data will contain the application's name .exe.
4. Right click on .exe and select modify.
5.Change its value to 0000 and click Ok.
6.Restart your system.
Have you lost your .EXE file extension association in Windows Vista?
Solution (only compatible with Windows Vista)
Here are some registry files that should be able to fix this problem. Download one of them and save it locally. Double click on the file and when asked, "Windows needs your permission to continue" "Registry Editor" it is to give permission to start regedit.exe. Click on Continue. Then the Registry Editor will warn you again and click on Yes to add or merge the content of the reg file to the registry. You need to be an administrator to apply these fixes.
Windows Vista exe fix.reg
Here is the content of the above file. Copy the three rows below to Notepad and save to a file with the file extension reg.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithList]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\UserChoice]
Windows Vista exe fix2.reg
Here is the content of the above file. Copy the five rows below to Notepad and save to a file with the file extension reg.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithProgids]
"exefile"=hex(0):
If the above ones does not help here is a more thorough one.
Windows Vista exe fix3.reg
And if nothing else works you can try this one.
Windows Vista exe fix4.reg
To see the change of the icons you might need to log out or restart the computer. But the file association should work directly.
If you want to reproduce the error save the below rows using Notepad to a .reg file.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithList]
"a"="AcroRd32.exe"
"MRUList"="a"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithProgids]
"exefile"=hex(0):
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\UserChoice]
"Progid"="Applications\\AcroRD32.exe"
If You Are Unable to Start a Program with an .exe File Extension in Windows XP take a look at this knowledge base article from Microsoft. In this case a virus is the cause of the problem.
When you attempt to start a program that has an .exe file extension, the program may not start, and you may receive one of the following error messages:
o Windows cannot find FILES32.VXD. This program is needed for opening files of type "Application".
o Path to program is not a valid Windows application
Your desktop may appear to be blank. Also, the problem occurs many times when you restart your computer. Even after an anti-virus program has indicated it has cleaned the virus, the registry entry described in the "Resolution" section of this article is still in the registry.
How do I... Change file extension associations in Windows Vista?
The Windows Vista tool you use to change file associations in located in the Control Panel under the Default Programs icon, as shown in Figure A.
Figure A
Control Panel
Oddly enough, searching the "association" in the Vista search tool off of the Start Menu returns no results -- at least for me.
Once on the Default Programs screen you have two choices for changing file associations:
1. Set your default programs
2. Associate a file type or protocol with a program
You can also change AutoPlay settings for CDs and DVDs for this screen, as well as set program access settings. (Figure B)
Figure B
Default Programs
The first selection on the Default Programs screen (Figure B) is Set Your Default Programs. On this screen of the tool, as shown in Figure C, you can select a program and either give it complete control as the default program for all file extensions it can handle or choose the file extensions you want individually. How the list of programs was formed for this tool is not explained, but a few programs are missing from the list. The one program that comes to mind almost immediately is Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Figure C
Set Default Programs
Clicking the Choose Defaults For This Program option on the Set Default Programs screen (Figure C) shows you a list of potential file extensions that can be associated with the chosen program (Figure D). From here, you can check additional file extensions you would like Windows Vista to associate with the program.
Figure D
Select extensions individually
The second selection on the Default Programs screen (Figure B) is Associate A File Type Or Protocol With A Program. On this screen of the tool, shown in Figure E, you get a very long list of file extensions, including a description and the name of their associated program if it is known. To modify the program associated with a particular extension, you select the extension and click the Change Program button.
Figure E
Set Associations
In the example shown in Figure F, I have chosen the .inf extension, which is currently associated with Notepad. From this screen, I can choose to change the association to another available program.
Figure F
Change an extension association
If another viable program is not listed on the screen in Figure F, you can browse your system for programs (Figure G). Note that it is generally not a good idea to associate a file extension with a program that is not capable of reading or otherwise acting on it.
Figure G
Browse programs
Once your file extensions are selected, you click Save and then OK to apply your changes to Windows Vista.
How do I... Change file extension associations in Windows Vista?
1. Click on Start, type control panel in the search menu.
2. Under control panel, double click on Default programs.
3. On the default programs screen you have two choices for changing file associations:
1.Set your default programs
2.Associate a file type or protocol with a program
1.Set your default programs
The first selection on the Default Programs screen is Set Your Default Programs.
This Program option on the Set Default Programs screen shows you a list of potential file extensions that can be associated with the chosen program.
From here, you can check additional file extensions you would like Windows Vista to associate with the program.
2.Associate a file type or protocol with a program
The second selection on the Default Programs screen (Figure B) is Associate A File Type Or Protocol With A Program.
On this screen you get a very long list of file extensions, including a description and the name of their associated program if it is known. To modify the program associated with a particular extension, you select the extension and click the Change Program button.
Once your file extensions are selected, you click Save and then OK to apply your changes to Windows Vista.
Please perform the following steps
Insert the Windows Vista DVD, and then restart the computer
When you receive the following message, press any key:
Press any key boot to from CD or DVD.
3. Set the following preferences, and then click Next:
• Language to install
• Time and currency format
• Keyboard or input method
4. Click Repair your computer, select the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
5. Click System Restore, and then click Next.
6. Click the restore point that you want to use, and then click Next.
Note- Click a restore point that will return the computer to a state where the logon is successful. After you use the System Restore feature, reinstall any programs or updates that may be removed. You will not lose any personal documents. However, you may have to reinstall programs. You may also have to reset some personal settings.
7. Confirm the disks that you want to restore, and then click Next.
8. Click Finish, and then click Yes when you are prompted.
9. When the System Restore process is complete, click Restart to restart the computer.
10. After the computer restarts click Close to confirm that the System Restore process has finished successfully.
11.Use an appropriate method to log on. For example, log on by using an older password, or log on by using another computer account.
This will restore your system to a previous state; you can choose the restore point before you install the Free Registry Fix in your system.
Recover windows vista via Recovery Manager (HP pavilion dv-6 laptop): -
Please perform following steps-
Use the following steps to recover the computer starting from the Windows Vista desktop:
1. Turn off the computer.
2. Disconnect all connected devices (such as the Personal Media Drive, USB drives, printer, and fax), remove media from drives, and remove any recently added internal hardware. Do not disconnect the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and power cord.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. From the Windows desktop click Start, and then All Programs.
5. Click PC Help & Tools.
6. Click Recovery Manager.
The Recovery Manager Welcome screen appears.
7. Click Next.
8. On the Software Program
Re-installation screen select No, and then click next.
9. On the Hardware Re-installation screen select No, and then click next.
10. On the screen that prompts for Microsoft System Restore select No, and then click next.
11. The Recovery Manager prompts if you want to restore the computer to its original factory shipped condition. Click Yes, and then click Next.
The computer restarts and opens the Recovery Manager program.
12. Click Next.
13. On the Microsoft System Restore screen select No, and then click Next.
14. Confirm that you want to run a System Recovery by selecting Yes, and then click Next.
15. The Recovery Manager gives you the option of backing up your data files. Backing up your files is recommended. To back up your files select yes, and then click Next. Follow the onscreen instructions.
If you do not want to backup your files, select No, and then click Next .
16. After the System Recovery is complete, the computer restarts and continues into Windows setup. Complete the setup screens and wait until the computer finishes the setup. Then, turn off the computer, reconnect all peripheral devices, and turn on the computer.
17. Before using the computer, update and protect your computer. Reinstall any virus and security software that was installed before the System Recovery.
Reinstall any software applications that were added after purchasing the computer, and any files that were backed up.
If you have the windows vista repair disk:
(This should be your backup copy of Vista if you made one)
PLEASE NOTE: This Vista install CD can be run from within Vista. Just insert the CD once Vista has loaded up and go to install, go > Install Now > Upgrade.
1. Boot up with the Vista install disc
2. You should see a screen that says, "Windows is loading files"
3. After a few minutes you will get a language option. Select your language and hit next.
4. On the install screen select "Repair your computer"
5. Windows will find your copy of Vista on the machine
6. Select your copy of Vista and click next
7. You will now see the following options.
· Startup repair - This automatically fixes problems that are preventing Windows from starting
* System Restore - This will Restore Windows to an earlier point in time
* Windows Complete PC Restore - This will completely restore your entire PC - programs, system settings and files - from a back up that you have previously created (Available in Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions only)
* Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool - This checks your computer's memory hardware for errors
* Command Prompt
8. Assuming you are using this option because you were unable to boot to Windows Vista select the system Restore option and then select the date you would like to go back to. If your OS is fine you can always use the startup repair option.
Pre-Installed and OEM versions: (please check with your manufacturer fist. They may have replaced these tools with their own.
1. Turn your computer on and start pressing the F8 key. If you see the Windows Vista Logo you have gone too far and need to reboot and try again
2. You will get an advanced options screen. Select the "Repair your computer option" and hit enter.
3. Select your language and hit next.
4. Enter your user name and password and then next.
5. The recovery options should now appear.
6. In most cases just using the system restore to set your computer back will solve your issue. If this is not the case try the Startup repair option.
BACK
To create a restore point in Windows VISTA: -
1. Click on the Start Pearl, and type System Restore into the Search box. Then select System Restore from the Search Results.
2. Just look for Open System Protection.
3. Select the hard-drive(s) you wish to have System Restore enabled on. System Restore will automatically reserve up to 15% of free space on your hard drive and use it whenever necessary.
NOTE: -The next step would be to click on Create to create your first System Restore point. You will then be prompted to name your Restore Point. My suggestion would be to name the major change made to your system at that time. There’s no need to enter the date or time, since that will be recorded and displayed automatically. Then all you have to do is click on Create and you are set.
Restoring from a Restore Point: -
Open the Start Pearl
2) Type System Restore in the Search Bar and select it from the Search Results
3) Choose the Recommended or Different Restore Point
4) Click Finish
BACK
Start System Restore from command prompt
1. Restart your system and press F8 key during boot-process.
2. Now, select Safe Mode with command prompt option to start your system.
3. Now, type Start your computer in safe mode with command prompt. For more information, if you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
4. At the command prompt, type rstrui.exe, and then press ENTER.
Note
If you use System Restore when the computer is in safe mode, you cannot undo the restore operation. However, you can run System Restore again and choose a different restore point if one exists.
Contacts Open In Windows Explorer instead of Mail
Clicking "Contacts" in Windows Mail does open the Contacts folder using
Windows Explorer. The reason why you're unable to see the "New Contact",
"New Contact Group" buttons is due to incorrect template assigned for the
Contacts folder.
Please perform following steps to solve this problem.
1. Open the Contacts folder
2. Right-click an empty area in the folder, and choose Customize This
Folder...
3. In the folder type drop down box, select Contacts
4. Click OK.
VISTA .EXE PROBLEM: -
Please perform following steps to solve your problem-
1. Please click on Start/Run and type regedit.exe add click Ok to launch registry editor window.
2. Under registry editor window go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ FileExts \ .exe \ UserChoice
3.There will be a value named Progid in the right pane. The Progid data will contain the application's name .exe.
4. Right click on .exe and select modify.
5.Change its value to 0000 and click Ok.
6.Restart your system.
Have you lost your .EXE file extension association in Windows Vista?
Solution (only compatible with Windows Vista)
Here are some registry files that should be able to fix this problem. Download one of them and save it locally. Double click on the file and when asked, "Windows needs your permission to continue" "Registry Editor" it is to give permission to start regedit.exe. Click on Continue. Then the Registry Editor will warn you again and click on Yes to add or merge the content of the reg file to the registry. You need to be an administrator to apply these fixes.
Windows Vista exe fix.reg
Here is the content of the above file. Copy the three rows below to Notepad and save to a file with the file extension reg.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithList]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\UserChoice]
Windows Vista exe fix2.reg
Here is the content of the above file. Copy the five rows below to Notepad and save to a file with the file extension reg.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithProgids]
"exefile"=hex(0):
If the above ones does not help here is a more thorough one.
Windows Vista exe fix3.reg
And if nothing else works you can try this one.
Windows Vista exe fix4.reg
To see the change of the icons you might need to log out or restart the computer. But the file association should work directly.
If you want to reproduce the error save the below rows using Notepad to a .reg file.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithList]
"a"="AcroRd32.exe"
"MRUList"="a"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithProgids]
"exefile"=hex(0):
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\UserChoice]
"Progid"="Applications\\AcroRD32.exe"
If You Are Unable to Start a Program with an .exe File Extension in Windows XP take a look at this knowledge base article from Microsoft. In this case a virus is the cause of the problem.
When you attempt to start a program that has an .exe file extension, the program may not start, and you may receive one of the following error messages:
o Windows cannot find FILES32.VXD. This program is needed for opening files of type "Application".
o Path to program is not a valid Windows application
Your desktop may appear to be blank. Also, the problem occurs many times when you restart your computer. Even after an anti-virus program has indicated it has cleaned the virus, the registry entry described in the "Resolution" section of this article is still in the registry.
How do I... Change file extension associations in Windows Vista?
The Windows Vista tool you use to change file associations in located in the Control Panel under the Default Programs icon, as shown in Figure A.
Figure A
Control Panel
Oddly enough, searching the "association" in the Vista search tool off of the Start Menu returns no results -- at least for me.
Once on the Default Programs screen you have two choices for changing file associations:
1. Set your default programs
2. Associate a file type or protocol with a program
You can also change AutoPlay settings for CDs and DVDs for this screen, as well as set program access settings. (Figure B)
Figure B
Default Programs
The first selection on the Default Programs screen (Figure B) is Set Your Default Programs. On this screen of the tool, as shown in Figure C, you can select a program and either give it complete control as the default program for all file extensions it can handle or choose the file extensions you want individually. How the list of programs was formed for this tool is not explained, but a few programs are missing from the list. The one program that comes to mind almost immediately is Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Figure C
Set Default Programs
Clicking the Choose Defaults For This Program option on the Set Default Programs screen (Figure C) shows you a list of potential file extensions that can be associated with the chosen program (Figure D). From here, you can check additional file extensions you would like Windows Vista to associate with the program.
Figure D
Select extensions individually
The second selection on the Default Programs screen (Figure B) is Associate A File Type Or Protocol With A Program. On this screen of the tool, shown in Figure E, you get a very long list of file extensions, including a description and the name of their associated program if it is known. To modify the program associated with a particular extension, you select the extension and click the Change Program button.
Figure E
Set Associations
In the example shown in Figure F, I have chosen the .inf extension, which is currently associated with Notepad. From this screen, I can choose to change the association to another available program.
Figure F
Change an extension association
If another viable program is not listed on the screen in Figure F, you can browse your system for programs (Figure G). Note that it is generally not a good idea to associate a file extension with a program that is not capable of reading or otherwise acting on it.
Figure G
Browse programs
Once your file extensions are selected, you click Save and then OK to apply your changes to Windows Vista.
How do I... Change file extension associations in Windows Vista?
1. Click on Start, type control panel in the search menu.
2. Under control panel, double click on Default programs.
3. On the default programs screen you have two choices for changing file associations:
1.Set your default programs
2.Associate a file type or protocol with a program
1.Set your default programs
The first selection on the Default Programs screen is Set Your Default Programs.
This Program option on the Set Default Programs screen shows you a list of potential file extensions that can be associated with the chosen program.
From here, you can check additional file extensions you would like Windows Vista to associate with the program.
2.Associate a file type or protocol with a program
The second selection on the Default Programs screen (Figure B) is Associate A File Type Or Protocol With A Program.
On this screen you get a very long list of file extensions, including a description and the name of their associated program if it is known. To modify the program associated with a particular extension, you select the extension and click the Change Program button.
Once your file extensions are selected, you click Save and then OK to apply your changes to Windows Vista.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
How to turn off Disk Defragmentation automatically, Turn off windows Hibernation and turn off System Restore in windows operating system.
Turn off Automatic Disk Defragmentation
Windows Vista and its always-on defragment feature isn’t really that necessary and can cause system slow down. Just remember to run a defrag manually every week or so.To disable this:
- Click Start then Computer
- Right Click the C: Drive
- Click on Properties
- Select the Tools Tab
- Click on Defragment Now
- Uncheck Run on a schedule
Turn off Windows Hibernation
Windows hibernation background services can use a large amount of system resources. If you don’t use the Hibernate feature on a regular basis you may want to disable it to give Vista a performance boost.To disable Hibernation:
- Select the Control Panel then Power Options
- Click Change Plan Settings
- Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
- Expand the Sleep selection
- Expand the Hibernate After selection
- Crank the selector down to zero
Turn off System Restore
Analysis and restore point creation by Windows Vista can eat a fair amount of system resources. Disabling this service will obviously mean the system restore feature in Vista will not be available in the event of a system crash. Change this at your own risk.To disable this service:
- Control Panel > System
- Click System Protection on the left panel
- Uncheck the main system drive BACK
- Agree to the confirmation
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