Here's the easisest xp tweak you'll ever see, and it's something you must do for xp to run correctly...
everybody that runs xp, must, every so often, do nothing.
tha'ts right...for those of you that turn your box off as soon as you're finished with it...shame...xp's a women, and wants you to at least make believe you're not gonna leave right after you have your way...
The Dynamic Nature of Windows XP
Windows XP offers excellent overall performance—in part because it dynamically adjusts itself based upon individual use. It needs time on it's own to do this.
This article addresses some of the dynamic tuning capabilities of Windows XP, and outlines steps you should take in order to get consistent benchmark results. It provides information on how to avoid System Restore checkpoint activity during benchmark runs.
Introduction
The Windows XP operating system achieves excellent performance in part by dynamic adjustments that it makes in response to how a system is utilized. In particular, many adjustments are made when the system first runs following setup and when newly installed applications are used for the first time. These adjustments greatly influence the performance of the system. Unfortunately, the dynamic nature of Windows XP can make benchmarking more of challenge than with previous Windows versions.
Windows XP is a dynamic, self-tuning operating system, and has built-in features that support this both at setup and during continued use. As a consequence, the system’s performance after having the opportunity to tune itself will be different from its performance when it boots up for the first time or when it executes a particular application for the first time.
Disk Efficiency Optimizations
The physical placement, or layout, of files on the disk can have a considerable effect on performance, up to 10% for normal use. Windows XP observes file usage patterns as the system is used. If deemed necessary, Windows XP will adjust the file layout at three day intervals. By placing files that are referenced together near each other on the disk, and towards the more dense outer edge of the disk, seek distances are reduced which results in shorter seek times and improved performance. The performance benefit of placing files becomes increasing important as the size of the disk increases.
The files moved for more efficient layout are also kept contiguous. Windows XP does not intentionally fragment files as was done by some earlier versions of Windows.
Even though the disk layout optimization does insure some files will be defragmented, it is not a complete substitute for fully defragmenting the disk. Users should still defragment their drives regularly. The built-in Windows XP defragmentation program understands the file layout directives and will position the files if they aren’t already placed properly. However, it will not update the layout file with new information gathered in the last three days. Without manual intervention, the layout file, %windir%\Prefetch\Layout.ini, will only be updated once every three days. The contents of the Layout.ini file can be viewed with Notepad.Boot Prefetching
Windows XP speeds up system boot by observing the code and data needed each time the system is booted and prefetching the necessary file contents early in the boot process. This prefetching is not done until the third boot of the system, when sufficient information is available to make the prefetching most effective. The files observed during system boot will be used in the disk layout process mentioned above. Additional information on the prefetcher and the Windows XP boot process can be found at Fast Boot/Fast Resume for the Windows Platform.
Application-Launch Prefetching
Windows XP also uses prefetching when launching applications. The files and the contents of the files accessed by each new process are observed and recorded. No prefetching can be done for the first launch of an application, so first launches are often considerably slower than subsequent launches. About 85% to 90% of the improvement is realized after just one launch of an application, with the remaining speed improvement coming after the system has had an opportunity to adjust the disk layout with information specific to this application
in other words, every once in a while, you gotta let xp do it's thing on it's own....according to this ms document, optimally, that'll be every three days or so
