Encyclopedia of XP tweaks

Perris Calderon

dealer
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edit

I changed the name back to the original title...better
toward the end of this Thread, ramanuman and zaloos have spent a good portion of their time creating a zip to download...excellant.

I recommend reading through this thread anyway, as it's tons of fun, plus there are a few great and easy ideas that never made it into the zip...enjoy



First, and most important let me remind everybody, make backups before you try any adjustments to your OS, or registry, ie, please create restore points or registry backups before you try each one of these ideas.

MY PERSONAL ORDER, FOR TURBO CHARGING MY OS,
AFTER REFORMAT
1)

a restart button on your desktop:

1. Create a shortcut (Right-click on desktop, select New > Shortcut).

2. For location, type the following:

shutdown -r -t 0

3. Click Next, enter a name for the shortcut ("Restart" is appropriate), and click Fini

2) Since I use the system restore as my registry backup, and I backup often, I put the system restore shortcut on my desktop also, the target is %SystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe

3) I love device manager on my desktop, target %windir%\system32\mmc.exe c:\windows\system32\devmgmt.msc
I’m also in the registry a lot, so that’s on the desktop too, target C:\WINDOWS\regedit.exe

4) I turn off all the startup programs possible, in msconfig.

5) I turn off all the services possible; go from administrative tools, to services, turn to manual or disable whatever you can, go to www.blkviper.com for ideas on what you can safely turn off.

6) I increase the icon cache, On XP the Max Cached Icons is set too low,
to changed this got to regedit,HKEY_LOCAL_
MACHINE-Software-Microsoft-Windows-currentversion-Explorer

in the right window, double click max cached icons, type the value 8192.
If you don't have this, open up your registry and make your way here:-
HKEY_LOCAL_
MACHINE / Software / Microsoft / Windows /currentversion / Explorer
in the right side, right-click a blank area and choose "New" "String Value" and call it
Max Cached Icons
Double-click this new Key and type the value
8192
into the box
P.S.
If you want to try the DWORD version, follow the above but instead of making a new String Value, you should make a "New" "DWORD Value" and call it
MaxCachedIcons
and give it a Value of
2000 in Hexadecimal, or
8192 in Decimal.
then reboot you should see a big speed boost icon load, and opening folders.

7)I can’t stand logging in, I do it automatically,
Enabling/Disabling Automatic Logon
1. Click Start on the Windows taskbar, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type "control userpasswords2" (without quotes),
and then click OK.
3. In the dialog box that appears,
You'll see: "Users must enter a user name and password to use
this computer" check box.
Enabled will require users to logon, disabling will make XP
automatically logon to the Administrator account.

I have updated the pagefile information with an instructional by TwoZigzagColt45

First, we need to dispel anything you've heard about fragmentation on the Pagefile.

To make a long explanation as short as possible, it does not happen, and fragmentation of the Pagefile is not an issue, even when expansion is enabled...disregard any advice that might recommend a static Pagefile...it is a counterproductive idea in XP...what is a good idea though is to defrag the pagefile with the free pagefile defrag program posted on the free programs thread.

once the pagefile is defarged, ( do this after any adjustments you make manually), the pagefile will remain defraggmented forever

Settings;

1) If you have more than 256meg RAM – do nothing, let XP manage the Pagefile.

2) 256meg RAM or less – increase the initial minimum to 512meg, it is very important for you to leave a maximum value to about 4x your ram, or whatever the OS allows.

Placement for speed;

1) Single disk with no partitions is the quickest for most users.

2) For Power Users who use ram intensive programs, you can create a Partition purely for the Pagefile. This will allow for quickest expansion if your needs ever exceed what you've estimated for your use.

Machines with Two disks sharing the same controller;

1) The Pagefile is accessed much quicker if it’s on the second disk

Machines with Two or more disks each on their own ide controller;

1) The quickest place for the Pagefile is in a separate disk & controller...In this situation the pf can be split across disks
& both page files can be accessed simultaneously with out bottlenecking.

Ide1 Disk 1 - XP & apps
Ide2 Disk 2 - ½ Pagefile
Ide3 Disk 3 – ½ Pagefile

2z

to get to the pagefile, hit the windows key+break, from the window that posps up, hit advanced, performance, hit settings, here hit advanced, and here hit, if you are going to increase the pf, hit virtual memory.


9) I eradicate the messenger, the easiest method; Click Start / Run, and paste

RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

Press ENTER
Restart Windows

10) of course, I disable balloon tips; from regedit;
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
then set the value of 'EnableBalloonTips' to 0.

Or if you have TweakUI, dissable tips is in that program

FEEL FREE TO POST YOUR OWN TURBOCHARGE IDEAS, I WANT TO TRY EVERY TWEAK I CAN GET MY HANDS ONupdate
 
Nice
thumb.gif
 
Another tweak I use is setting the reserved bandwidth to 0. It makes my internet go at way faster speeds. A must for net surfers!
 
As my os will always be a work in progress,everyones will help with whatever ideas they have.

for my browser,I click on tools, internet options,general, settings,if you have a fast connection, set the temp files to 80, you might have to type that in
 
Alot of people think system restore is a resource hog, me too, so lower the disc space rewerved for it; go to system restore, ( use the desktop shortcut,hehe), then go to system restore settings on the right, lower disc usage to around 8%
 
good job dealer....cut n paste jobber for notepad and went right into my xp folder...but what's this back up thing your talkin about.:D live life to the fullest...
 
DarkSiege, if you are talking about the "QOS tweak" - sorry, but it's a myth. It does absolutely nothing for your connection. But the perception of speed is no less important than if it were fact :)
 
help

dealer, i made shortcut for the system shutdown, the target for the shortcut was:

%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -r -t 0

i didn't change anything that you posted in your message, when i used it, it shut down and then sat at a blue screen (not BSOD, like default wallpaper for win2k), I left it there for a while, and nothing happened so I turned off the system manually usuing the switch on the PSU. The next time I booted up, I encountered problems surrounding the paging file, i am unable to open ANY programs, even MS, I increased the size of my Virtual Memory and am still having problems.
 
Hi dejavoo, do a restore to before that shorcut, and use this metho for your restart.


a restart button on your desktop:

1. Create a shortcut (Right-click on desktop, select New > Shortcut).

2. For location, type the following:

shutdown -r -t 0

3. Click Next, enter a name for the shortcut ("Restart" is appropriate), and click Finish

when you reboot, your original paste will be in the target. get back to me when you're done
 
quote:

6) I increase the icon cache, On XP the Max Cached Icons is set too low.
to changed this go to regedit,HKEY_LOCAL_
MACHINE-Software-Microsoft-Windows-Explorer
8192 ,then reboot you'll see a big speed boost
opening folders.,
------------------------------------------

dealer could you be a little more specific in how one increases the icon cache.
 
...

I won't be able to do it until I get home dealer, be about 3.5 hours from the time this post was made. My AIM is : AspD3, ICQ: 139515061, and MSN: ddtbugsbunny@hotmail.com (don't ask lol)
 

dealer could you be a little more specific in how one increases the icon cache. [/B]


sorry snake, my paste didn't work, here you go, and I fixed the original post;

icon casche

On XP the Max Cached Icons is set too low,
to changed this got to regedit,HKEY_LOCAL_
MACHINE-Software-Microsoft-Windows-currentversion-Explorer

in the right window, double click max cached icons, type the value 8192 ,then reboot you'll see a big speed boost
opening folders.
 
Thanks

where i messed up was that i didnt have max cached icons in the right side I guess ill just add it then
 
snake, you might have missed it, (I did), double check before you create the new dword click on the explore folder icon, see if it's there
 
ok, if you don't have the dword create one, first, back up the registry, or create a restore point,(use that cool restore shortcut),then navigate back to the same place...hit edit, new, dword, then type MaxCachedIcons, then double click, then type in the value...let me know
 
Hi dealer in your earlier post you used the DWORD with gaps. In your last post it doesn't have gaps. The great tweaking God Axcel says the gaps are important and that it should be a STRING Value, but he was speaking about Windows 98. Do you have any comments on this!.
Hope you can help me on this one.
 
Prefetcher

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this one before since my rig is a little f*ck*d up when it comes to displaying website correctly (I seem to be missing most of the contents but that's only a temporarily setback).

I always use the "Prefetcher"-tweak. Just look it up with the search tool on almost every site (I mostly use www.tweakxp.com, I know....shame shame shame but they do have the best tweaks). For some mystic reason it will make bootvis incompatible but it cuts more than 25 seconds of my boot time, explorer loads faster (maps, files, etc) and it preserves diskspace (not much but still....).

Hope this turns out to be a good tweak for everyone.

Greets from the Netherlands,

Laurens:D
 
Originally posted by Dirk Diggler
Hi dealer in your earlier post you used the DWORD with gaps.
Hope you can help me on this one.


huh, what gap?
 

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