Speeding up Your Computer....

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
This is a short guide that will walk you through a couple steps that will help speed up your computer.

1. Startup Processes

* Go to: Start>Run>Type "msconfig"(without the quotes)
* Go to the Startup Tab
* Uncheck any processes you don't use at startup(e.x. Quicktime, AIM, MSN)
* Click Apply then Restart


2. CCleaner
CCleaner is a great little application that deletes cookies, clears cache, empties your recycle bin, etc.

* Download CCleaner(from google)
* Iinstall CCleaner then Run Cleaner it(note: This will clear your cookies which means your saved passwords and usernames will be gone)
* Go to the Registry tab and Scan for Issues
{*]After its finished scanning click>Fix selected issues...>Fix All Selected Issues>Ok. Continue this process until scanning brings about no issues.


3. Bootvis.exe(only for windows)

* Download bootvis.exe(from google)
* Install bootvis.exe
* In the toolbar go to Trace>Optimize System. The system will reboot after 10 seconds.
 
by C. hoffman -I thought my machine was pretty clean,

Most are , before they are connected to the internet. :)

To get the ultimate clean , mean , "toaster" like PC one must start from "scratch".

As an example , XP SP3 can run 2X faster than "out of the box" (attachment 1) with win2K level resource use.

WITHOUT having the machine connected to the virusnet , install a full copy of XP sp3 pro on to a primary partition as usual. After that is done and you have all the latest hardware drivers installed and working properly , get a copy of XPlite/2000lite Free Trial and remove any windows component that you do not use (media players , paint , all the other child like "spam" that M$ passes off as useful.)

After slimming down windows with XPlite, get ... Official Homepage of the xp-AntiSpy

With this freeware "essential" , one can "weed out " a lot of the useless services that are enabled by default. Of course , I go "manual" with RUN>services.msc and do my own "weeding" (attachment 2).

Turn off indexing , system restore , hibernation .

For those who must share with a home network (family) , , the heck with M$ as well... the freeware HTTP server HFS - HFS ~ HTTP File Server
and proxy server Privoxy Privoxy - Home Page are the best 2 out there , using a whopping 8megs to do it all. (attachment 3).

I use no antivirus and have just went 2 years without reinstalling on my main system.(just the windows firewall) All I do is make a clean GHOST 2003 image of
1. the above "trimmed" XP installation.

2. the 2 server apps mentioned above.

3. 7 programs (nero - burning , paint shop pro - graphics, winamp - audio , B S player - movies , foxit - pdf ,NFODIZ - text, microangelo - icons) to associate with all filetypes. No "fighting for associations on my stuff ! :p

I end up with a 1.2 gig XP installation, that ON A 1 GHZ PENTIUM 3 , can "
smoke" the newest Vi$ta machine with the greatest of ease. The resulting GHOST image is 600 megs in size and can be restored in 30 seconds.
If this is done on a newer dual core system with 1 meg+ RAM, the speed is indeed impressive (open 50 IE's in 500ms) .
Of course , one would want to add a more modern browser (firefox or chrome) , Chrome seems to be the only one that can keep up with "lightning XP" :) .
OS
 

Attachments

  • leanmean.gif
    leanmean.gif
    26.6 KB · Views: 211
  • services.gif
    services.gif
    93.2 KB · Views: 204
  • lowload.gif
    lowload.gif
    31.5 KB · Views: 206
Last edited:
Pretty much what ostripper reported is what I have found - within reason.

I use nlite
nLite - Deployment Tool for the bootable Unattended Windows installation
Which gives you a tidy GUI to set and tweak all of the important settings in one easy spot. You can get more in depth and integrate the programs and utilities you use on a regular basis MSFN's Unattended Windows : Unattended Windows Introduction

If you are planning on using an older machine I think that certain overlooked settings like the Hardware Abstraction Layer that the OS uses and downloading the proper chipset drivers and integrating them into the OS instead of generic ones provided by MS has a great impact on performance.

There are a lot of programs and services that you will never need with windows that can be disabled. Some of them should be considered security risks. I can't think of one situation that I would need remote registry editing but this is enabled by default with XP and I think Vista. But this can be a difficult thing to deal with since a lot of stuff has windows service dependencies. If you limit you computer to software that doesn't have dependencies then you can disable a lot of needless services running in the background.
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.