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Have you tweaked your computer?


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super_i_man

Broken In
navjotjsingh said:
Creating quick notes with WordPad scraps in Windows XP

Do you often use Notepad to create quick notes to yourself and then save the file on your desktop? While the process is quite simple, there is an alternative that you might want to investigate. This alternative takes advantage of the fact that WordPad can generate and the Desktop can host special OLE objects called scraps.

The benefit is that creating scraps is as easy as a quick drag-and-drop operation--and there's no need for all the steps involved in naming and saving the file.

Here's how to create quick notes with WordPad scraps:

1. Launch WordPad.
2. Create your note.
3. Select/highlight the text.
4. Drag the selection and drop it on your desktop.
5. Close WordPad and click No when prompted to save changes.

Once you drop the selection on your desktop, Windows XP recognizes the selection as an OLE object from WordPad and creates a scrap, complete with a special icon with a default title name of Scrap. To make it easier to recognize, you can rename the scrap. When you want to view your note, just double-click it and WordPad will open the scrap.

This tip is like a gift from heaven for me, I use note pad like anything for small notes and URLs and files. This also works this is great. Thanks
 
C

cybermanas

Guest
Windows XP Tweaks

WINDOWS XP TWEAKS - I

#1 - MSCONFIG

Open it by going to Start -> Run..., then type 'msconfig' in the box and press enter. Now, the tab we are interested in here is the 'Startup' tab... simply click on it .
This box displays all of the programs that will be started when Windows boots up. None of these programs are vital for Windows, so don't feel worried about removing some of them in experimentation. You can see from the screenshot that I have disabled both NDetect (ICQ's start-up program) and WinAmpa (WinAmp, obviously). Now, if you've unchecked some boxes, Windows should start up faster and will take less resources by not running these programs in the background.



#2- MORE STARTUP TWEAKAGE

Go to Start -> Run again, and then 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'.



#3 - SPEEDING UP INTERNET EXPLORER

This is a handy little trick you can use with Internet Explorer 6 (which ships with XP) to make it boot up extremely fast - instantly, on my system :). This should be familiar to those of you who have created shortcuts for Half-Life modes and the like. For those of you who aren't familiar, simply right-click on a shortcut to Internet Explorer (such as the one in the Quick launch bar) and add the parameter '-no home' to the end of the command line, like so:
Target: Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -no home



#4 - PERFORMANCE INCREASE THROUGH MY COMPUTER

1: Start > Right Click on My Computer and select properties.
2: Click on the "Advanced" tab
3: See the "Performance" section? Click "Settings"
4: 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

Windows will still look nice and perform faster.



#5 - GPEDIT.MSC AND AUTOPLAY

A great tweaking file that comes with XP is gpedit.msc. Go to Start -> Run... and then type in 'gpedit.msc' and press enter. This is effectively the Policies Editor, and it comes in handy often. For example, if you hate CD auto play like I do and want to permanently disable it, you can use this tool to do so. Just run gpedit.msc, and then go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System. In here you can see the value 'Turn Off Auto play'. Right-click on it and then click 'Properties'.
Now you can simply play around with the settings for this and other values in these folders, customizing appearance and performance issues.



#6 - INCREASING OPTIONS IN ADD/REMOVE MENU

Not a fan of MSN Messenger? don't want Windows Media Player on your system? Fair enough, but if you go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, by default none of Windows XP's 'built in' programs are visible. it's fairly easy to change, though... just open the file X:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf (where X: is the drive letter where Windows XP is installed) in Notepad. You should see a section of the file something like this:

[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp40ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7
IEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,ieaccess.inf,,7

This is a list of all components installed at the moment. I've taken the example of MSN Messenger - the program entry called 'msmsgs', third-last line. You can see the word 'hide' highlighted - this is the string which tells Windows not to display the component in the Add/Remove Programs list. Fix this up by simply deleting the word 'hide' like so:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

To this:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7

After restarting, you should be able to see MSN Messenger in the Add/Remove Programs list. If you want to be able to quickly view and remove all components, simply open the sysoc.inf file and do a global find and replace for the word ",hide" and replace it with a single comma ",".



#7 - GET RID OF IM AND NO SLOW OE STARTUP

If you have OE 6 got to tools > windows messenger > options > preferences and in the general area uncheck "run this program when windows starts" and "allow this program to run in the background." After doing this IM does not load on startup and OE loads as usual.



#8 - EDIT HIDDEN SYSTEM SETTINGS USING GROUP POLICY EDITOR

Windows XP has a great program called Group Policy Editor that allows system administrators to modify the settings to a great number of windows features. TO start the program up follow the directions below.

1. Open the start menu and click Run
2. Type gpedit.msc
3. The Group Policy MMC appears
4. Click through the different nodes of the tree to see all the hidden features of Windows XP that you can edit without touching the registry.

Examples: Changing IE displays, Clearing the pagefile at shutdown, boot-time defrag settings, and many many more

Another tip is to add this to your Administrative Tools by adding the shortcut to gpedit.msc



#9 - MEMORY PERFORMANCE TWEAKS

The next few memory tweaks can be performed with Windows XP - all of them are located in the

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management
section of the registry.



9A - DISABLE PAGING EXECUTIVE

In normal usage, XP pages sections from RAM memory to the hard drive. We can stop this happening and keep the data in RAM, resulting in improved performance. Note that only users with a large amount of RAM (256MB+) should use this setting. The setting we want to change to disable the 'Paging Executive', as it is called, is called DisablePagingExecutive. Changing the value of this key from 0 to 1 will de-activate memory paging.




9B - SYSTEM CACHE BOOST
Changing the value of the key LargeSystemCache from 0 to 1 will tell Windows XP to allocate all but 4MB of system memory to the file system cache, basically meaning that the XP Kernel can run in memory, greatly improving it's speed. The 4MB of memory left is used for disk caching, but if for any reason more is needed, XP allocates more. Generally, this tweak improves performance by a fair bit but can, in some intensive applications, degrade performance. As with the above tweak, you should have at least 256MB of RAM before attempting to enable LargeSystemCache.




9C - INPUT/OUTPUT PERFORMANCE
This tweak is only really valuable to anyone running a server - it improves performace while a computer is performing large file transfer operations. By default, the value does not appear in the registry, so you will have to create a REG_DWORD value called IOPageLockLimit. The data for this value is in bytes, and defaults to 512KB on machines that have the value. Most people using this tweak have found maximum performance in the 8 to 16 megabyte range, so you will have to play around with the value to find the best performance. Remeber that the value is measured in bytes, so if you want, say, 12MB allocated, it's 12 * 1024 * 1024, or 12582912. As with all these memory tweaks, you should only use this if you have 256MB or more of RAM.



#10 - SPEEDING UP SHARE VIEWING

This is a great tweak. Before I found it, I was always smashing my head against the table waiting to view shares on other computers. Basically, when you connect to another computer with Windows XP, it checks for any Scheduled tasks on that computer - a fairly useless task, but one that can add up to 30 seconds of waiting on the other end - not good! Fortunately, it's fairly easy to disable this process. First, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace in the Registry. Below that, there should be a key called {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Just delete this, and after a restart, Windows will no longer check for scheduled tasks - mucho performance improvement!




#11 - PRIORITIZING INDIVIDUAL PROCESSES

This is so simple it's not funny, but it leads into the next tweak... anyway, if you press Control+Alt+Delete, then click on the 'Processes' tab, you should get a dialog like the one above. You can see a list of all the processes running at the time. Now, if you are running a program that you want to dedicate more processing time to - eg, 3D Studio Max, as in my example, you can just right-click on the process, move your cursor down to 'Set Priority >', then select how high you want that program prioritized. While I'm checking my email, I might want a Normal priority for Max, but if I leave my Computer, I can increase it to 'RealTime' to get the most rendering done. Easy!




#12 - PRIORITIZING IRQS

The last tweak for this guide - and a good one. The main components of your computer have an IRQ number assigned to them. With this tweak we can increase the priority given to any IRQ number, thereby improving the performance of that component. The most common component this tweak is used for is the System CMOS/real time clock, which improves performance across the board. First of all, decide which component you want to give a performance boost to. Next, you have to discover which IRQ that piece of hardware is using. To do this, simply go to Control Panel, then open the System panel (You can also press the shortcut of Windows+Break). Click the 'Hardware' tab, then on the 'Device Manager' button.

Now, right click on the component you want to discover the IRQ for and click 'Properties', then click on the 'Resources' tab.

You can plainly see which IRQ this device is using (if there is no IRQ number, select another device). Remember the number and close down all of the dialog boxes you have opened, then start up RegEdit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlPriorityControl in the registry. Now, we have to create a new DWORD value - called IRQ#Priority (where '#̢۪ is the IRQ number), then set the data to 1. For example, the IRQ of my System CMOS is 8, so I would create the key IRQ8Priority.

I would strongly recommend the CMOS, as it improves performance around the board. Also note that you can have multiple IRQ prioritized, but it is fairly inefficient and can cause instability. To remove this tweak, simply delete the value you created.



#13 - SPEED UP DETAILED VIEW IN EXPLORER

If you like to view your files in Windows Explorer using the "Details" view here is a tweak to speed up the listing of file attributes:

Viewing files in Windows Explorer using the "Details" mode shows various attributes associated with each file shown. Some of these must be retrieved from the individual files when you click on the directory for viewing. For a directory with numerous and relatively large files (such as a folder in which one stores media, eg: *.mp3's, *.avi's etc.) Windows Explorer lags as it reads through each one. Here's how to disable viewing of unwanted attributes and speed up file browsing:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Navigate to the folder which you wish to optimize.
3. In "Details" mode right click the bar at the top which displays the names of the attribute columns.
4. Uncheck any that are unwanted/unneeded.

Explorer will apply your preferences immediately, and longs lists of unnecessary attributes will not be displayed.
Likewise, one may choose to display any information which is regarded as needed, getting more out of Explorer.




#14 - ACCELERATE YOUR WINXP BY SPEEDING DISKCACHE

Diskcache plays a very important role in WinXP. However, the default I/O pagefile setting of XP is conservative, which limits the performance. Some better values for different RAM are given below.

1. run "regedit";
2. goto [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\IoPageLockLimit];
3. modify the value in Hex depending on the size of your RAM:
RAM: modified value(Hex)
64M: 1000;
128M: 4000;
256M: 10000;
512M or more: 40000.
4. reboot.

Though some good tools (such as "Cacheman") can do this, it is an interesting experience for you to work it out by yourself and let your XP fly.



#15 - CLEAN YOUR PREFETCH TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE

This is an unique technique for WinXP. We know that it is necessary to wash registry and TEMP files for Win9X/ME/2000 periodly. Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP some time, the prefetch directory can get full of junk and obsolete links in the Prefetch catalog, which can slow down your computer notablely. My suggestion is: open C(system drive):/windows/prefetch, delete those junk and obsolete files,reboot. It is recommended that you do this every month.



Give your comments and see my next post in this section for more tweaks.
 

Netjunkie

In the zone
Whoa man !!!

Did you write all that ?

Its here
*webgear.datacreek.net/system/xptweaks.html

Anyways, its a handy collection. Combine both the threads so that we can have one big list.
 
C

cybermanas

Guest
No way did I write all this .It's a combination of different tweaks from different sources including yours.
 

Retro

Journeyman
There was actually this big thread that Raabo started for Win XP tweaks. Someone should merge this thread with that, I suppose. Or this post alone.
 

The Incredible

Ambassador of Buzz
shwetanshu said:
to shutdown faster simply press: winkey-->u-->u
hibernate:winkey-->u-->h
restart: winkey-->u-->r

For me this is the fastest way rather than clicking icons, pressing power button or clicking on start menu. hehehe

Shwetu, I do it more faster.

Just goto ur Power Settings and set buttons Power & Sleep.

I use sleep to hibernate & power to shutdown.
 

rollcage

AMD user for 9 yrs!!
Have tweaked .. msconfig,
install tweakxp,
Have applied SAFE XP
Also did the registery edit for Timetokillapptimeout to 200milisecs

The Startup is good ..

But my WinXP_sp2 takes ages to shut down ... :(

[config: IBM R51, 1.5centrino, 512mb Ram]

PLZ.... TELL HOW TO SHUTDOWN FASTER GUYS...
 

raghu-RAM

Broken In
Hey
there is a method to edit host file and add DNS of the sites so as to bypass the DNS server and increase the net speed..
can anyone tell the location of that file....
 

DAVIS

Broken In
what's tweaking? i heard many times but i don't know what it means and what's that "H_KEY" (something like that)

-----------------------------------------------------------
guys come here and enjoy with GraphiX!
The Members of this Digit Forum can become the Mods of the Forum led by me - GraphiX!
You will get the link only if you are interested!!!!!!
So contact me at - greenismycolor@gmail.com for the link!
 

con_tester

Journeyman
Well Its a trick in XP.
Are you a software developer.
Do you want to creat easy installations.
If you go to
Star-Run and type iexpress.
This is a tool for creating nifty installations.
I tried it only in xp pro but i think it is also available in home edition.
 

Gurpreet Kaur

Right off the assembly line
Disable Right Click (Tip For You)

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
3. Add a DWORD and give it a name of NoTrayContextMenu
4. Give it a value of 1
5. Reboot means restart your computer
 
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