IMPROVE BOOT TIMES
A great new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow for faster booting. By default this option in enables but on some builds it is not so below is how to turn it on.
Go to Start Menu and Click Run
Type in “Regedit” then click ok
Find “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\M icrosoft\Dfrg\BootOpt imizeFunction”
Select “Enable” from the list on the right
Right on it and select “Modify”
Change the value to “Y to enable”
Reboot
IMPROVE SWAPFILE PERFORMANCE
If you have more than 256MB of RAM this tweak will considerably improve your performance. It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.
Go to Start then Run
Type “msconfig.exe” then ok
Click on the System.ini tab
Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
Click on new then in the blank box type”ConservativeSwapfileUsage =1″
Click OK
Restart PC
MAKE YOUR MENUS LOAD FASTER
This is one of my favourite tweaks as it makes a huge difference to how fast your machine will ‘feel’. What this tweak does is remove the slight delay between clicking on a menu and XP displaying the menu.
Go to Start then Run
Type ‘Regedit’ then click ‘Ok’
Find “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\”
Select “MenuShowDelay”
Right click and select “Modify’
Reduce the number to around “100″
This is the delay time before a menu is opened. You can set it to “0″ but it can make windows really hard to use as menus will open if you just look at them – well move your mouse over them anyway. I tend to go for anywhere between 50-150 depending on my mood
MAKE PROGRAMS LOAD FASTER
This little tweak tends to work for most programs. If your program doesn’t load properly just undo the change. For any program:
Right-click on the icon/shortcut you use to launch the program
Select properties
In the ‘target’ box, add ‘ /prefetch:1′ at the end of the line.
Click “Ok”
Voila – your programs will now load faster.
