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Easily Disable Messenger
Go into: C:/Program Files/Messenger. Rename the Messenger folder to "MessengerOFF" This does not slow down Outlook Express or hinder system performance.
Increase speed by tweaking prefetcher settings
This is an unique technique for XP, which could improve the performance significantly by tweaking the prefetcher. Recommended hardware: PIII 800 or higher, 512M RAM or more.
1. run "regedit";
2. goto [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSe ssion ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParametersEnablePrefetcher];
3. Set the value to either 0-Disable, 1-App launch prefetch, 2-Boot Prefetch, 3-Both ("3" is recommended).
4. reboot.
It will decrease the boot time but double and increase the performance of your XP. Try it!
Turn off Indexing to speed up XP
Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of searches on your hard drive then I suggest turnning this feature off:
1. Open my computer
2. Right click your hard drive icon and select properties.
3. At the bottom of the window you'll see "Allow indexing service to index this disk for faster searches," uncheck this and click ok.
4. A new window will pop up and select apply to all folders and subfolders. It will take a minute or two for the changes to take affect but then you should enjoy slightly faster performance.
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.
Remove hibernation file
If you do not use hibernation, make sure you do not have it enabled, which reserves disk space equal to your RAM. If you have a hidden file on the root directory of your C-drive called hiberfil.sys, hibernation is enabled. To remove that file, go to Control Panel, select Performance and Maintenance, Power Options, Hibernate tab, and uncheck the Enable hibernation box.
Improve NTFS Performance
The NTFS file system is the recommended file system because of its advantages in terms of reliability and security and because it is required for large drive sizes. However, these advantages come with some overhead. You can modify some functionality to improve NTFS performance as follows:
1. Disable creation of short names. By default, NTFS generates the style of file name that consists of eight characters, followed by a period and a three-character extension for compatibility with MS-DOS and Microsoft® Windows® 3.x clients. If you are not supporting these types of clients, you can turn off this setting by changing the default value of the NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation registry entry (in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlFi lesystem) to 1.
2. Disable last access update. By default NTFS updates the date and time stamp of the last access on directories whenever it traverses the directory. For a large NTFS volume, this update process can slow performance. To disable automatic updating, change the value of the NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate registry entry (in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentContolSetControlFil esystem) to 1. If the entry is not already present in the registry, add it before setting the value. (Add it as a REG_DWORD)
3. Reserve appropriate space for the master file table. Add the NtfsMftZoneReservation entry to the registry as a REG_DWORD in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlFi leSystem. When you add this entry to the registry, the system reserves space on the volume for the master file table. Reserving space in this manner allows the master file table to grow optimally. If your NTFS volumes generally contain relatively few files that are typically large, set value of this registry entry to 1 (the default). Typically you can use a value of 2 or 3 for moderate numbers of files, and 4 (the maximum) if your volumes tend to contain a relatively large number of files. However, be sure to test any settings greater than 2 because these higher values cause the system to reserve a much larger portion of the disk for the master file table.
Reboot after making changes.
Unload .dll's to Free Memory
Windows Explorer caches DLLs (Dynamic-Link Libraries) in memory for a period of time after the application using them has been closed. This can be an inefficient use of memory.
1. Find the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentV ersionExplorer].
2. Create a new DWORD sub-key named 'AlwaysUnloadDLL' and set the default value to equal '1' to disable Windows caching the DLL in memory.
3. Restart Windows for the change to take effect.
I tried this after running a intense program, then watched the task manager; memory recovered it self.
Disable unnecessary programs
Installing many programs on you computer can often clutter your registry with unnecessary programs running when your computer starts up. This will slow down your machine and take up memory.
Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVe rsionRun
Once there, locate any entry's on the right. You can identify the program by the path to the executable. Find programs that you can live without starting up from the list.
Right click on them and select Delete
You may also want to navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVe rsionRunonce and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentV ersionRun.
Delete unnecessary programs.
Reboot your computer.
Fix for slow loading of Outlook Express when Messenger is disabled
This is just a clarification of the french guy's tweak.
Open up Register Editor by running "regedit" command. Click on "Edit" and select "Find". Copy and paste FB7199AB-79BF-11D2-8D94-0000F875C541 onto the "Find what" box and click on "Find Next". Once found, click on the plus sign in front of it and you will find InProc32 and LocalServer32. Select one of them then right click on default under the name column and select "modify", then simply delete what's in the Value Data box. Repeat for the other.
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