Windows XP - Speed up tips & tricks

[thelawns]

Well I am scouring the web for tips and tricks to make Windows XP faster, apart from the obvious re-format and start again or use the defrag, what tips and tricks do you know to help speed up your Win XP experience??

[StuBell85]

Click on 'Run' in the Start Menu and type 'msconfig'. You can then stop programs from starting up when yo first switch on the computer, thus freeing up memory and making your computer faster. If you're doing this, make sure you leave your Anti-Virus and Firewall software running.

[HPsauce]

1. Make sure there's enough RAM.
2. Make sure there's enough RAM.
3. Make sure......

You get the gist. 

After that it's mainly a matter of uninstalling unwanted programs, especially those that run in the background.

Also, try a different antivirus product. Several (especially the "big boys") are known to go "bad" and really slow things down. They can do that anyway even when working properly as they have far too many functions in for most users.

Look at indexing - turn off and remove anything like Google desktop or the Microsoft equivalent. And turn off indexing on the drives too unless you use "Search" all the time (it only makes asmall difference in speed anyway).

Registry cleanup is a good idea too.

Defrag as well I guess, but not a priority usually.

[exo]

Some guides here that may be of interest...........saves me typing.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1786003,00.asp

http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html

http://kadaitcha.cx/performance.html

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks1.htm

exo

[Floydoid]

This is the tweak guide I recommend:

http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html

[oldfogy]

You may also like to take a look here:-

http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/board,31.0.html

There are a few good tips, especially the one from Floydoid

[pintosal]

Click on 'Run' in the Start Menu and type 'msconfig'. You can then stop programs from starting up when yo first switch on the computer, thus freeing up memory and making your computer faster. If you're doing this, make sure you leave your Anti-Virus and Firewall software running.

Look especially at the services which run automatically. I know that these can be stopped in msconfig or autoruns, but you need to know which are safe to stop, without crippling XP. Look at this guide http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm

The key advice is ONLY CHANGE ONE THING AT A TIME, and set restore points so that it's easy to go back if things go wrong.

[Floydoid]

I prefer to look in admin tools / services, to see which non-windows applications are trying to load at start up, and then decide whether they are vital or not.  The tweak guide I linked to above goes into this in great detail, including suggesting which windows services aren't really necessary.

[pintosal]

Yes, I agree that using the Admin tools/Services is preferable.

However, the tweak guide is too superficial when it comes to Services, while the ElderGeek link is comprehensive and authoritative.

For example, ElderGeek says DNSClient service could/should be disabled - see http://www.theeldergeek.com/dns_client.htm whereas the tweak guide says automatic, ie always started. I know from experience that DNSClient is un-necessary.

The fewer the services, the faster the boot-up and the greater the available RAM.

And there are many more examples of Services where the tweak guide is too conservative.