The Complete Guide to Optimizing Windows XP
Over time, you will notice your computer getting slower and slower. Eventually, loading the "start" menu may take up to ten seconds. This guide will keep your computer responsive and snappy, just like the day you bought it.
Over time, you will notice your computer getting slower and slower. Eventually, loading the "start" menu may take up to ten seconds. This guide will keep your computer responsive and snappy, just like the day you bought it.
step 1Decrapifying
You would be surprised how much a simple cleanup of your hard drive. Useless files scattered all over your hard drive slows your computer down by making it more difficult to find necessary files.
Unfortunately, this problem starts right out of the box. If you just bought a a new Windows PC, it's probably loaded with useless bloatware like Vongo and AOL.
You can do it manually (the hard way - the way I do it) by going to start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs and manually remove stuff.
Or the easy way by running the PC Decrapifier from a USB. This nifty little application requires no installation - just run it from a USB. It will automatically recognize bloatware and other junk so you don't have to search.
Depending on what you did, this may still leave bits of pieces of crud all over your hard drive. So go to start > Search. Now type in the names of all the crap you removed. Most likely some dead shortcuts and installer files will come up. Now if you own an HP or Compaq PC, they will have a folder called "SWSETUP", which contains all the installer files for the software that came with your PC. You can remove delete this entire folder if you want, since HP and Compaq PCs come with recovery software and a recovery partition. Only delete this folder after you have uninstalled everything that uses installers from the folder; otherwise it will leave shortcut in the Add/Remove Programs menu that cannot be removed.
Now go to start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup > More Options > (Under Windows Components) Clean Up. I removed the mouse pointers, internet games, MSN Explorer, Windows Messenger, Outlook Express, (and if you are running Windows XP MCE), the slut that dances on your taskbar.
Go to "start > Search" and type in the names of programs you removed. Usually some dead links and folders will come up.
When you are done with all of this, restart your computer.
Unfortunately, this problem starts right out of the box. If you just bought a a new Windows PC, it's probably loaded with useless bloatware like Vongo and AOL.
You can do it manually (the hard way - the way I do it) by going to start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs and manually remove stuff.
Or the easy way by running the PC Decrapifier from a USB. This nifty little application requires no installation - just run it from a USB. It will automatically recognize bloatware and other junk so you don't have to search.
Depending on what you did, this may still leave bits of pieces of crud all over your hard drive. So go to start > Search. Now type in the names of all the crap you removed. Most likely some dead shortcuts and installer files will come up. Now if you own an HP or Compaq PC, they will have a folder called "SWSETUP", which contains all the installer files for the software that came with your PC. You can remove delete this entire folder if you want, since HP and Compaq PCs come with recovery software and a recovery partition. Only delete this folder after you have uninstalled everything that uses installers from the folder; otherwise it will leave shortcut in the Add/Remove Programs menu that cannot be removed.
Now go to start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup > More Options > (Under Windows Components) Clean Up. I removed the mouse pointers, internet games, MSN Explorer, Windows Messenger, Outlook Express, (and if you are running Windows XP MCE), the slut that dances on your taskbar.
Go to "start > Search" and type in the names of programs you removed. Usually some dead links and folders will come up.
When you are done with all of this, restart your computer.
step 2Basic System Properties Edit
start > (Right Click) My Computer > Properties > Advanced > (Under Performance) Settings
Set them to what is shown. These settings strike a good balance between aethetics and functionality. The drop shadows were never too convincing, and in Vista, they still are not. The "animations" are sickeningly horrible - a flashing blue rectangle flies up from the taskbar... (These are times when I wish I had Ubuntu with Beryl or Vista or a Mac).
Descriptions of the more vague settings are included.
Now just go read this.
Set them to what is shown. These settings strike a good balance between aethetics and functionality. The drop shadows were never too convincing, and in Vista, they still are not. The "animations" are sickeningly horrible - a flashing blue rectangle flies up from the taskbar... (These are times when I wish I had Ubuntu with Beryl or Vista or a Mac).
Descriptions of the more vague settings are included.
Now just go read this.
step 3Miscellaneous Tweaks
I'm sure that as a human, you exhibit self-awareness. Thus you probably don't need the useless "My" prefix before every location. You do know that it is "Your" Computer, don't you? Right click the names under the start menu and remove them. It makes you seem smarter because you now know whose computer you're using ;)
Customize the Windows Explorer toolbar! Right click and customize! Remove text labels, rearrange, and add buttons!
Right click the "Go" button and remove it.
Right click the Taskbar and set up your Quick Launch toolbar. This will save you some clicks when accessing your commonly used applications. Vastly superior to the Mac's dock.
You can also kill the annoying "throbber" with this application. Download and run the "ShellThrobOff.reg" file. If you ever want to undo it, just run the ShellThrobOn.reg.
You should also move the Recycle Bin to the start menu, because it just makes more sense, and it helps keep your desktop tidy. Move it with this.
Customize the Windows Explorer toolbar! Right click and customize! Remove text labels, rearrange, and add buttons!
Right click the "Go" button and remove it.
Right click the Taskbar and set up your Quick Launch toolbar. This will save you some clicks when accessing your commonly used applications. Vastly superior to the Mac's dock.
You can also kill the annoying "throbber" with this application. Download and run the "ShellThrobOff.reg" file. If you ever want to undo it, just run the ShellThrobOn.reg.
You should also move the Recycle Bin to the start menu, because it just makes more sense, and it helps keep your desktop tidy. Move it with this.
step 4Registry Tweaks
Well what is a the registry? It's the place where Windows stores all its settings.To edit the registry, go to start > run > regedit
Now read and use whatever tweaks you need from here.
step 5Recommended Applications
Internet Explorer 7 It's got tabs and looks much better than the dated IE6.Windows Media Player 11 It looks good and works great. Get it.
Windows Defender A surprisingly useful application that shows processes and does a decent job of removing security threats.
Process Explorer An upgraded version of the basic process explorer.
Mozilla Firefox Faster, more secure, and more useful than Internet Explorer.
Paint.NET It's 2007. This is what Microsoft Paint should be like.
Foxit PDF Reader A lightweight alternative to the bloated Adobe Reader.
VLC Media Player A lightweight (but dated looking) media player that supports many formats.
NetStumbler A superior alternative to the Windows wireless network detector.
Hotspot Shield Protect yourself when using hotspots! No, it won't stop zombies, but at least your data will have some protection, compared to none.
http://www.jzip.com/ Free Zip file extractor.
MediaCoder The ultimate video and audio format converter.
step 6Maintenance
Optimizing may make your computer faster, but if you don't maintain it, it'll become a laggy piece of junk in no time.Keeping your PC fast is as easy as running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter regularly. If you're too lazy to do that, just add it to scheduled tasks and you won't even have to think about it.
A little bit faster
First open the sevices box by pressing windows key+r then type in services.msc . Scroll down and find windows security centre. double click, select disable in the drop menu.and stop the spplication.Next scroll untill you find error reporting service follow the steps above to disable
visual tweaks
Press windows key+pause break key and select advanced options. select visual options,Then scroll right down to the bottom of the screen and select the bottom three.
Press windows key+pause break, select automatic updates, then select turn off automatic updates.
disk cleanup
Go to start,programs,accessory's,system tools,disk clean up.run disk clean up.
regseeker
now time to run regseeker you can download it snap filesat
Now where almost there.time to defrag our hard drive go start,programs,accessories system tools,defragment
rebooting
now all we have to do is reboot and your computer should be running faster.and remember to try not to use hibernation as it leaves fragments of information on your drive.
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