If there is one operating system that slows with age, it is Windows. Whether it be XP or Vista or any other historical version, slowness persists. Here’s how I make sure I keep my PC running fast and flawless.
- Startup items – Use the “msconfig” command to open up msconfig and under the “startup” tab uncheck items that you don’t want to start up automatically. Believe me, there’s a lot of it which you don’t need and it always keep running in the background bringing the computer to its knees.
- Stop unwanted services – Again, in the “Services” tab of “msconfig” check “Hide all Microsoft services”. Now you’ll only see services installed by third-party programs. Make sure you know what you are doing and uncheck the ones which you do not want.
- Defrag - Once in a while just defrag your harddrive partitions. I needn’t explain why. Just do it anyways. I do it every week.
- Prefetch - The prefetch folder stores data related to various applications so that they can start faster. However this slows up the boot of the PC itself. So click the “Start” button > Run > Type “prefetch” , click OK and delete everything in the prefetch folder.
- Pagefile - For optimal performance it is important that your pagefile is configured correctly. Keep the pagefile on teh system partition to a minimum (I keep it to 2MB). I then create a pagefile on the second partition of the system and make it one-and-a-half the size of RAM my computer has. This makes the pagefile accessible faster.
- Disk Cleanup – Clean the clutter. The less the clutter, the more the free space the better the defragmentation and overall harddrive performance.
- Uninstall unwanted crap – Those programs that you installed from the CD that came with the magazine – get rid of it if you are not using it. It bloats the registry, the Start menu and takes up space.
- Create a new profile – Once in a while it’s just easier to start over with a new user profile on your machine. Copy your data over to a location of your choice, dump your previous profile and start with a new one. You’d be surprised how fast your machine feels.
- Use windows classic theme – With all the animation, flashy themes etc. there’s a lot of overhead as far as performance is concerned. Keep it simple – use the classic theme which looks graceful and professional.
- Disable data compression – If you are after saving more space so that you can keep those mp3s, buy a new USB harddrive. Disable data compression on your system drive. It is taxing on the processor to decompress every compressed file and serve the requests and then compress the new files created.
I’m sure there’s a lot more tips and tricks there but sticking to these basics is really helpful. Only after you are through with the above should you try any registry tweaks or overclocking. What do you do to keep you machine up to speed?
Bookmark & Share —
Search for More
Loading...
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re dealing with a technical dummy. What’s a msconfig command, and where do you apply it? To defrag is comparatively easy. How do you know what the unwanted drap is? This is an interesting but sometimes rather OTT read for newcomers to the biz. I’m just a struggling journalist doing the equivalent of moving from radio to TV.
Vivienne: You click on the “Start” button > Run > Type “msconfig” without quotes and click OK. Then you get the system configuration utility window. You will recognize most of the unwanted startup items by their name. But just in case you don’t all you have to do is ask. And if you need further assistance feel free to create a thread in the forums – I’ll be there to resolve any issues for you.
As with the previous comment – I am technically challenged but willing to learn. You say in #2 – make sure you know what you are doing – well, clearly I don’t – but I’m trying this out but would like a little guidance. If I uncheck a service will it be completely disabled? Will I be able to open it up from the start menu or must I come back to msconfig / services and recheck the item?
2ndly, can you elaborate for me on what you mean by create a new profile?
Thank you so much for the tips (I even cut and pasted them to use for reference
A small reference can be found here : Disable Unwanted Services to Speed up Windows XP
Services are used by the operating system and certain applications for their own requirements and not directly by the user in most cases. When you check “Hide all Microsoft services” you are making sure that you don’t mess with the core operating system services. The remaining services are installed by third party applications most of which may not be necessary. You will be able to tell better by their name.
Further, you won’t need to reopen them however just in case an application tells you that “xyz service is not running” you can always come back to msconfig and enable it.
Creating a new profile means creating a new user profile for yourself. You can go to the control panel > user accounts and create a new user. You can now log in as this new user you just created. What this does is that it clears of all your customizations, remain overs of unused applications, the grown up registry etc. So you basically start fresh with a new profile. Do not forget to copy your data from “My Documents” and the desktop to a secondary location for backup. The “My documents”, desktop and certain other directories reside inside your profile so you will need to relocate this data to your new profile.
very good, that’s why I trust you.
I went to delete the pre-fetch files but found 100 files and a subdir named readyboot containing 6 more files. That seems like a lot of files to delete.
Oh dear. Some of this is just wrong. Some of it is right too, though…
1. Startup items – Agreed.
2. Stop unwanted services – Agreed, with the following caveat: do you know what that app you want to install actually does? Should you really be installing an application that installs “pointless” services?
3. Defrag – Sorry, no. Quite aside from any other arguments, the sheer amount of time needed to “properly” defrag a disk far outweighs any time you get back.
4. Prefetch – This is ridiculous. Your PC boots exactly once per session. How many times do you open your web browser, email app, word processor, etc? For what its worth, the files in the prefetch folder have no negative impact on boot time on reasonably recent PCs. Leave them alone.
5. Pagefile – No, no, no. Partitioning a disk is a sure-fire way of slowing down your PC. Why? Because you then have two discrete areas of the same disk which, at times, Windows will try to access simultaneously. Each platter on the disk only has one set of heads, so you should be able to see for yourself that partitioning sets up contention for access on that disk. In general the only advice you need is “make sure it is set to system-managed”. The mantra here is “install Windows and leave it alone”.
6. Disk Cleanup – Agreed. Running out of disk space is bad, pure and simple. There’s nothing I’ve ever read that agrees on how much free disk space to try and keep, but 50% seems to come up more often than not.
7. Uninstall unwanted crap – Agreed, but the concept of registry bloat is nonsense. “Unwanted crap” includes registry cleanup “tools”, which usually end up doing more harm than good. The rule of thumb is – don’t mess with the registry unless absolutely necessary. Deleting registry keys and values WILL NOT speed up your PC in any way.
8. Create a new profile – If it feels that much faster, you probably didn’t do #1 properly… If you completely wipe out your old profile and create a new one, kiss your favourites goodbye. You do have a backup, don’t you?
9. Use windows classic theme – I use Windows Classic out of personal preference, but any video card made in the last decade will be just fine for the Windows XP theme. There are limitations that prevent older video cards that from using the Windows Aero theme. Your PC manufacturer or reseller should be able to advise if you have such a video card.
10. Disable data compression – The performance hit to disk compression on a modern PC is fairly small but given how cheap disk capacity is, why bother using it? If you have any compressed files (they appear blue in Explorer if you have the “Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in colour” option checked – compressed files are green, IIRC), uncompress them. If you’re so low on disk space that you can’t uncompress them, get a bigger disk.
While I didn’t find much disagreement in your comment except over prefetch I can agree that ask any two techies and they’ll have different things to say
Regarding point #5, all I have to say on it is this- if changing the pagefile settings really do measurably affect your system’s actual performance, then YOU NEED MORE RAM. Period. Dorking with the pagefile is treating the symptom, akin to taking cough suppressant when you have pneumonia.
Just want to go with what others have pointed out. leave the pagefile alone. For one thing, unless you have separate physical disks (not just partitions) there is absolutly no benefit whatsoever moving it. Putting it on a separate partition on the same drive will actually be slower. And the old myth about always setting it at 1.5 times the amount of RAM has been thoroughly debunked by Mark Russovich who knows more about the subject than just about anyone.
Some of your other advice like defragging weekly seems pretty pointless as well. On any modern computer running XP or Vista you should not have to defrag nearly that often. You could check the “analyze” tool in the defrag tool every few months to see if there’s any real fragmentation and do it if necessary, but weekly is just plain ridiculous.
Cleaning the prefetch folder is a myth, the folder is self cleaning by Windows. Cleaning it will REDUCE performance.
http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/XPMyths.html