10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows XP


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4. Disable Performance Counters

Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.

To disable:

  • download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List
  • Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom.button below

5. Improve Memory Usage

Cacheman Improves the performance of your computer by optimizing the disk cache, memory and a number of other settings.

Once Installed:

  • Go to Show Wizard and select All
  • Run all the wizards by selecting Next or Finished until you are back to the main menu. Use the defaults unless you know exactly what you are doing
  • Exit and Save Cacheman
  • Restart Windows

6. Optimise your internet connection

There are lots of ways to do this but by far the easiest is to run TCP/IP Optimizer.

  • Download and install
  • Click the General Settings tab and select your Connection Speed (Kbps)
  • Click Network Adapter and choose the interface you use to connect to the Internet
  • Check Optimal Settings then Apply
  • Reboot

7. Optimise Your Pagefile

If you give your pagefile a fixed size it saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file.

  • Right click on My Computer and select Properties
  • Select the Advanced tab
  • Under Performance choose the Settings button
  • Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
  • Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.

Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.


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About the Author: Everton is based in London and has worked in the internet and mobile space for over ten years now, and before that worked in corporate strategy and consulting. He has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University.He also writes for Windows 7 News, Windows 8 News and One Tip A Day.

  • Anonymous
    As specified in the Windows Design Guidelines. Apply saves settings and keeps the dialog open, while OK saves the settings and closes the dialog.
  • Anonymous
    The last option in suggestion 2 doesn't apply to the Windows Classic style - if you try to enable it Windows will change to the default XP style.
  • Anonymous
    http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/fa...
    About Bootvis.exe
    Bootvis.exe is a performance tracing and visualization tool that Microsoft designed to help PC system designers and software developers identify performance issues for boot/resume timing while developing new PC products or supporting software.
    Please note that Bootvis.exe is not a tool that will improve boot/resume performance for end users. Contrary to some published reports, Bootvis.exe cannot reduce or alter a system's boot or resume performance. The boot optimization routines invoked by Bootvis.exe are built into Windows XP. These routines run automatically at pre-determined times as part of the normal operation of the operating system.
  • Anonymous
    1. It may be more prudent to simply disable or set to manual the Indexing service from the Service Control Manager, rather than to un-install the service, which would imply that you would never need it in future.
    2. The author has not provided links to any of the utilities mentioned, such as CacheMan, TCP/IP Optimizer etc. Their utility in these cases also is disputed at best. My suggestion is that readers should critically analyze these products, before trusting them to make your Win XP faster.
    3. Rather than suggesting that users remove their desktop background altogether, which would seriously impact their user XP-erience, I would suggest that they install a wallpaper that is lower in file size and resolution. For instance, .bmp files are generally quite large in size, and may take more resources to display.
    4. Be very careful about the fonts you remove from the Fonts folder, since some fonts may not be needed by you, but may be used by the system, or associated programs.
    5. I agree with the first post, which questions the application of BootVis to speed up Windows XP.
  • Anonymous
    I agree about the fonts-- I removed most of them and suddenly in the windows title bars I get wingdings instead of text. But as for bootvis:
    http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/bootvis/
    "I'm not sure what kind of game they are playing but the "Bootvis.exe is not a tool that will improve boot/resume performance for end users." is a blatant untruth. From what I understand, Windows XP runs the routines that Bootvis does every 3 days (isn't it strange that all 4 machines showed improvements even though XP is supposed to be doing this by itself?). That may be all well and good but suppose I want to put my machine in a optimized state NOW (especially if I want a clean and optimized Ghost image)? For MS to say it will not improve boot times is ....ridiculous. They may not have created this tool for end users, but it does work."
  • Anonymous
    .....heh
    well i will try this if i ever use windows xp, until than, i guess this list is useless, unless any of it applies to SuSe and KDE
  • Anonymous
    Sure would be nice to quantify the improvements... some may not be worth much...
  • lachdanan
    man..this is cool..but i's like ''how to tweak XP for dummies''..
    y hope you to postanother guide...wich is more difficult to do..but will have his great reward..
    and plizz...put the links...or at least the versions of the programs that you used...
    thxs anyway
    see ya!
  • hudz
    what does happen if virtual memory is set way off the recommended (1:1.5). Something like (1:2 / 1:3)? Does computer has any trouble with that?
  • Anonymous
    I ran BootVis the other day -
    before:- [boot + driver delays] - 49.82 seconds to boot completed
    after:- [optimize system] - 15.24 seconds to boot completed
    but it still takes TO a minute for my other stuff to load & my Anti-Virus to finish the
    boot-time scan
    It is definitely faster to boot !
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