10 Intermediate Ways To Speed Up Windows

Everton | Dec 05, 2005 | Comments


Tip: Click here to Improve Windows Speed & Performance with Free Scan

Update: If you are using Windows Vista then check out 10 Simple Ways To SpeedUp Windows Vista.

Given how successful my Simple Guide to Tweaking Windows XP has been I’ve decided to post some more complex tweaks. The effectiveness of each of these tweaks will vary from machine to machine.

I’ve tried to focus on tweaks that I’m confident can be made on any XP machine regardless of the individual setup. Please do not make any of these changes if you are not sure what you are doing, and remember to make backups first and good luck!

1. Disable Unnecessary Services
Because Windows XP has to be all things to all people it has many services running that take up system resources that you will never need. Below is a list of services that can be disabled on most machines:

  • Alerter
  • Clipbook
  • Computer Browser
  • Distributed Link Tracking Client
  • Fast User Switching
  • Help and Support – (If you use Windows Help and Support leave this enabled)
  • Human Interface Access Devices
  • Indexing Service
  • IPSEC Services
  • Messenger
  • Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
  • Portable Media Serial Number
  • Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
  • Remote Procedure Call Locator
  • Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
  • Remote Registry Service
  • Secondary Logon
  • Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
  • Server
  • SSDP Discovery Service – (Unplug n’ Pray will disable this)
  • Telnet
  • TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
  • Upload Manager
  • Universal Plug and Play Device Host
  • Windows Time
  • Wireless Zero Configuration (Do not disable if you use a wireless network)
  • Workstation

To disable these services:

  1. Go to Start and then Run and type “services.msc”
  2. Doubleclick on the service you want to change
  3. Change the startup type to ‘Disable”

2. Turn Off System Restore

System Restore can be a useful if your computer is having problems, however storing all the restore points can literally take up Gigabytes of space on your hard drive. To turn off System Restore:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Performance and Maintenance
3. Click on System
4. Click on the System Restore tab
5. Tick ‘Turn off System Restore on All Drives’
6. Click ‘Ok’

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Read Related Posts

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  3. More Ways To Speed Up Windows XP More Ways To Speed Up Windows XP
  4. 10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows Vista 10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows Vista
  5. 10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows 7 10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows 7



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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
    For number 4, you forgot to tell us what to call the new key.
  • Anonymous
    The missing key name is: NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate
  • Anonymous
    The last one, number 10, where you set the time to kill processes and services to 1000 ms (or 1 second) seems like a horrible idea !!!!
    I would strongly advice not to do this under any circonstance, it is not worth it !
    For instance, if you were working in a Word document and try to shut down your computer, you would get a message telling you to save your document before closing. But now, you would only have 1 second to save the document before Word gets killed and you lose your work !
    It is not worth it. I think.
    And, like the previous reader said, in number 4, you didn't specify the key name.
    Otherwise, this article is pretty interresting. I especially like the ConservativeSwapfileUsage thing. If it works, that would be terrific. I hate when windows uses the pagefile when lots of ram are still available, and windows does that often.
  • Jon
    My shut down and start up is crazy slow so i'd like to change this if even by a fraction but with number 10 i cant find the waittokillprocesses thing that was mentioned above
  • Anonymous
    Or instead of doing this, you can download an easy front-end with tune-xp.exe and do it all with a simple GUI instead of hunting through the registry. Just my two cents though.
  • Anonymous
    How well did you research this stuff? For instance, #7 only works on Windows 95/98/ME, it doesn't do a thing on 2000/XP.
  • Everton Blair
    Sorry -fixed typo's in #4 and #8. I'm pretty certain that Conservativeswapfileusage works in XP
  • Anonymous
  • Smoker's Area
    10 Intermediate Ways To Speed Up Windows
    Un bella lista di Tips per rendere WinXP molto più veloce e performante.
    http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/blog/_archiv...
    HtmlUnit tests with Eclipse and Ant
    http://www.baccoubonneville...
  • fio-nick
    Thought I would post and say thanks - since every other comment is a complaint. I was having problems with my XP system 'over-thinking'. When idle it would suddenly slow to a crawl ... I would consider myself intermediate (have enough knowledge to diagnose this stuff) and could not find the cause. My only out was to restart every time that happened (about twice/day). I've perfomed most of your tweaks and everything is much better - thanks.
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