Creating and marketing tuning and
customization utilities for the Windows XP operating system is
quickly becoming big business.
A Google search will turn up hundreds of
sites and programs dedicated to tweaking Windows XP. But no matter
what type of interface is developed to make system tweaking easier
and safer for the average user, the end result is that the changes
are reflected in XP by modifying the Registry. For some people,
commercial tweaking utilities might be the method of choice, but with
a few precautions and safeguards it's possible to
enhance system performance using only those tools supplied with
As you learned in Chapter 7, you can use the
Registry Editor to edit
the Registry. Make sure you take the precautions outlined in that
chapter and back up your Registry , no matter how comfortable
you are editing the thing.
No single tweak is going to take an ancient PC and turn it into a
gamer's dream machine. It's even
unlikely that a number of tweaks will achieve substantial performance
gains, but every little bit does help. As long as you keep your
expectations realistic, you'll learn something about
the Registry and hopefully see a performance increase in the process.
When XP first appeared, there was
a lot of conversation about the new interface, both good and bad. In
spite of the initial complaints, most users stick with the default
settings rather than reverting to the Classic interface found in
previous Windows versions. But you might want to change the delay you
notice when you click the Start menu. I see no reason for there to be
any delay when I click the Start menu. Effects are pretty, but I
wouldn't click it if I didn't have
business inside, so let's get it open and get
moving. The default speed can be adjusted with a quick Registry hack.
Go to the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel\Desktop\MenuShowDelay. The default value is
400. Set it to 0 to remove the
delay completely, but if you do that it will be nearly impossible to
move the mouse fast enough not to activate All Programs if you mouse
over it en route to your final selection. Pick a number that suits
your style, make the change, and then test it until you find a good
compromise between speed and usability.
Place Windows Kernel into RAM
It's a given that
anything that runs in RAM will be faster than an item that has to
access the hard drive and virtual memory. Rather than have the kernel
that is the foundation of XP using the slower Paging Executive
functions, use this hack to create and set the
a value of 1.
Perform this hack only if the system has 256MB
or more of installed RAM!
Edit the Registry key
Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive to
1 to disable paging and have the kernel run in RAM
(set the value to 0 to undo this hack). Exit the
Registry and reboot.
Alter Prefetch Parameters
(the reading of system boot files into a cache for faster loading) is
a commonly overlooked component that can have a significant impact on
system boot time. This tweak allows you to select which components
will make use of the prefetch parameters. To see which files are
gathered using each setting, clear the prefetch cache located at
C:\Windows\Prefetch and then enable one of the
settings listed in this hack. Clear the cache and repeat for each
Set the Registry key
0 to disable prefetching, 1 to
prefetch application launch files, 2 to prefetch
boot files, or 3 to prefetch as many files as
Disable 8.3 Name Creation in NTFS
use the 8.3 naming convention can degrade NTFS drive performance.
Unless you have a good reason for keeping the 8.3 naming convention
intact (such as if you're using 16-bit programs), a
performance gain can be achieved by disabling it.
Set the Registry DWORD key
to 1. Exit the Registry and reboot.