23 Ways to Speed Up Windows XP
Feeling too slow to run stuff on Windows? You should. However you can find ways to speed it up as well. Carey Holzman over at TechBuilder has 23 Ways on speeding up your windows. Some of them are pretty obvious, but some of them are pretty good tips. Here are some examples:
4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a “searchable keyword index.” As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system.
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6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can “prefetch” portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That’s fine. But over time, the prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance, by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire contents are safe to delete.
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22.) If you’re sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab. Scroll down to “Launch folder windows in a separate process,” and enable this option. You’ll have to reboot your machine for this option to take effect.
23 Ways to Speed Up Windows XP - [TechBuilder]
Update: Carey Holzman notified us on the original article. Removing all the references on TechYogurt.com
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Comments
Blake Handler says on October 14th, 2005 at 3:09 pm
Your article is entitled “23 Ways to Speed Up Windows XP” – and while it contains a great deal of wonderful sound advice, but not all of it correct.
1 & 2) YEP. Your advice to upgrade your computer’s hard drive and increase its memory should be followed. Adding more memory is probably THE best advice!
3) YEP – don’t use FAT, use NTFS it’s the fastest, and most secure
4) YEP Disable file indexing. Agreed – this just makes your hard drive spin all the time. . .and rarely makes searching faster!
5) NOPE. Updating the software on the actual computer’s hardware (aka firmware, BIOS) can actually be pretty risky. If not done correctly, it can render your computer “useless”. Updates to your firmware is usually for stability, or adding functionality – it is seldom for a performance upgrade.
6) NOPE. Empting the Windows Prefetch folder MAY make things to appear to load faster, but only on bootup – that’s it. . .it does not make your overall performance faster.
7) YEP. Actually, let’s take your good advice – and add it to your automatic scheduler!
9) NOPE. Unless you’ve built your own computer – or upgrade from regular IDE to Utlra IDE – there is NO reason to changes cables. . .and there is NO increase in speed.
10) A BIG YEP! Spyware will cripple your computers speed!
11) NOPE. The MSCONFIG utility is for troubleshooting NOT speeding up your computer. And while it is true that removing unnecessary programs that run on StartUp will increase the speed of your computer – MSCONFIG is really for Windows 98, you are supposed to use “services.msc” in Windows XP
12) SORTA. Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel make the bootup faster, but only marginally once the computer is running.
13) YEP. Fancy graphics are a resource hog – turn them off.
14) SORTA. Most powertoys from Microsoft usually make it easier to ADD stuff rather than remove it!
15) NOPE but SORTA. Updates rarely make your computer run faster. But I’m NEVER going to disagree with this point!
16) SORTA. Keeping your AntiVirus updated doesn’t make your computer faster – but NOT getting infected with a Virus sure does!
17) YEP BUT. It’s true that too many fonts can slow down a computer – but be warned, there is NO way to know which documents will be affected with you remove fonts. Be careful!
18) NOPE. But the issue of partitioning is too long for a paragraph – but it’s not a function of “speed”, but rather “stability”.
19) NOPE. Windows XP manages memory just fine, see your recommendation #1. Purchase more memory!
20) DOUBTFUL. I’ve seen it, but that is such a rare case, that my position is noted in #9
21) YES. This is sorta like #11 – and unfortunately the Black Viper is “off air” (again)
22) NOPE HUH? Nice tip – but changing Explorer’s view it doesn’t really make your computer run faster.
23.) NOPE. Again a nice tip – but blowing out dust, doesn’t really make your computer run faster
Total Score:
Yes = 9
No = 10
Sorta = 4
Carey Holzman says on October 16th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
Just so you know, the 23 Ways to Speed Up XP article posted at TechYogurt.com is a cut-and-paste plagiarized copy of my original work at http://www.techbuilder.org/recipes/59201471
Sincerely,
Mr. Carey Holzman
Co-host: http://www.computeramerica.com
Author: The Healthy PC (McGraw/Hill)
Author: Smart Computing magazine
Author: CMP Media’s http://www.techbuilder.org
Carey@ComputerAmerica.com
http://www.careyholzman.com
Leon says on October 16th, 2005 at 1:57 pm
Thanks, Carey. All the links and references are linked to TechBuilder now.
Andrew says on July 8th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
The following are Myths:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/.....Myths.html
1. Myth the built-in defragmenter does not fully defragment your drive.
6. Complete Myth, the author does not understand prefetching. Prefetching does NOT slow down boot times, it improves them.
14. Many more Myths at that site
22. Myth that will slow your system down if explorer is crashing something is wrong that needs to be fixed.