Turbo charge your XP machine!

Right, as the thread title suggests, this is a small guide on how to increase the peformance of your system, read carefully and combine this with the tweaks that have already been posted here at Xtreme-Source to turbo charge your system!

So, let's get started, shall we?

Step One

*Use the disk defragmenter that your XP machine is pre equiped with, it does the job and great too so why pay for a branded utility that does the same thing and no better?

How to run the Disk Defragmenter in XP


Click Start > All Programs > Accesories > System Tool's > Disk Defragmenter




AND/OR Install a hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.


Step Two


* Install more RAM, to run Windows XP, your system need's to be at this requirement:

So, if your running a machine with 512 RAM installed, installing some more will make a dramatic increase is performance and stabilty, invest in more RAM and I promise you will never regret it, remember, thats a promise! :loveit: :loveit: :loveit:


Step Three


*Use the NTFS file system.

First, lets check what file you are using.


Go My Computer icon > right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties > Examine the File System type; if it says FAT32, your using a inferior file system, back-up any important data and convert to NTFS.


To convert to NTFS, go > Start > Run, type CMD in the open dailog box and then click OK.


At the comand prompt menu (the black Dos type one) type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key.


This could take a while so go make yourself a cup of tea and sit down for a bit, relax


(WARNING: Make sure PC is clean from viruses before doing this, run theese scans before the process and if need be, post a HJT log in the Windows Spyware and virus forums here at Xtreme-Source).



Online Virus Scans:

Trend Micro's House call

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Panda's Active scan

http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm

Bitdefender Online virus scan

http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

Symantec's security check

http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/d...d=ie&venid=sym

Macafee's free scan

http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp

F-secure scanner

http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml

Etrust Web Scanner

http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx

Kaspersky Anti-Virus: Free Online Virus Scanner

http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner.)[/color]




I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives, larger being anything above about 8GB. :smartass:






Step Four


*Disable file indexing.

Defintion of 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.

The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the file name of the document they want. Windows XP's built-in search functionality can still perform these kinds of searches without the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the time of the request to help find what the user is looking for.


I don't need this feature, its likely that its useless to you to.

People who have thousands of files located on one particular place will find this usefull, but if you're a typical user, you have no need for this search feature, I recommend disabling it.


How to disaple File Indexing in XP


Go > My Computer > right-click on the C: Drive > Properties > Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching."


Next, uncheck "C: subfolders and files," and click OK. Ignore all warnings given after this action, warnins liek "acess denied" etc.


Step Five

Upgrade:



*Graphic's/Video card drivers. (visit the manufacturer's site)


*Update the motherboards BIOS settings. (visit the manufacturer's site)



Step Six


*Use CCleaner!!


Probably one of the best freeware utility's, ever!


http://www.ccleaner.com/


Install, update, run...nuff saud.



Step Seven

*Enable DMA on all controller devices.


In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary and Secondary controller.


To do this, do the following:


Open the Primary IDE Channel > click the Advanced Settings tab > Make sure the transfer mode is set to "DMA if available" for both Device 0 and Device 1.

Do the same for the Secondary IDE controller.


Step Eight


*Clean your PC!!!

Run some of theese online virus scans on a regular basis.

Online Virus Scans:

Trend Micro's House call

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Panda's Active scan

http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm

Bitdefender Online virus scan

http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

Symantec's security check

http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/d...d=ie&venid=sym

Macafee's free scan

http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp

F-secure scanner

http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml

Etrust Web Scanner

http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx

Kaspersky Anti-Virus: Free Online Virus Scanner

http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner.)


Install, update and scan with:


Spybot S&D


http://www.safer-networking.org/


Ad Aware SE Personal


http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/



Step Nine


Remove uneeded startup services from staring up with windows.


Click Start > Run > type msconfig and click OK.


Click the StartUp tab, then uncheck any items you don't want to start when Windows starts.

If you aren't sure on what some of the entires are, try googling them or asking here at Xtreme-source.


Step Ten


Uninstall un-needed sofware from Add or remove programs under controll panel.


Step Eleven


In order to make XP run to its optimum, you need to disable the animations and "pretty thing's" it comes with...


To do this click on the System icon in the Control Panel> click on the Advanced tab > Select the Settings button located under Performance and play around with the options offered here.

(nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the computer, only its responsiveness).


Step Twelve


Visit Windows Update:

windowsupdate.microsoft.com/



Step Thirteen

The more fonts you have, the slower the system will become. While Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous versions of Windows, more than 500 installed will hurt the system.

Controll panel > switch to clasic veiw > font's.

Step Fourteen


Check the system's RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I recommend using a free program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will run 10 extensive tests on the PC's memory automatically after you boot to the disk you created. Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of the 10 tests are completed. If the program encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming you have more than one), and run the test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced.


http://www.memtest86.com/



Step Fifteen



If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer's Web site for updated firmware. In some cases you'll be able to upgrade the recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it's free!!!


A tonne can be found here:


http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php




Step Sixteen


Disable unnecessary services.

Start > run > type in services.msc and hit OK, google is your friend here, be very careful when looking at services!!

Step Seventeen


At least once a year, open the computer's cases and blow out all the dust and debris. While you're in there, check that all the fans are turning properly. Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks.

If you see somthing like this:

[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/RAVSAN%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg[/IMG]http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h148/rav009/jkasjkdf.jpg

Get cleaning!!!!

The Final Step

Apply theese tweaks:

Make Your Applications Load Faster...Much Faster

http://www.xtreme-source.com/showthread.php?t=1005

How to Disable Unnecessary Services

My Memory Card has currupt data I can't delete. How Do I format it?

Post Speed Up Your Memory Performance

Halo 3: 3 Part Signature

How to Optimize Your Hard Drive

http://www.xtreme-source.com/showthread.php?t=994

Make Windows XP Boot Faster

Xbox fried

Increase Hard Drive Speeds in XP

http://www.xtreme-source.com/showthread.php?t=933

Simple tweaks

http://www.xtreme-source.com/showthread.php?t=112

And my final tip, watch the post's here:

http://www.xtreme-source.com/forum.php

Theres always top info and guides availible for you to view once you register

And thats it, hope you enjoyed the info, if you follow the guide and perform all the tweaks, you WILL notice a difference in performance

__________________
Ex-Moderator
Proud Supporter of Xtreme-Source!

Also,try to limit all that's stored on the OS partition. Say you have a 120gig hard drive for your OS,make a partition of about 40-60gig for the OS and the rest for storage. This will help not only in the case of a reformat (having an extra partition will let you backup data before the format) it will also limit the amount of data that the OS has to go through all the time when you have to defrag or refresh.

Things like games can sometimes be installed on a seperate partition also,making the OS thinner as well.

Little things like limiting shortcuts helps a little too. If you have 100 shortcuts on your desktop...everytime you goto the desktop your machine has to refresh all those shortcuts and folders.

__________________
[SIGPIC]http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/6458/signaturexr5.png[/SIGPIC]

Very Very nice guide rav009. I'd like to throw my opinion out about the Anti-Virus...I personally think that BitDefender is one of the best around. Yes their are other to fit the needs of the user, but I've taken a liking to BDPro.

Keep up the good work man!

Yup, valid point Punqewe, I'll keep adding to this guide when I see info that is worth adding so keep it comming.

And cheers, tECh, more to come, I'll keep adding to it like I said before, So if thing's go as planned, this will be one heck of a guide.



*Now I'm off to surf the net for more info to add to this guide*

__________________
Ex-Moderator
Proud Supporter of Xtreme-Source!

a nother good thing to do is to use system mechanic 6 pro, it helps you out a lot.

__________________
[SIGPIC]http://www.xtreme-source.com/../../....ine=1164651764[/SIGPIC]

woh RAV !
this is gr8!

this shud be a sticky
btw how much of this stuff is risky? i dont want to be doin nothing too risky!

I agree...so it is done!!!

__________________
[SIGPIC]http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/6458/signaturexr5.png[/SIGPIC]

Defrag (Step 1) should be the last step you do when doing a system cleanup.

Your just going to fragment the drive doing all of those scans/ccleaner/removals of apps so doing the defrag first is just a waste of your time.

hmm so hwo come its not a sticky yet?;-)

it actually was when I posted that....dunno what happened. [fixed]

__________________
[SIGPIC]http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/6458/signaturexr5.png[/SIGPIC]