Myths and facts about computer tweaking
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Also, check this article about optimizing your Windows.
HARDWARE
* Turn on all BIOS optimizations. Overclocking will bring you little extra performance (1-10%)
- upgrade your BIOS (if necessary)
- enable the CPU cache
- disable video caching
- enable Write combine
- enable DMA
- Increase your CPU clock/multiplier with 1-10% slowly (one notch per day). If the computer become unstable, turn it back one notch.
- Increase memory speed with 5-20%
- Increase the bus speed with 2-5%
- increase all voltages with 0.1V
- Google the string "how to over clock xxx" where xxx is your mainboard’s name
Note: cheap mainboards (especially those based on VIA chipsets) may not support all those settings.
* You think you need a new computer? Try firs to buy more RAM. You will be amazed how things will change.
Windows XP will barely boot on 128MB RAM. It will crawl on 256.
512MB will be somehow acceptable if you use the computer only to check the email and play music.
Now 768Mb (256+512) is awesome. 1GB is madness. You will not see big improvements over 1GB unless you open 4-5 huge applications at the same time.
* Set screensaver to 5 minutes to save energy and COOL OFF the computer while not used. Set the monitor to automatically turn of after 15 minutes of inactivity. Set the hard drive to 30-45 minutes.
DRIVES/PARTITIONS
* make sure you use the right IDE cable for your hard drive. Is a total waist to use an old UDMA 33 cable with a UDMA 133 brand new drive.
* Defrag your hard drive every 1-5 days, depending on how much you add/delete/move your files. It may sound outrageous to defrag your disk daily, but if you do it, it will take 2-5 minutes to finish. If the disk if not defragmented daily, it may take 30-600 minutes to defrag it. You do not need fancy software, Microsoft Defrag is enough.
* Turn off those damn themes and skins.
* If you have two drives, put them on different IDE cables. A drive performs better when it is alone on the cable.
* Set your page file (also called sometimes wrongly called swap file or virtual memory) to manual instead of auto. Why is better on manual? Because it will not get fragmented. If it is
set to auto, Windows will increase/decrease its size as needed. This will fragment the page file a lot. In addition, the allocation process is slow.
If the size is fixed, all those problems disappear BUT you may face a new problem: to find the optimum size for your computer.
A huge file (like 1.5 GB) will be a little bit more difficult to maintain while a small page file (50-100MB) will give you ‘Out of memory’ errors. Try a value of:
800MB if you have less than 512 MB
600MB if you have enough RAM (512 MB)
500MB if you have more than 521MB
* Defragment your page file. Use 'PageDefrag for Windows NT/2K/XP' by Mark Russinovich (www.sysinternals.com)
* If you have two drives, move your operating system on the fastest one.
* Reinstall Windows XP at least once per year. If it is Windows 95 or Windows 98, do it even often.
* Switch to NTFS instead of FAT/FAT32. NTFS is faster in some cases and slower in others. However, for sure it is 100000 time more stable. I never lost files since I moved to NTFS.
* Set to cluster's size to a bigger value (bigger than 4 or 8KB) for the partition where Windows is installed. This will waist up to 5-15% of partition space BUT it will improve drive's speed.
* Install Windows on the first partition on disk. The beginning of the hard drive is always faster than the end of the disk (up to 10-30%).
* Make sure that Ultra-DMA is ON for all drives including the CD-ROM
* If you have two drives, move your swap to the secondary drive, EVEN if it is slower than the drive where Windows is installed.
Windows and software
* Run Tweak UI to access hidden settings in Windows
* Uninstall .Net if it is installed.
* Install all Windows updates and services packs (but not .Net)
* Install the latest drivers. This may bring lot of speed to your computer.
* Don't let any pig software (like Corel) to install more than 50 fonts in your computer. Fonts are always loaded in memory and soon will eat all free memory.
* Don't waist your time with software that pretend to clean your registry. You will get exactly 0.0% performances. Your registry may have between 40 and 150MB (when saved in 'REG' format). The 'registry optimizers' deletes at most 5-10K. Do the math and see how much represents these (in percents):
almost 0%. Nada!
Run Microsoft's RegClean instead. Anyway, it will still bring no big deal improvements. Maybe this is why they abandoned this program.
* Use BootVis to make Windows to load faster. This can decrease Windows' load time (boot) with 30-200%.
* Use PerfMon (c:\Windows\system32\perfmon.exe) to watch your system performances.
* upgrade your software
NETWORK
* Run this REG files to increase your network access speed. This will help ALOT !
Speedup net browsing1.reg
Speedup net browsing2.reg
SERVICES
* You ever used the Indexing service? What? Never? I thought so. Turn that damn thing off. Your drive will start to run free like a lamb in the spring.
* Turn off all un-needed services. At least 60% of them are useless. If you do not have a network/Internet connection then you can turn of even 80% of them. This will free lot of memory and sometimes a little bit of CPU. Windows will load much much faster.
* Use CompMgmt to turn off all unnecessary services. (c:\windows\system32\compmgmt.msc). Check this web site about how to turn off unnecessary services or see this page: www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
SECURITY
* Don't use Internet Explorer ever, in order to protect yourself against viruses and malware. Better, delete it.
* Turn off 'Remote xxx' services (like Remote registry).
* Turn off DCom. Use DComBobulator for this (www.grc.com)
* Turn off that damn Microsoft Windows Messenger. This is the biggest security hole in your system. Even if it looks off and dead, actually it works in background invisible as a service. Kill it (put is to Disabled) or use ‘Shoot the messenger’ by www.grc.com
* Turn off the UPNP service unless you really need it. You don’t know what UPNP is? Then it means you don’t need it/use it so just turn it off. Use ‘UnPlug n’ pray’ to kill it (www.grc.com)
* Disable any antivirus program that is running in the background. Turn it on OLNY when you bring new files in your computer. Poor antivirus software like Symantec NAV cannot' be turned off. Even if they look to be off, they are still in memory as services. Uninstall it and get a decent antivirus like Kaspersky.
* Disable any firewall. Even if they announce you every 5 seconds that somebody attempted to access your computer, they do actually nothing. It is really really really difficult (if not impossible) for somebody to enter in your computer and to get full access over it. Microsoft Firewall will be enough. If you have a router/NAT then you have a hardware firewall and you do not need to install any other firewall software. A hardware firewall is the best in the world and is safe 100.1%
* Disable any anti-spyware software. Use them manually only once/twice per week then turn them off.
* Do not install video codec packs. Install only and only the needed codecs (MPG2, DivX 5 or DivX 6, RealTime Alternative, Quick Time Alternative)
* Set the refresh rate at minimum 75 Hz. This is critical for you eyes. A refresh of 70Hz or lower will damage your eyes in less than 3-4 years. A refresh of 80-85Hz will be great. Higher than 90-95Hz will bring no further improvements. If you monitor is not able to work at 75Hz just throw is away. Is time for a LCD. This is not a joke! Protect your eyes!
GAMES
* Make sure you have the latest DirectX installed. This is critical for games.
* Turn ON 'Enabled write combining' in 'Control Panel -> Display properties -> Settings -> Troubleshoot'