Is your windows XP starting up slow? tweak it

Yes..i have exams and i still have time to do something like this..im sick of studying and somehow everything else seems more interesting..

Anyways, by tweaking the registry and the task scheduler for the system tray in the taskbar, my startup and running has been quicker.

The one i found that made most difference and has no risk at all if you follow instructions is tweaking the windows prefetcher.. dont be afraid.. its kinda easy


Tweaking the windows prefetcher.
By adjusting this, it assigns more resources to the system to prefetch application data during the startup of windows.

first open the run window by holding down (windows key + R)
key in "regedit" in the open field
Then click OK.
Then browse your way through the directory tree to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters]

Once you get to that directory, you will be able to see a file named "Enable Prefetcher".
Double click it, and a window will come out with fields for a value name and a value data
Change the value data to 5, the preset setting was 3, change it to 5. Dont change the base settings, let it remain in hexadecimal. Click Ok and close the window. Restart your system and notice the difference.

Verdict - Extremely fast windows startup times (Jc, i really recommend you do this to speed up your startup)

Removing unwanted background programs in the system tray

This removes all the stupid irritating program running in the background that is sucking up the system resources. If you can't remove those programs manually at the bottom right of your screen by right click and setting it not to start up when the system starts(called system tray),
this is what you can do to get rid of it once and for all manually

Windows key + R
In the open field - key in "msconfig"
a window will then popup
click the Startup tab
uncheck all the stupid irritating programs that always sucks up your resources at start up
becareful to only uncheck programs that you know and which is the one you want to remove.
do not remove any system files.

Verdict - Starting up at faster speeds, remove stupid programs irritating at startup.


There are other things you can do, but i think these 2 are the simplest and the most effective.

Other tweaks i have done, remove thumbnail cache
This is kinda tricky and you have to follow carefully and you might screw up..so proceed with caution from the site link. How does this improve your system speed? when you have a folder full of videos or pictures, windows xp stores all those picture in cache and it may take up lotsa memory, and system cache is important so it rather be storing some other important files than thumbnails. So by editting this, the system only opens the thumbnail when you open the folder and its not preloaded.

Verdict - Slightly faster system performance, if you have lotsa images and vdos, i think it will make more difference to you



For a full explanation and guide go to
http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/sgp-tweaks.ars