Hi, I just wanted to know what changes you make to a generic Windows Installation.
I don't mean installing DirectX, drivers and progs or whatsoever only changes one would make to System files.

I'll start with a few examples:

*MSconfig.sys: Deactivate everything, but ScanRegistry and LoadPowerProfile.
*MSDOS.sys: Logo=0
*Win386.swp: Set Max and Min to the amount of 3 x Installed RAM in MB.
(Right click My Computer / Properties / Performance tab / Virtual Memory)
* Deactivating Auto Insert Notification
(My Computer / Properties / Device Manager / CD-ROM, choose the drive, click Properties, then the Settings tab, and remove the checkmark from Auto Insert Notification.)
* Win.ini: Load= Run= (meaning blank after "=")
* Autoexec.bat and Config.sys: Rename them, if you don't encounter any problems you can safely delete them.
* Reduce the color depth: by right clicking the Desktop / Properties / Settings. "High Color (16 bit)"

I think that's about it.
Please don't post any of those convenience tips (like "one-click-shutdown" and so on).
c u

Hi man.
Reduce to 16bits and delete autoexec? No way for me (I need good graphics and azerty keyboard support)! What I do:

Delete the "Applog" folder and "common files" folder (empty since the french "fichiers communs" is used instead)
Turn off those useless "Schedule tasks".
Use a small start menu.
I probably forget a lot of things...

Not much. An IE-free Windows 95 install is as good as crap-free and I'm not really into tweaking system files and internal stuff. However, recently I found and used some good stuff thanks to MDGx and Nathan Lineback:

MSDOS.SYS: BootDelay=0 (default in Win98, in Win95 the default is 2)

Registry: MenuShowDelay -1
I have always been clicking submenus to open them, so doing this made sense, and stops other submenus from opening out of the blue.

Registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop\WindowMetrics
Create Shell Icon BPP string, set to value 16. Now you have 256-colour icons in Windows 95 without the Plus! Pack!

I have done a lot of things.
I have packed in 1.300 files into win98se from winme, replaced the win98se shell with win95b therefore removing all ie integration, I have killed it with the so called me2xp utility even though i used all instructions and yeah it wucked up the media player.
oh i also used 98 sp1.
basically its still not as good as winme.
i have done the above to winme wucked up mp9, shell swap, removed system restore ive also put qemm97 on it and for windows both os's page to disk so much less but winme still has better memory management no matter what i pack into 98se it still has less tcp connections etc.
win98se is so fast on my p4 and ive used advanced config on firefox to obtain up to 50 connections to the web at once and omg it makes anything else suck eggs.
Seriously don't try the utility me2xp it is crqap and will kill mp9. period.

I'v done much of what you did ManiacOtaku, except deleting Autoexec.bat and the color depth (why do you do that if you have good graphics?).

+replaced Notepad by an alternative one (Metapad) (I did so long before uSP2.1 included metapad)
+replaced Calc by another one (finaly wrote one myslef)
+replaced Explorer by Xplorer2 (well not realy replaced, but notusing it anymore)
+deleted all Netscape and AOL references in registry and files (quite a big work if you ask me)
+Added Eppie
+Created and Added BigOpenBox (see my site on my sig)
+Added Maxthon (I know the new religion tells you to install Firefox, but I like maxthon even if ituses the IE core)
+Mounted up a virtual ramd disk for all the temp files, Caches and stuffs that I don't need on the long term
+Left only the "Show desktop" shortcut in Quick Launch (very useful)

and maybe other things I forgot...

Religion? Yeah, there are a lot of Firefox advocates, but here is the core idea: any browser but IE-based ones. Why? Insecure, and has bad support for web standards, even promoting the use of non-standard ones (what do you think those coloured scroll bars and ActiveX are?). When you use IE, you're holding the web back and causing a lot of grief to web developers who have to keep their sites compatible with IE because of its browser user share.

I'm sorry for this off-topic post, but I can't stand this kind of ignorance/undeserved bashing.

This is the only thing that I make it my business to do

MSCONFIG -> Startup -> Uncheck everything except Load Power Profile.

I'm not bashing Firefox.
I'm just saying that I feel good with Maxthon (which is safer than plain IE). Displays well so far.

Yes, safer. But not as safe as a real browser, Maxthon is just a shell.

Of course it displays well, IE is still the dominant web browser, so everyone has to make their sites compatible with it, which leads to a lot of headaches. Please be respectful and switch to a browser that doesn't use the IE engine.

Look at http://www.seamonkey.be/ (which I didn't bother to get to display fine in IE6), and tell me if it displays well. It won't.

First thing I do is move the taskbar at the top of the screen and auto-hide it.
One of the first things I do on a fresh install is disable Recycle Bin and remove it from the desktop. Then I replace the My Computer icon with a blank one and rename the shortcut to a blank non-printable character (ALT+0160).
I set my Logitech mouse's middle button to double-click, install TweakUI 1.33, Mike Lin's StartupCPL 2.8 and CodeStuff Starter and disable unnedeed startup items, optical drives' autorun and other available tweaks.
I also add the following lines to autoexec.bat (can't disable it, it's needed for regional and keyboard locale):
@deltree /y c:\windows\cookies
@deltree /y c:\windows\history
@deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1
@deltree /y c:\windows\temp
@md c:\windows\temp
There are other registry tweaks I perform, such as maximize icon cache, HDD read-ahead cache, CD-ROM cache, disable Low Disk Space warning and so on.

Why would you want to do that?

Heh, I thought that was a new feature of WinXP.

Why would you want to do that?
Because I don't use it, and it's ugly. Usually I have no icons on my desktop whatsoever, although sometimes I create some text file to paste temporary info.

Heh, I thought that [disable Low Disk Space warning] was a new feature of WinXP.
It may be, but I'm talking about Win98SE here. There's no way XP would ever make it on my machine.

Oh and my browser is SlimBrowser, an IE front-end. Has been for about 5 years, IIRC, and will be as long as I use Windows. It's my choice, whatever others may say.

Using the IE engine is like raping the Internet (and indirectly, its developers).

Hey-ho.
thx for the comments.
plz don't start one of these "which browser is the best"-threads. it's annoying and absolutely off-topic.

@ drugwash
right-click your desktop. properties -> effects "hide symbols when displaying as a website" has the same effect.
when I started this thread I meant something like

"There are other registry tweaks I perform, such as maximize icon cache, HDD read-ahead cache, CD-ROM cache, disable Low Disk Space warning and so on."

plz state exactly what you mean and how it is done. thx

Well, the above-mentioned tricks are known around and can be found on MDGx' site. There's quite a bunch of them, just pick the ones you need. Do you really want me to post them here?

What were you reffering to, regarding the "hide symbols when..." ? I never use Active Desktop or View desktop as a web page and AFAIK removing My Computer icon from the normal desktop may lead to unpredictable results.

I'm not. Any browser but IE-powered ones.

Reading what Drugwash is doing to his OS, I can say that there are poeple doing wierd things on their computer.
Why disabling the dustbin? Never have to restore any item?

People got used to doing things - sometimes very stupid things - just because they are aware of the "safety net" offered by the Recycle Bin function and they just don't care that much. "No problem, it's in the garbage; I can bring it back".

Well, I think I became much more responsible since giving up the "safety net", as it forces me to think twice and also mind my clicks, before doing anything dangerous. Maybe that's why my Win98SE system has been in place for more than 2 years without any major revision, while most people I know reinstall their OS every 6 months if not more often. It's been only 2 years because old HDD crashed at that time. And that machine has been used mostly for testing alpha software - crashes, instant reboots, freezes requiring RESET have been the daily menu for all this time.

Put registry into the control panel, along with tweak ui. This is c_regedit.cpl

Then I guess you have an "Undelete" software icon on your desktop instead.

Because I can't imagine someone deciding to throw a system file in the dustbin...

There is no "undelete" software installed on my machine whatsoever. That'd be just a different kind of safety net, which is unacceptable (for me).

drugWash, I was kidding...
I'm just wondering how you do without recycle bin... do still press Shift+Del when you are 100% sure you want to delete the file? How psychologicaly this affected your computer life... Is it like a yoga or something?
Do you consider yourself an "uber geek" or a "high tech masochist"?
You realy NEVER need to undelete anything or do think "my fault anyway, should have known before"?

I use XP now but i used to do the following in ME and 98:

MSDOS.SYS:

BootDelay=0
Logo=0
DblSpace=0
DrvSpace=0


Disable all Win Sounds and also SwapFile if RAM is +512 MB.
Disable unneeded things in BIOS like COM and LPT ports.

th

I like to have a logo, it gives the machine some personality.

Monsieur Fred, I see you're still in the mood for jokes. I'm not trying to prove anything and certainly do not want to drive this thread off-topic.

Regarding permanent file deletion, I got used to it by using Total Commander which has the option to always delete files permanently. I like to have control of my system and not the other way around. Used to run Win95 on a 486 with max 528MB HDD, so hunting for free space was in the daily menu. I needed to know exactly how much free space I got after deleting unneeded files, but I always hated using keys with Windows. TotCmd allows me to do 99.8% of the operations only with mouse clicks, permanently deleting files included.

So I guess old habits die hard. That's all.

P.S. Please try not to mock my (nick)name, as it has absolutely nothing to do with what you're trying to imply. Thank you.