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MASTER TUTORIAL: Make Your Windows Super Fast


Vishal Gupta

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Guys!

This tutorial is meant for increasing the performance of Windows XP, either it can be a fresh installed windows or an old windows. :)

Actually these r some tips/tricks, which I always apply whenever I do a fresh installation of windows. So here I'm sharing many of those tips-n-tricks:

1.) First I'll tell some Registry tricks, which can be applied without any problem or doubt and I believe these tricks will surely help in increasing the performance of your windows. Copy the following code in Notepad, save the file with name "Vishal.reg" (including quotes) and then run the file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Copy To]
@="{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Move To]
@="{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\DosHere]
@="Command &Prompt Here"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\DosHere\Command]
@="%windir%\\System32\\cmd.exe /k cd \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\Shell\DosHere]
@="Command &Prompt Here"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\Shell\DosHere\Command]
@="%windir%\\System32\\cmd.exe /k cd \"%1\""

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"Link"=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"AutoEndTasks"="1"
"HungAppTimeout"="1000"
"MenuShowDelay"="8"
"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="2000"
"LowLevelHooksTimeout"="1000"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoLowDiskSpaceChecks"=dword:00000001
"ClearRecentDocsOnExit"=dword:00000001
"NoRecentDocsHistory"=hex:01,00,00,00
"LinkResolveIgnoreLinkInfo"=dword:00000001
"NoResolveSearch"=dword:00000001
"NoResolveTrack"=dword:00000001
"NoInternetOpenWith"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="2000"

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer]

2.) Right-click on Desktop and select Properties, Now in the new window goto Appearance tab and click on Effects button. Now in the new opened window uncheck the following options:

a.) Use the following transition effect for menus & tooltips.

b.) Show shadows under menus.

c.) Show window contents while dragging. (you may remain this option checked as I hv in my screenshot. It depends upon ur choice.)

d.) Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts. You may select "Standard" for this. I hv selected "Clear Type" coz I hv a TFT, it doesnt work properly for CRT monitors.

image2cj1.jpg

3.) Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Properties (or press <WIN> key + <Pause/Break> key), now goto Advanced tab in new window and click on Settings button in Performance section:

image3st2.jpg

Now uncheck all the options in Visual Effects, but u can remain following options checked acc. to ur choice:

a.) Show window contents while dragging.

b.) Smooth edges of screen fonts.

c.) Use common tasks in folders (If u use the left side pane in My computer, I don't use it.)

d.) Use drop shadows on icon labels on the desktop. (to make the desktop icons label transparent.)

e.) Use visual styles on windows and buttons. (If u use XP themes.)

image4rs5.jpg

4.) Open Tools -> Folder Options and click on View tab:

image5yk3.jpg

Now uncheck following options:

a.) Automatically search for network folders & printers.

b.) Display file size information in folder tips.

c.) Display simple folder view in Explorer's Folders list.

d.) Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color. (I don't use this option.)

e.) Show pop-up description for folder and desktop icons.

f.) Use simple file sharing.

Other remaining options are totally based upon user's requirements, they usually don't affect the performance! So u can enable/disable them acc. to ur requirements.

5.) Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Manage. Now goto Services & Applications -> Services. Here you can set many services to Manual, which u don't want to start as soon as the windows starts. Following is a thread, in which I posted a small tutorial for knowing about which service should be set to MANUAL and which should be set to AUTOMATIC:

Windows XP Services that can be Safely set to MANUAL

6.) Start -> Run and type msconfig, now goto Startup tab and uncheck the entries, which u don't want to start automatically with the windows, like u can get display settings utility entry there, and many more.

7.) Open Sound & Audio Devices in Control Panel (or type mmsys.cpl in RUN), goto Sounds tab and select No Sounds in Sound Scheme section. Or u can remain some of ur favorite sounds there but set Exit Windows, Start Windows, Windows Logoff, Windows Logon to (None).

8.) For more options/tips-n-tricks for better performance, u can use TweakUI, Tuneup Utilities 2006 and gpedit.msc (Windows XP Professional built-in tool)!

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6.) Start -> Run and type msconfig, now goto Startup tab and uncheck the entries, which u don't want to start automatically with the windows, like u can get display settings utility entry there, and many more.

Do not disable services via MSCONFIG, always use SERVICES.MSC. By disabling service via MSCONFIG, you can render your machine useless. You cannot do this via SERVICES.MSC, so this is much safer. You claim that your tips make Windows "super fast", but not all changes which you apply have that result; best is to disable all visual enhancements for instance.

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  • 2 weeks later...

^^ Of course. Here is a small description of each registry trick mentioned above: :)

Adds "Copy To" option in context menu:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Copy To]

@="{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"

Adds "Move To" option in context menu:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Move To]

@="{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"

Add "Command Prompt Here" in context menu of folders:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\DosHere]

@="Command &Prompt Here"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\DosHere\Command]

@="%windir%\\System32\\cmd.exe /k cd \"%1\""

Add "Command Prompt Here" in context menu of drives:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\Shell\DosHere]

@="Command &Prompt Here"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\Shell\DosHere\Command]

@="%windir%\\System32\\cmd.exe /k cd \"%1\""

Remove "Shortcut to..." Prefix on Shortcuts:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]

"Link"=hex:00,00,00,00

Following tweaks helps in making the shutting down process faster:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]

Automatically End Task of Hung application:

"AutoEndTasks"="1"

Specify the Response Time for Hung Applications:

"HungAppTimeout"="1000"

Makes the menu opening faster:

"MenuShowDelay"="8"

Specify the time to wait before ending task of hung application:

"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="2000"

Setting a low value (in milliseconds) means that if the hooked program does not respond within timeout period, one that has set the hook would not become unstable or go in infinite wait but would kill itself saving windows resources and improving performance.

"LowLevelHooksTimeout"="1000"

Following tweaks makes system faster:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

Don't prompt that you are on low disk space:

"NoLowDiskSpaceChecks"=dword:00000001

Clear recent documents/applications history while exiting windows:

"ClearRecentDocsOnExit"=dword:00000001

Doesnt store recent documents history:

"NoRecentDocsHistory"=hex:01,00,00,00

Disable Automatic Network Shortcut Resolution:

"LinkResolveIgnoreLinkInfo"=dword:00000001

Disable Comprehensive Search for Broken Shortcuts:

"NoResolveSearch"=dword:00000001

Disable Tracking of Broken Shortcut Links:

"NoResolveTrack"=dword:00000001

Doesnt prompt you to search the required application on Internet, when you select "Open With" for opening a file:

"NoInternetOpenWith"=dword:00000001

Speed up shutdown:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]

"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="2000"

Speed up Network Browsing by removing Network Scheduled Tasks:

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer]

I Hope I cleared all things. ;)

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No offence to you guys but this one is nothing special, there are better guides available.

Most of the reg tweaks listed won't improve performance in any way, but a few of them will, somewhat.

Adding descriptions to the tweaks was good though, may help some people.

Edited by DL.
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Do not disable services, ever.

Why not??

It's easy to enable the services again so why not have a try?

But you should do some research first and test it thoroughly. If you run into problems with Windows (depending on the type) and have disabled some services you should try enabling some of them as one of the first things you do.

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Do not disable services, ever.

I do it all the time. Through trial and error I figured out which ones should never be disabled. The rest are fine.

I tend to stick away from Remote Procedure Call and all its dependencies. Otherwise, you won't be able to use the computer.

BTW, if done properly you can gain some extra ram and a bit of 'speediness' out of the system. The older the PC, the greater the difference.

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Good Guide Vishal! im sure lots of people will find it helpful :thumbup

thanks

Thanks buddy. :)

No offence to you guys but this one is nothing special, there are better guides available.

Most of the reg tweaks listed won't improve performance in any way, but a few of them will, somewhat.

Adding descriptions to the tweaks was good though, may help some people.

Thanks for your comments. ;)

Do not disable services, ever.

I completely agree with you. One should always set a service to "MANUAL" instead of Disabling it. If the OS needs a service, it can start the service if its set to Manual but if its disabled, there will be problem. :)

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I do it all the time. Through trial and error I figured out which ones should never be disabled. The rest are fine.

I tend to stick away from Remote Procedure Call and all its dependencies. Otherwise, you won't be able to use the computer.

BTW, if done properly you can gain some extra ram and a bit of 'speediness' out of the system. The older the PC, the greater the difference.

I agree, disabling services will give you a bit smoother Windows experience in more than one way. We're not talking huge improvements but enough to justify doing it. You won't see much of a difference in actual benchmarks, but general usage will be quicker. Services also have quite an impact on startup times, but disabling the wrong ones may have the opposite effect.

It requires some testing to find the right services configuration for your needs, it's different for everyone. I know what I need personally, but I'm a lot more careful when disabling services for others. It depends on which hardware and software you use, the more additional peripherals you use the higher the risk of problems because of disabled services.

Always read up on each service you disable to hopefully avoid more common problems.

You cannot disable Remote Procedure Call from the services manager, so no problem there.

If a service is set to MANUAL and still starts at every boot you should rather set it to AUTO, that way Windows won't have to ask it to start and thereby saving some time.

Limiting the number of active processes (by removing items from autostart) is also crucial for performance, for XP you should have no more than 20-30 processes before you open any other programs. And those numbers are to be considered absolute maximums, keeping the active processes below 20 is recommended (I have less than 15). You can even get down to around 10 when you want to maximize free memory (make a script to temporarily stop some of the services).

For Vista those numbers are a bit higher, I haven't played around with it that much but you should at least be able to get below 30.

@Vishal Gupta: Having a graphical tutorial like this one may be quite useful for beginners; connecting the reg setting with an image of the same setting in the GUI (including a short description of what it actually means) would be a good idea. But it will require a lot of work to do it.

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I tried this and must say not good well, the registry tweaks. Because I don't have a really fast internet connection, but prior to the reg. tweaks I was at about 3800kb/s after the reg. tweaks you provided it knocked me down to about 823kb/s. The visual tweaks worked very well though.

Wondering if anyone else had that problem?

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