run -> msconfig - Hit Enter
Awesome tricks Explained here for u Free! :
Whenever
you start your computer, you are faced with a few moments of thumb
twiddling while Windows XP boots and prompts you to log on. Although
you should expect to wait for a few moments, sometimes Windows XP seems
to boot rather slowly. In fact, you may notice that over a period of
time the PC that used to roar to life seems a bit sluggish instead.
Fortunately, you can perform several techniques that help Windows XP
get the bootup speed you want. This Article explores how to put these
techniques to work.
Stopping Unneeded Startup Services !
Along
with the core operating system and programs that Windows XP runs when
it starts, there is also a host of services involved. Many of these
services are necessary for Windows XP to operate correctly. However,
many of them are for features in Windows XP that you may not use at
all. You can peruse the services and disable any service that you do
not want to run. The fewer services that run, the more quickly Windows
XP will boot.
Caution:
Exercise caution when stopping
services. If you do not know what a service does or are unsure of the
ramifications of stopping the service, leave it alone. Some services
are critical to Windows XP's operations, so make sure you understand
what the service is before you disable it.
To reduce the
number of services that start on bootup, you can access two different
areas of Windows XP. The first is the System Configuration Utility. The
Services tab shows you the services that start when the computer boots.
You
can stop a service from starting by simply clearing the check box next
to the service and clicking OK. However, before you do so, there is
another way to disable services that you may prefer because the
interface gives you more information about the service in question.
Open
Control Panel/Administrative ToolsServices or else select Start/Run,
type services.msc, and click OK. Either way, you see the Services
console.
I prefer to use the Services console instead of the System
Configuration Utility because it describes what the service does.
Additionally, you can double-click a service and examine its properties.
Notice
the Startup Type column in Figure 4-2. This information lists whether
the service is automatic or manual. Manual services are only started in
Windows XP when you start a process that requires the service. Some
other process may require the service that has a "dependency"
relationship with it; in this case, the dependency service will start,
as well. Because these services do not start automatically when you
boot Windows XP, you do not need to do anything with manual services.
However,
all services listed as automatic start when Windows XP boots. These are
the services that increase boot time. As I have mentioned, many of them
are necessary and important, so you should not stop automatic services
from booting unless you are sure of the ramifications. You can get this
information by looking at the Description column. Here's a quick look
at common services you may want to live without:
SPEED UP BOOT BY DISABLING UNUSED PORTS.!!
You
may have tried many tweaks like modifying windowsXP start-up
applications, prefetches, unload DLLs method,etc. And yes those methods
do work for me.
I have just accidentally found out another way to
give you an extra boost in windowsXP's boot performance. This is done
by disabling your unused devices in
Device Manager. for example, if
you don't have input devices that are connected to one of your USBs or
COM ports, disabling them will give you an extra perfromance boost in
booting. Go to Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab ->
device manager Disable devices that you don't use for your PC and then
restart.
Do Dis !!
1.Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2.Locate the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters
3.Make sure you backup the keys by exporting them to a .reg file.
4.On the EnablePrefetcher value, change the setting from 3 to 5 (decimal).
5.Close the registry editor.
6.Restart your computer
Automatic Updates !
This
service enables Windows XP to check the Web automatically for updates.
If you don't want to use Automatic Updates, you can disable the
service. You can always check for updates manually at the Windows
Update Web site.
Computer Browser: If your computer is not on a network, you don't need this service. If you are on a network, leave it alone.
DHCP
Client: If you are not on a network, you do not need this service. If
you are on a small workgroup, you can still increase boot time by
configuring manual IP addresses (which I explore later in this chapter).
DNS Client: If you are not on a network, you do not need this service. If you are, leave it alone.
Error
Reporting and Event Log: You don't have to use these services but they
can be very helpful, so I would leave them configured as automatic.
Fax: If you don't use your computer for fax services, you can disable this one.
Help
and Support: If you never use the Windows XP Help and Support Center
(found on the Start menu), you can disable this service.
IMAPI CD-Burning COM: This service enables you to burn CDs on your computer. If you never burn CDs, you can disable the service.
Indexing
Service: Your computer keeps an index of files but if you rarely search
for files, the service is just a resource hog. You can stop it and turn
the service to manual.
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing: If you do not use these features, you can disable them.
Infrared Monitor: If you do not use infrared devices, you can disable this service.
Messenger:
This service sends alert messages on a local area network (it is not
the same as Windows Messenger). If you are not on a network, you can
disable this service.
Print Spooler: If you do not do any
printing from the computer, you can disable this service. If you print,
make sure you leave it as automatic.
Remote Registry: This
service allows remote users to modify the Registry on your computer. If
you are not on a network, you can disable this service.
System
Restore Service: This service allows you to use System Restore. If you
have turned off System Restore anyway, you do not need to turn off the
service. If you do, you turn off System Restore.
Themes: If you do not use themes, you can disable this service.
Windows Image Acquisition: If you do not use scanners or digital cameras, you can disable this service.
Wireless Zero Configuration: If do not use wireless networking devices, you can disable this service.
You
may have a number of other automatic services, depending on software
and other configurations on your computer. So it's a good idea to look
through the services and learn more about them. If you double-click a
service, a Properties dialog box appears
Notice that on the General
tab, you see a Startup Type drop-down menu. If you want to change an
automatic service to manual, select Manual here and click OK. As a
general rule, don't disable a service unless you are sure you will
never use it. However, manual configuration allows the service to be
started when you find it necessary, thus speeding up your boot time.
However,
before you change a service to manual, look at the Dependencies tab
(see Figure 4-4). This tab shows you which other services depend upon
the service you are considering changing.
Keep in mind that services
are necessary for the vast functionality you get with Windows XP.
Change only those services that you understand and do not use. How you
use your Windows XP computer should be the best guide in terms of
optional startup services.
Tip !
The Indexing
service and the System Restore service take up a lot of disk space and
system resources across the board. You can live without the Indexing
service but I suggest that you keep using System Restore. It works
great when you are in a bind and this is one case where the loss of
speed may not be worth the ramifications of not using System Restore.
Speed Tips and Tricks for Windows XP Startup
Aside
from startup programs, services, and the Prefetch folder, there are a
number of other startup procedures and issues you can modify to help
Windows XP start faster. The following sections explore those tips and
tricks.
Manual IP Addressing on Small Office/Home Networks
Windows
XP is configured to help you take care of networking. It uses the
TCP/IP protocol for networking in workgroups, or what you might call
small office or home networks that do not use a dedicated server.
The
problem is that automatic IP addressing can be slow. When your computer
boots, it has to query the network to see what IP addresses are already
in use and then assign itself one. If you want to speed up the boot
time a bit, consider manually assigning IP addresses to all computers
on the network. This way, the network computers do not have to worry
about locating an automatic IP address. Because one is manually
configured, the operating system doesn't have to spend time solving
this problem.
This isn't a networking book, however, so I won't
delve into the implications of using a manual IP address, but if you
are using a computer that functions as a host computer to the Internet
(using Internet Connection Sharing [ICS]), you can get into
connectivity problems if you change the configuration of the IP
address. However, you can still work around this problem by starting
with the ICS host computer.
Select Start/Connect To/Show All
Connections. Right-click your network adapter card and click
Properties. On the General tab, select TCP/IP in the list of services
and click the Properties button.
In the TCP/IP properties, you
can see if you use an automatic or manual IP address. In the example in
Figure 4-5, I have configured a manual IP address of 90.0.0.1 and a
default subnet mask. The other computers on my office network each use
a different IP address in the same class, such as 90.0.0.2, 90.0.0.3,
90.0.0.4, and so on. This way, each computer has a permanent IP
address, which helps increase boot time. Note that if you change the IP
addresses of your computers, they must all use the same subnet mask. A
default subject mask of 255.255.255.0 will keep you in good shape.
Make
sure you understand the implications of changing IP addresses on your
network. If you have no networking experience at all, you may be wiser
to leave the automatic IP addressing as is and try to gain some speed
using the additional suggestions in this chapter.
Disabling Recent Documents History !
Windows
XP includes a feature that keeps track of all recent documents you have
opened or used. The idea is that you can select Start/Recent Documents
History and quickly reopen any document you have recently used. I use
many documents each day and never use the feature myself. In my
opinion, I can keep up with what I want to use without Windows XP doing
it for me.
The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that
Windows XP has to calculate what should be put there each time you boot
Windows, which can slow things down. So, if you never use the Recent
Documents History, it's a good idea to disable it. Here's how:
1. Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK).
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mcft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
3. Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it once it is created.
4. Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction.
5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the change to take effect.
Disabling the Boot Logo !
You
can remove the boot logo that appears when you start Windows XP. This
little tweak probably shaves only a few seconds off your boot time but
seconds count if you are serious about trying to get Windows XP up and
running as quickly as possible. The only negative is that if you remove
the boot logo, you will also not see any boot messages, such as check
disk. (But if you are not having problems with your computer, this
isn't such a big deal.)
To remove the boot logo, follow these steps:
1. Select Start/Run, type msconfig, and click OK.
2. In the System Configuration Utility, click the BOOT.INI tab.
3. On the BOOT.INI tab, click the NOGUIBOOT check box option. Click OK.
Removing Unwanted Fonts !
One
trick that increases your boot time a bit is to lose any fonts in the
Fonts folder in Control Panel that you never use. The more fonts you
have, the more processing Windows XP has to do to prep all of those
fonts for use. You must be a bit careful here to not remove fonts that
you might want, but there is a good chance that you can live without
many of them. For instance, you may have foreign language fonts and
other symbol fonts (such as Wingdings) that you never use.
To delete unneeded fonts, follow these steps:
1. Open the Fonts folder in Control Panel.
2. Select Edit/Select All and then Edit/Copy.
3. Create a new folder on your desktop, open it, and select Edit/Paste.
4. In this new folder, delete any of the fonts you do not want.
5. Return to the Fonts folder in Control Panel. Right-click the selected fonts and click Delete.
6. Go back to your new desktop folder and click Edit/Select All.
7. Return to your Fonts folder and click Edit/Paste. You now have only the desired fonts in the Fonts folder.
Tip:
You
can directly delete fonts from the Fonts folder without creating the
secondary folder. However, I recommend the preceding steps to help
ensure that you do not make a mistake in the deletion process.
Stopping Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Sharing !
In
Windows XP Professional, you have two remote networking features called
Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Sharing. These remote networking
features are very helpful in a variety of situations but if you don't
use them, it is good idea to disable them to save boot time. You can
always enable them later if you want to use them.
Note:
If you
are interested in using Remote Desktop or Remote Assistance, see my
book Windows XP for Power Users: Power Pack published by John Wiley
& Sons.
1. Open the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and choose Properties.
2. Click the Remote Tab.
3. Clear both check boxes to disable Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop.
Speeding Up the Dual-Boot Timeout !
If
you dual-boot your computer with Windows XP and another operating
system, you see an operating system selection menu on startup. If you
typically boot into Windows XP and not the other operating system, you
can speed up the dual-boot timeout value so that you do not wait so
long for the boot process to select your default operating system and
continue with the boot process. The default timeout value is 30 seconds
but you can change this setting to 10. This gives you enough time to
select the alternate operating system if you want but also speeds up
the boot process. You can skip this section if you do not use a
dual-boot configuration.
Follow these steps:
1. Locate the boot.ini file on your computer. It is a hidden file by default; mine is located in C:\boot.ini.
2. Open the file with Notepad (which is what opens it by default).
3. Change the Timeout value to 10 (see Figure 4-11).
4. Select File/Save and close Notepad.
Speeding Up Your PPPoE Connection !
If
you use a Point-to-Point Protocol connection over Ethernet (PPPoE), you
may notice a delay in using the PPPoE connection after startup. By
default, there is a 120 second delay but you can stop this behavior by
manually configuring an IP address for the network adapter card. If you
do not use a PPPoE connection, you can skip this section.
1. Select Start/Connect to/Show All Connections.
2. Open the TCP/IP properties for your LAN network interface card.
3. Manually set the IP address on the TCP/IP properties to an appropriate IP address and subnet mask for your network.
Reducing the Wait Time
When
you start to shut down Windows XP, it has to quit, or "kill," any live
applications or processes that are currently running. So close all
applications first. However, some applications and processes are always
running in the background. You can reduce the amount of time that
Windows XP waits for those applications and processes to close before
Windows XP kills them. Edit three different Registry settings to change
this:
1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Select WaitToKillAppTimeout and set the value to 1000.
3. Select the HungAppTimeout value and set it to 1000 as well.
4.
Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. Set the
WaitToKillAppTimeout and set the value to 1000. Select the
HungAppTimeout \newline value and set it to 1000 as well.
5.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control. Select
the WaitToKillServiceTimeout value and set it to 1000.
6. Close the Registry Editor.
Automatically Killing Tasks on Shutdown !
You
know the drill. You start to shut down the computer, you wait a few
moments, and then you see a dialog box asking if you want to kill an
application or service that is running. Instead of prompting you, you
can make Windows XP take care of the kill task automatically. Here's
how:
1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.
3. Highlight the value AutoEndTasks and change the value to 1.
4. Close the Registry Editor.
More
Here's a great tip to speed up your browsing of Windows XP machines.
Its actually a fix to a bug installed as default in Windows 2000 that
scans shared files for Scheduled Tasks. And it turns out that you can
experience a delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared
files across a network because Windows 2000 is using the extra time to
search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks. Note that though
the fix is originally intended for only those affected, Windows 2000
users will experience that the actual browsing speed of both the
Internet & Windows Explorers improve significantly after applying
it since it doesn't search for Scheduled Tasks anymore. Here's how :
Open up the Registry and go to :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current
Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace Under that branch, select the
key : {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF} and delete it. This is key
that instructs Windows to search for Scheduled Tasks. If you like you
may want to export the exact branch so that you can restore the key if
necessary. This fix is so effective that it doesn't require a reboot
and you can almost immediately determine yourself how much it speeds up
your browsing processes.
