Speeding Up Windows XP

Adjust "Visual Effects" for the "Adjust for best performance" option.

See the section entitled "Adjust visual effects settings" at

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=772

or

see "Step 3" at

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308417

If you have 1 gigabytes or more of RAM, adjust "Virtual Memory" for a "Custom size" with an "Initial size" and a "Maximum size" both to about 2.5 times the size of your total RAM plus or minus 500 Megabytes. Most 32-bit Windows Vista computers will limit your "Initial size" and "Maximum size" to 4095 Megabytes. If you do not have time to experiment with different ..size settings, just set both the "Initial size" and "Maximum size" to 4095 Megabytes for now.

See

See p.28 of the December issue of "Maximum PC" magazine

for some screen shots and additional advice.

If you have less than 1 Gigabytes of RAM, adjust "Virtual Memory" for a "custom size" with an "Initial size" and a "Maximum size" both to about 4095 Megabytes (~4 Gigabytes) minus the size of your total RAM (plus or minus 500 Megabytes).

For more details on fine-tuning your swap file to meet your specific needs, Ken Blake recommends that you follow the advice that was written by the late Alex Nichol. Nichol's excellent advice is located at

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

Click on <Start>, Click on <Run>, Type in

services.msc

Click on <Okay>.

Then follow the instructions at

http://www.ss64.com/nt/syntax-services.html

and

http://www.governmentsecurity.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=1480

Reduce menushowdelay value:

http://www.lancelhoff.com/adjusting-windows-xp-menu-show-delay/

Turn on "Conservative Swap File Usage" as described at

http://www.gilsmethod.com/optimize_swap_file

Perform additional tweaks described at

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/supertweaks.htm

and

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks1.htm

and

http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/2007/02/06/the-complete-guide-to-optimising-windows-xp/1/