Windows XP Tips
Keep a tidy hard drive
The more space you have free on your hard drive, the faster your computer can run. You need space to defragment files and to use for virtual memory. Keep at least between 700Mb and 800Mb free. Get rid of all the crap on your hard drive, THEN defragment it. Use the Windows utility 'Disk Cleanup' to clear internet cache files, temporary files and other rubbish. Other utilities I recommend are EasyCleaner 2 from Toni Arts, WinDoctor and Disk Doctor ( both part of Symantec's Norton Utilities), Ad-Aware from Lavasoft and a-Squared from Emsisoft.
Clear your system restore points
If your PC is set to creat system restore points automatically, your hard drive can soon fill up. When your PC is working well, open up the System Restore utility and choose System Restore Settings. Select 'Turn off System Restore in all drives' and click Apply to delete all of your System Restore points. Now create one restore point manually.
Virtual Memory
Set the paging file for your virtual memory to a fixed size as it will be less likely to slow your system down. Check the memory your programs and applications need in the 'Total Commit Charge' within the Task Managers performance tab. Add 32Mb to the amount shown and use this. In System Properties' Advanced tab, choose Performance, Settings, Advanced and beside Virtual Memory, click Change. Change the Paging File to Custom size, with the Initial and Maximum size the same amount. Never change the figure to an amount smaller than is currently allocated.
Visual Effects
Windows picks the various effects that it thinks your PC can handle. You can turn off these effects to make Windows work faster. In 'Display Properties', click the Appearance tab and then the Effects and Advanced buttons to enable or disable the various effects.
Icons and wallpaper
Lots of desktop icons slow things down as they use up system memory. Personally, I have only the Recycle Bin on my desktop, that's it. Desktop wallpaper can slow things down too, especially if it's animated.
Faster browsing on the internet
If your pc is a on a network, Windows XP will scan all the connected pc's for scheduled tasks. This slows down your network speeds. To stop the pc from doing this you need to delete an entry within the Windows registry. Click START / RUN and type regedit to open the registry editor. The entry you need to delete is:
D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF
This is within HKEY_LOCAL MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace
Delete that entry and web pages should load faster.
Faster access to the internet
In Internet Explorer, click on Tools/Internet Options/General and click on 'Use Blank' under Home Page. With that set you wont have to wait for a home page to load before you start surfing the internet.
You can also type in the web address you want into the Start/Run box and you wont have to wait for your browser to open at all.
To be continued...