Some Basic PC Tips
How to Make Windows Start Up Faster:
Lighten the Load:A typical PC loads a lot of programs every time it starts. Each of the icons in your system tray (the area near your clock) represents an auto-start application. And there are probably other programs on your machine that start automatically but don't make their presence known so easily. Each autoloading app slows your boot time--a little or a lot. And because most of them continue to run in the background, they rob you of a little performance.
Before you start eliminating auto loaders, though, make sure you can undo your changes. In Windows XP, Select Start, All Programs,Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Select Create a restore point, click Next, call your restore point something like before removing auto loaders, and choose Create. Click Close once you've created the restore point.
In Windows Vista, select Start, Control Panel, System. Under 'Tasks' on the right side of the window, click System Protection. In the System Properties box that comes up, click Create at the bottom of the window. XP users should now select Start, Run, type msconfig, and press <Enter>. (In Vista, select Start, type msconfig into the Search box, and press <Enter>.) Click the Start up tab, and you'll see a list of all your auto loading programs, each with a check box. Unchecked an item, and it will no longer load at start up.
Chose ur Auto loading Apps:
Which applications should you leave checked so that they continue to auto load? First and foremost, you don't want to operate without your anti virus, firewall, and other security programs. Yes, these programs slow your PC's boot-up and shutdown, and they can even cause conflicts, but the cost of not having them running is too high to bear.
For any other program in the list, use your judgment. Don't ask yourself "Is it a good program?" but "Does it need to be on all the time?" For instance, I unchecked Adobe Elements' Photo Downloader, a program that I use whenever I download photos from my camera, because it serves no purpose when I'm not downloading photos. On the other hand, I allow Copernic Desktop Search to autoload because it needs to index my data files continually.
After unchecking the programs that you don't need to auto load at start up, click OK and reboot. Windows will load with a very wordy message box that might look like an error message. Just check Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows starts (the wording is slightly different in Vista) at the bottom of the dialog box and click OK.
Windows Dusting and Cleaning
If an auto loader diet doesn't sufficiently accelerate your boot-up,try these tweaks:
Clean out the Registry. The larger your Windows Registry, the longer the OS will take to boot.My favorite Registry cleaner is Ccleaner, which is both a powerful Registry editor and a general Windows maintenance tool. If you don't want to pay to put things in order, this is the best and free software.
Use fewer fonts. Loading hundreds of system fonts takes time.If you have more than 500 fonts on your PC, remove a few. Sue Fisher's free The Font Thing utility will help you whittle your font selection down to size.
Add RAM. Faster hardware means faster boots (and shutdowns, and everything in between). There's no cheaper, more effective way to improve your hardware's performance than by adding RAM.
How to Remove Windows XP's Messenger:
Theoretically, you can get rid of it (as well as a few other things). Windows 2000 power users should already be familiar with this tweak.
Fire up the Windows Explorer and navigate your way to the %SYSTEMROOT% \ INF folder. What the heck is that thingy with the percentage signs? It's a variable. For most people, %SYSTEMROOT% is C:\Windows. For others, it may be E:\WinXP. Get it? Okay, on with the hack! In the INF folder, open sysoc.inf (but not before making a BACKUP copy first). Before your eyes glaze over, look for the line containing "msmsgs" in it. Near the end of that particular line, you'll notice that the word "hide" is not so hidden. Go ahead and delete "hide" (so that the flanking commas are left sitting next to one another). Save the file and close it. Now, open the Add and Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. Click the Add / Remove Windows Components icon. You should see "Windows Messenger" in that list. Remove the check mark from its box, and you should be set. NOTE: there are other hidden system components in that sysoc.inf file, too. Remove "hide" and the subsequent programs at your own risk.
How to make your Desktop Icons Transparent:
Go to Control Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance area > Settings button Visual Effects tab "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop"
Set Processes Priority
Follow this tip to increase the priority of active processes, this will result in prioritisation of processes using the CPU.
CTRL-SHIFT-ESC
1.Go to the second tab called Processes, right click on one of the active processes, you will see the Set Priority option
2.For example, your Run your CD writer program , set the priority higher, and guess what, no crashed CD’s.
Speed up your browsing of Windows 2000 & XP machines:
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/Remote Computer/Name Space
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.
Remove the Recycle Bin from the Desktop:
If you don't use the Recycle Bin to store deleted files , you can get rid of its desktop icon all together.
Run Regedit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/explorer/Desktop/Name Space
Click on the "Recycle Bin" string in the right hand pane. Hit Del, click OK.
How to Rename the Recycle Bin:
To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, open Regedit and go to:HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you want (don't type any quotes).
Make your Folders Private:
•Open My Computer
•Double-click the drive where Windows is installed (usually
drive (C, unless you have more than one drive on your computer).
•If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks,
click Show the contents of this drive.
•Double-click the Documents and Settings folder.
•Double-click your user folder.
•Right-click any folder in your user profile, and then click
Properties.
•On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that
only I have access to it check box.
Note
•To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.
•This option is only available for folders included in your user profile. Folders in your user profile include My Documents and its subfolders, Desktop, Start Menu, Cookies, and Favorites. If you do not make these folders private, they are available to everyone who uses your computer.
•When you make a folder private, all of its subfolders are private as well. For example, when you make My Documents private, you also make My Music and My Pictures private. When you share a folder, you also share all of its subfolders unless you make them private.
•You cannot make your folders private if your drive is not formatted as NTFS For information about converting your drive to NTFS.
How to use Windows Update Properly:
If you want to save your files to your hard drive, so after a format you dont have to download them all again, here's How:- Logon to Windows Update- Choose Windows Update Catalogue (left hand pane)- Choose Find updates for Microsoft Windows operatingsystems (right hand pane)- Choose your version and language then Search- Choose one the following:- Critical Updates and Service Packs- Service Packs and Recommended Downloads- Multi-Language Features (0)- Once chosen simply click on what you want to download and then back at the top click Review Download Basket- You are taken to the next page where at the top you can specify where the downloads are to be saved.- Click Download now. Each patch will make a directory under the root of the folder you saved them to.Once finished you need to go to where you saved the file (s) to and then simply install all your patches.
20 Tips to speed up your PC
1. Wallpapers: They slow your whole system down, so if you're willing to compromise, have a basic plain one instead!
2. Drivers: Update your hardware drivers as frequently as possible. New drivers tend to increase system speed especially in the case of graphics cards, their drivers are updated by the manufacturer very frequently!
3. Minimizing: If you want to use several programs at the same time then minimize those you are not using. This helps reduce the overload on RAM.
4. Boot Faster: The 'starting Windows 95/98' message on start up can delay your booting for a couple of seconds. To get rid of this message go to c:\ and find the file Msdos.sys. Remove the Read-Only option. Next, open it in Notepad or any other text editor. Finally, go to the text 'Options' within the file and make the following changes: Add BootDelay=0. To make your booting even faster, set add Logo=0 to remove the Windows logo at start up.
5. Restart only Windows: When restarting your PC, hold down Shift to only restart Windows rather than the whole system which will only take a fraction of the time.
6. Turn Off Animations: Go to Display Settings from the Control Panel and switch to the Effects Tab. Now turn off Show Windows Content While Dragging and Smooth Edges on Screen Fonts. This tip is also helpful with Windows XP because of the various fade/scroll effects.
7. Faster Start-Menu Access: Go to the Start menu and select Run. Now type Regedit and hit Enter. The Registry Editor will appear on the screen. Now, open the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. You should see a Menu Show Delay value. If you don't then do the following: right click on a blank space in the right pane and select New\String. Change the name in the new value to Menu Show Delay. Now that we have the Menu Show Delay value, double click on it and enter 0 in the value data field. This sets the start menu delay to 0 milliseconds.
8. Resolutions: If you are willing to do anything for faster performance from your PC, then try lowering your display resolution. The lower it is, the faster your PC.
9. Turn off Active Desktop: Go to your Display Properties and switch to the Web tab. Uncheck View My Active Desktop As a Web Page. Since the Active Desktop option under Windows 98 uses a lot of system resources, this option can have a dramatic effect on the speed of the whole system.
10. Defragment Often: Windows 98's Defrag tool uses Application Acceleration from Intel which means that when you defragment your drive, data is physically arranged on the drive so that applications will load faster.
11. Take your PC to Bed: Using the Advanced Power Management feature under Windows 98 gives you the option to use the sleep command. That way, you can send your PC to sleep instead of shutting it down and then restarting it. It's as simple as pressing a button and then pressing the same button to wake it up. You can tell Windows after how many minutes/hours of inactivity to automatically sleep the machine in the Advanced Power Management section of the Control Panel.
12. Faster Internet Access: If you use the internet for reference and the sites you visit are rarely updated then try the following. In IE (the same can be done in Netscape) go to Tools, Internet Options. Next, click on Settings... in the Temporary Internet Files section. Finally, select Never for the first option and double the amount of storage space to use, click OK!
13. Benchmarking: Benchmarking can be very useful when run frequently. It can tell you how your PC's components are performing and then compare them to other machines like yours. For example, when you overclock your PC, you want to know how much more speed you have and whether it is stable. All this and more can be discovered using benchmarking. An excellent piece of software for doing this job is SiSoft Sandra which can be found in the Downloads File Archive!
14. Refresh the Task bar without restarting: If you in some way change the task bar, either in Regedit or elsewhere, you can refresh the task bar without restarting. Hold down Ctrl Alt Del, and double click on Explorer. Say Yes to close Explorer, but no to closing Windows. This will refresh the Task bar and system tray.
15. Quick CD Eject: Instead of pushing the button on your drive, right-click your CD drive letter in My Computer and click on Eject. This will also remove any icons that have become associated with the CD drive.
16. Start Up Programs: Windows can be slowed down when programs run on start up. To eliminate this, check your Start up folder. You can access it from the start menu: Start, Programs, Start Up. Another way to eliminate programs from loading even before Windows actually starts is by doing the following: Click on Start, then Run. Type msconfig. It will take quite a long time for this program to load, but when you finally see it on your screen, explore the different tabs. They all have to do with how quickly your PC boots, so select what you want, and uncheck what you don't want!
17. Fonts: When Windows starts, it loads every single font in the Fonts folder. Therefore, the more fonts you have, the slower the booting process. To get rid of unwanted fonts, simply go to the Fonts folder under c:\windows and remove whatever you don't want. Fonts that have a red letter 'A' as their icon are system fonts, so don't delete them.
18. Stretching Wallpapers: Don't "stretch" your wallpaper in Windows 98 since it actually slows Windows down when you drag icons around on the desktop.
19. RAM Matters: If you have less than 32MB then you should seriously think of upgrading it to at least 64MB. Windows runs much more smoothly with 64MB or higher and tends to use less hard disk space for virtual memory.
20. Partitioning: A very nice little thing you can do to boost system performance. By partitioning your hard drive, splitting one physical drive into several logical ones, you can gain several advantages.
1. If you get a virus or you accidentally format a drive, not all will be lost.
2. By placing the swap file (Win386.swp) on a separate drive, The swap file will be less fragmented and thus, faster.
3. Place Windows on a separate drive and whenever you need to reinstall it, you rest assured that your data is safe on a separate drive. Partitioning can be done using a few programs such as FDisk which comes with DOS. However, FDisk formats everything on the hard disk before partitioning. Alternatively, you can use Partition Magic from Power Quest to partition your hard disk without losing your data.