Operating System Tweaks

[MGadAllah]

The Tweaks on this post are found and collected by Me from all over the net

You may find some already have been told before but I just want to put them all in one place.

Use them at your own risk :whistle: !!!

I hope you find it useful :angel !!

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After the install of Windows XP do the following :

1) Turn off Hibernate and remove the Hibernate file from the root ( C: ) ( file is 300mb+ )

2) Turn off System Restore on ALL drives

3) Move the Pagefile to another drive like D:

4) Go into MSCONFIG and on the tab "startup" remove all the crap you do not need

5) Advanced Settings : see Below

Go to Start > Programs > Admin Tools > services

Double-click on the unwanted service to get the options for it

Click "STOP" to stop it if it is running

Change the start-up type from Automatic/Manual to DISABLED

The Following Services May Be Disabled :

• Alerter
  
• Clipbook
  
• Computer Browser
  
• Fast User Switching
  
• Human Interface Access Devices
  
• Indexing Service (Slows the hard drive down)
  
• Messenger
  
• Net Logon (unnecessary unless networked on a Domain)
  
• Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
  
• Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
  
• Remote Procedure Call Locator
  
• Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
  
• Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
  
• Server
  
• SSDP Discovery Service (this is for the utterly pointless "Universal P'n'P", & leaves TCP Port 5000 wide open)
  
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
  
• Telnet (disabled for extra security)
  
• Universal Plug and Play Device Host
  
• Upload Manager
  
• Windows Time
  
• Wireless Zero Configuration (for wireless networks)
  
• Workstation
  

6) Windows xp has the service shutdown time set to 20000 ms which equals 20 secs (no wonder it takes so long).

Go to regedit and change the key :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\WaitToKillServiceTimeout

I set mine to 0 ms and now i shutdown way fast. Experiment with the settings.

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Before we start tweaking, I recommend you set up a few things on your operating system.

Make sure you have Administrator privileges on the computer you are tweaking as some options may have been disabled for use by standard users. Also, there's ClearType. ClearType basically works to make text on your screen appear much clearer and readable

To turn ClearType on, just access your Display properties in Control Panel,

then click on the 'Appearances' tab. Then click the 'Effects...' button.

Tick 'Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts...' and change the listbox to 'ClearType'.

Then just click OK, Apply, and close down your dialogs.

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Tweak #1 - MsConfig

Most of you will be familiar with MsConfig, which is basically a built-in system configuration utility for Windows. Open it up by simply going to Start -> Run..., then type 'msconfig' in the box and press enter. Now, the tab we are interested in here is the 'Startup' tab...

This box displays all of the programs that will be started when Windows boots up. None of these programs are vital for Windows, so don't feel worried about removing some of them in experimentation. You can see from the screenshot that I have disabled both NDetect (ICQ's start-up program) and WinAmpa (WinAmp, obviously). Now, if you've unchecked some boxes, Windows should start up faster and will take less resources by not running these programs in the background.

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Tweak #2 - More Startup Tweakage

Now we're going to take the tweak above and go one step futher. Go to Start -> Run again, then type 'services.msc'.

This is a more detailed list of processes that are starting up with Windows. All those items with 'Automatic' listed next to their names are booting with Windows. Click on the items to find out just what they do. If you decide you don't need a certain service, you can simply right-click on it and change it's properties from 'Automatic' to 'Manual'.

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Tweak #3 - Speeding Up Internet Explorer

This is a handy little trick you can use with Internet Explorer 6 (which ships with XP) to make it boot up extremely fast - instantly, on my system . This should be familiar to those of you who have created shortcuts for Half-Life mods and the like. For those of you who aren't familiar, simply right-click on a shortcut to Internet Explorer (such as the one in the Quicklaunch bar) and add the parameter '-nohome' to the end of the command line.

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Tweak #4 - Menu Delays

Another minor and easy tweak to remove any delay from menus sliding out. For this you will need to use regedit (open regedit by going to Start -> Run..., then typing 'regedit' and pressing enter). The key you need to change is located in

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

. The actual key is called MenuShowDelay - all you have to do is change the value to 0. Remember, you will have to re-boot your computer for this tweak to take effect.

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Tweak #5 - GPEDIT.MSC And Autoplay

A great tweaking file that comes with XP is gpedit.msc. Go to Start -> Run... and then type in 'gpedit.msc' and press enter. This is effectively the Policies Editor, and it comes in handy often. For example, if you hate CD autoplay like I do and want to permanently disable it, you can use this tool to do so. Just run gpedit.msc, then go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System. In here you can see the value 'Turn Off Autoplay'. Right-click on it and then click 'Properties'.

Now you can simply play around with the settings for this and other values in these folders, customizing appearance and performance issues.

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Tweak #6 - Increasing Options In Add/Remove Menu

Not a fan of MSN Messenger? Don't want Windows Media Player on your system? Fair enough, but if you go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, by default none of Windows XP's 'built in' programs are visible. It's fairly easy to change, though... just open the file X:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf (where X: is the drive letter where Windows XP is installed) in Notepad. You should see a section of the file something like this:

[Components]

NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp40ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7
IEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,ieaccess.inf,,7

This is a list of all components installed at the moment. I've taken the example of MSN Messenger - the program entry called 'msmsgs', third-last line. You can see the word 'hide' highlighted - this is the string which tells Windows not to display the component in the Add/Remove Programs list. Fix this up by simply deleting the word 'hide' like so:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

To this:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7

Now, after restarting, you should be able to see MSN Messenger in the Add/Remove Programs list. If you want to be able to quickly view and remove all components, simply open the sysoc.inf file and do a global find and replace for the word ",hide" and replace it with a single comma ",".

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Tweak #7 - Disabling Windows File Protection

WARNING: Using this tweak means you will be able to delete vital Windows files.

Here's a quick tweak to be able to totally disable Windows File Protection, the system that prevent users from deleting system and program files. Simply find the key SFCDisable in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

and edit it to hold the value 0xFFFFFF9D.

If you want to re-enable File Protection, just re-set the value to 0.

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Tweak #8 - Automatically Kill Programs At Shutdown

Don't you hate it when, while trying to shut down, you get message boxes telling you that a program is still running? Making it so that Windows automatically kills applications running is a snap. Simply navigate to the

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

directory in the Registry, then alter the key AutoEndTasks to the value 1.

Note: the key 'AutoEndTasks' might not exist. If not, simply create it with a value of 1. To disable the AutoEndTask feature, simply change the value back to 0.

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Tweak #9 - Memory Performance Tweaks

There are several memory tweaks that can be performed with Windows XP - all of them are located in the

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

section of the registry.

Disable Paging Executive

In normal usage, XP pages sections from RAM memory to the hard drive. We can stop this happening and keep the data in RAM, resulting in improved performance. Note that only users with a large amount of RAM (256MB+) should use this setting. The setting we want to change to disable the 'Paging Executive', as it is called, is called DisablePagingExecutive. Changing the value of this key from 0 to 1 will de-activate memory paging.

System Cache Boost

Changing the value of the key LargeSystemCache from 0 to 1 will tell Windows XP to allocate all but 4MB of system memory to the file system cache, basically meaning that the XP Kernel can run in memory, greatly improving it's speed. The 4MB of memory left is used for disk caching, but if for any reason more is needed, XP allocates more. Generally, this tweak improves performance by a fair bit but can, in some intensive applications, degrade performance. As with the above tweak, you should have at least 256MB of RAM before attempting to enable LargeSystemCache.

Input/Output Performance

This tweak is only really valuable to anyone running a server - it improves performace while a computer is performing large file transfer operations. By default, the value does not appear in the registry, so you will have to create a REG_DWORD value called IOPageLockLimit. The data for this value is in bytes, and defaults to 512KB on machines that have the value. Most people using this tweak have found maximum performance in the 8 to 16 megabyte range, so you will have to play around with the value to find the best performance. Remeber that the value is measured in bytes, so if you want, say, 12MB allocated, it's 12 * 1024 * 1024, or 12582912. As with all these memory tweaks, you should only use this if you have 256MB or more of RAM.

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Tweak #10 - Speeding Up Share Viewing

This is a great tweak. Before I found it, I was always smashing my head against the table waiting to view shares on other computers. Basically, when you connect to another computer with Windows XP, it checks for any Scheduled tasks on that computer - a fairly useless task, but one that can add up to 30 seconds of waiting on the other end - not good! Fortunately, it's fairly easy to disable this process. First, navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace

in the Registry. Below that, there should be a key called {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Just delete this, and after a restart, Windows will no longer check for scheduled tasks - mucho performance improvement!

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Tweak #11 - Prioritizing Individual Processes

This is so simple it's not funny, but it leads into the next tweak... anyway, if you press Control+Alt+Delete, then click on the 'Processes' tab, you should get a dialog like the one above. You can see a list of all the processes running at the time. Now, if you are running a program that you want to dedicate more processing time to - eg, 3D Studio Max, as in my example, you can just right-click on the process, move your cursor down to 'Set Priority >', then select how high you want that program prioritized. While I'm checking my email, I might want a Normal priority for Max, but if I leave my Computer, I can increass it to 'RealTime' to get the most rendering done. Easy!

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Tweak #12 - Prioritizing IRQs

The last tweak for this guide - and a good one. The main components of your computer have an IRQ number assigned to them. With this tweak we can increase the priority given to any IRQ number, thereby improving the performance of that component. The most common component this tweak is used for is the System CMOS/real time clock, which improves performance across the board. First of all, decide which component you want to give a performance boost to. Next, you have to discover which IRQ that piece of hardware is using. To do this, simply go to Control Panel, then open the System panel (You can also press the shortcut of Windows+Break). Click the 'Hardware' tab, then on the 'Device Manager' button.

Now, right click on the component you want to discover the IRQ for and click 'Properties', then click on the 'Resources' tab.

You can plainly see which IRQ this device is using (if there is no IRQ number, select another device). Remember the number and close down all of the dialog boxes you have opened, then start up RegEdit. Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl

in the registry. Now, we have to create a new DWORD value - called IRQ#Priority (where '#' is the IRQ number), then set the data to 1. For example, the IRQ of my System CMOS is 8, so I would create the key IRQ8Priority.

Now, after restarting, you should notice improved performance in the component you tweaked. I would strongly recommend the CMOS, as it improves performance around the board. Also note that you can have multiple IRQ prioritized, but it is fairly inefficient and can cause instability. To remove this tweak, simply delete the value you created.

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Scandisk

It is now hidden.To use it Go to >my Computer>Right click on your hard drive Icon>Properties>Tools>Error-checking.

It works just like the old scandisk.

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WinXP Clear Page file on shutdown

Go to Control panel> Administrative tools> local security policy. then go to local policies> security options.

Then change the option for "Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile"

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Easy send to menu modification

first open - Xocuments and SettingsusernameSendTo (it is hidden) where X is your drive letter and username is your username make and delete shortcuts to folders at will

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Get rid of windows messenger

Start>Run>"gpedit.msc""

-Computer Configuration

-Administrative Templates

-Windows Components

-Windows Messenger

Here you can enable

"Do not allow Windows Messenger to be run"

and

"Do not automatically start Windows Messenger initially"

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Remove shortcut arrow from desktop icons

Here's how you can remove those shortcut arrows from your desktop icons in Windows XP.

1. Start regedit.

2. Navigate to

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTlnkfile

3. Delete the IsShortcut registry value.

You may need to restart Windows XP.

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One of the most full featured Windows XP configuration tools available is hidden right there in your system, but most people don't even know it exists. It's called the Local Group Policy Editor, or gpedit for short. To invoke this editor, select Start and then Run, then type the following:

gpedit.msc

After you hit ENTER, you'll be greeted by gpedit, which lets you modify virtually every feature in Windows XP without having to resort to regedit.

Dig around and enjoy!

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Easier way to display windows icons on desktop

Rightclick on the desktop and select "properties".

In the new "display properties" window, click on the "desktop" tab.

Hit the "customize desktop..." button at the bottom of the window.

Now you can select the icons you want.

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Enable cleartype on welcome login screen

Start regedit, if you are unfamiliar with regedit please see our FAQ.

Navigate to

HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTControl PanelDesktop

.

Locate the key FontSmoothingType.

Change the value to 2.

Restart

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Select theme and color scheme for welcome screen

Start regedit, if you are unfamiliar with regedit please see our FAQ.

Navigate to

HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionThemeManager

Locate the key NormalColor

Right Click on it and select modify.

Change where it says "NormalColor" to "Metallic"

Click Ok, and exit regedit

Restart

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Show file extensions

In any folder that contains files. Click on the tools menu and select folder options.

Then click on the view tab.

Locate where it lists Hide extensions of known file types and uncheck it.

Click OK

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Display "Internet Explorer" on the desktop

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.

Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows
CurrentVersionExplorerHideDesktopIconsNewStartPanel

Once there, locate

{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}

in the list on the right.

Right click on it and select Modify

Change the value equal to 0

Reboot your computer

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Windows 2000 style logon

To revert back to the Win2k style logon so you can log on as the administrator and other options, press ctrl+alt+delete twice

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Remove Shared Doc's from My Computer

Start regedit, if you are unfamiliar with regedit please see our FAQ.

Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows
CurrentVersionExplorerMyComputerNameSpaceDelegateFolders

.

Locate the key {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}.

Right click on it and select delete.

After a reboot is is gone!

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Turn off autoplay for CDs

Go to Start->Run->gpedit.msc

Computer Config -> Administrative Template -> System

Double clik Turn off Autoplay

Enable it.

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Show hidden files

In any folder that contains files. Click on the tools menu and select folder options.

Then click on the view tab.

Locate where it lists Hidden files and folders and select Show hidden files and folders.

Click OK.

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Remove "Comments?" Link from title bar

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.

Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop

Once there, locate LameButtonEnabled on the list on the right.

Right click on it and select Modify

Change the value equal to 0

Reboot your computer and the comments link will be gone!

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Speed up Internet Explorer 6 Favorites

For some reason, the Favorites menu in IE 6 seems to slow down dramatically sometimes--I've noticed this happens when you install Tweak UI 1.33, for example, and when you use the preview tip to speed up the Start menu.

But here's a fix for the problem that does work, though it's unclear why:

Just open a command line window (Start button -> Run -> cmd) and type sfc, then hit ENTER. This command line runs the System File Checker, which performs a number of services, all of which are completely unrelated to IE 6. But there you go:

It works.

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XP memory tweaks

Below are some Windows XP memory tweaks. They are located in the windows registry at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management

DisablePagingExecutive - When enabled, this setting will prevent the paging of the Win2k Executive files to the hard drive, causing the OS and most programs to be more responsive. However, it is advised that people should only perform this tweak if they have a significant amount of RAM on their system (more than 128 MB), because this setting does use a substantial portion of your system resources. By default, the value of this key is 0. To enable it, set it to 1.

LargeSystemCache - When enabled (the default on Server versions of Windows 2000), this setting tells the OS to devote all but 4 MB of system memory (which is left for disk caching) to the file system cache. The main effect of this is allowing the computer to cache the OS Kernel to memory, making the OS more responsive. The setting is dynamic and if more than 4 MB is needed from the disk cache for some reason, the space will be released to it. By default, 8MB is earmarked for this purpose. This tweak usually makes the OS more responsive. It is a dynamic setting, and the kernel will give up any space deemed necessary for another application (at a performance hit when such changes are needed). As with the previous key, set the value from 0 to 1 to enable. Note that in doing this, you are consuming more of your system RAM than normal. While LargeSystemCache will cut back usage when other apps need more RAM, this process can impede performance in certain intensive situations. According to Microsoft, the "[0] setting is recommended for servers running applications that do their own memory caching, such as Microsoft SQL Server, and for applications that perform best with ample memory, such as Internet Information Services."

IOPageLockLimit - This tweak is of questionable value to people that aren't running some kind of server off of their computer, but we will include it anyway. This tweak boosts the Input/Output performance of your computer when it is doing a large amount of file transfers and other similar operations. This tweak won't do much of anything for a system without a significant amount of RAM (if you don't have more than 128 MB, don't even bother), but systems with more than 128 MB of RAM will generally find a performance boost by setting this to between 8 and 16 MB. The default is 0.5 MB, or 512 KB. This setting requires a value in bytes, so multiply the desired number of megabytes * 1024 * 1024. That's X * 1048576 (where X is the number, in megabytes). Test out several settings and keep the one which seems to work best for your system.

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Disable unnecessary services to free system resources

Services are programs that run when the computer starts up and continue to run as they aid the operating system in functionality. There are many services that load and are not needed which take up memory space and CPU time. Disabling these services will free up system resources which will speed up your overall computer experience. I recommend that you sort through the list and read the descriptions to decide if you need that service depending on what you want to do with your computer. Remember, you can always turn the service back on if you find that you need it in the future. Below is the procedure to turn off a service.

Click the start button.

Select run from the bottom of the right column.

Then type services.msc in the box and click ok.

Once the services window has loaded we are ready to turn off unneeded services.

For instructional purposes we are going to turn off the Portable Media Serial Number service.

Find this service in the list and select it with the mouse.

Right click and select Properties.

Once the properties windows has loaded locate the Start up type drop down box and select disable.

Then just click ok and the next time the computer starts the service will not be loaded.

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Speed up menu display

When using the start menu the you will notice a delay between different tiers of the menu hierarchy. For the fastest computer experience possible I recommend changing this value to zero. This will allow the different tiers to appear instantly.

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.

Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop

Select MenuShowDelay from the list on the right.

Right on it and select Modify.

Change the value to 100.

Reboot your computer

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Disable unnecessary programs

Installing many programs on you computer can often clutter your registry with unnecessary programs running when your computer starts up. This will slow down your machine and take up memory.

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun

Once there, locate any entry's on the right. You can identify the program by the path to the executable. Find programs that you can live without starting up from the list.

Right click on them and select Delete

You may also want to navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRunonce and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun

.

Delete unnecessary programs.

Reboot your computer

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Enable or disable boot defrag

A great new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow for faster booting. By default this option in enables but on some builds it is not so below is how to turn it on.

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.

Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftDfrgBootOptimizeFunction

Select Enable from the list on the right.

Right on it and select Modify.

Change the value to Y to enable and N to disable.

Reboot your computer.

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Modify auto-reboot setting

Since Microsoft has worked so hard to make this version "the most stable ever," then this tweak is not needed. However, I am fairly sure that they have not perfected millions of lines of code in less than a year. Below you will discover how to turn the auto reboot feature on and off. This allows your computer to instantly reboot upon a system fault. (The blue screen)

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.

Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlCrashControl

Select AutoReboot from the list on the right.

Right on it and select Modify.

Change the value to 0 to disable and 1 to enable.

Reboot your computer

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Modify application timeout

The operating system has a set amount of time that a program must be frozen for before it is timed out. Often this number is set too high. But in some circumstances it is set too low. Depending on if the program is doing a lot of calculations in the background the computer may think that it is timed out. To prevent this increase the value of the timeout in the registry.

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.

Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop

Select HungAppTimeout from the list on the right.

Right on it and select Modify.

Change the value to the new timeout value.

Reboot your computer.

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Security: Do not save encrypted...

The latest versions of internet explorer include some great new security improvements. For this tweak I will talk about enabling the feature to not save encrypted files to disk. This is a valuable feature. When you connect to a site that is encrypted the data sent over the network is encrypted. Your browser has the key to decrypt and display the information. Why give someone a chance to crack the encryption. If you don't allow IE to save it to disk then it is nearly impossible for someone else to be able to get that file and use brute force to crack it.

Launch Internet Explorer.

Select the Tools from the menu bar.

Then select Internet Options... from the drop down menu.

Once the internet options has loaded click on the advanced tab.

Under security find where it says Do not save encrypted pages to disk and check it.

Click OK

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Disable home page to speed up launch

One quick way to speed up launching internet explorer is to not set a home page. By using a blank home page internet explorer does not have to use additional cpu time and uses the hard drive less. After all most of the time you want to go to a different site right away so it is not going to affect your productivity at all.

Launch Internet Explorer.

Select the Tools from the menu bar.

Then select Internet Options... from the drop down menu.

Once the internet options has loaded click on the general tab.

Under the home page section click the use blank button.

Click OK

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Security: Clear temp files on close

The latest versions of internet explorer include some great new security improvements. For this tweak I will talk about the feature that clear the temporary internet files each time you close internet explorer.

Launch Internet Explorer.

Select the Tools from the menu bar.

Then select Internet Options... from the drop down menu.

Once the internet options has loaded click on the advanced tab.

Under security find where it says Empty Temporary internet files folder when browser is closed and check it.

Click OK

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Change default pages for events

Internet explorer default pages for events such as navigation canceled, navigation failed, offline information, and blank page are stored in the registry. You can replace these pages with your own if you would like to customize Internet Explorer.

Start regedit, if you are unfamiliar with regedit please see our FAQ.

Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerAboutURLs

Modify the key values to the full path on the hard drive. C:page.htm

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Uninstall windows messenger

Microsoft has tried really hard to prevent you from uninstalling windows messenger. They failed to make it difficult enough because with the directions below you can get rid of messenger very easily.

Navigate to C:windowsinf

Open sysoc.inf

find msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7 in the file and take out the word hide so the line would look like msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7

Close the file and save it

Now go to the Add and remove programs applet in the control panel and you will be able to uninstall windows messenger.

Make sure to click on the add remove windows components button.

Note: You will be able to uninstall other unneeded programs by removing hide from the sysoc.inf file as well.

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Clear pagefile on shutdown

For added security you should always clear the page file upon shutting down your computer. Windows uses this file as extra ram. Lets say that you are working on a confidential MS Word doc. When you load this document it is loaded into ram. To save ram windows places certain items in the page file. The page file can then be opened and the document can be extracted as well as any other open program or files. However Microsoft has implemented a feature that will clear the page file but they do not have it enabled by default. Please note, this will slightly increase the amount of time it takes to shut down your computer but it is well worth it.

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.

Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management

Select ClearPageFileAtShutdown from the list on the right.

Right on it and select Modify.

Change the value to 1 to enable.

Reboot your computer

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Disable error reporting

One feature that I can do without is error reporting. Every time a program crashes I do not want to send a report to microsoft. Read below to find out how to disable this stupid feature.

Open Control Panel

Click on Preformance and Maintenance.

Click on System.

Then click on the Advanced tab

Click on the error reporting button on the bottom of the windows.

Select Disable error reporting.

Click OK

Click OK

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Display message on startup

If you would like to display a legal message or any other message in a pop-up window when windows starts read below:

Start regedit, if you are unfamiliar with regedit please see our FAQ.

Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon

Modify the key legalnoticecaption with what you want to name the window.

Modify the key legalnoticetext with what you want the window to say.

Restart.

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Turn off system beeps

If those beeps annoy you there is a way to turn them off

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.

Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelSound

Once there, locate Beep on the list on the right.

Right click on it and select Modify

Change the value equal to no

Reboot your computer and the beeps will be gone!

==========

Enable Hibernation

Click on the start button and select turn off computer. Then hold down the shift key and the hibernate button will be shown. Click it and your computer will enter into hibernation.

==========

Multi Boot tweaking

By modifying a boot.ini you can set your default OS or change the names of OS , how they appear in boot menu (i.e. You can change "Microsoft Windows Codename Whistler Proffessional" to "Microsoft Windows XP"). Additionally, you can change the amount of time the menu is displayed for and the default OS.

==========

Create a shortcut to lock computer

Right click on desktop and select new -> shortcut. Then copy and paste this in the program location box "rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation" Click next and enter a name for you shortcut and then click finish. Now you can copy and paste that shortcut anywhere you want on your computer.

==========

Use the group policy tool to restrict access

If you would like to play computer god and limit or control just about every aspect of your computer you can use a great tool called the group policy editor.

Click Start and select Run

Type gpedit.msc in the text box and click on OK.

The group policy editor will load. Navigate through the folders and you will discover hundreds of items that you can limit access to and control.

==========

CD Autoplay/auto insert notification Settings without regediting

The settings for autoplay and cd recording can be tweaked by opening explorer or my computer, right click on the cd-rom drive, then click properties.

More Tweaks Coming Soon !!!

Your feedbacks are much appreciated, and if you find any errors please notify, Thanks

[Tarun]

You don't want to disable Error Reporting or any services. That is how a majority of users break their computers or software/hardware they buy to use with it, then wonder why it does not work properly.

[babu]

Thanks for the tweaks.

[~Technane~]

Very concise list but you repeat yourself somewhat!

Never mind im just testign some of this

Tauran is Right dont disable error reporting or youl have a mare getign to the bottom of errors but hes wrong saying dont disable services as some you list "security related ones" I always disable..

does anyone really realise what remote registry means?

[Gorki]

3) Move the Pagefile to another drive like D:

This will not improve any performance by relocating pagefile to other partition on same HDD. Other than that I see no point moving it. But performance can increase if U relocate pagefile on other HDD different from one where you installed your OS

Nice guide.

[MGadAllah]

Tauran is Right dont disable error reporting or youl have a mare getign to the bottom of errors but hes wrong saying dont disable services as some you list "security related ones" I always disable..

does anyone really realise what remote registry means?

What do you mean, please clear it to me a little bit.

This will not improve any performance by relocating pagefile to other partition on same HDD. Other than that I see no point moving it. But performance can increase if U relocate pagefile on other HDD different from one where you installed your OS

Nice guide.

Thanks for this tip!

[JurgenDoe]

I disabled error reporting and I'm glad I did :thumbsup_anim:

[Wacky Chammomile]

:thumbsup_anim:

nice... looking fwd to hear more!!

[FrozenLuv]

you repeat yourself often but other than that, the guide is awesome! even though i already knew some of them

[cluberti]

3) Move the Pagefile to another drive like D:

Only if D: is actually on a different physical drive.

[*]Fast User Switching

Only if you don't want the welcome screen or to have multiple users logged in at once. Also note this won't work in Vista/2008, as this is now built-into winlogon itself.

[*]Human Interface Access Devices

Re-enable it if your USB devices start behaving erratically (or not at all).

[*]Server

Only if you don't want to host any file shares for other machines on your network.

[*]Wireless Zero Configuration (for wireless networks)

Only if you use a 3rd party utility to manage your wireless connections

[*]Workstation

Only if you don't want to make any outbound connections to other machines for file or print shares.

Tweak #7 - Disabling Windows File Protection

WARNING: Using this tweak means you will be able to delete vital Windows files.

Here's a quick tweak to be able to totally disable Windows File Protection, the system that prevent users from deleting system and program files. Simply find the key SFCDisable in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

and edit it to hold the value 0xFFFFFF9D.

If you want to re-enable File Protection, just re-set the value to 0.

This doesn't really provide you any speed benefits, per-se, as the process is just a thread in the winlogon.exe process and only invokes on startup and when you start whacking protected files. Otherwise it's dormant, and you get maybe 12Kb back by disabling this - and you make your system more unsafe by doing so.

Disable Paging Executive

In normal usage, XP pages sections from RAM memory to the hard drive. We can stop this happening and keep the data in RAM, resulting in improved performance. Note that only users with a large amount of RAM (256MB+) should use this setting. The setting we want to change to disable the 'Paging Executive', as it is called, is called DisablePagingExecutive. Changing the value of this key from 0 to 1 will de-activate memory paging.

This only disables paging the kernel executive files and dlls, not paging entirely. And if you do run your box out of RAM and need to page these to stay afloat, expect a bugcheck.

IOPageLockLimit - This tweak is of questionable value to people that aren't running some kind of server off of their computer, but we will include it anyway. This tweak boosts the Input/Output performance of your computer when it is doing a large amount of file transfers and other similar operations. This tweak won't do much of anything for a system without a significant amount of RAM (if you don't have more than 128 MB, don't even bother), but systems with more than 128 MB of RAM will generally find a performance boost by setting this to between 8 and 16 MB. The default is 0.5 MB, or 512 KB. This setting requires a value in bytes, so multiply the desired number of megabytes * 1024 * 1024. That's X * 1048576 (where X is the number, in megabytes). Test out several settings and keep the one which seems to work best for your system.

If you disable Server and Workstation services, and thus can no longer host and browse SMB shares, this does you almost no good.

Disable error reporting

One feature that I can do without is error reporting. Every time a program crashes I do not want to send a report to microsoft. Read below to find out how to disable this stupid feature.

If everyone did this, how will Microsoft know what is wrong and how to fix it, or which vendor to provide the data to? It's annoying at times, yes, but if your system apps crash enough that this becomes "annoying", perhaps you have another issue on your hands...

[Kelsenellenelvian]

HAHAHAHAH Cood points CLUBerti!!!

[NIM]

Only if D: is actually on a different physical drive.

If you do this then Windows won't be able to create a dump file in the event of the blue screen. Am I right?

[cluberti]

If you do this then Windows won't be able to create a dump file in the event of the blue screen. Am I right?

That is correct. Double-edged sword, it is - a (minor) performance benefit and the loss of crash dump creation for analysis in the event of a BSoD.

[NIM]

That is correct. Double-edged sword, it is - a (minor) performance benefit and the loss of crash dump creation for analysis in the event of a BSoD.

Since we're discussing the page file configuration, I have a question.

We have 3 new servers which have 24 gigs of RAM and what would be your recommedation for page file in this scenario.

Here's what we did:

We created one partition just for a page file so we can use page file on two partitions: C: and E: in this case. 1 gig initial and 3 gigs maximum for both partitions. In this case Windows will use the page file for less active partition which will be E:, and if we'll have BSOD it will be still dumped on C:..

Do you have better idea for this Cluberti?

THx

[cluberti]

Since we're discussing the page file configuration, I have a question.

We have 3 new servers which have 24 gigs of RAM and what would be your recommedation for page file in this scenario.

Here's what we did:

We created one partition just for a page file so we can use page file on two partitions: C: and E: in this case. 1 gig initial and 3 gigs maximum for both partitions. In this case Windows will use the page file for less active partition which will be E:, and if we'll have BSOD it will be still dumped on C:..

Do you have better idea for this Cluberti?

THx

Well, you'll get a minidump of that, but definitely not a kernel or complete dump (24GB != 1GB - the "minimum" size for the pagefile is what is allowed for use when dumping, not the max, one of the many reasons to set them to be the same size).

If the server is x64 (and I certainly hope it is), I would only set a pagefile on C: of 1GB for now, and leave the dump type set to minidump. This will keep your commit limit at 25GB, with 24 of those GB in RAM directly (biasing the memory manager to RAM over pagefile whenever possible).

If you have a crash, you'll need to create a 25GB pagefile on C: to get a complete dump, and since that's usually not feasible on most system configurations (but only because admins don't account for pagefile size on the boot volume, they just think of Windows + Programs = x and that's all the system needs, which is OK until it breaks........).

[Gorki]

I recently bumped on some interesting page that all of you registry lovers could might find very nice Take a look here.

It also provides many "restore" and "fix" entries for those who messed up their XP OS