Have you noticed your copy of XP just doesn’t seem as fast as a friend’s computer with Vista? Before you take the big leap into the “magical” world of Windows Vista, first consider optimizing Windows XP. If done correct, Windows XP can easily outperform Vista in benchmarks and overall computer usage efficiency.

Step 1-) Disable unwanted startup programs

Every time your computer starts up it loads a list of programs into memory — programs that you might use but do not necessarily need to start up when the computer boots. Some times programs might put themselves into the startup list to load to save you a few seconds of load time when you decide to use the program. It might not seem like much but every little bit of memory you free by stopping programs from loading on startup adds up! You will receive a noticeable performance gain by cleaning this list up.

Click Start

Click Run

Type ‘msconfig’

Click the Startup tab

Uncheck unwanted applications (do your research first)

Step 2-) Disable unneeded startup services

The same deal applies to Windows services you might not need. To disable a service do the following:

-Right click My Computer

-Click Manage

-Double click “Services and applications”

-Click Services

-To disable a service double click on it and where it says startup type simply select disable

The service will then get disabled on the next system reboot. Be careful if you disable a service that the system requires you could cause your system not to boot, AlexPC can not be held responsible if you damage your system.

Below is a list of known services that can be disabled if not needed:

Alerter, used to send popup administrative alerts,  These alerts can also be viewed from the eventlog if this service is disabled.
Clipbook, If you disable this service you will not be able to copy and paste text / pictures and so on. Its up to you if you want to disable this.
Computer Browser, This is used to keep a list of other computers on the network
Error Reporting Service, Turn this off if you dont want errors to be reported.
Event Log, All errors are written to an event log, if you disable this service nothing will be written to the log.
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service, If you disable this service you will not be able to burn CD-ROMs
Indexing Service, This service should speed up access to frequently used files.  In my experience it is not worth using it as it uses a lot of memory and slows down your whole system as a result.
Messenger, If you disable this you will not receive any windows popup messages.
Net Logon, This service is required if your computer is in a domain, If the computer is not in a domain disable this service.
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing, Disable this if you dont want to share your desktop with remote users (Support for example)
Performance Logs and Alerts, This service logs the performance of your computer
Print Spooler, If you dont print from your computer disable this service
Remote Registry, If this service is disabled the computers registry can not be changed remotely.
Server, If this service is stopped you can not share the files / printers on your system with others.
System Event Notification, Logs events such as windows log on and off
System Restore Service, If this is disabled you will not be able to restore your system should it encounter a critical failure.
Task Scheduler, It is possible to schedule your system to perform tasks automatically, If this service is disabled the automatic tasks will not run.
Telephony, If this is disabled you will not be able to use voice network connections such as modems and VOIP Voice Over IP.
Windows Audio, If this is disabled your system will be unable to play back sound.

Step 2-) Disable System Restore

System restore is another controversial program. Most people have their own ways of backing up or restoring their system should anything happen to it. System restore will take up resoruces such as memory and hard-disk IO. If you are going to disable the system restore make sure you backup important files to anther disk such as USB stick / CD-ROM / Tape drive and so on.

To disable system restore in windows xp do the following
1. Right-click ‘my computer’ and click properties.
2. Click the “System Restore” tab at the top.
3. Check the box “Turn off system restore on all drives”

Step 3-) Run Disk Defragment

Disk defrag rearranges your hard drive, relocating files to places that makes them easier to access, thus making the hard disk run faster and smoother. For example it will move all the system files to one part of the disk, so when the system needs to access system files they are all in the same location and the hard-drive does not need to jump around the disk as much to access what it needs.

To run defrag double click on the my computer icon on your desktop, right click on the disk that says C: and then select properties.Click tools tab > Degragment now.  Then select each partition you have in turn and click the defragement button.  You will get a report of what has been done when it has finished.

Step 4-) Delete unwanted Programs from the Add/Remove programs menu

The add/remove programs menu found in the Control Panel is a general list of all of your installed programs. Most will be necessary, such as Microsoft Word, Windows Hotfixes and Games or Movie software you use on a regular basis.

Most people are surprised  however, when they visit this list after not checking it for several months and find massive amounts of unwanted software such as toolbars, file-sharing programs, free email enhancers, online shopping “companions” and download managers. These uninvited guests can put a big drag on your startup time, cause web pages to load slowly, and generally bog down your computer.

Go to Control Panel, then Add/Remove Software to see what packages are installed. Remove the ones you know you don’t need, and do a web search to learn about the ones you’re not sure about. Empty The Recycle Bin

Step 5-) Run disk cleanup

Disk cleanup is an often over-looked program installed in Windows that does an automatic cleansing of unused files found on your PC.
To run disk cleanup, go to:

-Start

-Click Programs

-Click Accessories

-Click System tools > Disk Cleanup

-Run a scan of the drive your copy of XP is located on and then delete the files you dont want.

Step 6-) Disable GUI

Disabling the Graphic User Interface options in XP might trim down some of it’s fanciness but you’d be surprised at how few people even notice a difference (visually) but are amazed at how it increases computer performance, especially if you have a low-end video card.

1. Right-click on the desktop and click properties.
2. Click on the “Appearance” tab at the top.
3. Click the “Effects” button
4. Uncheck “Use the following transition effect for menus and tooltips
5. Uncheck “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts” – (unelss using an LCD monitor, in which case, check this)
6. Uncheck show shadows under menus
7. The others don’t really matter.
8. Click the “OK” button
9. Back at the “Display Properties” window, from the “Windows and buttons” select menu, select “Windows Classic Style.”
10. Click the “Apply” button.
11. Click the “OK” button.

Step 7-) Clean out your Registry

The REGCLEAN utility from Microsoft cleans your system registry of unnecessary entries that are created when you install or remove programs on your computer. Sometimes an “orphaned” registry entry can confuse Windows during startup and cause a delay.
And in general, slimming down your registry will make Windows run faster. You can download REGCLEAN here. Note: This program is no longer officially supported by Microsoft, but many users report that it works fine on Windows XP systems. You can also try RegSeeker which is a highly rated registry cleaner.

Step 8 -) Scan for viruses and spyware

At this point most people have already done this but I would like to clarify how important it is to use a reputable virus and malware scanner such as ESET Smart Security, AVG Anti-Virus, and Malware Malbytes Anti-Malware. There is little use in wasting all that time scanning your entire hard drive with scanners that are not even programed to find all the viruses anyway. With credited programs you can be sure there isn’t a virus or malware still lingering around draining system resources — or worse.

Step 9-) Upgrade your BIOS

The final step in boosting your XP performance is a BIOS upgrade. This only applies to older computers that are dated enough to even need an upgrade.
The BIOS is a bit of software that sits on your computers motherboard and controls how each component talks to each other. It is a good idea to upgrade this if possible to the latest version as you could see many benefits. A BIOS upgrade will help the motherboard to be more efficient in the way that its components talk to each other.
To upgrade your BIOS find out what motherboard you have (You can do this by looking in the manual that came with your computer, or you can look at the screen that first shows when you turn on your computer, it should like the make and model on there) Then when you know what motherboard you have go to the manufactures web site and search for the latest update.  Be aware that BIOS updates could possibly harm your system if not installed correctly, AlexPC can not be held responsible should you cause harm to your computer.
Next go in to your BIOS (Do this after you have upgraded BIOS as setting might go back to default settings if you upgraded) Make sure that all cache settings are enabled especially on the CPU.  Disable any devices you don’t use, for example if you dont use USB disable it.  Devices will use up valuable memory when your system has booted in to Windows XP.  You might also think of disabling, floppy drive, infer red, LPT / COM ports, and so on.

If after all this and your copy of XP still isn’t fast enough for you, it might be time to consider an upgrade. Windows 7 anybody?

-Alex