Hi

Know any good Tweaks for Operating Systems ? please post them here describing how to implement, what it will achieve and which OS it is for please.


Disable Indexing Services

Purpose - Speed up System - Windows XP Home / Pro

Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud, noisy and slow when functioning. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. If you don't search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service is completely unnecessary. To disable do the following -

1. Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Double-click Add/Remove Programs
5. Click the Add/Remove Window Components
6. Uncheck the Indexing services
7. Click Next

Now Indexing Services are off

On my main Computer i have two internal HDDs and two external HDDs giving me 1650GB over 1½TB in total and i don't need Indexing services to find anything, As stated at Tweak XP . com > Here i find running good sized internal and external HDDs disabling indexing is more efficient.

Annabell

Moving the Page File

This is a debatable tweak some say its faster some say there is hardly any difference, my self i believe it to be an improvement within a systems structure.

Windows uses its page file as a temporary workspace, and if this workspace is to small Windows will run slowly the optimum size is about one and a half times of memory in your PC (Ram), so if you have 512MB of Ram your page file should be at least 768MB within C: and that's room you could use also Windows may work faster if the page file is on a different drive to Windows (a separate physical HDD).

To execute this (in Windows XP Home / Pro SP2)

Click the start button, right-click My Computer and select Properties from the menu. Go to the Advanced tab and click the Settings button under Performance. Select the Advanced tab in the next window and click the Change button under Virtual Memory, all drives and partitions can now be seen. Set drive C: to the minimum 2MB and maximum 50MB, a minimum page file should be left in place on the boot partition as It is used in various circumstances by the system, Memory/crash dumps being the most important. Choose the second drive/1st partition and enter its values as before on C:,or setting a minimum and maximum of the same value is reasoned to stop fragmentation, (500MB min and 500MB max) Note 500MB is used just as an example figure (reboot to initialize). You now have more room on your C: drive and your PC may work faster, i have the Page File set as above on two of my four Computers.

Annabell

Editing The Registry (note if your not comfortable within the Registry leave it, and if you do implement this edit do back up your Registry first)

Menu Speed Up

Purpose - Performance

Start > Run > type regedit > OK > in Registry Editor open - HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop

Highlight the folder Desktop and in the lefthand pane look for MenuShowDelay then double click it, the Edit dialog box will open then enter 100 - default is 400 then click OK, close the registry and re-boot. The difference in speed is instant
For Windows XP Home / Pro & Vista all versions.

Annabell

Move My Documents Folder

Purpose - Performance

Right click on the My Documents folder > choose Properties > Click on the Move... button > Expand My Computer and choose the drive you want to move it to > click the Make New Folder button and name it anything you like > click Apply > a screen will pop-up, click yes.
Which partition or drive isn't important but programs that access the My Documents folder may launch faster if you put it on a separate drive and as close to the beginning of that drive as you can.

Annabell

Editing The Registry (note if your not comfortable within the Registry leave it, and if you do implement this edit do back up your Registry first)

Disable User Tracking

Purpose - Free system resources.

A value of 1 prevents the system from tracking the programs users run, the paths they navigate, and the documents they open. The system uses this information to customize Windows features. As a result, the system disables customized menus and other features that require user tracking information
Start > Run > type regedit > OK > in Registry Editor open [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer]

Set Value "NoInstrumentation"=dword:00000001