Since defragging the
disk won't do
much to improve
Windows XP performance,
here are 23
suggestions that will. Each can enhance the performance and
reliability of your customers' PCs.
Best of all, most of them will cost you nothing.
1.) To decrease a system's boot time and increase system
performance, use the money you save
by not buying defragmentation software -- the built-in Windows
defragmenter works just fine --and instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133
or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache
buffer.
2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a
relatively inexpensive
and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.
3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If
you're not sure, here's how to
check: First, double-click
the My Computer
icon, right-click on
the C: Drive,
then select
Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says FAT32,
then back-up any important
data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At
the prompt, type CONVERT
C: /FS:NTFS and
press the Enter
key. This process
may take a
while; it's important
that the
computer be uninterrupted
and virus-free. The
file system used
by the bootable
drive will be
either FAT32 or
NTFS. I highly
recommend NTFS for
its superior security,
reliability, and
efficiency with larger disk drives.
4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts
information from documents and other
files on the
hard drive and
creates a "searchable keyword
index." As you
can imagine, this
process can be quite taxing on any system.
The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or
property inside a document, should
they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the file
name of the document they
want. Windows XP's
built-in search functionality
can still perform
these kinds of
searches
without the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to
open each file at the time of the
request to help find what the user is looking for.
Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are
typically in a large corporate
environment where thousands of documents are
located on at least one server.
But if you're a
typical system builder, most of your clients are small and medium
businesses. And if your clients
have no need for this search feature, I recommend disabling it.
Here's how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Next,
right-click on the C: Drive, then
select Properties.
Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this
disk for fast file
searching."
Next, apply changes to "C: subfolders and files," and
click OK. If a warning or error message
appears (such as "Access is denied"), click the Ignore
All button.
5.) Update the PC's video and motherboard chipset drivers. Also,
update and configure the BIOS.
For more information on how to configure your BIOS properly, see
this article on my site.
6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so.
Windows XP can "prefetch"
portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This
makes processes appear to load
faster when called upon by the user. That's fine. But over time,
the prefetch folder may become
overloaded with references
to files and
applications no longer
in use. When
that happens,
Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance, by
pre-loading them. Nothing
critical is in this folder, and the entire contents are safe to
delete.
7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here's how: Double-click the
My Computer icon. Then
right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk
Cleanup button -- it's just to the
right of the Capacity pie graph -- and delete all temporary files.
8.) In your
Device Manager, double-click
on the IDE
ATA/ATAPI Controllers device,
and
ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary and
Secondary
controller. Do this
by double-clicking on
Primary IDE Channel.
Then click the
Advanced
Settings tab. Ensure
the Transfer Mode
is set to
"DMA if available" for both Device
0 and
Device 1. Then repeat this process with the Secondary IDE Channel.
9.) Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology improves, the
cabling requirements to achieve
these performance boosts have become more stringent. Be sure to use
80-wire Ultra-133 cables
on all of
your IDE devices
with the connectors
properly assigned to
the matching
Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A single device must be at the
end of the cable; connecting a
single drive to the middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause
signaling problems. With Ultra
DMA hard drives,
these signaling problems
will prevent the
drive from performing
at its
maximum potential. Also, because these cables inherently support
"cable select," the location of
each drive on the cable is important. For these reasons, the cable
is designed so drive positioning
is explicitly clear.
10.) Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such
as AdAware by Lavasoft or
SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are installed, be
sure to check for and download
any updates before starting your search. Anything either program
finds can be safely removed.
Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer function
once the spyware portion
has been removed; if your customer really wants the program even
though it contains spyware,
simply reinstall it. For more information on removing Spyware visit
this Web Pro News page.
11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows
Startup routine using the
MSCONFIG utility. Here's how: First, click Start, click Run, type
MSCONFIG, and click OK.
Click the StartUp
tab, then uncheck
any items you
don't want to
start when Windows
starts.
Unsure what some
items are? Visit
the WinTasks Process
Library. It contains
known system
processes, applications, as well as spyware references and
explanations. Or quickly identify them
by searching for the filenames using Google or another Web search
engine.
12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove
Programs section of
the Control Panel.
13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable
active desktop. In fact, for optimal
performance, turn off
all animations. Windows
XP offers many
different settings in this
area.
Here's how to
do it: First
click on the
System icon in
the Control Panel.
Next, click on the
Advanced tab. Select
the Settings button
located under Performance. Feel
free to play
around
with the options offered here, as nothing you can change will alter
the reliability of the computer
-- only its responsiveness.
14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable
editing their registry, try some of
the performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.
15.) Visit Microsoft's Windows update site regularly, and download
all updates labeled Critical.
Download any optional updates at your discretion.
16.) Update the customer's
anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure they
have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing
anti-virus software is a sure way to
spell disaster for performance and reliability.
17.) Make sure the customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed
on their computer. The more
fonts they have,
the slower the
system will become.
While Windows XP
handles fonts much
more efficiently than did the previous versions of Windows, too
many fonts -- that is, anything
over 500 -- will noticeably tax the system.
18.) Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP's NTFS file system
runs more efficiently on
one large partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition,
and a reformat is never necessary
to reinstall an operating
system. The same
excuses people offer
for using partitions
apply to
using a folder instead. For example, instead of putting all your
data on the D: drive, put it in a
folder called "D drive." You'll achieve the same
organizational benefits that a separate partition
offers, but without the degradation in system performance. Also,
your free space won't be limited
by the size of the partition; instead, it will be limited by the
size of the entire hard drive. This
means you won't need to resize any partitions, ever. That task can
be time-consuming and also
can result in lost data.
19.) Check the
system's RAM to
ensure it is
operating properly. I
recommend using a free
program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or
diskette (your choice),
which will run 10 extensive tests on the PC's memory automatically
after you boot to the disk
you created. Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of
the 10 tests are completed. If the
program encounters any
errors, turn off
and unplug the computer,
remove a stick
of memory
(assuming you have more than one), and run the test again.
Remember, bad memory cannot be
repaired, but only replaced.
20.) If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive
manufacturer's Web site for updated
firmware. In some cases you'll be able to upgrade the recorder to a
faster speed. Best of all, it's
free.
21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of
services that your customer most
likely does not need. To determine which services you can disable
for your client, visit the Black
Viper site for Windows XP configurations.
22.) If you're sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking
the rest of
your OS down
with it, then
follow this tip:
open My Computer,
click on Tools,
then Folder
Options. Now click
on the View
tab. Scroll down
to "Launch folder
windows in a
separate
process," and enable this option. You'll have to reboot your
machine for this option to take effect.
23.) At least once a year, open the computer's cases and blow out
all the dust and debris. While
you're in there,
check that all
the fans are
turning properly. Also
inspect the motherboard
capacitors for bulging or leaks. For more information on this
leaking-capacitor phenomena, you
can read numerous articles on my site.
Following any of these suggestions should result in noticeable
improvements to the performance
and reliability of your customers' computers. If you still want to
defrag a disk, remember that the
main benefit will be to make your data more retrievable in the
event of a crashed drive.
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