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My favorite registry hacks to boost performance of Windows XP

Posted by inder on June 20, 2006 at 2:26 AM EDT
It is amazing how many wasteful activities a Windows machine performs that are not really necessary for most users. In this blog, I share some of my favorite hacks that should boost performance of a typical Windows XP/2000 machine, although your mileage may vary. You are welcome to use them, but please realize that unless you are careful, you can end up with a seriously corrupted Windows configuration that is fixable only by a clean Windows install.

Now that I am over with that disclaimer, here comes the real stuff. You will need to edit registry by running RegEdit from Command Prompt:

  1. Remove DLLs from loading for applications that are not running anymore

    Edit [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
    Create a new DWORD value AlwaysUnloadDLL and give it a data value of 1. Reboot.

  2. Place Windows Kernel in RAM

    Edit [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
    Set DisablePagingExecutive to 1. Reboot.

  3. Disable 8.3 Name creation in NTFS

    Edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
    Set NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to 1. Reboot.

  4. Make network browsing to be faster by preventing checking of remote scheduled tasks

    Delete the following registry key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}]. Reboot.

  5. Disable services that are no longer being used. Better yet, instead of disabling, choose manual mode instead of automatic. If it is a wired-networked desktop and you never plan to use a wireless card with it, disable "Wireless Zero Configuration services".

  6. This tip is useful in uninstalling devices that you no longer use with your system. To display these ghosted or nonpresent devices, open "Command Prompt" and enter the following commands:

    SET devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
    devmgmt.msc
    Now, uninstall hardware devices that are no longer used with your system

  7. This next hack is not for enhancing performance, but is nonetheless quite useful at times when your system displays an error message at Startup that refuses to go away.

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows]
    Set NoPopupsOnBoot to 1 (DWORD). Reboot.

  8. For deleting programs from starting up at the boot time: delete their entries from:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

  9. For uninstalling unruly programs from "Add Remove Programs" control panel applet, look for the program name in

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
    Also check DisplayName subkey to see tha name of the program.

Even though it is a good idea to reboot after each of these hacks, I often make all the changes in one go and reboot just once. That has always worked for me and saved a lot of time. If you are feeling lucky, do the same.

Were these hacks helpful? What are your favorite hacks? Share them as comments to this blog. Thanks for reading.

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Comments

 thnxs for help....... it really helped me alot.....

by gagan93 - 2011-12-01 06:13

thnxs for help.......

it really helped me alot.....

Fantastic share, I did it on

by jmarquette - 2010-01-30 00:35

Fantastic share, I did it on two of our office pc's and it made a world of a difference. Any idea if similar tweaks exist for Vista? I was going to apply them on a Vista PC but was concerned that it may have a different or negative effect.

Cheers,
J. Marquette
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