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My favorite registry hacks to boost performance of Windows XP
Posted by inder on June 19, 2006 at 11:26 PM | Comments (4)
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:
- 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.
- Place Windows Kernel in RAM
Edit [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
Set DisablePagingExecutive to 1. Reboot.
- Disable 8.3 Name creation in NTFS
Edit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
Set NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to 1. Reboot.
- 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.
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". - 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
- 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.
- For deleting programs from starting up at the boot time: delete their entries from:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- 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.applimobile
Comments
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(The instructions are appreviated)
Add notepad and wordpad to the right click menu of all files:
CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\notepad\command\:REG_EXPAND_SZ: %SystemRoot%\system32\notepad.exe %1
CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\wordpad\command\:REG_EXPAND_SZ: %SystemRoot%\system32\write.exe "%1"
Add a command prompt to the right click menu of all directories.
CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\DosHere\command\:REG_EXPAND_SZ: %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /k cd "%1" && title %1
Posted by: staufferjames on June 20, 2006 at 08:55 AM
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This is a great list of registry hacks. I know that I will more than likely make use of some of them. I would like to point out though that many computer users would feel very uncomfortable making such changes by themselves. That being said I think that it would be a lapse of courtesy to not at least offer up one quality registry cleaner for those who are not quite as savvy. Personally I make use of StompSoft's Registry Repair to handle my general registry maintenance. By the way my favorite hack out of the ones you have listed here is number 8 "For deleting programs from starting up at the boot time: delete their entries from: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run " I love knocking off unneeded programs from my startup boot. It makes startups so much quicker for me. :)
Posted by: gigi45 on August 17, 2006 at 07:33 PM
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Posted by: applimobile on September 26, 2006 at 09:48 AM
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Registry hacks are a good way to make your computer do what you want it to. Though it also helps to have a good registry cleaner on hand as well. Just like GiGi45 I have been using StompSoft's Registry Repair to take care of the invalid registry entries which impact the performance of the registry as well. I think that between these two processes a registry can be optimized for maximum performance.
Posted by: chippy45 on November 01, 2006 at 01:41 PM
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