# Some Good Tweaks...



## Thanatos (Jun 21, 2002)

All Tips, Tricks and Tweaks acquired from various sites around the net- credit goes to those sites. I scanned the Tips section and these are some I did not see... Sorry if any of these have been posted before and I missed them:

*XP/Win2k - How to Run Games at Refresh rates higher than 60Hz* 
Under Win2k and XP you can force refresh rates for D3D games by doing the following...

1. Go to Run and type dxdiag.

2. Click on the More Help tab and click on the override button and type in the value...

*XP - Turn off Indexing to speed up XP* 
Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of searches on your hard drive then I suggest turnning this feature off:

1. Open my computer
2. Right click your hard drive icon and select properties.
3. At the bottom of the window you'll see "Allow indexing service to index this disk for faster searches," uncheck this and click ok.
4. A new window will pop up and select apply to all folders and subfolders. It will take a minute or two for the changes to take affect but then you should enjoy slightly faster performance.

TweakXP.com

*XP - Ramdrive in XP* 
Remember good old ramdisk. Implementing it in a 9x kernel box is easy. But what about in an XP box? Or more importantly, why the heck would you? Well, if your a paranoid internet surfer that does not want your surfing habits left on your machine. You can redirect your temp cache to the ramdrive. Any sensitive files/folders (Those wonderful ~*.tmp that Office creates) that you want washed away on reboot. I'm sure there are other uses.

Instructions:

Get the software from here:

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...257405&SD=MSKB&

Install the software as a new hardware device (Add New Hardware) using the advanced install wizard to point to the .inf

Change these registry keys

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ramdisk\Par
meters

DiskSize change to 01F00000 (32505856)

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Fastfat\Sta
rt

Start change from 4(disabled) to 1(system)

Reboot

The only limitation is that the drive can only be 32MB in size.

TweakXP.com

*XP Services Explained- Tweak away!* 
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm#Logical Disk Manager

*Clear Out Windows XP Prefetch Files for System Performance* 
Windows XP's prefetch feature is new added feature which improves system performance. However, after a period of time, just like the registry, obsolete entries begin to build up. You can safely clear these invalid files and regain system performance by doing the following.

1. Navigate to Windows\Prefetch folder.

2. Delete all files with a *.pf extension.

3. Reboot the system.

*XP - Speeding Up The Display!* 
I'm sure many of you noticed Windows XP looks a lot prettier than Windows 2000, but because of this cosmetic, it slows down what you see on the screen. Well, there is a way to keep the cosmetic and make the visual much faster without enabling "Classic Appearance" in Windows XP! Just follow the steps below...

1. On your start menu click on SETTINGS and then on CONTROL PANEL.

2. Double click the SYSTEM icon.

3. Click the ADVANCED tab and then the VISUAL EFFECTS TAB.

4. Uncheck the first four visual effects

Now try opening applications, minimizing and maximizing any Window...

*Hide Window's StartUp Splash Screen* 
If you want to avoid the splash screen every time you boot, you have to do some tinkering. Select Start, Programs, Accessories, MS-DOS Prompt. In the MS-DOS window, type attrib -r -s -h c:\msdos.sys and then press ENTER. Type notepad c:\msdos.sys and press ENTER again.

In Notepad, put your cursor @ the end of the line that reads '[Options]', and press ENTER to add a new line. Type logo=0 (that's a zero, not the letter O). Now save the file and close Notepad.

Back in the DOS box, enter attrib +r +s +h c:\msdos.sys. Press ENTER and close the DOS window. That should do it.

*Improve NTFS Performance!* 
The NTFS file system is the recommended file system because of its advantages in terms of reliability and security and because it is required for large drive sizes. However, these advantages come with some overhead. You can modify some functionality to improve NTFS performance as follows:

1. Disable creation of short names. By default, NTFS generates the style of file name that consists of eight characters, followed by a period and a three-character extension for compatibility with MS-DOS and Microsoft® Windows® 3.x clients. If you are not supporting these types of clients, you can turn off this setting by changing the default value of the NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation registry entry (in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\Filesystem) to 1.

2. Disable last access update. By default NTFS updates the date and time stamp of the last access on directories whenever it traverses the directory. For a large NTFS volume, this update process can slow performance. To disable automatic updating, change the value of the NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate registry entry (in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentContolSet\Control
\Filesystem) to 1. If the entry is not already present in the registry, add it before setting the value. (Add it as a REG_DWORD)

3. Reserve appropriate space for the master file table. Add the NtfsMftZoneReservation entry to the registry as a REG_DWORD in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\FileSystem. When you add this entry to the registry, the system reserves space on the volume for the master file table. Reserving space in this manner allows the master file table to grow optimally. If your NTFS volumes generally contain relatively few files that are typically large, set value of this registry entry to 1 (the default). Typically you can use a value of 2 or 3 for moderate numbers of files, and 4 (the maximum) if your volumes tend to contain a relatively large number of files. However, be sure to test any settings greater than 2 because these higher values cause the system to reserve a much larger portion of the disk for the master file table.

Reboot after making changes.

TweakXP

*So on and so forth... I can post more as I have time if people would like.*

Thanatos

Credit to xtremepccentral.com, tweakxp.com, speedguide.net, beemersworld.com... and many more- too many too list.


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## perris (Apr 21, 2002)

if you have xp, this is probably the best concentration of tweaks you'll find


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## Guest (Jun 22, 2002)

These are beautiful, thanks!

Just one thing. I can't find MS-DOS> ???


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## Thanatos (Jun 21, 2002)

Oops... sorry, meant "Command Prompt." You can either access it from accessories or from start>run> type "cmd", enter.

GoodLuck. 

Reminder... before doing anything to the Reg, always create a backup first  . I sometimes forget... LOL.


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

My favorite Windows XP tweaking and learning site is here. 

Frank's Windows 95/98 Tips


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## perris (Apr 21, 2002)

> _Originally posted by flavallee:_
> *My favorite Windows XP tweaking and learning site is here.
> 
> Frank's Windows 95/98 Tips *


frank...i told you before, I'll keep saying it...I love your site...excellant


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

Thanks, Perris.  There are a lot of Windows tips websites out there that are better and more detailed than mine, but I still enjoy doing it. Besides, the diving pictures provide a little diversion. 

Frank's Windows 95/98 Tips


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