There are a number of simple things you can do to help increase your server's performance. None of these things -- with the possible exception of moving the pagefile to a dedicated disk -- will do much by itself, but collectively these techniques can improve server performance noticeably.
1. Use a dedicated drive for the pagefile This is probably the tip that will give you the largest performance gain. By default, Windows creates a pagefile that it treats as virtual memory. Because Windows uses this file frequently, it's best to place it on a dedicated drive (not a dedicated volume). Doing so ensures that Windows will not have to wait on another application to finish using the hard disk before it can read data from the pagefile.
2. Keep your hard disks defragmented Modern hard drives are extremely fast when performing sequential reads. However, performance goes out the window when the disk is asked to read data stored in random locations. By keeping your hard disk defragmented, you ensure that blocks of files are placed in sequence rather than scattered randomly across the surface of the drive, thus allowing your computer to read files more efficiently.
3. Use the NTFS file system Although NTFS is the default file system for Windows servers, Windows does support the use of FAT and FAT-32 file systems. Every MCSE training book I've ever read recommends using the NTFS file system is because it is more secure than alternative file systems. What these books fail to mention is that NTFS is a transaction-based file system. This means that NTFS is slightly faster, and much less prone to corruption than the FAT or FAT-32 file systems.
4. Avoid running 16-bit applications 64-bit Windows operating systems can't run 16-bit applications at all, so this one isn't even an issue for those with 64-bit operating systems. 32-bit Windows operating systems will run 16-bit applications, but at a price. Windows uses a separate multitasking model for 16-bit applications than for 32-bit applications. The specifics of how Windows multitasks 16-bit applications would require a separate article, but suffice to say that running 16-bit applications negatively effects performance.
5. Look for memory leaks
Memory leaks are caused by poorly written applications. It's normal for an application to request memory from the operating system on an as-needed basis. Typically, an application will return memory to the operating system when it is no longer needed. An application that contains a memory leak will ask for memory when it needs it, but will fail to release the memory when it is finished using it. The next time the application needs memory, it will ask Windows for more, rather than using the memory it has already reserved. Over time, Windows has less and less memory to assign to other applications.
Memory leaks have a negligible effect on system performance at first, but over time their effects become more and more noticeable as the application continues to run. Although I said I wasn't going to talk about performance monitoring, Performance Monitor really is the best tool for finding memory leaks.
6. Remove seldom-used utilities Every server has come with all sorts of monitoring or logging utilities. If you use these utilities on a regular basis, there's nothing wrong with having them installed on the server. But it never fails to amaze me how many administrators install (or never remove) utilities that come with the server, and then never use them. Running an application you're not actually using is a waste of server resources.
7. Disable unused services On a similar note, I also recommend looking through the Service Control Manager and disabling any services that are not required for the role the server is performing. Not only will disabling unused services increase the server's performance, it will also increase the server's security. A law of computing states that the larger the executing code base, the greater chance that the code contains an exploitable vulnerability. By disabling unnecessary services, you are shrinking the size of the executing code base, thereby reducing the chances of the server containing an exploitable security hole.
8. Log off This is another example of a situation in which you can increase security and performance at the same time. You should always log off of a server when you're not actively using the console, for security reasons. At the same time, when you are logged on, Windows loads your user profile. This consumes memory and CPU cycles.
9. Compress the hard disk
When Microsoft released MS-DOS 5.0, they introduced the disk compression feature. At the time, the idea was that a hard or floppy disk could be compressed so that more data would fit on the drive. Back then I tried using disk compression, and my computer slowed down so much that I went back to using an uncompressed disk, and never looked at compression again until recently.
Today, under the right circumstances, compression can actually increase performance. Hard drives are typically the slowest component in a computer. However, if you can compress a file, you reduce its physical size, which also reduces the amount of time that it takes to read the file from the disk. At the same time, a compressed file must be decompressed after it has been read from the disk. The decompression happens on-the-fly in memory, and the process uses some CPU time in addition to memory. If your server is running a disk-intensive application that deals with a lot of individual files (not a database), compression may improve performance. Otherwise, you're probably better off not compressing a hard disk.
10. Adjust the server response
A server is different from a desktop computer in that applications are not usually run from the server's console. That being the case, it's best to optimize the server so that applications running in the background take priority. You can do this by opening the Server's Control Panel and double-clicking the System icon. When Windows opens the System Properties sheet, go to the Advanced tab and click the Settings button found in the Performance section. Windows will now open the Performance Options properties sheet. Go to the properties sheet's Advanced tab and make sure that Windows is set to provide the best performance to background services
GUIDELINES FOR COMPUTER USERS
GUIDELINES FOR COMPUTER USERS
(TO ALL SUPERVISORS AND ALL POSTAL ASSISTANTS)
DO’s
1. All PAs and Supervisors should use their own password and periodically changed (at least once in a fortnight) and should not be shared with any one to prevent access to unauthorized persons.
2. Take necessary precautions against natural hazards like fire, rain, dust, etc. Users should clean the printer, keyboard and monitor externally once in a week. Cleaning brush will be provided in the lab.
3. Printer should be switched off whenever it is not in use.
4. Take enough precautions against computer viruses by not allowing any outside floppy, pen driver or Compact Disk or any e-mail attachments for use without scanning for the viruses.
5. Periodical change of Ribbons in the Printer should be carried out. Please ensure that impressions are bright and clear.
6. Rectification of faults and maintenance should be carried out under proper and close supervision and service report from the service engineer should be obtained.
7. In case the shift system is in vogue, there should be proper handing and taking over of charge between shift in-charges.
8. Concerned supervisor should allocate Job to the Postal Assistants whenever Postal Assistant in the Counter and also in other branches is changed. Whenever delivery staff is changes proper name of the delivery personnel to be used. Concerned Supervisor may ensure that Postal Assistants enters into the system with their name and password only.
9. At close of work in a day, System should be shut down systematically and switch off the power plug too.
10. Wherever Day begin and Day End is prescribed, Supervisors may ensure that this is done by them.
11. In the case of sub offices the Postmaster should ensure that Backup of sanchaya post is sent to Supervisor SBCO in the first week of every month without fail.
12. Telephone connection and power supply to modem should be removed in the evening (during rainy seasons) to avoid damage to modem and computer.
13. Systems identified for the backup purpose should be switched off only after the backup is over.
DON’Ts
1. Don’t let any unauthorized person use your computer system.
2. Don’t share your password with any one, not even with your colleagues.
3. Don’t reveal the password to any person.
4. Don’t connect the computer directly to the mains.
5. No heavy electric load drawing machines like plain paper copier, shredding machines, coolers, etc. should be connected to the source of constant voltage power supply to the computer.
6. Don’t connect your computer system storing classified data to INTERNET.
7. Don’t allow staff members to bring their own pendrives/floppies/re-writable CDs to run on the computer system of the department.
8. Don’t use pirates or gifted copies of software as these may contain virus and even facilitate intrusion into the system.
9. Don’t play computer games. These could be the main carriers of computer viruses and an unsuspecting easy medium for an intruder to break into your computer system.
10.Don’t allow eatable and water near the computer as these attract rats/pests and raise the dust and moisture level to the detriment of the computer system.
11.Don’t switch off the computer suddenly. Sudden power fluctuation/failure may leads to corruption/deletion of data.
12.Don’t rotate the printer cylinder while the printer is in ON position. Switch off the printer when not in use.
13.Don’t work on Server system without Postmaster’s permission.
14.Don't plug or unplug any devices like keyboard, mouse etc., to the system while it is on.
15.Don't keep ledgers/books etc on systems, keyboards, mouse, weighing scales etc.
16.Don't connect UPS to lights, fans etc. Use exclusively for computers.
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NOTE
To the maximum extent possible all the above guidelines may be followed strictly to avoid embarrassing situation later. Your doubts/difficulties, if any to implement the guidelines may be raised for taking assistance of the SA. These guidelines are intended to upgrade our working method and to safeguard the systems as well as Data.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Advanced Repair Options for Windows Boxes (தனஞ்செழியன் அவர்கட்கு நன்றிகள் )
For example, if a blue screen appears in windows XP or any Win OS, we cannot enter into the system. Restoration to a old date is also not possible as we could not able log in to the system.. In this situation, we are left with only one solution. Just the "Brain Operation"
Put the XP Live CD in the CD Drive and reboot the machine.
select miniXP
Go to C:\System Volume Information\RP1\snapshot
(RP1 may be replace with any of the latest restoration point. RP1 or RP2 or RP3 etc)
copy the following files
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_DEFAULT
paste these files in the following folder
C:\windows\system32\config
rename the existing SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE,SYSTEM,DEFAULT files to SAM1,SECURITY1,SOFTWARE1,SYSTEM1,DEFAULT1 etc.
rename above files to
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM ----> SAM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY ---> SECURITY
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE---> SOFTWARE
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM-------> SYSTEM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_DEFAULT------> DEFAULT
now remove the CD and start with windows you prefer.
Thats all folks. The Brain Operation is over.
Put the XP Live CD in the CD Drive and reboot the machine.
select miniXP
Go to C:\System Volume Information\RP1\snapshot
(RP1 may be replace with any of the latest restoration point. RP1 or RP2 or RP3 etc)
copy the following files
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_DEFAULT
paste these files in the following folder
C:\windows\system32\config
rename the existing SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE,SYSTEM,DEFAULT files to SAM1,SECURITY1,SOFTWARE1,SYSTEM1,DEFAULT1 etc.
rename above files to
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM ----> SAM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY ---> SECURITY
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE---> SOFTWARE
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM-------> SYSTEM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_DEFAULT------> DEFAULT
now remove the CD and start with windows you prefer.
Thats all folks. The Brain Operation is over.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
10 ways to improve the performance of XP
Personally, I don’t see the point in upgrading your hardware if your computer does everything you need it to. However, sometimes it’s nice to improve what you already have. In this guide we will learn how to make the most out of the hardware you have and make windows XP run faster.
1. Defragment Your Hard disk
Imagine you are in a shopping mall, and the person you are with wants to visit fifteen different shops. However, this person ends up walking you up and down the mall six times. Does that make sense? Of course not – as human beings, we like to do things in order to save time.
When your hard drive becomes fragmented, it is literally wasting time by looking in all kinds of places on the disk for all of the pieces of one file. Defragmenting your drive is a great solution to speed up your computer as it puts all the files together in order.
• Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter• Click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze• Click Defragment
2. Defragment you Hard Disk on Boot To make windows XP start more quickly, you can defragment your boot files. This will decrease the time it takes for your computer to boot.
Boot defragment should be enabled by default; however, it might not be enabled on your computer. To ensure that boot defragment is enabled:• Hold the Windows Key and press R.• Type in Regedit• Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction• Ensure the Enable string value is set as Y• Exit the Registry• Reboot
3. Detect and Repair Disk ErrorsOver time, your hard disk develops bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and repair disk errors, Windows has a built-in tool called the Error Checking utility. It’ll search the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and repair them for faster performance.• Follow Start > My Computer• In My Computer right-click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties• Click the Tools tab• Click Check Now• Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box• Click Start
4. Use a Flash Memory to Boost PerformanceWindows Vista comes with ReadyBoost; Windows XP does not have a tool like this – that’s why we’ll need eBoostr. eBoostr uses a USB thumb drive to create an extra cache of the most commonly used data.
Solid state memory (what your USB drive uses) has excellent transfer speeds; therefore, it can be used to store and access data that is needed quickly. Unlike RAM, the data is stored on your thumb drive and can be used next time you use your computer — a great time saver.
• Plug in a flash drive • Windows XP will use eBoostr to utilize the flash memory to improve performance.• Your drive will be configured and you are good to go. Don’t expect miracles – but stick with it and your computer will begin to perform more efficiently.
5. Optimize Your Pagefile.sysThe pagefile is used as another cache as well as RAM. The pagefile stores data on commonly used applications. If you have less than 512mb of ram, then your page file will be automatically configured. If you have more than 512mb of ram, please continue.• Right click on My Computer and select Properties • Select the Advanced tab• Under Performance choose the Settings button• Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change • Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory – so change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.
6. Disable Indexing ServicesIndexing Services is a little application that uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won’t do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often.• Go to Start• Click Settings• Click Control Panel• Double-click Add/Remove Programs• Click the Add/Remove Window Components• Uncheck the Indexing services• Click Next
7. Speedup Folder BrowsingYou may have noticed that every time you open My Computer to browse folders that there is a little delay. Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers every time you open Windows Explorer. To turn this off, do the following:
• Go to My Computer, click Tools > Folder Options…• Click the View tab.• Now find Automatically search for network folders and printers and uncheck the box.• Press OK• Problem solved!
8. Disable Performance Counters:
Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.• Download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List• Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom button below.
9. Optimize Display Settings: If you are happy to remove some of the flashy looks of Windows XP, do the following.
• Right click on the desktop and click Properties…• Click on the Appearance tab.• Click Effects• Uncheck the following:• Show shadows under menus.• Show windows contents while dragging.
You may see other options you feel you can disable.
10. Remove Unused FontsFonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.• Open Control Panel • Open Fonts folder• Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\OLDFONTS) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.
Your computer will be running faster already!
1. Defragment Your Hard disk
Imagine you are in a shopping mall, and the person you are with wants to visit fifteen different shops. However, this person ends up walking you up and down the mall six times. Does that make sense? Of course not – as human beings, we like to do things in order to save time.
When your hard drive becomes fragmented, it is literally wasting time by looking in all kinds of places on the disk for all of the pieces of one file. Defragmenting your drive is a great solution to speed up your computer as it puts all the files together in order.
• Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter• Click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze• Click Defragment
2. Defragment you Hard Disk on Boot To make windows XP start more quickly, you can defragment your boot files. This will decrease the time it takes for your computer to boot.
Boot defragment should be enabled by default; however, it might not be enabled on your computer. To ensure that boot defragment is enabled:• Hold the Windows Key and press R.• Type in Regedit• Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction• Ensure the Enable string value is set as Y• Exit the Registry• Reboot
3. Detect and Repair Disk ErrorsOver time, your hard disk develops bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and repair disk errors, Windows has a built-in tool called the Error Checking utility. It’ll search the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and repair them for faster performance.• Follow Start > My Computer• In My Computer right-click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties• Click the Tools tab• Click Check Now• Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box• Click Start
4. Use a Flash Memory to Boost PerformanceWindows Vista comes with ReadyBoost; Windows XP does not have a tool like this – that’s why we’ll need eBoostr. eBoostr uses a USB thumb drive to create an extra cache of the most commonly used data.
Solid state memory (what your USB drive uses) has excellent transfer speeds; therefore, it can be used to store and access data that is needed quickly. Unlike RAM, the data is stored on your thumb drive and can be used next time you use your computer — a great time saver.
• Plug in a flash drive • Windows XP will use eBoostr to utilize the flash memory to improve performance.• Your drive will be configured and you are good to go. Don’t expect miracles – but stick with it and your computer will begin to perform more efficiently.
5. Optimize Your Pagefile.sysThe pagefile is used as another cache as well as RAM. The pagefile stores data on commonly used applications. If you have less than 512mb of ram, then your page file will be automatically configured. If you have more than 512mb of ram, please continue.• Right click on My Computer and select Properties • Select the Advanced tab• Under Performance choose the Settings button• Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change • Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory – so change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.
6. Disable Indexing ServicesIndexing Services is a little application that uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won’t do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often.• Go to Start• Click Settings• Click Control Panel• Double-click Add/Remove Programs• Click the Add/Remove Window Components• Uncheck the Indexing services• Click Next
7. Speedup Folder BrowsingYou may have noticed that every time you open My Computer to browse folders that there is a little delay. Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers every time you open Windows Explorer. To turn this off, do the following:
• Go to My Computer, click Tools > Folder Options…• Click the View tab.• Now find Automatically search for network folders and printers and uncheck the box.• Press OK• Problem solved!
8. Disable Performance Counters:
Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.• Download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List• Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom button below.
9. Optimize Display Settings: If you are happy to remove some of the flashy looks of Windows XP, do the following.
• Right click on the desktop and click Properties…• Click on the Appearance tab.• Click Effects• Uncheck the following:• Show shadows under menus.• Show windows contents while dragging.
You may see other options you feel you can disable.
10. Remove Unused FontsFonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.• Open Control Panel • Open Fonts folder• Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\OLDFONTS) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.
Your computer will be running faster already!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Removing the Dangerous-Khatra.exe Virus
This virus has some symptoms when ever you try to open browser and search remove khatra.exe the browser will automatically close, you can’t not delete khatra.exe or gHost.exe or Xplorer.exe which are created by the same virus as these processes will keep running.
here is the removal procedure to delete khatra.exe or gHost.exe or Xplorer.exe virus
Follow the procedure below
1. Open Task Manager but if task manager is blocked then unblock task manager and click the process tab, found these process named regsvr.exe(if found there), gHost.exe, khatra.exe and Xplorer.exe, right click on all these process and select end process tree
2. Open Start Menu >> Run, type cmd and click Ok button
3. Now download and install everything search tool
4. Run Everything and type the virus exe names one by one ( khatra.exe, gHost.exe, Xplorer.exe ) and delete all the copies found on your computer anywhere.
5. Now Open start menu >> run, type regedit or if registry editing is blocked then unblock registry editing
6. Press ctrl+f and find the registry keys with names khatra,gHost,Xplorer and delete the values you find with these names.
here is the removal procedure to delete khatra.exe or gHost.exe or Xplorer.exe virus
Follow the procedure below
1. Open Task Manager but if task manager is blocked then unblock task manager and click the process tab, found these process named regsvr.exe(if found there), gHost.exe, khatra.exe and Xplorer.exe, right click on all these process and select end process tree
2. Open Start Menu >> Run, type cmd and click Ok button
3. Now download and install everything search tool
4. Run Everything and type the virus exe names one by one ( khatra.exe, gHost.exe, Xplorer.exe ) and delete all the copies found on your computer anywhere.
5. Now Open start menu >> run, type regedit or if registry editing is blocked then unblock registry editing
6. Press ctrl+f and find the registry keys with names khatra,gHost,Xplorer and delete the values you find with these names.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
How to enable registry editor
First of all, you should have administrator privilege.
if you have enough privilege then open group policy by the type gpedit.msc on run then go on user configuration >>Administrative Templates >> System >> Prevent access to registry editing tools >> Right Click Properties >> Disabled/Enable
if you have enough privilege then open group policy by the type gpedit.msc on run then go on user configuration >>Administrative Templates >> System >> Prevent access to registry editing tools >> Right Click Properties >> Disabled/Enable
Vista settings for our Meghdoot softwares
If anyone going to use Windows Vista as operating system for Post Office. Do the following steps:
1. Type msconfig in the run command Select Tools -> Select Disable UAC and select Launch button appeared in the bottom of the screen. Then Restart the system. Then only our software like Postman, eMO, ePayment will work properly.
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2. Go to Settings ->Control Panel->User Accounts.... There is an option * Turn user account control on/off* Please make it ON. This will solve your problem.
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3. Change the Date and Time format in Regional Settings -> Customize at control panel. And choose the option in the Advanced TAB applicable to all users. This can solve your problem.
How to boost windows xp performance
A car that isn't tuned regularly soon ends up running poorly and costing more to operate. Nothing is more frustrating than driving to work and being stuck behind a beater that's burning oil. In the same way, it's important to your productivity--and sanity--to ensure your Windows XP computer is tuned and running well. Let's look at several tips for boosting the performance of your computer to make your journey (work or play) an enjoyable experience. Some of these tips involve simple tweaks or configuration tasks; others are good habits you should follow, like regular car tune-ups; while a few involve expending a bit of time and money. Souping Up Your Hardware
A good place to start is to make sure the hardware for your Windows XP machine is powerful enough to provide you with a good user experience when you use the platform. The easiest (and cheapest) way to boost your hardware is to add more RAM, and if you're using graphics-intensive programs, you should have a lot of it installed. A faster hard drive can also boost performance--but replacing the drive that has your boot volume requires a bit more work, unless you have a disk-cloning utility like Norton Ghost and know how to use it. Replacing your processor with a faster one also requires some technical knowledge, and overclocking your existing processor can be a dodgy thing as well, so don't go there unless you know what you're doing.
Of course, the best way to soup up your hardware is to ditch that old Pentium II box you've been using and buy a brand-new Pentium 4 hyperthreaded 64-bit capable machine with all the bells and whistles you can afford.
Tuning Your Desktop
Unless you're a graphic designer or something similar, you probably don't need the 32-bit (highest) color depth on your desktop and can get by easily with the less processor-intensive setting of 16 bits (medium) instead. If you've got a good video card, the card itself does the processing and changing this setting won't make a difference; but on cheaper hardware with shared video memory, doing this may boost performance a bit.
The transitions and fades and other bells and whistles of the XP desktop can slow down the screen operations that draw your desktop and make your system feel sluggish. The simplest way to deal with this is to go Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Performance -> Settings -> Adjust for best performance. Enabling this setting basically replaces the default XP theme with the classic Windows 2000 theme by disabling all of XP's fancy visual effects. You can also use Tweak UI from the Microsoft Power Toys for Windows XP to tweak other aspects of your user interface. For example, I find it annoying that there's a half-second delay as each level of the Start menu opens on my machine, and Tweak UI is an easy way of fixing this.
Optimizing Your Hard Drives
Hard drives tend to fill up over time with unneeded applications, temporary files, system restore points, and other gunk. System Restore by itself has 12 percent of your boot volume space allocated. This is probably way too much for the average user's needs, so you can decrease this to a reasonable level. To do it, choose Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> System Restore, then click on System Restore Settings. On the screen that appears, drag the slider until it reaches the percent of hard drive you want allocated, and click on OK.Do the same for your Recycle Bin, which by default uses up to 10 percent of each volume--another potential space hog on your machine. Together, that's almost a quarter of your hard drive potentially used up, which for today's desktop computers that typically have hard drives of 80GB or larger is a lot of space! To decrease the space used by the Recycle Bin, right-click on it, choose Properties, and drag the slider until it reaches the percent of the hard drive you want allocated, and click on OK.
There's also Internet Explorer's cache, which on my new machine from Dell is configured by default to store a whopping 252MB of temporary Internet files. Reducing this to 25MB is more than sufficient for most web browsing and frees up lots of space for other uses. To do it, in Internet Explorer choose Tools -> Internet Options, and in the Temporary Internet Files section, click on Settings. Then drag the slider until you reach the amount of disk space you want to use for the files, and click on OK.
Then there are the various temporary files created by different applications like those in Microsoft Office. You can clean out old temp files and a lot of other useless stuff by running Disk Cleanup; see my previous article Disk Cleanup Hacks for tips on using this tool. And of course, don't forget to defragment your hard drive from time to time--do it often if you create and delete a lot of files as part of your work or install and uninstall applications frequently. Removing Nasties
Spyware and adware can also clog your system and slow down performance. There are various tools for getting rid of spyware; one good one is the free Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware, which, while currently in beta, is quite a good tool. Run this on your system every week or so if you're an active Internet hound to keep your system clean. Blaster, Sasser, Mydoom, and other worms can also bring your system to a screeching halt, so running the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool regularly is another good idea. Of course, good antivirus software should block such infections from occurring in the first place, but it's still wise to double-check from time to time and make sure your machine is free from such nasties.
Disabling Unnecessary Services
When Windows XP boots, it launches a number of applications called services that run in the background and provide various functions for the operating system. These services consume memory and processing time to various degrees, and on stand-alone home machines many of them don't need to be running and can be disabled. For a quick summary of the services you can safely disable, check out Symantec's recommendations . Be careful though: if you don't know what you're doing you can easily break functionality for certain applications on your machine. A good way to proceed is to disable unneeded services one at a time and verify that all your apps still work properly; that way, if you suddenly discover something doesn't work, you can easily roll back by enabling the last service you disabled. To disable a service, type services.msc at the Run box or command prompt to run the Services Computer Management Console. Click on the Extended tab, and look at the Startup Type column. That shows which services launch upon startup. Any service with "Automatic" next to it launches on startup. Right-click on the service you want to stop running on startup, choose Properties, and then choose Manual from the drop-down list. The service will no longer start automatically, but you can always start it manually via the console. If you want the service completely disabled, choose Disabled.
Other Tuning Tips
Tuning your pagefile can improve performance, especially if you have another hard drive to which you can move your pagefile. For tips on this, see my previous article Optimizing Your Servers' Pagefile Performance, which, while written with Windows servers in mind, still pretty much applies to desktops running XP as well. The NTFS file system itself is also open to several tuning enhancements that can generate performance gains, and I've outlined several of these in my article NTFS Performance Hacks.
Some users (particularly gamers who have high-performance machines) were concerned about the "improvements" in Windows XP Service Pack 2 and worried that their games might run more slowly after installing the Service Pack. A series of benchmarking tests run by Joel Durham, a Windows XP Expert Zone Community columnist, has fortunately laid to rest that particular set of worries, so if you're a gamer and haven't installed SP2 yet, you can go ahead and do so. A cool tweak for optimizing memory use is to clear out the prefetch folder on your XP machine. Windows saves information about apps you've started and stores this information in this folder so that the next time you boot, portions of these apps can be preloaded into memory in case you plan on running them again. But what if you don't plan on running them again? Then memory is wasted holding these bits of programs ready. For more information on this tweak, see the article Gaining Speed: Empty Prefetch on your XP System by Robert J. Shimonski, a colleague of mine on WindowsNetworking.com, another popular site where I regularly contribute articles.
Finally, if you work a lot with really large files (say you're a graphic designer and you run Photoshop), then you can get a big performance boost by adding a RAM disk to your system. A RAM disk is a way of using physical memory to simulate a very fast hard drive. A good article explaining the benefits of this and suggesting RAM disk products you can use is this article by Juha Saarinen from PC World. Just remember that whatever you save in a RAM disk is toast when you turn your machine off, since memory is cleared at shutdown; it's OK to store temporary files on a RAM disk, but not the new novel you're working on!
Mi Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4. • Turning of these services will boost performance2009-07-13 23:00:44 Morph991 [Reply View]These services are irrelevant for most of the users and also cause serious security vulnerabilities take a look at this post.
http://ramannanda.blogspot.com/2009/04/secure-and-boost-your-windows-xp.html • Spreading Myths2006-09-21 18:53:35 Mastertech [Reply View]All of your Prefetch information is completely inaccurate. That is NOT how Windows Prefetching works and clearing the folder will REDUCE Windows XP Performance:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html • Reducing Color Depth can Impede Performance2005-08-02 14:03:55 Chris Tyler [Reply View]Reducing the color depth from 32 bits (24 bits padded to 32) down to 16 bits can save memory, which in turn can significantly improve performance when you're using a system which shares memory between the graphics system and the CPU (e.g., Intel i810 family).However, if you're not short on RAM, using 16-bit graphics can dramatically slow down graphics operations -- especially when the CPU is doing the work -- depending on what operations you are performing.At 32 bits per pixel, the CPU can write a full 32-bit word to change the color of one pixel. When using 16 bits per pixel, there are two pixels in every 32-bit word. To change the color of one pixel, the CPU has to read the word from memory, perform an AND to preserve the unaffected pixel's value, perform an OR to insert the affected pixel's value, and then write the word pack to memory -- 4 operations instead of 1 (and that's when you're changing the low-order pixel; add a 16-bit left shift when you're changing the high-order pixel).
o Reducing Color Depth can Impede Performance2005-08-02 14:14:37 Mitch Tulloch [Reply View]Good suggestion, thanks!
A good place to start is to make sure the hardware for your Windows XP machine is powerful enough to provide you with a good user experience when you use the platform. The easiest (and cheapest) way to boost your hardware is to add more RAM, and if you're using graphics-intensive programs, you should have a lot of it installed. A faster hard drive can also boost performance--but replacing the drive that has your boot volume requires a bit more work, unless you have a disk-cloning utility like Norton Ghost and know how to use it. Replacing your processor with a faster one also requires some technical knowledge, and overclocking your existing processor can be a dodgy thing as well, so don't go there unless you know what you're doing.
Of course, the best way to soup up your hardware is to ditch that old Pentium II box you've been using and buy a brand-new Pentium 4 hyperthreaded 64-bit capable machine with all the bells and whistles you can afford.
Tuning Your Desktop
Unless you're a graphic designer or something similar, you probably don't need the 32-bit (highest) color depth on your desktop and can get by easily with the less processor-intensive setting of 16 bits (medium) instead. If you've got a good video card, the card itself does the processing and changing this setting won't make a difference; but on cheaper hardware with shared video memory, doing this may boost performance a bit.
The transitions and fades and other bells and whistles of the XP desktop can slow down the screen operations that draw your desktop and make your system feel sluggish. The simplest way to deal with this is to go Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Performance -> Settings -> Adjust for best performance. Enabling this setting basically replaces the default XP theme with the classic Windows 2000 theme by disabling all of XP's fancy visual effects. You can also use Tweak UI from the Microsoft Power Toys for Windows XP to tweak other aspects of your user interface. For example, I find it annoying that there's a half-second delay as each level of the Start menu opens on my machine, and Tweak UI is an easy way of fixing this.
Optimizing Your Hard Drives
Hard drives tend to fill up over time with unneeded applications, temporary files, system restore points, and other gunk. System Restore by itself has 12 percent of your boot volume space allocated. This is probably way too much for the average user's needs, so you can decrease this to a reasonable level. To do it, choose Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> System Restore, then click on System Restore Settings. On the screen that appears, drag the slider until it reaches the percent of hard drive you want allocated, and click on OK.Do the same for your Recycle Bin, which by default uses up to 10 percent of each volume--another potential space hog on your machine. Together, that's almost a quarter of your hard drive potentially used up, which for today's desktop computers that typically have hard drives of 80GB or larger is a lot of space! To decrease the space used by the Recycle Bin, right-click on it, choose Properties, and drag the slider until it reaches the percent of the hard drive you want allocated, and click on OK.
There's also Internet Explorer's cache, which on my new machine from Dell is configured by default to store a whopping 252MB of temporary Internet files. Reducing this to 25MB is more than sufficient for most web browsing and frees up lots of space for other uses. To do it, in Internet Explorer choose Tools -> Internet Options, and in the Temporary Internet Files section, click on Settings. Then drag the slider until you reach the amount of disk space you want to use for the files, and click on OK.
Then there are the various temporary files created by different applications like those in Microsoft Office. You can clean out old temp files and a lot of other useless stuff by running Disk Cleanup; see my previous article Disk Cleanup Hacks for tips on using this tool. And of course, don't forget to defragment your hard drive from time to time--do it often if you create and delete a lot of files as part of your work or install and uninstall applications frequently. Removing Nasties
Spyware and adware can also clog your system and slow down performance. There are various tools for getting rid of spyware; one good one is the free Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware, which, while currently in beta, is quite a good tool. Run this on your system every week or so if you're an active Internet hound to keep your system clean. Blaster, Sasser, Mydoom, and other worms can also bring your system to a screeching halt, so running the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool regularly is another good idea. Of course, good antivirus software should block such infections from occurring in the first place, but it's still wise to double-check from time to time and make sure your machine is free from such nasties.
Disabling Unnecessary Services
When Windows XP boots, it launches a number of applications called services that run in the background and provide various functions for the operating system. These services consume memory and processing time to various degrees, and on stand-alone home machines many of them don't need to be running and can be disabled. For a quick summary of the services you can safely disable, check out Symantec's recommendations . Be careful though: if you don't know what you're doing you can easily break functionality for certain applications on your machine. A good way to proceed is to disable unneeded services one at a time and verify that all your apps still work properly; that way, if you suddenly discover something doesn't work, you can easily roll back by enabling the last service you disabled. To disable a service, type services.msc at the Run box or command prompt to run the Services Computer Management Console. Click on the Extended tab, and look at the Startup Type column. That shows which services launch upon startup. Any service with "Automatic" next to it launches on startup. Right-click on the service you want to stop running on startup, choose Properties, and then choose Manual from the drop-down list. The service will no longer start automatically, but you can always start it manually via the console. If you want the service completely disabled, choose Disabled.
Other Tuning Tips
Tuning your pagefile can improve performance, especially if you have another hard drive to which you can move your pagefile. For tips on this, see my previous article Optimizing Your Servers' Pagefile Performance, which, while written with Windows servers in mind, still pretty much applies to desktops running XP as well. The NTFS file system itself is also open to several tuning enhancements that can generate performance gains, and I've outlined several of these in my article NTFS Performance Hacks.
Some users (particularly gamers who have high-performance machines) were concerned about the "improvements" in Windows XP Service Pack 2 and worried that their games might run more slowly after installing the Service Pack. A series of benchmarking tests run by Joel Durham, a Windows XP Expert Zone Community columnist, has fortunately laid to rest that particular set of worries, so if you're a gamer and haven't installed SP2 yet, you can go ahead and do so. A cool tweak for optimizing memory use is to clear out the prefetch folder on your XP machine. Windows saves information about apps you've started and stores this information in this folder so that the next time you boot, portions of these apps can be preloaded into memory in case you plan on running them again. But what if you don't plan on running them again? Then memory is wasted holding these bits of programs ready. For more information on this tweak, see the article Gaining Speed: Empty Prefetch on your XP System by Robert J. Shimonski, a colleague of mine on WindowsNetworking.com, another popular site where I regularly contribute articles.
Finally, if you work a lot with really large files (say you're a graphic designer and you run Photoshop), then you can get a big performance boost by adding a RAM disk to your system. A RAM disk is a way of using physical memory to simulate a very fast hard drive. A good article explaining the benefits of this and suggesting RAM disk products you can use is this article by Juha Saarinen from PC World. Just remember that whatever you save in a RAM disk is toast when you turn your machine off, since memory is cleared at shutdown; it's OK to store temporary files on a RAM disk, but not the new novel you're working on!
Mi Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4. • Turning of these services will boost performance2009-07-13 23:00:44 Morph991 [Reply View]These services are irrelevant for most of the users and also cause serious security vulnerabilities take a look at this post.
http://ramannanda.blogspot.com/2009/04/secure-and-boost-your-windows-xp.html • Spreading Myths2006-09-21 18:53:35 Mastertech [Reply View]All of your Prefetch information is completely inaccurate. That is NOT how Windows Prefetching works and clearing the folder will REDUCE Windows XP Performance:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html • Reducing Color Depth can Impede Performance2005-08-02 14:03:55 Chris Tyler [Reply View]Reducing the color depth from 32 bits (24 bits padded to 32) down to 16 bits can save memory, which in turn can significantly improve performance when you're using a system which shares memory between the graphics system and the CPU (e.g., Intel i810 family).However, if you're not short on RAM, using 16-bit graphics can dramatically slow down graphics operations -- especially when the CPU is doing the work -- depending on what operations you are performing.At 32 bits per pixel, the CPU can write a full 32-bit word to change the color of one pixel. When using 16 bits per pixel, there are two pixels in every 32-bit word. To change the color of one pixel, the CPU has to read the word from memory, perform an AND to preserve the unaffected pixel's value, perform an OR to insert the affected pixel's value, and then write the word pack to memory -- 4 operations instead of 1 (and that's when you're changing the low-order pixel; add a 16-bit left shift when you're changing the high-order pixel).
o Reducing Color Depth can Impede Performance2005-08-02 14:14:37 Mitch Tulloch [Reply View]Good suggestion, thanks!
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