Best Tweaks

[vbnmu]

What are the best tweaks (to increase performance of your pc) available for Windows?

[TheBlueRaja]

This is all fable and lore, any speed gains got by tweaks are minimal.

I've yet to find one yet where i've went - wow - what a difference.

I'd suggest, that if you hankering for more speed that you need more memory or a better CPU (in that order).

Other than that keep your PC healthy by regularly using msconfig and getting rid of all those programs that start-up on boot unnecessarily (Quicktime, printer utilities for example) and using CCleaner to keep your registry and temporary files in check.

But you still wont notice much difference when its all booted and running.

[bigpmc]

Or perhaps you could look at the list of currently running services and disable the ones you dont need, as there are a lot that start up with windows and may not be required. This would free up a bit of ram. http://www.overclockersclub.com/guid...p_services.php

That site has a very good guide about it if youre interested.

[Aragorn]

Originally Posted by vbnmu

What are the best tweaks (to increase performance of your pc) available for Windows?

Install Linux

[The Jackal]

Best tweak I did was this ....

regedit [hklocalmch[.e;cjeoiwdjoiwmwxowdsxwsxsdhx

SMASH UP WINDOWS CD

Install Linux

[AndrewJ]

He asked for tweaks to xp???

One I find is goto run and then type in services.msc and follow this

1) Make sure your on windows classic without a wallpaper, then find "themes" open stop the service and then disable..

2) If your not using Automatic updates disable that, along with indexing service, and system restore ( since most bugs hide there that goes bye bye with me )

3) If your the only user disable fast user switching and secondary logon

That is only a few I use and it does make a little difference, if only in ram usage.

Other tweaks is I never use .bmp wallpapers remember it has to load every time you load windows, and if you want to be resource savvy wallpapers and themes - resource loss.

I also use Diskeeper well worth the price for the top version, CCleaner as previously mentioned.

With regard to MSN Messenger, to lower the amount of ram that bloatware users grab the mess patch for your version from www.mess.be to strip out the adverts and accessories you do not use, with Yahoo Messenger you can swap to classic and close most of the rubbish from it's config menu's.

I also use Foobar for my mp3's since it takes a tiny amount of ram to use far more efficent to Winamp or Windows Media Player 10 OR 11, And I use the Klite Codec Pack from www.filehippo.com to play videos since it uses MP classic.

All of those programs take less resources so things load quicker.

[AntiSilence]

Originally Posted by Aragorn

Install Linux

Very helpful...

[AntiSilence]

Here's a site that gives some info about what services you can turn off to help speed things up.

http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2...ed_up_your.htm

[ADd]

For faster boot times, disable auto-startup entries which are not needed.
e.g java, msn messenger, dvd/cd launchers, itunes, real player..etc

One tweak ive always used is in registry under hkey/current user/control panel/deskop

drop a 0 off the HungApp Timeout
drop a 0 off MenuShowDelay
drop a 0 off WaitToKillApp Timeout


Edit I missed the all important back up registry before messing and if your not sure dont mess

[AndrewJ]

Cheers for that one Zingle

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

drop a 0 off MenuShowDelay

MenuShowDelay - use that all the time on every pc I build!

[The Jackal]

This recent toms hardware article has most of the common tweaks explained and implemented...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2006/1...k_computer_uk/

Aint been through it in detail but it looks good - just came across it whilst transversing through

[idi banashapan]

The BEST way to improve performance is buy more RAM. No fiddling with apps, registries or settings. tbh, in this day and age, processors, GPUs and RAM being the speed they are, 'tweaking' and app or removing a theme makes a minimal impact on operation. I know there is a die-hard sect out there that will ALWAYS 'tweak' OS and app (I know one personally who removes ANYTHING he does not use and self admittedly says he does not see a noticeable improvement to performance), but today it really isn't worth the hassle (imo).

Another tip would be to put on a fresh install of Windows and only install things you use. This gets rid off all the rubbish things you downloaded to 'try' which haven't been fully removed, etc, etc. But seriously, RAM is SO cheap now-a-days, go buy up another Gig of it and whack it in, job done.