7 Ways to Speed up and Optimize Windows XP

[Code name 47]

7 Ways to Speed up and Optimize Windows XP

I have seen these tips on the internet and these tips have helped me
alot to speed up
my computer, i have posted these tips on website, you will find it
very useful.

http://www.freewebs.com/xptip/7ways.htm

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

7 Ways to Speed up and Optimize Windows XP

I have seen these tips on the internet and these tips have helped me
alot to speed up
my computer, i have posted these tips on website, you will find it
very useful.

http://www.freewebs.com/xptip/7ways.htm

There are some strange things in there, e.g.

- Clean Up Prefetch, temp, and cache files
-> Prefetch and caching is designed to speed up a PC
and it is best left alone.

- Remove Programs & files you no longer need or use
What is This: Having old games or other software you no longer use can take
up a lot of space on your hard drive, which can lead to an overall decrease
in your PC's performance.
-> Not true. A full disk is as fast as an empty disk, unless its files
are very heavily fragmented or unless you keep thousands of
files in your current working folder.

- Remove unused Fonts
What is This? Having too many fonts can realllllllly slow down how fast
programs start up. Some people say have no more than 500 fonts installed on
WinXP, but I personally try to keep the number of fonts below 200. The less
you have the faster your programs that use them (office software, graphic
programs etc..) will load.
-> I would like to see this claim supported by some actual
measurements that can be duplicated by readers.

 

[Code name 47]

1- usually viruses reside in temp files.
2-u r right only fragmented files should be removed to speed up xp

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

1- usually viruses reside in temp files.

Not true - they can and do reside anywhere. Deleting
temporary files rarely gets rid of viruses. And anyway -
the subject was speed, not virus infection.

2-u r right only fragmented files should be removed to speed up xp

We seem to agree that the site publishes misleading advice.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Code name 47 wrote:



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Bruce Chambers]

1- usually viruses reside in temp files.

Utter nonsense.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Poprivet]

OK: That's one too many times I've seen this. NOW it's spam and has been
reported to

Spam report sent to: (e-mail address removed)
Spam report sent to: (e-mail address removed)

 

[Phisherman]

There are some strange things in there, e.g.

- Clean Up Prefetch, temp, and cache files
-> Prefetch and caching is designed to speed up a PC
and it is best left alone.

- Remove Programs & files you no longer need or use
What is This: Having old games or other software you no longer use can take
up a lot of space on your hard drive, which can lead to an overall decrease
in your PC's performance.
-> Not true. A full disk is as fast as an empty disk, unless its files
are very heavily fragmented or unless you keep thousands of
files in your current working folder.

I disagree here. Reducing the amount of files on your computer will
speed up file searching, anti-virus scanning, malware scanning,
defragmentation, and backup operations. Whenever you use a utility
that must access or move many files, having fewer files will increase
performance.

- Remove unused Fonts
What is This? Having too many fonts can realllllllly slow down how fast
programs start up. Some people say have no more than 500 fonts installed on
WinXP, but I personally try to keep the number of fonts below 200. The less
you have the faster your programs that use them (office software, graphic
programs etc..) will load.
-> I would like to see this claim supported by some actual
measurements that can be duplicated by readers.

I know first hand this is true for Windows 98, but I havn't tried it
with XP.

Of course any of these tips may either have a big or small effect,
depending on your system and how you use it. Personally, I don't care
that my anti-virus full system scan takes three and half hours because
I do that at night, but I run my malware during lunch and want to keep
that running under 1 hour.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I disagree here. Reducing the amount of files on your computer will
speed up file searching, anti-virus scanning, malware scanning,
defragmentation, and backup operations. Whenever you use a utility
that must access or move many files, having fewer files will increase
performance.

You are correct, of course. However, all of the operations you
mention are what I call "Maintenance Activities". The normal
day-to-day activities such as word processing, Internet browsing
or EMail are not affected by the amount of data stored on a disk.

I know first hand this is true for Windows 98, but I havn't tried it
with XP.

Of course any of these tips may either have a big or small effect,
depending on your system and how you use it. Personally, I don't care
that my anti-virus full system scan takes three and half hours because
I do that at night, but I run my malware during lunch and want to keep
that running under 1 hour.

On reflection I think this whole thread is an exercise not to help
readers but to drum up a lots of visits to the poster's site and to
generate some income with the Google ads you find there.

 

[forwolf]

> - Remove Programs & files you no longer need or use
> What is This: Having old games or other software you no longer use can take
> up a lot of space on your hard drive, which can lead to an overall decrease
> in your PC's performance.
> -> Not true. A full disk is as fast as an empty disk, unless its files
> are very heavily fragmented or unless you keep thousands of
> files in your current working folder.

>>>NOT TRUE & TRUE:
true:

disk space gets filled up with old stuff​

;
not true

program remove is ineffective​

;
reality:

old stuff that have been "installed" (has registry entries, shortcuts, explorer enabled, ...) get processed by windows @ EVERY startup - decreasing startup times can be accomplished by uninstalling programs and cleaning the registry. Also, delaying some startup execs to later (while you are actively using the computer) can also decrease startup times (programs: any checking for pgm updates, ...); removing shortcuts​