Super XP Tweaking Guide
This was the first comprehensive, step-by-step XP tweaking guide on the net. It's over 7 years old (first version in 2002) and has continued to evolve. I started working with XP during its RC1 stage. After a time I began looking for ways to tweak it. I haven't "invented" any of these tweaks. They were scattered all over the web, a couple at one site, a few more at another. Some were good and as I discovered over time, some were bad. What I have done here is to investigate/test them, try and organize them in a coherent manner, and present them in a step-by-step guide. This was also the first guide to debunk several myths regarding popular tweaks.
This will be the final version of this guide. That means
there will be no further updates. XP is a good operating
system and is still a good choice for older computers but it
is time to move on as far as guides go (I will keep XP on my
P4 computer until it dies). XP was released in 2001 and
although it will receive security updates until 2014 no new
features will be added. That means there is nothing more to
add to this guide.
This
guide wouldn't be here without the input I've received from
others and the hundreds of thousands of people who have
stopped by. To all of you, THANK YOU!
---------------------------------
Tweaking Levels
Most guides just provide the tweaks and
leave you on your own to figure out which to use. For every step in
this guide I provide my recommendation on who should use that
particular tweak. I do this by assigning a "level #" to the tweak.
Again, these are just recommendations. I've tried to provide a good
explanation as to what every tweak does so that you can decide for
yourself what you do/don't want to do. The levels provided in this
guide are as follows:
*All
Levels
- Safe for everyone. The safest settings but not tweaked much.
Level 1
- It keeps XP pretty, but faster and a little more secure. Full
functionality is maintained.
Level 2 - Faster still and a tad more secure. Not quite Level 3. Still pretty. Keeps the useful features around.
Level 3 - Very close to the settings I use. Tweaked hard. All the pretty and annoying stuff is gone. It's much faster and much more secure. Aimed at those who want to run Windows their way.
Level 2 - Faster still and a tad more secure. Not quite Level 3. Still pretty. Keeps the useful features around.
Level 3 - Very close to the settings I use. Tweaked hard. All the pretty and annoying stuff is gone. It's much faster and much more secure. Aimed at those who want to run Windows their way.
Level 4
- For Gamers only. Level 3 with a few more tweaks aimed at gamers.
Tweaking is best done on a new
installation of XP. See,
The Right Way To Install Windows XP.
Those interested can see
My Thoughts On Tweaking Windows XP And This Guide.
My Thoughts On Tweaking XP And This
Guide
On Tweaking XP
This is just my personal opinion on tweaking XP. You'll hear people
opine on this issue and the opinions vary from "Leave it alone" to
"Tweak the heck out of it" and everything in between. You know what?
They all have valid points!
If you think tweaking XP in and of itself is gonna (as an analogy),
turn a Geo Metro into a Ferrari FXX, sorry, it ain't gonna happen.
Tweaking done in the full context of this guide (this
includes maintaining your system) can provide a slight but
noticeable speed boost, tighten security, increase stability, and
improve the user experience. Lets expand on the earlier car analogy
a little bit...
-
Maintaining your system is just like a regular oil change and
tune-up. Same car, just runs smoother and is less likely to break
down.
-
Tweaking your system for performance is like installing a set of
headers and a freer flowing exhaust system. Still the same car, just
tweaked to get a little more horsepower and little better gas
mileage.
-
Tweaking your system to your personal preferences is like
adjusting the seat, steering wheel, and mirrors, and setting all
your radio stations. Again, same car, just adjusted for comfort and
usability.
How much you decide to tweak your machine is a matter of personal
preference. The truth is that, in general, Windows XP is a
remarkably well running and self-tuning OS. Microsoft can only take
it so far because of the differences in both computer hardware and
personal preferences. Fortunately, tweaking your machine can be
rather easy with the right information. That is what this guide is
all about, giving you the information you need so that you can
decide which tweaks you do and don't want to use. Which brings me to
my recommended "tweaking levels"...
These are simply general recommendations. I've got 5 boxes
running XP at the moment and their "level" is actually a
combination of various levels depending on the function and
user of the machine. For instance: I put a gig if dual
channel DDR memory in my wife's P4 computer. Taking into
consideration what she does on her machine and the power of
the machine, I left all of the "eye candy" on. Another
example: I repaired a laptop for a friend and reinstalled XP
for her. It's an old, slow computer with only 128MB of RAM
and no CD Burner but it's all she's got for now. So, I
turned everything off, all the eye candy, sounds, most of
the features, etc. This brings me to "features"...
XP was built with what I'll call the "Everyone Group" in
mind. That means everyone from novices to super-geeks.
Novices and most general users just want to sit in front of
their computer and have it work. To make it easy for the
novices to operate required many things left on that could
be considered a waste of resources (this left several holes
in XP which SP2 attempts to close, or at least help close).
They also wanted to enhance the experience for these users
by making XP pretty to look at and do cool things like
"slide" windows. But one person's features are another
person's bloat. Both the boon and the bane for XP is
that the "Everyone Group" has "full control" of the options
on how they want to run XP. Again, armed with the right
information, it is remarkably easy to tune your machine to
your wants and needs. This brings me to the hardware side of
things...
Me, I hate all the eye candy, personalized menus, and all
the rest of the things that most would consider "user
friendly" features so I turn them off. This is a personal
preference based on how I like the look and feel to be. It
has nothing to do with my hardware. For example, I've got a
3.4GHz P4, a gig of RAM, a 74GB Raptor hard drive, and a
Radeon 9800 Pro video card. This machine can handle all the
eye candy, play the newest FPS game, have an instant
messenger on, web pages open etc, and have room to spare. I
gain very little speed wise by turning the eye candy off
unless I want to run the game at some super-high resolution
and detail level (there are lots of folks out there who do).
Having the right drivers for your hardware is the number one
thing you can do to make XP "faster". The second thing is
keeping your hard drive "healthy" by periodic cleanups and
defragmenting the drives. 3rd party apps like
Raxco's Perfect Disk are much better solutions than
Windows built-in defragmenter and offer the option of
defragmenting the page file. Beyond that the ROI (return on
investment) of other tweaks is on the downside of the bell
curve. By that I mean that for any difference to be noticed,
it is necessary for multiple tweaks to be applied. The
effectiveness of these tweaks completely depends on how a
user actually uses a machine. For instance, messing with the
memory settings or the page file is useless if you never use
it all.
There is one thing I would like you to keep in mind. I've always
believed that Sir Isaac Newton's 3rd Law, commonly phrased as "For
every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" applies
to just about everything in life. It applies to tweaking as well.
Every time you make a change it costs something. For example,
turning all the eye-candy off can result in more available system
resources but may lessen the user experience.
My whole point to this rambling is this...
Before you apply a tweak, read about what it does and
evaluate your machine and what your wants and needs are
before applying. The idea is "Your computer, your way."
On This Guide
TweakHound's Super XP Tweaking Guide has evolved quite a bit over
the last few years. It is as much a labor of love as anything else.
I have put hundreds and hundreds of hours of work (and way too much
money) into it. Researching, testing, benchmarking are all just
parts of putting this guide together. This guide has proven very
popular and has even been translated into at least 2 different
languages, with my permission. This brings me to a little rant I
need to get off my chest so please excuse the indulgence...
The number of people who have ripped off my work* and tried to pass
it off as their own is disgusting. More often than not it is someone
in a forum trying to act like a big shot. Why is it they steal
someone else's hard work? Are they not intelligent enough to do the
work themselves? Are they just lazy? Does it make them feel
important? Personally I think they all suffer from penis envy.
Anywho...rant off...
Eric
*How do I know my work is being stolen?
1 - Usually because people contact me with this info.
2 - Using Google with selected search strings.
3 - Using
Copyscape.
4 - See pages with nearly the same info contained in mine that
appear after mine do. I usually see these because of #1.
5 - If you see the phrase "tweak & optimize" anywhere relating to a
guide, software, or operating system. Guess where it appeared
first?!
Before You Begin Tweaking XP...
There are several steps you should take before modifying any
settings:
Action:
BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER! *All Levels
Purpose: Save data. Recover from
problems.
I'm not kidding folks. I have no sympathy for anyone who doesn't
backup. This has become a basic step in computing. If you are unsure
of how to do this or which method is best, check out my
Windows XP Backup Strategies For Home Users guide.
Action:
Remove Unwanted/Unused Programs
*All Levels (with caution)
Purpose: Free up drive space and system
resources.
For non-Windows programs, use Add or Remove Programs:
go
to
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or
Remove Programs > click once on the program you wish to remove
and then click the Remove button.
For built-in Windows components:
go
to
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or
Remove Programs > choose Add/Remove Windows Components at
the left of the window > uncheck the things you want
to uninstall. If the Details button is not grayed out, click
on it to see more options. I uninstall MSN Explorer, Outlook
Express, and Games.
Action:
Disable Unused Ports *All Levels
Purpose: Free system resources.
Not planning to use all your ports? Disable them to free system
resources. Many of you can do so from your BIOS. For an excellent
guide on tweaking the BIOS check out
Tech ARP BIOS Optimization Guide. If you do not want to mess
with the BIOS simply go to Device Manager and disable them (right
click > disable). These may include serial ports, printer ports, and
other onboard features you may not be using. (Onboard sound, video,
lan, etc. Since I don't use firewire I've disabled that too.) In
addition some new motherboards do not include a floppy drive
connection and some people don't use a floppy at all. If you have a
floppy drive connector you can disable the floppy in the BIOS (be
sure to remove it from your boot order and to disable "boot floppy
seek".) I have found that XP has the floppy disk controllers and
floppy disk drives in the Device Manager even if you don't have a
floppy drive so be sure to disable them here too.
Action:
Clean Up Your Computer *All Levels
Purpose: Free up disk space.
Start up in Safe Mode (press F8 while
booting and choose Safe Mode) Press the Windows & R
keys > type cleanmgr /sageset:50 . Ensure there is a space
between cleanmgr and / > click OK
In the resulting screen, choose your
options by checking the boxes. I choose all but the bottom two.
Click OK
Windows & R keys > type
cleanmgr /sagerun:50 . Ensure there is a space between cleanmgr
and / > click OK and let it do its thing. Reboot when
finished.
* You can use this command
at any time for regular disk cleanups. I use the number 50
because it is easy to remember, you can use any number you
want.
Windows Built-In Tweaks
Turn Off The XP Security Center Levels 2 , 3 ,
4
Purpose: Free
up system resources.
Open the Services MMC: Press the Windows
and R keys > in the resulting window type services.msc
> in the resulting window scroll down to Security Center and
double-click on it > In the "Startup type:" box use the arrow
to scroll down to choose "Disabled" click Apply and
reboot, or, click Apply and click the button that says Stop.
For a more in-depth guide and more options,
see my article The
Windows XP Security Center.
Tweaking System Properties
Action:
Adjust Visual Effects
Purpose: Free
up system resources.
Press the Windows & Pause
Break keys > click the Advanced tab > under Performance
click the Settings button >
Level 1 & 2 -
uncheck all except "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop"
, "Smooth edges of screen fonts" , and "Use visual styles on
windows and buttons" > click Apply and OK.
Level
3 - uncheck all except "Use drop shadows for icon labels on
the desktop" , "Smooth edges of screen fonts" > click
Apply and OK.
Level 4 -
Choose the option Adjust for best performance > click Apply
and OK.
Visual Effects Menu Options
Disabling each will eliminate the feature.
Many of these effects are hardly noticeable anyway.
Animate Windows
when minimizing and maximizing
Slides the window
in/out of the task bar.
Fade or slide
menu items into view
Slides Start menu
options in/out.
Fade or slide
ToolTips into view
Slides ToolTips
in/out of view.
Fade out menu
items after clicking
The menu item will
appear to fade away after you click on it.
Show shadows
under menus
Creates a shadow
effect under menu/desktop items.
Show shadows
under mouse pointer
Creates a shadow
effect under mouse pointer.
Show translucent
selection rectangle
When you select and
object it will have a translucent highlight rather than solid.
Show window
contents while dragging
Why?
Slide open combo
boxes
Slides menu options
in/out of the menu bar.
Slide taskbar
buttons
What it says
.
Smooth edges of
screen fonts
Makes screen fonts
easier to read.
Smooth-scroll
list boxes
Huh?
Use background
image for each folder type
Kinda pointless
unless you have poor vision.
Use common tasks
in folders
|
Use Common Tasks
(click thumbnail for larger image)
 |
Don't Use Common Tasks
(click thumbnail for larger image)
 |
Use drop shadows
for icon labels on the desktop
|
Enabled
 |
Disabled
 |
Use visual styles
on windows and buttons
|
Use Styles
(click
thumbnail for larger image)
 |
Don't Use Styles
(click
thumbnail for larger image)
 |
Don't close the System Properties window
yet!
Action:
Disable Error Reporting *All Levels
Purpose: Free
up system/network resources.
This "feature" calls home to Microsoft and
sends info about system errors. Click on the Error Reporting
button on the bottom of the window > check the box that says
Disable Error Reporting > uncheck the box that says But
notify me when critical errors occur. click OK to close the
window. Close out of these windows by choosing Apply/OK but
leave the System Properties window open.
Action:
Turn Off System Restore Levels
3 & 4 only
Purpose: Free
up system resources.
Click on the System Restore tab and
place a check mark in the Turn off System Restore on all drives
box. Click Apply. ***If you do not use a backup program,
DO NOT use this tweak!!! System Restore while using resources is a
useful feature.
Action:
Remove Old Restore Points
Purpose: Free
up disk space.
If you keep System Restore active: To
remove old system restore points go to Start > Programs
> Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
> select the drive XP is installed on and click OK >
click the More Options tab > in the System Restore section,
click the Clean up button and Yes in the resulting
screen.
Action:
Turn Off Remote Assistance Levels
3 & 4 only
Purpose: Security. Free up system resources.
Click
on the Remote tab. Uncheck both check boxes and click Apply
and then OK .
Action: Turn Off Automatic Updates (or
make a set schedule)
Levels 3 & 4 only
Purpose: Free up system/network resources.
Click
on the Automatic Updates tab
Now,
before you do anything here you need to consider a few things. Windows
Update is an essential step in protecting your machine. Geeks know that
MS used to release their updates on Wednesday. This allowed you to
schedule Windows Update for late Wed. night or early Thur. morning.
Since MS, in its infinite wisdom, decided to change their weekly
updates to a monthly semi-schedule, we can't do that anymore. If you
are the type of person who keeps track of techie news, you'll know the
minute updates are released. With this in mind, we'll disable Automatic
Updating
Click
on the Automatic Updates tab > uncheck the box next to Keep
my computer up to date
A better option may be to schedule it to check for
updates once a week:
Click
on the Automatic Updates tab > check the box next to
Automatic > pick a day and time. I would recommend sometime
Wednesday morning.
Action:
Turn Off Indexing *All Levels
Purpose: Free
up system resources.
Open My Computer ( press the Windows
& E keys) > right click on each drive and choose
Properties > under the General tab, uncheck the box that
says Allow the Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file
searching > a window will pop up, make sure the box is checked
that says Apply change to (drive letter):\, subfolders and
files and click OK. Windows will apply the changes, click OK.
Once you have done all the drives I recommend you reboot.
Action:
Open each folder in a separate part of memory (recommended for
512MB memory and higher) Levels 2 , 3 ,
4 (w/512MB memory or more)
Purpose:
System stability.
Open My Computer ( press the Windows
& E keys) > go to Tools > Folder
Options > View and check the box in "Launch folder
windows in a separate process". Reboot now.
***This IS NOT a performance tweak it is a
stability tweak.
Quote from Microsoft: When you open each folder window in a
separate part of memory, the stability of Windows can be increased.
However, this process uses more memory, and may cause your computer to
run more slowly.
Windows Built-In Tweaks Part 2
Action:
Turn Off System Sounds
Levels 2 , 3
, 4
Purpose:
Free up system resources.
What this does is disable the Sound Scheme. The
sound scheme contains things like the sound you hear when you click on
something.
Go to Start > Settings
> Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices.
Click on the Sounds
tab. First save your current scheme, click on the Save
As...
button, enter a name, I used "1", and click OK. Next,
in the upper most box, click on the arrow on the right side
and choose No Sounds and click Apply
at the bottom, right. While you are here, click back on the
Volume
tab. You can enable/disable the system tray volume icon here
by checking/unchecking the box Place volume icon in
taskbar. When you are finished, click OK to exit.
Action:
Don't Use Wallpaper
Levels 3 & 4 only
Purpose:
Free up system resources.
Sound boring? I agree. However, not using wallpaper
can free up a bit of memory and speed boot times a tad. To eliminate
wallpaper:
Right-click on a blank area of the
desktop > choose Properties > click on the Desktop
tab > in the area that says "Background" choose
(None) > to change the color of the desktop, click on
the arrow next to "Color:" and pick your color >
click Apply and OK.
For most people this tweak works on the machine that
the printer is physically attached to.
This tweak is most effective if you move it to a separate drive from your OS, preferably the first partition on that disk or the second partition on that disk if you are using the first for your page file.
Create a new folder on that partition called PrintSpool > now go to START > Printers and Faxes > click on File at the top left of the window > scroll down and click Server Properties > click on the Advanced tab > type the COMPLETE path to the PrintSpool folder you just created (i.e. - D:\\PrintSpool)
This tweak is most effective if you move it to a separate drive from your OS, preferably the first partition on that disk or the second partition on that disk if you are using the first for your page file.
Create a new folder on that partition called PrintSpool > now go to START > Printers and Faxes > click on File at the top left of the window > scroll down and click Server Properties > click on the Advanced tab > type the COMPLETE path to the PrintSpool folder you just created (i.e. - D:\\PrintSpool)
Move My Documents Folder
*All Levels
Right click on the My Documents folder > choose Properties > Click on the Move... button > Expand My Computer and choose the drive you want to move it to > click the Make New Folder button and name it anything you like > click Apply > a screen will pop-up, click yes.
Right click on the My Documents folder > choose Properties > Click on the Move... button > Expand My Computer and choose the drive you want to move it to > click the Make New Folder button and name it anything you like > click Apply > a screen will pop-up, click yes.
Which partition or drive isn't as important as the
previous tweak for overall system performance. Of course, programs that
access the My Documents folder may launch a tad faster if you put it on a
separate drive and as close to the beginning of that drive as you can.
Action:
Don't Hibernate *All Levels
Purpose: Performance
Hibernation can have an impact on performance. To
disable it go to Start > Settings
> Control Panel > Power Options > click on the
Hibernate
tab > uncheck Enable hibernation.
Start Menu Tweaks
Purpose: Free up system resources. More efficient
organization. User preference.
To change it, right click on the Start button
> choose Properties
> click on the Start Menu tab > check
Classic Start Menu >
What they look like:
(click on Thumbnails for a larger view)
|
New Start
Menu
 |
Classic
Start Menu
 |
now let’s
add and remove some features, click the Customize
button > I recommend the following boxes be checked, uncheck the rest:
|
Display Administrative Tools
|
Display Run
|
|
Enable dragging and dropping
|
Expand Control Panel
|
|
Expand My Documents
|
Expand Network Connections
|
Click OK > while
still in the Start Menu properties, click on the Taskbar
tab > uncheck the box that says “Hide inactive icons†> If
you don't like the fact that XP puts all the same type of open windows into one
group in the taskbar, uncheck "Group similar taskbar buttons" > click
OK
to exit out of these screens.
Action:
Organize Start Menu
Purpose: Better organization.
More Info - none, like
many others I've been doing this for years.
This
is also a great time to organize the start menu. Go to
START
> PROGRAMS > right click >
EXPLORE, repeat and this time right click EXPLORE ALL
USERS. I create my own folders using names like: Office,
Apps, etc. Then I drag or cut and paste the old folders into
the ones I made. I also like to cleanup my desktop by
renaming icons to one line names
(right click > RENAME), and moving them to
where I want them on the screen. If you have created
multiple users, it is a good idea to check each one to make
sure that they have all your programs. Some programs need to
be installed under each user account.
(You may want to open all your applications now to make sure
they work.) Reboot.
Other Useful
Stuff
Action:
Put Volume icon in the taskbar
Purpose:
Quick access to volume control.
Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and
Audio Devices > check the box that says Place volume icon in the taskbar.
Action:
Add a My Computer or My Network Places toolbar. From "muncher"
Purpose:
Quick access to drives (may use more system resources).
Click on My Computer and hold, slide it to the edge of the
screen (any edge) and you have a My Computer tool bar. Works
with My Network Places too.
What it looks like:
(click thumbnail for larger image)
The Page
File
There is a
lot of bad advice and misunderstanding on the web of how virtual
memory (and thus the page file) works in XP. For those interested in
further reading check out
Understanding Virtual Memory ,
Virtual Memory in Windows XP, and
How to configure paging files for optimization and recovery in
Windows XP. The following
recommendations are based on research, information gathered around
the web, and personal experience dealing in a variety of
configurations.
1. The average user is best served by
LEAVING THE PAGE FILE ALONE.
XP does an excellent job of managing the page file settings for most
people.
2.
For 99.999% of the configurations
on the planet you need a page file. XP itself wants one and a number
of programs out there do too.
(Please don't email me
to argue this, I won't respond. Find a forum to argue about it.)
3.
The recommendations below are not
designed to give you the highest scores on a synthetic benchmark but
to give you the best overall performance for your system (including
stability). The size of hard drives today are huge and making the
page file a little larger than it "needs" to be hurts nothing and
you're covered if you're ever doing something that requires more.
More good links:
Action:
Adjust Page File
Purpose:
Performance. Stability.
More Info -
see the links above
To adjust
the page file:
Click on the
Advanced tab > check both boxes that say "Programs" Under
the Virtual memory section you should make adjustments here
if your system can handle it. Click Change here. "Super
geeks" will either:
A:
Remove the page file from the drive the OS is on and make a separate
partition at the beginning of a separate disk from the OS just for
this (preferably on a different chain from that disk also). Use the
same settings for the page file that XP had on the other drive (ram
x 1.5 min, ram x 3 max). If you have several disks you can spread
the page file out over them also. For those who wish to spread the
page files out across multiple drives. XP will use the drive(s) that
are least busy. Ensure that you set the page files on these drives
large enough so that XP has enough room to do whatever it wants in
each page file. This means setting each page file slightly larger
than the amount of RAM installed. I do not like this option
and use the next option instead.
***Microsoft
and every expert I've read state that you should leave at least a
small page file on the OS drive.
B.
Keep the page file that is on the same partition that the OS is on
and put a second page file on a separate partition at the beginning
of a separate disk from the OS (preferably on a different chain from
that disk also). I have mine set to: Page file on OS drive = memory
x 1.5. Page file on separate partition/separate drive = memory x
1.5.
NOTE:
The "1.5" recommendation is based on a 'more than enough'
scenario. If you are the perfectionist type and want the
perfect size page file for your machine then see here:
Below is an example of the setup in one
of my machines.
Services
Microsoft pulled their services guide that I had linked
to previously because the information was outdated due
to SP2 & 3. Even the default settings for Services
listed in Help & Support are still wrong. I've gotten
these settings by doing a fresh install of both XP Home
and Pro and exporting the Services configuration as a
.csv file.
--------------------------------------------------
The following table contains my recommended settings. They are based on hundreds of custom installs. They are also expressly NOT for machines in a domain (even if your IT guy was stupid enough to give you these permissions). Reading the notes provided is KEY to interpreting the recommendations.
Press the Windows + R keys > type services.msc (do not use msconfig). To edit a service, double-click on the entry.
Re-boot when finished.
If something stops working that was working before you edited the services, simply return it to the default value. If you have a concern as to whether nor not it is safe for you to disable a service you have 2 choices; disable it and see if it causes problems, or, set it to Manual. In most cases Manual lets the system start a service if needed.
Levels 3 and 4 are configured for max security and are not for machines with multiple users.
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