Since defragging the disk won't do much to improve Windows XP performance, here
are 23 suggestions that will. Each can enhance the performance and reliability of
your customers' PCs. Best of all, most of them will cost you nothing.
1.) To decrease a system's boot time and increase system performance, use the
money you save by not buying defragmentation software -- the built-in Windows
defragmenter works just fine -- and instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133
or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.
2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a relatively
inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.
3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If you're not sure,
here's how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the
C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says
FAT32, then back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD,
and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter
key. This process may take a while; it's important that the computer be
uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be
either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security,
reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.
4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from
documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a "searchable keyword
index." As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system.
The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a
document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the
file name of the document they want. Windows XP's built-in search functionality
can still perform these kinds of searches without the Indexing service. It just
takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the time of the request to help find
what the user is looking for.
Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a
large corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least
one server. But if you're a typical system builder, most of your clients are small
and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I
recommend disabling it.
Here's how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C:
Drive, then select Properties. Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk
for fast file searching." Next, apply changes to "C: subfolders and files," and
click OK. If a warning or error message appears (such as "Access is denied"),
click the Ignore All button.
5.) Update the PC's video and motherboard chipset drivers. Also, update and
configure the BIOS. For more information on how to configure your BIOS properly,
see this article on my site.
6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can
"prefetch" portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes
processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That's fine. But
over time, the prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and
applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and
slowing system performance, by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this
folder, and the entire contents are safe to delete.
7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here's how: Double-click the My Computer
icon. Then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk
Cleanup button -- it's just to the right of the Capacity pie graph -- and delete
all temporary files.
8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device,
and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary
and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then
click the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode is set to "DMA if
available" for both Device 0 and Device 1. Then repeat this process with the
Secondary IDE Channel.
9.) Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology improves, the cabling
requirements to achieve these performance boosts have become more stringent. Be
sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your IDE devices with the
connectors properly assigned to the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A
single device must be at the end of the cable; connecting a single drive to the
middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause signaling problems. With Ultra DMA
hard drives, these signaling problems will prevent the drive from performing at
its maximum potential. Also, because these cables inherently support "cable
select," the location of each drive on the cable is important. For these reasons,
the cable is designed so drive positioning is explicitly clear.
10.) Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by
Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are installed, be sure to
check for and download any updates before starting your search. Anything either
program finds can be safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to
run will no longer function once the spyware portion has been removed; if your
customer really wants the program even though it contains spyware, simply
reinstall it. For more information on removing Spyware visit this Web Pro News
page.
11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Startup routine
using the MSCONFIG utility. Here's how: First, click Start, click Run, type
MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp tab, then uncheck any items you don't
want to start when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks
Process Library. It contains known system processes, applications, as well as
spyware references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the
filenames using Google or another Web search engine.
12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove Programs
section of the Control Panel.
13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active desktop. In
fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP offers many
different settings in this area. Here's how to do it: First click on the System
icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select the Settings
button located under Performance. Feel free to play around with the options
offered here, as nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the computer
-- only its responsiveness.
14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable editing their
registry, try some of the performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.
15.) Visit Microsoft's Windows update site regularly, and download all updates
labeled Critical. Download any optional updates at your discretion.
16.) Update the customer's anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis.
Make sure they have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing antivirus
software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance and reliability.
17.) Make sure the customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed on their
computer. The more fonts they have, the slower the system will become. While
Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous versions of
Windows, too many fonts -- that is, anything over 500 -- will noticeably tax the
system.
18.) Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP's NTFS file system runs more
efficiently on one large partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition,
and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an operating system. The same
excuses people offer for using partitions apply to using a folder instead. For
example, instead of putting all your data on the D: drive, put it in a folder
called "D drive." You'll achieve the same organizational benefits that a separate
partition offers, but without the degradation in system performance. Also, your
free space won't be limited by the size of the partition; instead, it will be
limited by the size of the entire hard drive. This means you won't need to resize
any partitions, ever. That task can be time-consuming and also can result in lost
data.
19.) Check the system's RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I recommend using
a free program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or diskette
(your choice), which will run 10 extensive tests on the PC's memory automatically
after you boot to the disk you created. Allow all tests to run until at least
three passes of the 10 tests are completed. If the program encounters any errors,
turn off and unplug the computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming you have more
than one), and run the test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but
only replaced.
20.) If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer's Web site
for updated firmware. In some cases you'll be able to upgrade the recorder to a
faster speed. Best of all, it's free.
21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that your
customer most likely does not need. To determine which services you can disable
for your client, visit the Black Viper site for Windows XP configurations.
22.) If you're sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking
the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My Computer, click on
Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab. Scroll down to "Launch
folder windows in a separate process," and enable this option. You'll have to
reboot your machine for this option to take effect.
23.) At least once a year, open the computer's cases and blow out all the dust and
debris. While you're in there, check that all the fans are turning properly. Also
inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks. For more information on
this leaking-capacitor phenomena, you can read numerous articles on my site.
Following any of these suggestions should result in noticeable improvements to the
performance and reliability of your customers' computers. If you still want to
defrag a disk, remember that the main benefit will be to make your data more
retrievable in the event of a crashed drive.
are 23 suggestions that will. Each can enhance the performance and reliability of
your customers' PCs. Best of all, most of them will cost you nothing.
1.) To decrease a system's boot time and increase system performance, use the
money you save by not buying defragmentation software -- the built-in Windows
defragmenter works just fine -- and instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133
or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.
2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a relatively
inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.
3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If you're not sure,
here's how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the
C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says
FAT32, then back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD,
and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter
key. This process may take a while; it's important that the computer be
uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be
either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security,
reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.
4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from
documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a "searchable keyword
index." As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system.
The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a
document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the
file name of the document they want. Windows XP's built-in search functionality
can still perform these kinds of searches without the Indexing service. It just
takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the time of the request to help find
what the user is looking for.
Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a
large corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least
one server. But if you're a typical system builder, most of your clients are small
and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I
recommend disabling it.
Here's how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C:
Drive, then select Properties. Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk
for fast file searching." Next, apply changes to "C: subfolders and files," and
click OK. If a warning or error message appears (such as "Access is denied"),
click the Ignore All button.
5.) Update the PC's video and motherboard chipset drivers. Also, update and
configure the BIOS. For more information on how to configure your BIOS properly,
see this article on my site.
6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can
"prefetch" portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes
processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That's fine. But
over time, the prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and
applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and
slowing system performance, by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this
folder, and the entire contents are safe to delete.
7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here's how: Double-click the My Computer
icon. Then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk
Cleanup button -- it's just to the right of the Capacity pie graph -- and delete
all temporary files.
8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device,
and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary
and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then
click the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode is set to "DMA if
available" for both Device 0 and Device 1. Then repeat this process with the
Secondary IDE Channel.
9.) Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology improves, the cabling
requirements to achieve these performance boosts have become more stringent. Be
sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your IDE devices with the
connectors properly assigned to the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A
single device must be at the end of the cable; connecting a single drive to the
middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause signaling problems. With Ultra DMA
hard drives, these signaling problems will prevent the drive from performing at
its maximum potential. Also, because these cables inherently support "cable
select," the location of each drive on the cable is important. For these reasons,
the cable is designed so drive positioning is explicitly clear.
10.) Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by
Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are installed, be sure to
check for and download any updates before starting your search. Anything either
program finds can be safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to
run will no longer function once the spyware portion has been removed; if your
customer really wants the program even though it contains spyware, simply
reinstall it. For more information on removing Spyware visit this Web Pro News
page.
11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Startup routine
using the MSCONFIG utility. Here's how: First, click Start, click Run, type
MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp tab, then uncheck any items you don't
want to start when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks
Process Library. It contains known system processes, applications, as well as
spyware references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the
filenames using Google or another Web search engine.
12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove Programs
section of the Control Panel.
13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active desktop. In
fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP offers many
different settings in this area. Here's how to do it: First click on the System
icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select the Settings
button located under Performance. Feel free to play around with the options
offered here, as nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the computer
-- only its responsiveness.
14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable editing their
registry, try some of the performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.
15.) Visit Microsoft's Windows update site regularly, and download all updates
labeled Critical. Download any optional updates at your discretion.
16.) Update the customer's anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis.
Make sure they have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing antivirus
software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance and reliability.
17.) Make sure the customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed on their
computer. The more fonts they have, the slower the system will become. While
Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous versions of
Windows, too many fonts -- that is, anything over 500 -- will noticeably tax the
system.
18.) Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP's NTFS file system runs more
efficiently on one large partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition,
and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an operating system. The same
excuses people offer for using partitions apply to using a folder instead. For
example, instead of putting all your data on the D: drive, put it in a folder
called "D drive." You'll achieve the same organizational benefits that a separate
partition offers, but without the degradation in system performance. Also, your
free space won't be limited by the size of the partition; instead, it will be
limited by the size of the entire hard drive. This means you won't need to resize
any partitions, ever. That task can be time-consuming and also can result in lost
data.
19.) Check the system's RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I recommend using
a free program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or diskette
(your choice), which will run 10 extensive tests on the PC's memory automatically
after you boot to the disk you created. Allow all tests to run until at least
three passes of the 10 tests are completed. If the program encounters any errors,
turn off and unplug the computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming you have more
than one), and run the test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but
only replaced.
20.) If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer's Web site
for updated firmware. In some cases you'll be able to upgrade the recorder to a
faster speed. Best of all, it's free.
21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that your
customer most likely does not need. To determine which services you can disable
for your client, visit the Black Viper site for Windows XP configurations.
22.) If you're sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking
the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My Computer, click on
Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab. Scroll down to "Launch
folder windows in a separate process," and enable this option. You'll have to
reboot your machine for this option to take effect.
23.) At least once a year, open the computer's cases and blow out all the dust and
debris. While you're in there, check that all the fans are turning properly. Also
inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks. For more information on
this leaking-capacitor phenomena, you can read numerous articles on my site.
Following any of these suggestions should result in noticeable improvements to the
performance and reliability of your customers' computers. If you still want to
defrag a disk, remember that the main benefit will be to make your data more
retrievable in the event of a crashed drive.
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