notebook needs some speed

Here's a few suggestions for a slow system. Here's what I do to keep things performing well.
I have XP home installed, with 2100+ AMD Athlon, K7T MB, 20GB drive, and 512MB RAM. I've tried every combination of tweaks and fixes and have my system as fast and stable as possible.

Routine regular maintenance (weekly):
1. Defrag hard drive. This can make a big difference.
2. Check the fragmentation report and make sure that the MFT file and Paging file are not fragmented, and if so, do boot time defrag (with something like Executive Software diskeeper)
3. Optimizing hard drive with Norton Speed Disk.
4. Clean registry with JV16 Power tool (available free at http://www.macecraft.com/index.php?lg=en&id=downloads). Norton Windoctor is another registry cleaner.
5. Get rid of any performance hitting spyware with AdAware http://lavasoft.element5.com/support/download/
6. Use this free tool (XP Prefetch clean and control http://www.jester2k.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/jester2ksoftware.htm) to get rid of old large and potentially bogged down prefetch settings).
7. Remove old unwanted programs and/or very large files (movies etc) that you don't want.
6. Clean junk files using Window Washer (http://www.webroot.com/wb/products/windowwasher/index.php)

Excellent Tweaks to increase performance.

1. Install freshui for some good XP tweaks (http://www.freshdevices.com/freshui.html) This will enable you to quickly tweak things such as: Windows CPU Priority increase to Realtime; L2 Cache Optimization to match what your CPU L2 supports; I/O Memory Cache size increase from 4096 to 65536; Menu Reaction Delay to 0; Force Windows System Core to stay resident; and wfp (windows file protection) cache size drop to 50MB from it's original enormous value.
2. I've modified my XP sys.ini file and specified these lines:
PageBuffers=32
MinTimeSlice=15
DMABufferSize=64
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
you can research the net on what these settings will do for you.
3. Right click "my computer", "properties", "Advanced" Performance "settings", advanced tab, Processor Scheduling to Adjust for best performance "Programs"; memory usage best performance for "System cache". Under virtual memory set paging file to be a fixed number (mine is at 500 MB) so that less defragmentation occurs.

Another thing you can do is go into your BIOS and optimize settings for Advanced BIOS features and Advanced chipset features. A good BIOS guide is http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/bios/print.shtml

There's probably a few more I've done but I can't recall right now.

If you're hesitant about messing with settings like those above, rest assured that if you're System Restore is working or if you have Goback, any error is easily and quickly fixed. You won't know how your system will perform until you challenge it
:D
 
Quote from amilian:

....
4. Clean registry with JV16 Power tool (available free at http://www.macecraft.com/index.php?lg=en&id=downloads).
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amilian,

Excellent post with some great information! I wanted to add that JV16 Power Tools has a great temp file cleaner as well. I use this every couple of days, if I am using the computer a lot. It takes a bit of setup on your part to establish which temp files to clean out, but it's very straightforward and quick.

Also, I'd like to underscore amilian's point that this is freeware. A very handy piece of software.
 
amilian's post is a good list

However the order of the items should probably be reworked. You want to do maintenance steps 1 and 2 (related to defrag) AFTER you've done all the others.

Reason - you want to purge unwanted/unneeded files BEFORE doing defrag so that new free space can be used by the defrag software.

Also, be sure to shut down all programs BEFORE doing defrag - if you leave an email program or something like that running, the open files will have to be skipped by the defragger.
 
Quote from gotta_trade:

Basically what is spyware and adware?
1. How do you get it?
2. How do you avoid getting it?
3. How do you know you have it?
4. What does it do, what is it's purpose?
5. What negative effects does it have on your computer?
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1. check out http://lavasoft.element5.com/ .......
"While the Internet is a powerful resource ... it also has its dark side .... freeware, shareware, cookies, media players, interactive content, and file sharing .... may contain code or components that allow the developers of these applications and tools to collect and disseminate information about those using them.
They can track your surfing habits, abuse your Internet connection by sending this data to a third party, profile your shopping preferences, hijack your browser start page or pages, alter important system files, and can do this without your knowledge or permission. The security and privacy implications of these exploits should be quite obvious and undesirable on any system or network"
examples :
If you install Kazaa (filesharing program), I know that SaveNow is also installed - forces ad popups.
General websurfing to certain sites without security updates and patches can leave you vulnerable to some annoying stuff too, like codes that change your homepage, adds unwanted toolbars to explorer and add unauthorized exe files to your windows folder so that when you start your PC, other stuff is loaded without your knowledge. Start, Run "msconfig" and look at the Startup tab will show you what programs are starting each time you boot up. You can generally find explanations of what items are just by searching the net. Check out http://www.techexplained.com/answered/7.php for reference

2. It's not easy to completely avoid getting them. It's wise to regularly check for them just in case. Why not do it with a free tool like AdAware. I've used it pretty much since it was developed without any problems. It's a completely safe and very helpful program.

3. You'll know you have spyware if you inexplicibly get lots of popups and/or your system starts taking a performance hit and slows to a crawl.

4. Probably already answered by now. Popups = money in someone's pocket for the site hit that you make.

5. Negative effects - probably already answered by now as well. Your PC will slow down and you'll be annoyed to the max. For the 5 minutes it takes to do a weekly scan, you'll save much more lost time in PC problems. Plus, it's comforting to know that you're not being exploited or tracked.

But back to the topic of the original post - speeding up XP, below I've listed some great reference sites. The first one is http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/supertweaks.htm , an excellent resource for learning which system resources are automatically started by XP by default (many of which home PC users will never need). Personally, I have disabled many of XP functions and set many others to manual startup - thus freeing RAM resources and stopping processes that will hinder programs I'm running. Each may only be small, but they add up!

others:
http://www.monroeworld.com/pchelp/xptweaks.php
http://www.livingstonlocal.com/XP/
http://www.theeldergeek.com/registry_edits.htm
http://www.is-it-true.org/nt/registry/

Anyone not familiar with adjusting the registry directly, it's worth taking the plunge and trying a few. If you're cautious and research what you're doing before you do it (and backup the registry before you do anything) you will not go wrong. Personally, I must have made at least 50 registry modifications directly using Start Run "regedit" simply by following the instructions posted at those sites I've listed. And by doing so, I've boosted the performance of my system by an enormous amount.

Quote from DaveN:

Excellent post .. wanted to add that JV16 Power Tools has a great temp file cleaner as well. ... underscore amilian's point that this is freeware. A very handy piece of software.
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Thnx. Yes, good point. It has an excellent file search funtion too!

Quote from ArchAngel:

.. steps 1 and 2 (related to defrag) AFTER you've done all the others...you want to purge unwanted/unneeded files BEFORE doing defrag ..
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yep also good point. defrag last!
 
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