How do you speedup your XP?

[JonathanB]

I've been to win98SE for so long and may go XP. How do you folks rev it up? Say do I install Cacheman? Do I reduce prog in startup? Do I use same min/max for Virtual Memory?

[rmanet]

I'd suggest you do a regular install - then don't go with th individual tweaks as some don't even apply with XP - rather you're better off with all the XP tweaking utilities out there

download a few - learn more about what you can do with 'em, then do 'em one at a time so if you honk something up you can fix it easily

you'll love XP - but I changed on the (now 2) of my six comps here at the house to the "classic windows settings" for folders, start bar, etc. the very first time I booted the computer :t

[Rob R.]

Well the best way to speed up XP is throw "real" memory at it. The bare minimum you want is 256MB but I would recommend 512MB. I have heard you get even more performance out of XP by going higher than 512MB but I can't verify this for you first hand.

I wouldn't recommend using cacheman. Really virtual memory is pretty cut and dried. With todays giant hard drives and inexpensive memory, you will find that slicing off a gigabyte for your virtual memory is no big deal and it may rarely get used anyway if you have plenty of real memory. The only time my virtual memory gets used is when I am playing a game with a memory leak or downloading a giant file (1gb+). I don't think you can go too wrong with this. (opinions differ here and this is just my ever-so-humble opinion) :)

Windows XP is great though, you won't be disappointed. It does require a rather robust computer. I would recommend having at least a third generation processor in your computer before you upgrade to it.

[sm8000]

Cut down on the number of services that WinXP loads at startup (or uses at all) by following this handy guide:

www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

[dajogejr]

I agree with RR. I'm pretty sure by default, XP will select windows to automatically size your pagefile. Leave it there!!
I have 1GB of RAM, and I sill let Windows handle it. I can't say I've noticed much difference in going from 1x512 to 2x512 for RAM.
I soley did it not for the amount...but to see what difference it made for dual channel, my Asus supports that.

There is a program out there, Tweak XP Pro, trialware, of course, that gives a ton of options for tweaking, from Pagefile settings, VGA settings, Memory Cache..etc. Give it a shot...decent optimizer too.

Cruise over to www.tweakxp.com for a few pointers...
PLEASE, be careful though. A lot of their tweaks involve the registry, and I'm sure I don't need anymore warning on that...

But...I would have to disagree with Rman.
I admit...at first I hated the XP interface...but now, you'd have to pry it from me! I feel like a cave man using the NT and 2000 computer interfaces at work!!

To each is own...that's for sure!

Good luck!

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Generic tweaks at www.tweak3d.net, www.3dspotlight.com, limit my pagefile to the same max and minimum size, other than that regular spyware scans, defrags and disk cleanups keep it all tip top

--Jakk:t

[Swordfish]

wel...the best tweak i came across was the one Ms provided some where in System properties where you can change the visual styles, mouse shadows etc ...I always like the classic view.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

The only essential tweakin anyone need do is here:

http://www.jonmega.com/~iceman/

Get rid of that orrible playschool GUI :p

--Jakk:t

[JonathanB]

Ohhh... tons of reply, thanks. The machine is a P3 866 with 128mb sdram. Will it run fine, or I have to add another 128mb sd if I got the budget (even though RAM is cheap, we find it expensive he he). Can I run Norton defrag to optimize swap file? Cause my real mem is still low.

[sm8000]

I'd go for the extra memory and disable unnecessary services by the link I provided above.