Top 5 software performance uppers

[Futzelman]

Hello:
I like to know which TOP 5 ranking improvement suggestions you believe in most that can fasten the machine...
NO Hardware, only SOFTWARE, tweeks or any other software configuration allowed, like deleting the temp folder, defragmenting, cleaning the registry, bios etc etc

Looking forward to this

Futzel

[Target]

I don't really have a top 5 list for you at this time, but I might suggest that you specify what operating system you are talking about. Its likely to effect the answers greatly.

[Roy]

There's a glut of them at RegEdit (http://www.regedit.com) http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Futzelman]

WIN98SE

Come'on guys, I know that there is a lot, but I am sure that some have been truly tested.
I am not talking about the ones that you find in any PC mag. Perhaps you have experienced a true performance bump (recognizable) when changin a certian bios setting.
Or can any software changes really just be measured with special benchmark program?

Futzel

[ablang]

I'm more concerned with reliability, than performance of my Win98 OS. I'd be more interested in a software program that cleans up all of Win98's errors, and chances of blue screens popping up and what-not.

[BFlurie]

See below:

[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 08-12-2000).]

[qball]

Defrag,
RegClean (or something like),
Proper Drive maintenance (there are limits to folders and files),
Only load what you need at Startup,
Minesweeper

[BFlurie]

Futz, there's a balance between speed & stability. Keep that in mind.

Start w/the BIOS. Some BIOSs have an Optimal setting for stability & a High Performance setting for speed. Experiment.

Make sure your system has plenty of RAM -- 64 MB is probably a minimum nowadays. This will minimize or eliminate Windoz' need to use the swap-file. Also, with alot of RAM, you can take advantage with programs like CacheMan.
http://www.outertech.com/

Often your fastest & also most stable W9X is just after a clean install. Why? 'Cause your registry (installed progs) and Start-Up progs are at a minimum. So what does that say? It says keep installed progs to a minimum & your registry cleaned & compressed. Uninstall progs you don't need. Remove Windows options you don't use from Control Panel/ Add-Remove programs/ Windoz Setup. Use registry cleaner progs & then compress your registry. Keep "Start-up" progs at an ABSOLUTE minimum. My system has Explorer.exe & Cpuidle running @ startup -- that's it. Virus checkers are up to you; everyone has their own opinion & I respect them, but I've never had a virus in 5 yrs & never had a Virus program running in the background (I do run manual virus checks -- never found one). That's a risk, but IMHO a small one. (Flame alert!)

Run Defrag every couple of days. W98 has a complicated, optional "optimization" scheme w/defrag, but it also involves quite a bit of overhead. I honestly don't know; I use W95 in preference to W98. Nuts & Bolts has a "ordering" defrag that's less complicated than W98's scheme, but does similar, tho less aggressive file reordering w/o any overhead.

Don't use Memory optimizers -- they do no real good. You want to USE memory, not have it free (doesn't seem intuitive, but it's true). Resources are the bottleneck w/W9X, not free RAM (as long as you have enough). W9X actually does an excellent job of RAM management.

Study the material on these sites:
http://www.winmag.com/columns/explorer/2000/11.htm http://members.aol.com/axcel216/index.htm


If you're a real performance freak like me, you can do these things to trim away small bits of FAT (no pun):
Eliminate Wallpaper
Disable "special" effects -- Font smoothing, smooth scrolling, windoz animation, animated cursors, Active desktop, etc.
Keep your video resolution down to a min -- say 800 X 600 & 256 colors.
Eliminate sound effects, or like me, keep each sound you want very short; ie., 1/10 of a second or so (Sound Recorder can edit/trim .wav files). Get rid of your "Shutting down Windoz" sound.
Keep your installed fonts to a minimum -- I've got 31. Use .fon type fonts for your Windoz desktop, not .ttf type fonts.
Put your swapfile on a second hard drive.
Use a "fixed" swapfile so it won't fragment.
Keep your "Windoz" on its own, separate partition, & all other progs/data on other partition(s). My C drive only uses 115 MBs.

I could keep going, but this is a start.

[oksenior]

hello

I believe the biggest impact are CPU,Memory, harddrive speeds. Software has limitations within these three. Bios upgrade upped my benchmarks considerably. Registry tweak upped my net speed considerably (cable modem). Swap file fixed size had another big impact but must have the memory,I have 128 PC133


Stability-
I use Norton System 2k which has a subprogram that does a registry check and clean up aside from other system housekeeping. Even at that I do a manual clean from time to time for deleted program entries that are not removed properly. It also has a system information module that I use to see individual program's memory overhead and thus decide whether to use it. I'm talking about TSRs and convenience utilities.


tweaks are are gas treatments to engines, horepower does not neccesarily results as much as good maintenance.

OKsr