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- Nov 8, 2005
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| Processor | Haswell i7 4770 |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | Asus Z87-PRO |
| Memory | 32GB DDR3-2133 10-10-10-30 |
| Video Card(s) | 2x Radeon R9 390X |
| Storage | Samsung SSD M840 Pro 256GB, 4x320GB mechanical RAID 5 |
Link to my original guide: http://www.overclockstop.com/OCS_Fo...ystems/481-windows-xp-optimization-guide.html
To begin you will need to open the system configuration utility. Do this by going to Start>Run and type msconfig and click OK then click on the tab labeled Services. Or if you prefer, you may also use services.msc.
Error Reporting Service
Unnecessary Services
Windows XP comes with a wide range of services that perform various tasks and functions. When the computer starts, many of these services are started and consume CPU and system memory resources. Not all of these services are needed and quite a few can be disabled. Disabling unnecessary services can make your computer boot and run considerably faster. The following are a list of services that come standard with windows that can be disabled to help free up resources.
*There are also other services that are added when certain software products are installed such as Adobe Acrobat, nVidia and ATI drivers, Creative Mediasource, etc.; most of which can be disabled with no noticable effect.
To begin you will need to open the system configuration utility. Do this by going to Start>Run and type msconfig and click OK then click on the tab labeled Services. Or if you prefer, you may also use services.msc.
Indexing Service
The Indexing Service creates and maintains a list of files and their locations on both local and remote computers in order to provide faster file searching. Unless you use the search feature of windows regularly and have a dependency on it this service may be disabled. If you disable this service you will also want to turn off indexing on all hard drives and partitions. To do this you just go to My Computer>right click on the disk or partition that you want to disable indexing on>properties. When the new window opens there is a box at the bottom of the window that is labeled Allow indexing service to index this disk for fast file searching, Uncheck the box and click apply. A message box may appear, if this occurs just click Ignore all.
The Indexing Service creates and maintains a list of files and their locations on both local and remote computers in order to provide faster file searching. Unless you use the search feature of windows regularly and have a dependency on it this service may be disabled. If you disable this service you will also want to turn off indexing on all hard drives and partitions. To do this you just go to My Computer>right click on the disk or partition that you want to disable indexing on>properties. When the new window opens there is a box at the bottom of the window that is labeled Allow indexing service to index this disk for fast file searching, Uncheck the box and click apply. A message box may appear, if this occurs just click Ignore all.
Error Reporting Service
When an application encounters a problem and closes, this is the service that generates the little box that asks you if you want to send an error report. This service is not necessary.
Fast User Switching
Help and Support
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
Remote Desktop Session Manager
Remote Registry
Task Scheduler
Secondary Login
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
Print Spooler
System Restore Service
Telephony
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Windows Time
SecurityCenter
Wireless Zero Configuration
Fast User Switching
Manages applications that require assistance in multiple user environments. If you have no urgency to stay logged on to your current account when you switch users or if you only have one user account on your computer you may disable this service.
Help and Support
This service is responsible for the Help and SupportCenter. This service is also responsible for the annoying little pop-ups that appear in the lower left of the screen. If you rely on the Help and Support center do not disable this service.
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
This service handles windows CD burning with the built-in windows CD burning software. Disable this service if you use a 3rd party software package for burning or if you do not have a burner.
Remote Desktop Session Manager
Controls the Microsoft remote assistance. If you call for remote desktop support from Microsoft or other users this is the service that handles the connection. Unless you rely on others remote desktoping your computer you may disable this service.
Remote Registry
This service is along the same lines as the Remote Desktop
Session Manager, but it allows others from remote locations to only modify your registry. Unless you rely on remote registry editing you may disable this service.
Session Manager, but it allows others from remote locations to only modify your registry. Unless you rely on remote registry editing you may disable this service.
Task Scheduler
The task scheduler controls the scheduling of automated tasks by the user. It allows you to configure programs to run on a timely basis (every day, every other day, every week, etc.). If you don’t use it, disable it.
Secondary Login
Allows different processes to start for different users when the user logs on. This service is pointless if you only have one user account on your computer.
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
Controls the windows firewall and internet connection sharing (ICS). If you don’t use the windows firewall or ICS you can disable this service.
Print Spooler
The print spooler loads print jobs into system memory to provide faster printing. You can disable this if you don’t have a printer or don’t care about print jobs starting slightly faster.
System Restore Service
Sets system restore points. If you don’t use system restore you can disable this service. You may also disable system restore by going to Control Panel>System>System Restore and checking the box labeled Turn off system restore on all drives. System restore uses up significant disk space.
Telephony
If you don’t have a modem or don’t make telephone calls with you computer then you can disable this service.
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Maintains links between NTFS files within a computer or across computers in a network domain.
Windows Time
Synchronizes the windows clock between networked computers so they all read the same time.
SecurityCenter
This is that annoying little program that installs with service pack 2 that tells you that you don’t have antivirus protection, a firewall or if you don’t have automatic updates turned on. It doesn’t really help out at all.
Wireless Zero Configuration
This service automatically configures 802.11 devices. If you don’t have any wireless networking devices that fall under the 802.11 specification then you can disable this service.
Registry Tweaking
***BAKUP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE CHANGING ANY SETTINGS***
To create a registry backup go to Start>Run>regedit and highlight My Computer in the left column on the top and then go to File>Export and then choose where you want to save your backup and the name for it. This may take several minutes depending on the speed of the computer and the file size may be 100+ MB.
There are several registry tweaks you can do to help dramatically improve your system performance. Most of them have to do with how windows manages the memory subsystems in your computer. The following registry changes increased my 3dMark05 CPU score by almost 900 points over default registry settings with the system in my profile. I have noticed though that these changes affect the performance of Intel CPUs more than AMD CPUs, but there is still a noticeable increase for both.
To make the changes to the registry you will need to open the registry editor. To do so go to Start>run and type regedit.
Helping Windows detect your L2 cache
Windows has a difficult time with detecting how much L2 cache your CPU has. Instead of letting windows try to detect it, it is best to set the amount manually. To do this go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
Session Manager\Memory Management
Session Manager\Memory Management
Find the registry key SecondLevelDataCache and double click it. A window opens which allows you to edit its value. The value you want to set is the amount of L2 cache your CPU has in kilobytes. Notice that the values are by default set to hexadecimal, you can change it to decimal by selecting the decimal radio button on the right portion of the window. Here are some decimal to hexadecimal conversions:
Dec..........Hex
Dec..........Hex
128K L2 = 80
256K L2 = 100
512K L2 = 200
1024K L2 = 400
2048K L2 = 800
256K L2 = 100
512K L2 = 200
1024K L2 = 400
2048K L2 = 800
Keep Windows operating data in RAM
***Do not change this setting if your computer has less than 256MB of RAM***
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
Session Manager\Memory Management
Session Manager\Memory Management
Select the DWORD value DisablePagingExecutive and set its value to 1.
This prevents windows from loading kernel and driver files into the page file. The page file is much slower than RAM and keeping the core files in RAM provides a nice performance gain.
Create a large system cache
***Do not change this setting if your computer has less than 512MB of RAM***
The system cache is the area of reserved system memory used for the core components of the operating system. This option increases the size of the system cache.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
Session Manager\Memory Management
Session Manager\Memory Management
Select the DWORD value LargeSystemCache and set its value to 1.
Disable DOS 8.3 naming convention
Windows keeps two different names for every file on your system. The full name of the file is the one you will see in explorer and a command prompt, but there is a name for the file that complies with the 8.3 naming convention for use with MSDOS applications. If you do not use pre-windows 95 programs then you should change this setting.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
FileSystem
FileSystem
Select the DWORD value NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation and set its value to 1.
Disable NTFS last access update
Each time a drive that is formatted with the NTFS file system is accessed, windows updates the time stamp on the directory and all of the sub directories. This can eat up significant amounts of system resources. If the registry key is not there, create a new DWORD value by right clicking and selecting new>DWORD Value and name it NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
FileSystem
Select the DWORD value NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and set its value to 1.
IRQ prioritizing
You can give certain IRQs priority over others with this option. The most common IRQ to prioritize is IRQ8 which is for the system I/O and Real Time Clock. Another commonly prioritized IRQ is the video card IRQ (usually IRQ16).
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
PriorityControl
PriorityControl
Create a new DWORD value called IRQ8Priority (you can replace 8 with any IRQ number you wish to prioritize) and set its value to 1.
Miscellaneous
Disabling unwanted startup programs
A lot of programs will automatically start up with your computer when it boots. These can slow down your system considerably. To choose which programs start with your computer go to Start>Run and type msconfig then go to the startup tab. Uncheck the boxes of the programs that you don’t want to have starting up with your computer.
Also go to Start>All Programs>Startup and delete any shortcuts out of this menu for the programs that you don’t want starting with your computer. Adobe usually puts some startup shortcuts in this folder.
Also go to Start>All Programs>Startup and delete any shortcuts out of this menu for the programs that you don’t want starting with your computer. Adobe usually puts some startup shortcuts in this folder.
Defragment regularly
Defragmenting your hard drive on a regular basis is one of the easiest things you can to keep your computer performing well. When a file becomes fragmented, it is physically out of order on the disk. Defragmenting puts the file back in order so that it can be continuously read without the read/write head jumping all over the place. To access the windows defragmenting utility go to Start>all programs>accessories>system tools and click disk defragmenter.
Run disk cleanup regularly
Disk cleanup removes temporary files and other unnecessary files the are just wasting disk space. To access the disk cleanup utility go to Start>all programs>accessories>system tools and click disk cleanup.
Turn off automatic updates
Go to Control panel>system>automatic updates and select turn off automatic updates and click apply.
Use a registry cleaner
Use a registry cleaning utility to fix and remove bad registry entries. RegSupreme Pro is a handy program:
Change the priority of your applications
Press ctrl + alt + del to open up the task manager. Click on the process tab and right click on the process you wish to prioritize and go to set priority and select the priority level you wish.
Use Anti-Spyware Software
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