Increase the performance of windows xp. Optimizing the operation of the Windows XP operating system

Vladimir Bezmaly

Some tips on how to improve your computer's performance, get rid of unnecessary files and Windows services XP.

Two Windows on one computer

Windows XP, like Windows 2000, can be installed in such a way that you retain the previous OS - for example, Windows 98 - and then select the desired operating system each time at the initial boot stage.

For this at the beginning Windows installations XP should refuse the offer to upgrade the system and specify a different directory for installing XP instead of the default one (which already contains the previous Windows).

However, you need to remember the following restrictions:

Removing unnecessary folders

To reduce the size of Windows XP, you can delete the %SystemRoot%\Driver Cache\i386\ folder. However, after this, every time you install new hardware, Windows will request an installation CD.

You can also disable System Restore mode, thereby deleting information from the System Volume Information folder.

And one more folder can be deleted - %SystemRoot%\system32\dllcache\. It stores protected system files used for automatic recovery originals if they are damaged. By default, the size of this folder is 400 MB. It is set in the registry by the SFCQuota parameter (0xFFFFFFFF), located in the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon)/. By using sfc teams: sfc /cachesize=0 it can be reduced to zero (or to any other desired value).

BIOS setup

IN Motherboard BIOS boards, you can set more suitable values ​​for memory operation. The value of the Bank 0/1, 2/3, 4/5 DRAM timing parameter, by default is usually 10ns, can be changed to 8ns, Normal, Medium, Fast or Turbo - depending on the model motherboard. 10ns is the slowest mode, Turbo is the fastest. But remember: the higher the speed, the lower the stability.

RIMM type memory can be “overclocked”, like any video memory, by increasing the frequency. As a rule, memory designed for 800 MHz operates stably at 900 MHz (450x2).

Built-in Windows optimization XP

The most interesting thing is that Windows XP constantly “self-optimizes”. The operating system monitors what applications the user runs and records these observations in the layout.ini file. Every three days, choosing a time when the computer is free, the OS changes the location of some programs on the hard drive to speed up their launch and operation.

Windows XP also makes your computer boot and program launch faster by using predictions. The OS keeps track of what codes and programs are executed immediately after booting, and creates a list that allows it to predict the data requested during booting. Same thing on startup Windows applications XP keeps track of the components and files they use. Thus, the next time you start the application, XP "knows" in advance the list of files that the program will need.

Predictions are used in both the XP kernel and the task scheduler. The kernel keeps track of the pages accessed by a process immediately after it is created. The service then generates prediction instructions. The next time the process is created, the kernel will execute the prediction instructions, causing the process to run faster.

Disk optimization, speeding up application launches and computer startup are closely related. Lists created when applications are launched and when the OS boots are used for optimization file system to speed up access to programs.

Icons and wallpapers

The best desktop is a clean desktop. Never put wallpaper! It's hard for me to imagine a stranger act. Is it really impossible to find a better use for both the processor and memory than playing with beautiful background and sort hundreds of icons? As in previous versions, Windows XP has too many icons, and a lot of money is spent on wallpaper system memory. An animated desktop puts a particularly heavy burden on the system.

On the other hand, if the computer has more than 256 MB of memory and normal processor(1 GHz and above), the impact on performance is not too great. But with 64 MB of memory and a Pentium 2, you will have to save recklessly, turning off everything you can.

More effective - no effects

Thanks to the new appearance and GNOME-like support Windows skins XP looks the best previous versions Windows.

But all these eye candy reduce the interface’s response to user actions. For auto-tuning user interface XP runs several tests in an effort to maintain both usability and beauty. But you can intervene in this process. If disappearing menus are more of an annoyance than a pleasure for you, and if you don't care about the shadows underneath dialog boxes, then everything unnecessary can be removed.

Some settings are made on the Appearance tab in the monitor properties. Options accessed by the Effects button allow you to customize menu transitions, shadows, and font, including new technology improved font readability - Microsoft ClearType. In my opinion, ClearType is good for laptops and LCD monitors, but on a CRT, text looks too thick and blurry. However, not everyone likes ClearType on an LCD monitor. So choose according to your taste.

Further performance tuning GUI performed in the System Properties window, on the Advanced tab. By clicking the Settings button in the Performance section, you can select maximum performance, maximum image quality, or average settings.

By going to the Advanced tab in the Performance Options window, make sure that the allocation of processor and memory resources is aimed at optimizing the performance of programs. If the computer is a server, you need to specify the priority of background services and cache. Here you select the size and location of the paging file. But usually these Windows settings XP does a great job of choosing itself.

Quick user change

This feature is available in both Windows versions XP, unless the computer is part of a domain. It allows computer users to switch from one account to another without logging out of the session. A great feature - especially if your computer is used by mom, dad and all sorts of sisters and brothers. However, such a switch requires a lot of RAM.

If several users are registered in the system, then the settings of each of them, as well as the programs they launched, are saved in memory when switching to another user. Let's say, if you launched Word, Excel and some game, went away for a minute, and in the meantime your brother came, switched the system to himself and tried to play Red Faction, then he will definitely notice a clear (up to the complete stop of the game) decrease in performance .

If your computer has 64 MB of RAM or less, Windows XP automatically disables the Fast User Switching feature. To provide maximum performance Make sure that several users are not registered in the system at once. Or disable this feature by going to Control Panel > Accounts users ( Control Panel> User Accounts), click the Switch users button and disable the Use mode fast switching users.

Automatic update

Install latest fixes DirectX versions and other updates are necessary in a timely manner. By default, XP does this automatically. For this purpose in background a special one is launched small program, checking for updates.

If you prefer to monitor updates yourself, you can disable this XP feature. To do this, go to the Automatic Updates tab in the System Properties window.

Recovery system files

Recovering system files - useful feature(unless the computer is used for very resource-intensive tasks such as games). It's better not to turn it off.

This function works like this. The PC periodically creates “snapshots” of important system files (registry files, database COM data+, user profiles, etc.) and saves them as a “return point”. If any application crashes your computer or corrupts important data, you can return to the state saved at that point.

"Return points" are created automatically by System Restore in certain situations - such as installing new applications, Windows update, installation unsigned driver and so on.

We have one PC at home, two laptops (one very old) and a netbook, two of them have Windows XP installed. Some of the following tips for optimizing the system, found on the vast expanses of the Internet, were useful to me. Maybe they will be useful for you too?

Tip 1. Getting rid of unnecessary things on the Desktop.

Beautiful picture and a large number of shortcuts take up a certain amount of memory because they are always displayed on the screen. Therefore, on “weak” computers, first of all, we can advise you to remove background picture from the desktop and, if possible, clear the desktop of unnecessary shortcuts.

Advice 2. We reduce the quality of color rendering.

In the screen properties, on the "Options" tab, from the drop-down list, select the Medium (16-bit) level of "Color Rendering Quality". The difference will not be very noticeable to your eye. But the load on the graphics subsystem of your computer will noticeably decrease. With a resolution of 1024x768, you will thus save about 1.5MB of memory.

Advice 3. Setting up the user interface.

If you have an old computer or you don’t need all the beauties of Windows XP, or you just like the good old Windows interface 2000, then switch the window and button design style from “Windows XP” to “Classic Style” in “Display Properties”.

You can experiment in more detail with the user interface settings in "System Properties" on the "Advanced" tab, in the "Performance" section, on the "Visual Effects" tab. You can choose the visual effects you need. And discard unnecessary ones - and thereby reduce the load on your computer.

Advice 4. Disable unnecessary automatic startup programs.

One of the reasons for the slowdown Windows operation XP, by at least, at the startup stage, are automatically loaded programs. These may be elements of some programs, the icons of which you can see in the lower right part of the screen.

You need some things. You constantly have to get rid of some, not very useful ones, by closing them manually.

And then the thought flashes: is it possible to simply turn off all these unnecessary things?

By removing unnecessary shortcuts, you will stop automatic start some programs.

What should you do if you have cleaned startup, but some icons in the taskbar continue to bother you?

Execute "Start-Run", in the window that appears, write MSCONFIG and press ENTER on the keyboard.

We uncheck unnecessary programs, and the next time we start we see that there are fewer icons in the “Taskbar”. This means that Windows will load a little faster, and there will be a little more free RAM.

Advice 5. Disable unnecessary services.

What else you should pay attention to when optimizing Windows XP is system services, which are launched by default.

Services are special programs that implement various functions operating system.

From unnecessary services you can get rid of it. Why waste CPU time and RAM computer to start and run unnecessary services?

Select “Start-Control Panel-Administration-Services” and get into the service management console of our computer.

To view services we can use the Standard view. True, for convenience, you need to expand the window to full screen and expand the “Description” field.

Or you can use the Advanced view by selecting the appropriate tab at the bottom of the window.

By double-clicking on the selected service, you can determine the Startup Type: Auto, Manual or Disabled.

I will list the services that, in my opinion, can be disabled or the startup type can be changed to manual mode, to improve the performance of your computer.

NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing;

QoS RSVP;

Telnet;

Automatic update;

Wireless setup;

Print spooler (if there is no printer);

Remote Desktop Help Session Manager;

Uninterruptable power source;

Task Scheduler;

Windows Time Service;

Service serial numbers portable multimedia devices;

Messaging Service;

Terminal Services;

Smart cards;

Remote registry.

Before disabling, it is useful to look at the Dependencies tab to ensure that disabling a service will not affect other services.

Good day, dear readers. Today I would like to look at how to speed up your computer.

For a long time now, productive, multi-core computers, with which there seemed to be no bugs or glitches Windows XP is not scary.

But this did not save users from the most basic problem: the brakes and instability of the system itself.

I also want to note that any computer, from old single-core ones to more powerful four, six and eight-core ones, can be optimized for stable and relatively fast operation.

The same applies to slow work, any computer can slow down greatly due to overload, incorrect installation, uninstallation and use of programs.

It's not uncommon for me to watch a 5-minute download Windows XPSP3, despite the fact that the computer is equipped with a powerful 4 nuclear processor and 4 GB of RAM. At the same time, the users themselves say:

- The computer is probably weak, maybe add more RAM.

Yes, probably, if instead of 4 GB of RAM there were 16 GB, then everything could be shoved onto the processor🙂

This article will be designed for two categories of computers.

1. Multi-core.

2. .

Later you will understand why I drew such a parallel. Now let's look at“Optimizing Windows XP to speed up multi-core computers” .

2 Speed ​​up your computer

2. A rare, but quite unpleasant situation is when you purchased a computer with a pre-installed operating system, but the optimization of Windows XP is frankly lame.

For example, the drivers are incompatible or not all OS (Operating System) components work normally.

In this case, either reinstall the operating system yourself or contact the store. Personally, I am inclined to the first option because... it is faster and more efficient.Because in a store, it is unlikely that they will reinstall the system for you normally if they gave you a computer with such an OS.

To reinstall Windows correctly, I recommend that you read the article -.

Initially, the computer may take a long time to boot due to incorrect settingsBIOS.To get everything back to normal, reset the settings toBIOSdefault. More about the correct ones.

3 Speed ​​up loading windows xp sp3

3. Now the situation is more common, when at first everything was fine, but after some time (usually 3-6 months) the computer begins to slow down, takes a long time to load and produces some errors.

1) The first thing to do is check the list installed programs and if you don’t use some, you should completely remove them. article on how to properly conduct a complete .

2) The next point is to check the disk for fragmentation and errors.

If you have a lot of fragmented files on your disk, then you should immediately check your HDD for errors, if any, they must be corrected.

3) Keep it under control free place your HDD, especially your system drive. Conduct an audit every month for unused programs and other files. Any excess must be removed immediately.

Very often after removal unused programs A bunch of unused files accumulate in the registry. will help speed up your computer.

Remember than fewer files on your hard drive, the better. Try to avoid filling system partition your his hard drive more than 90%.And also don't forget about optimization of hard disk - .

4) Reboot your computer more often. Perhaps for some unexpected advice on the topic of how to speed up a computer, but this is very important.

If you have 1-2 GB of RAM on your computer, and you are working in resource-intensive applications, you have several dozen windows open at the same time, etc. If there is not enough RAM, it will be taken from the hard drive.

And this really slows down the work of the HDD, and everyone running programs using its swap file. Perform Reset (reboot) more often, give your computer and eyes a rest.

5) If your computer has 2GB or more of RAM, I recommend disabling the page file.

To do this, go to the properties of my computer, go to the advanced tab, and click on the first button settings in the performance section.

In the new window that opens, click on the additional tab, and at the very bottom, in the virtual memory section, click change.

Here you are prompted to configure the settings virtual memory, you can increase its volume, change its location, but now we are interested in something else. At the very bottom, you need to check the “Without paging file” option, then click set and OK.

After this, you will be prompted to restart your computer. We reboot and now the swap file will not slow down your system.

And if you overdo it with windows, you will receive a warning that there is not enough memory, this will mean that you need to reboot the system, turn off and then turn on the program again, or.

In any case, now your HDD will have no reason to growl🙂due to heavy load, and the computer will work faster.

By the way, if the paging file cannot be completely disabled, since there is not enough RAM, then I advise you to read the article on how to set it up.

6) Turn off visual effects. It is possible that after disabling the paging file, when running just a few programs, a low memory signal may pop up, although you have 2 GB, and the programs require only 1 GB, well, 1.5 GB at most.

What then eats the rest? The answer is simple. Visual effects. Those who completed the previous procedure to eliminate the page file probably noticed the visual effects tab, which we bypassed.

This is exactly what interests us now. I recommend leaving only two visual effects, these are styles and shadows.

This way the design will not suffer much, and the memory will feel more comfortable. You can remove them all altogether, but then Windows design XP will be no different from Windows 2000. In general, experiment and see what you like best.

7) No more startup programs. Since we touched on the question of where the memory goes. Then we simply have to control autoloading.

The thing is that most programs, after installation, have the property of auto-launching every time you start them Windows without our permission.

At the same time, the OS loading time increases, because you need to load all the programs that are available in startup.

Then each of these programs takes over a certain amount of RAM and waits for people to access it. Which is most likely unlikely.

To disable programs from startup, you need to click on the start button, select run and enter the command "Msconfig". If everything is done correctly, then such a window will open for you.

and disable everything except the antivirus (we will need it later).

Click OK. We will be asked to reboot, to which we confidently answer yes. If you had a lot of programs in startup, then you will immediately feel an increase in the speed of loading the operating system.

In fact, these are just the basics of quickly increasing your productivity. I hope optimizing Windows XP will benefit your computer.

In the future we will look at a lot more interesting tips, which will allow you to speed up your computer significantly. If you don't want to miss the next article,

Expert: Victoria

The Windows XP operating system, unlike older operating systems, is well-balanced and optimized for the tasks of its time. However, there are ways to improve performance a little more by changing some of the default settings.

To perform the actions below, no special user rights are required, and special programs. However, for some operations you will have to use. All settings are safe, but still, it is better to play it safe and create a system restore point.

Operating system optimization can be divided into two parts:

• One-time setup. This includes editing the registry and the list of running services.
• Regular actions that need to be performed manually: defragmenting and cleaning disks, editing startup, deleting unused keys from the registry.

Let's start with the service and registry settings. Please note that these sections of the article are for advisory purposes only. Here it is up to you to decide which parameters to change, that is, whether such a configuration is suitable specifically in your case.

Services

By default, the operating system runs services that we do not use in our daily work. The setup consists of simple shutdown services. These steps will help free up your computer's RAM and reduce the number of hard drive accesses.

The first candidate for shutdown is the service "Telnet". Its function is to provide remote access via a network to a computer. In addition to freeing up system resources, stopping of this service reduces the risk of unauthorized entry into the system.

In the same way, we disable the remaining services on the list:

1. "Remote Desktop Help Session Manager". Since we turned off remote access, then we won’t need this service either.
2. Next you should disable "Remote Registry" for the same reasons.
3. "Message Service" also subject to stopping, since it only works when connected to the desktop from a remote computer.
4. Service "Smart cards" allows us to use these drives. Never heard of them? So, let's turn it off.
5. If you use programs for burning and copying discs from third party developers, then you don't need « COM Service for burning CDs".
6. One of the most “gluttonous” services - "Error Logging Service". It constantly collects information about failures and problems, obvious and hidden, and generates reports based on them. These files are difficult to read regular user and are intended to be made available to Microsoft developers.
7. Another "information collector" - "Performance Logs and Alerts". This is, in a sense, a completely useless service. It collects some data about the computer, hardware capabilities, and analyzes it.

Registry

Editing the system registry allows you to change any Windows settings. It is this property that we will use to optimize the operation of the OS. At the same time, you must remember that rash actions can lead to system crash, so remember about the restore point.
The registry editing utility is called "regedit.exe" and is located at

Default system resources equally distributed between background and active applications(those with whom we are in this moment we are working). Next setting will allow increasing the priority of the latter.

Cleaning the registry

During prolonged work, creating and deleting files and programs, system registry Unused keys accumulate. Over time there may be great amount, which significantly increases the time required to access the necessary parameters. Of course, you can delete such keys manually, but it is better to use the help of software. One such program is CCleaner.

Optimizing Windows XP is a whole set of measures that need to be carried out periodically on your computer so that it always works quickly and without failures. Conditionally Windows optimization can be divided into several stages:

1. Cleaning the system disk.
2. Defragmentation of the hard drive and registry.
3. Clearing the cache.
4. Cleaning the Temp folder.
5. Installing and working with utilities for optimizing Windows.

How to speed up Windows XP using the built-in Disk Cleanup feature

First of all, let's look at the built-in Windows tools For this purpose, Windows XP has its own features, such as disk cleanup and system file cleanup.

• Open " Mycomputer"and on the local disk, right-click with the mouse, context menu we need a section - " Properties».

• In the window that opens there is a button “ Cleaningdisk", click on it, the system will analyze those available in the system junk files, after which you can delete the found files.

Below there is a column where it is suggested to compress this disk forsavingsplaces, it is not recommended to mark this item. This can negatively affect the performance of the system as a whole, and will save no more than 100 megabytes of space. Uncheck this item and clean it.

• If you switch to the tab here Additionally", then you can find several more partitions for cleaning system files, recovery files, temporary Windows components. You can also delete it here unnecessary programs on the computer.

Defragmentation of the hard drive and registry

In the properties window local disk, in the " Service", we can check the disk for errors and fix them if any are found. The built-in utility is responsible for this function. CHKDSK.


Here we can do defragmentation of hard disk. Usually when active work At the computer we download something, delete something, and so on again and again. The hard drive itself consists of many mirrored disks, which are divided into sectors. Each sector is a minimal addressable unit of information storage into which we write something, and then we delete something from it. Initially, on new system all information is recorded in order, but after deleting some previously recorded files, disk space is freed and new files are written to this space. If the sector is too small for writing the entire file, then this file is divided into parts and written in different parts of the disk.


This is fragmentation, when one file is divided into many parts and scattered throughout the disk. Defragmentation collects all fragmented files together and arranges them in order on the disk. The process is quite long, in some cases may take several hours. The same applies to defragmenting the registry, but it is better to do it using third party utilities, which we will talk about later.

Clearing cache

In this case, we are talking about clearing the browser cache. This can be done manually, directly in the browser itself, simply by deleting the history (the procedure for clearing the cache and clearing the browsing history is different in each browser). Here in the image is a short list of hotkeys for calling up the settings menu for a specific browser and the path to clear the browser history.

Cleaning the Temp folder

There is one on the computer interesting folder Temp, she's on system disk V Windows folder. And it serves for temporary storage of files intended for updating and restoring the system. Temporary files for installing programs, drivers and utilities are placed in this folder. Some programs delete temporary files after installing themselves, but most do not. And over time, the size of this folder grows to incredible sizes of tens of gigabytes. Naturally, noticeably reducing the speed of the computer when free disk space tends to zero, and it is not clear what exactly takes up so much space. Advice, look into this folder and delete everything that is there. The folder itself cannot be touched, but its contents can be safely deleted.

Installing and working with utilities for optimizing Windows

The most in a simple way for a novice user this will, of course, be optimizing the system using third party software. There are a great many utilities that help optimize Windows on the Internet, both good and not so good - both paid and free. It is, of course, up to the user to decide which program to choose to solve the optimization problem. But among them there is a wonderful program that should be on every user’s computer - CCleaner. Within Free versions it copes with the bulk of the user's system problems perfectly. For example, clearing the cache of all browsers at the same time, fixing registry errors, defragmenting the disk and registry, working with scheduled tasks, and much more.


Installing CCleaner, like any other program, is very simple, literally in a few clicks. Has Russian speaking clear interface. The program is free and easy to use. Even an inexperienced user can handle it.


How to speed up Windows work XP - for these purposes, you can also pay attention to another program, of the so-called cleaners it is very good utility- this is AVG TuneUp - it is, of course, paid, but it has a trial period when you can test it before buying.


In terms of its properties and capabilities, it is probably difficult to find better. It’s easier to say what this program can’t do than to list all its capabilities.