Performance basics
Hardware -- your computer's CPU, memory, chipset (mother board), hard drive and video card have the most effect on the
speed of your computer. There
are a few settings,
as explained below, which can
improve performance.
Antivirus programs, and real
time backup
programs like GoBack or SecondChance
can
slow your computer down though.
A badly fragmented
hard drive can too.
System settings
For most circumstances the following
settings
will assure maximum performance
of your Computer.
- Right Click "My Computer" >
select "Properties" > click
the "Performance" tab > click
the "File System..." button >
click the "Hard Disk" tab >
select "Network Server" for the
"Typical role of this computer"
and set "Read-ahead optimization"
to High unless there is a limited amount,
say 64 MB of RAM (memory) available.
- Click the "Graphics" button >
set "Hardware Acceleration" to
Full. (If you then experience problems that
could be connected to acceleration, lower
this setting until they go away or the connection
is disproved.)
- Click the "Virtual Memory button >
select "Let Windows manage my virtual
memory settings" unless you have a second hard drive. [more]
Limit the number of auto-start programs &
services
Unless you've done something
to clean up
the number of programs that autostart
when
Windows starts, it's likely there
are a slew
of them killing the performance
of your computer.
There's also a bunch of generally
useless
"services" that Windows
XP wants
to start. You'll almost certainly
never need
some those either.
Learn how to eradicate these parasites by cleaning up your Windows start. There's
much more good information on pruning startup
programs at the Paul Collins site, and on pruning Windows XP services
at the Black Viper site.
A bigger hard drive (disk) won't make your
computer run faster. That's just an urban myth. The size of the Windows registry and the number of files in the Windows directory does inversely affect speed to some extent.
Making the hard disk larger won't make either
of those smaller.
A faster hard drive -- quicker access time, higher
read rate (spindle speed) and
larger buffer
-- they will make your computer
faster. Adding
a second hard drive is usually
a better alternative
than replacing your hard drive
(unless you
have a laptop). It's relatively
easy, adds
wonderful flexibility, adds capacity
for
backups and will speed up your
computer,
especially if the new one is
faster than
your old one. I wouldn't be with
it.
Here's a plan to get maximum benefit from
a second hard drive: (This is not the only
way to go, but it's one way. Another is to
use the newer faster hard disk as the primary
disk and the old one as the second disk.)
- After you've installed the new (second) hard
drive, partition it using PartitionMagic
or FDisk. (If you don't know what FDisk is
already, I strongly recommend PartitionMagic.)
I recommend 3 partitions on this second disk
(and at least 2 on the primary disk). The
first partition should be 0.5-1.0 GBytes
(but perhaps as large as 4 GB if you're working
with large digital images), The second 2-4 GB, and the third whatever's
left. If you have a 20 GB (not very big these
days) second hard drive, you'd have at least
15 GB in the third partition
- Put the Windows swap file (virtual memory) on the first partition
of your new hard drive. The instructions are different if you are
not putting the swap file on a dedicated
partition. Here's how: Right Click "My Computer"
> select "Properties" > click
the "Performance" tab > click
the "Virtual Memory" button >
select partition "D:\" (the one shown here is much larger than the
500-1000 MB that I recommended above) > set up the Virtual memory as shown
-- 0 for minimum and -- very important -- all the free space for the maximum --
in this case 4348 MB > click "OK"
> click "Close". Now restart
your computer. (The name of the swap file
is "WIN386.SWP.) Putting the swap file on the second hard
disk lets Windows both overlap disk access
and use the fastest part of the second disk
for the frequently accessed swap file. [more]
 |
| Fig. 1 - Swap File Settings |
| After you restart, go back and check your
settings but don't get confused. When you
open "Virtual Memory" again, Windows
will pre-select "Let Windows manage..."
Your actual settings will be shown grayed
out. Do not change a thing, and do not click OK -- just click Cancel. Your settings will
stay the way you set them. |
 |
In Fig 2 Maximum shows (in gray) as "No
maximum" because I originally set the
maximum to use all the free space. Windows
changed that number to "No maximum"
on restart. |
| Fig 2 - Checking Swap File Settings |
- Install new programs on the second partition
(leave the ones that are already on C:\Program
Files where they are). There are two advantages:
You can back up your system files -- the
files on C:\ separately from your program
files, and Windows can overlap access to
Windows and Program files because they are
on different disks, and thus save time.
- Use the third partition for data, documents
and backups from the first hard disk. (Put
backups from the second hard disk on the
first hard disk.)
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