Since defragging the disk won't do much to improve
Windows XP performance, here are 23 suggestions
that will. Each can enhance the performance and
reliability of your customers' PCs. Best of all, most of
them will cost you nothing.
1.) To decrease a system's boot time and increase
system performance, use the money you save by
not buying defragmentation software -- the built-in
Windows defragmenter works just fine -- and
instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133 or Serial
ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.
2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more
memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy
upgrade that can dramatically improve system
performance.
3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file
system. If you're not sure, here's how to check:
First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click
on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine
the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up
any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type
CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type
CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This
process may take a while; it's important that the
computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file
system used by the bootable drive will be either
FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its
superior security, reliability, and efficiency with
larger disk drives.
4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts
information from documents and other files on the
hard drive and creates a "searchable keyword index."
As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing
on any system.
The idea is that the user can search for a word,
phrase, or property inside a document, should they
have hundreds or thousands of documents and not
know the file name of the document they want.
Windows XP's built-in search functionality can still
perform these kinds of searches without the
Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to
open each file at the time of the request to help find
what the user is looking for.
Most people never need this feature of search. Those
who do are typically in a large corporate
environment where thousands of documents are
located on at least one server. But if you're a typical
system builder, most of your clients are small and
medium businesses. And if your clients have no need
for this search feature, I recommend disabling it.
Here's how: First, double-click the My Computer icon.
Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select
Properties. Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to
index this disk for fast file searching." Next, apply
changes to "C: subfolders and files," and click OK. If a
warning or error message appears (such as "Access
is denied"), click the Ignore All button.
5.) Update the PC's video and motherboard chipset
drivers. Also, update and configure the BIOS. For
more information on how to configure your BIOS
properly, see this article on my site.
6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three
months or so. Windows XP can "prefetch" portions
of data and applications that are used frequently. This
makes processes appear to load faster when called
upon by the user. That's fine. But over time, the
prefetch folder may become overloaded with
references to files and applications no longer in use.
When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time,
and slowing system performance, by pre-loading
them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire
contents are safe to delete.
7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here's how:
Double-click the My Computer icon. Then right-click
on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk
Cleanup button -- it's just to the right of the Capacity
pie graph -- and delete all temporary files.
8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE
ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that
DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected
to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by
double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then click
the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode
is set to "DMA if available" for both Device 0 and
Device 1. Then repeat this process with the
Secondary IDE Channel.
9.) Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology
improves, the cabling requirements to achieve these
performance boosts have become more stringent. Be
sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your
IDE devices with the connectors properly assigned to
the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A
single device must be at the end of the cable;
connecting a single drive to the middle connector on
a ribbon cable will cause signaling problems. With
Ultra DMA hard drives, these signaling problems will
prevent the drive from performing at its maximum
potential. Also, because these cables inherently
support "cable select," the location of each drive on
the cable is important. For these reasons, the cable is
designed so drive positioning is explicitly clear.
10.) Remove all spyware from the computer. Use
free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or
SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are
installed, be sure to check for and download any
updates before starting your search. Anything either
program finds can be safely removed. Any free
software that requires spyware to run will no longer
function once the spyware portion has been
removed; if your customer really wants the program
even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it.
For more information on removing Spyware visit
this Web Pro News page.
11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or
items from Windows Startup routine using the
MSCONFIG utility. Here's how: First, click Start, click
Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp
tab, then uncheck any items you don't want to start
when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are?
Visit the WinTasks Process Library. It contains
known system processes, applications, as well as
spyware references and explanations. Or quickly
identify them by searching for the filenames using
Google or another Web search engine.
12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs
from the Add/Remove Programs section of the
Control Panel.
13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and
disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal
performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP
offers many different settings in this area. Here's
how to do it: First click on the System icon in the
Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select
the Settings button located under Performance. Feel
free to play around with the options offered here, as
nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the
computer -- only its responsiveness.
14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is
comfortable editing their registry, try some of the
performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.
15.) Visit Microsoft's Windows update site regularly,
and download all updates labeled Critical. Download
any optional updates at your discretion.
16.) Update the customer's anti-virus software on a
weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure they have only
one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing
anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for
performance and reliability.
17.) Make sure the customer has fewer than 500
type fonts installed on their computer. The more
fonts they have, the slower the system will
become. While Windows XP handles fonts much
more efficiently than did the previous versions of
Windows, too many fonts -- that is, anything over
500 -- will noticeably tax the system.
18.) Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP's
NTFS file system runs more efficiently on one large
partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition,
and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an
operating system. The same excuses people offer for
using partitions apply to using a folder instead. For
example, instead of putting all your data on the D:
drive, put it in a folder called "D drive." You'll
achieve the same organizational benefits that a
separate partition offers, but without the degradation
in system performance. Also, your free space won't
be limited by the size of the partition; instead, it will
be limited by the size of the entire hard drive. This
means you won't need to resize any partitions, ever.
That task can be time-consuming and also can result
in lost data.
19.) Check the system's RAM to ensure it is
operating properly. I recommend using a free
program called MemTest86. The download will make
a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will
run 10 extensive tests on the PC's memory
automatically after you boot to the disk you created.
Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of
the 10 tests are completed. If the program
encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the
computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming
you have more than one), and run the test again.
Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but
only replaced.
20.) If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the
drive manufacturer's Web site for updated firmware.
In some cases you'll be able to upgrade the recorder
to a faster speed. Best of all, it's free.
21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads
a lot of services that your customer most likely does
not need. To determine which services you can
disable for your client, visit the Black Viper site for
Windows XP configurations.
22.) If you're sick of a single Windows Explorer
window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS
down with it, then follow this tip: open My
Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now
click on the View tab. Scroll down to "Launch folder
windows in a separate process," and enable this
option. You'll have to reboot your machine for this
option to take effect.
23.) At least once a year, open the computer's cases
and blow out all the dust and debris. While you're in
there, check that all the fans are turning properly.
Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging
or leaks. For more information on this leaking-capacit
or phenomena, you can read numerous articles on
my site.
Following any of these suggestions should result in
noticeable improvements to the performance and
reliability of your customers' computers. If you still
want to defrag a disk, remember that the main
benefit will be to make your data more retrievable in
the event of a crashed drive.
Windows XP performance, here are 23 suggestions
that will. Each can enhance the performance and
reliability of your customers' PCs. Best of all, most of
them will cost you nothing.
1.) To decrease a system's boot time and increase
system performance, use the money you save by
not buying defragmentation software -- the built-in
Windows defragmenter works just fine -- and
instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133 or Serial
ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.
2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more
memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy
upgrade that can dramatically improve system
performance.
3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file
system. If you're not sure, here's how to check:
First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click
on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine
the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up
any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type
CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type
CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This
process may take a while; it's important that the
computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file
system used by the bootable drive will be either
FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its
superior security, reliability, and efficiency with
larger disk drives.
4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts
information from documents and other files on the
hard drive and creates a "searchable keyword index."
As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing
on any system.
The idea is that the user can search for a word,
phrase, or property inside a document, should they
have hundreds or thousands of documents and not
know the file name of the document they want.
Windows XP's built-in search functionality can still
perform these kinds of searches without the
Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to
open each file at the time of the request to help find
what the user is looking for.
Most people never need this feature of search. Those
who do are typically in a large corporate
environment where thousands of documents are
located on at least one server. But if you're a typical
system builder, most of your clients are small and
medium businesses. And if your clients have no need
for this search feature, I recommend disabling it.
Here's how: First, double-click the My Computer icon.
Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select
Properties. Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to
index this disk for fast file searching." Next, apply
changes to "C: subfolders and files," and click OK. If a
warning or error message appears (such as "Access
is denied"), click the Ignore All button.
5.) Update the PC's video and motherboard chipset
drivers. Also, update and configure the BIOS. For
more information on how to configure your BIOS
properly, see this article on my site.
6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three
months or so. Windows XP can "prefetch" portions
of data and applications that are used frequently. This
makes processes appear to load faster when called
upon by the user. That's fine. But over time, the
prefetch folder may become overloaded with
references to files and applications no longer in use.
When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time,
and slowing system performance, by pre-loading
them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire
contents are safe to delete.
7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here's how:
Double-click the My Computer icon. Then right-click
on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk
Cleanup button -- it's just to the right of the Capacity
pie graph -- and delete all temporary files.
8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE
ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that
DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected
to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by
double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then click
the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode
is set to "DMA if available" for both Device 0 and
Device 1. Then repeat this process with the
Secondary IDE Channel.
9.) Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology
improves, the cabling requirements to achieve these
performance boosts have become more stringent. Be
sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your
IDE devices with the connectors properly assigned to
the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A
single device must be at the end of the cable;
connecting a single drive to the middle connector on
a ribbon cable will cause signaling problems. With
Ultra DMA hard drives, these signaling problems will
prevent the drive from performing at its maximum
potential. Also, because these cables inherently
support "cable select," the location of each drive on
the cable is important. For these reasons, the cable is
designed so drive positioning is explicitly clear.
10.) Remove all spyware from the computer. Use
free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or
SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are
installed, be sure to check for and download any
updates before starting your search. Anything either
program finds can be safely removed. Any free
software that requires spyware to run will no longer
function once the spyware portion has been
removed; if your customer really wants the program
even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it.
For more information on removing Spyware visit
this Web Pro News page.
11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or
items from Windows Startup routine using the
MSCONFIG utility. Here's how: First, click Start, click
Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp
tab, then uncheck any items you don't want to start
when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are?
Visit the WinTasks Process Library. It contains
known system processes, applications, as well as
spyware references and explanations. Or quickly
identify them by searching for the filenames using
Google or another Web search engine.
12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs
from the Add/Remove Programs section of the
Control Panel.
13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and
disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal
performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP
offers many different settings in this area. Here's
how to do it: First click on the System icon in the
Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select
the Settings button located under Performance. Feel
free to play around with the options offered here, as
nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the
computer -- only its responsiveness.
14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is
comfortable editing their registry, try some of the
performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.
15.) Visit Microsoft's Windows update site regularly,
and download all updates labeled Critical. Download
any optional updates at your discretion.
16.) Update the customer's anti-virus software on a
weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure they have only
one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing
anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for
performance and reliability.
17.) Make sure the customer has fewer than 500
type fonts installed on their computer. The more
fonts they have, the slower the system will
become. While Windows XP handles fonts much
more efficiently than did the previous versions of
Windows, too many fonts -- that is, anything over
500 -- will noticeably tax the system.
18.) Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP's
NTFS file system runs more efficiently on one large
partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition,
and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an
operating system. The same excuses people offer for
using partitions apply to using a folder instead. For
example, instead of putting all your data on the D:
drive, put it in a folder called "D drive." You'll
achieve the same organizational benefits that a
separate partition offers, but without the degradation
in system performance. Also, your free space won't
be limited by the size of the partition; instead, it will
be limited by the size of the entire hard drive. This
means you won't need to resize any partitions, ever.
That task can be time-consuming and also can result
in lost data.
19.) Check the system's RAM to ensure it is
operating properly. I recommend using a free
program called MemTest86. The download will make
a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will
run 10 extensive tests on the PC's memory
automatically after you boot to the disk you created.
Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of
the 10 tests are completed. If the program
encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the
computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming
you have more than one), and run the test again.
Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but
only replaced.
20.) If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the
drive manufacturer's Web site for updated firmware.
In some cases you'll be able to upgrade the recorder
to a faster speed. Best of all, it's free.
21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads
a lot of services that your customer most likely does
not need. To determine which services you can
disable for your client, visit the Black Viper site for
Windows XP configurations.
22.) If you're sick of a single Windows Explorer
window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS
down with it, then follow this tip: open My
Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now
click on the View tab. Scroll down to "Launch folder
windows in a separate process," and enable this
option. You'll have to reboot your machine for this
option to take effect.
23.) At least once a year, open the computer's cases
and blow out all the dust and debris. While you're in
there, check that all the fans are turning properly.
Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging
or leaks. For more information on this leaking-capacit
or phenomena, you can read numerous articles on
my site.
Following any of these suggestions should result in
noticeable improvements to the performance and
reliability of your customers' computers. If you still
want to defrag a disk, remember that the main
benefit will be to make your data more retrievable in
the event of a crashed drive.
