Tweaking Optimizing Windows.pdf - GEGeek

Gfx
Modem
Network
Scanner
Software e.g. Internet Explorer
Sound
There are some good links to driver sites contained in this document (under internet sites\drivers). If you have a piece of hardware
e.g. Modem and havent got a clue who the manufacturer is then check out this useful site
www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid/
Open up your computer case, and take out the no name card. Write down the FCC ID number on the card. Plug the card back in
and close up your machine. Go to above web page. Type in the FCC ID number, and then search their database. You will know now
who made your no name card and then you can search the web for updated drivers."
3. Cleanliness and organisation / planning drive partitions / downloading files
Install all of your programs onto another drive e.g. into D:\Programs and make some folders up in there to categorise everything
e.g. Design, Business, Utils, Comms, Music, Multimedia, Misc etc and install your programs into there. E.g. I would install
Photoshop into the Design folder and PC Anywhere into the comms folder. If you are serious about a certain subject than categorise
it further e.g. Make folders up in the Utils folder for Diagnostic, Security, Backup, Cleanup, Archivers etc. Replicate this structure
into your start menu and so instead of having a start menu that is virtually going across the screen it is only about 10 layers in
height. The reason why I install programs onto another drive or partition is so that I can image back the computers operating
system very quickly if problems arise - I create 2 main images, using DriveImage - one for the OS and one for the programs.
Before I install a program onto my computer I test it out, either on another computer or on the same computer utilising the
excellent program VMWare, available from www.vmware.com - VMWare creates a virtual operating system which programs can be
installed into without messing up your system. It is great for testing and evaluating programs as VMWare can revert all changes
made to the machine. As you have no doubt gathered the cleaner your computer the quicker it will go ! You could also DriveImage
or Ghost your computer and then when you have finished testing programs, restore the last image of your computer, resulting in
the same process as the above. Included in this archive is a program I have written called 'Xen' - especially written to remove
various temporary files etc that are left over on your hard drive.
PLANNING YOUR PARTITIONS
Besides general convenience, the main advantages of carefully planning and optimising your partitions are that it will make your
computer run faster, crash less and be more efficient in general. Besides the broad, important issues of keeping fragmentation
down (and thus enhancing system performance overall) with swap file and temp file partitions, separate partitions also makes
defragmentation of your hard drive contents go much faster. Having extra partitions also means your data will be a lot easier to
recover from accidental deletion because windows won't be writing all its temporary files etc to your data drive and so data recovery
will be easy. Pretty much all of the advice given below is appropriate for drives across this entire range of sizes, and even larger.
The best program for organising your partitions is Partition Magic from www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/index.html
KEEP YOUR C: DRIVE SIMPLE (1st hd - C drive) - 5 gb+ without program files - imaged regularly
Reserve the C: partition for just Windows, and for things that will not work unless they are installed on C: (there aren't many, but
there are a few.) Relocate the movable part of Internet Explorer off of the C: drive (it's a little tricky to do that, but it can be done)
to save lots of space. Once you decide how much room you really need on C:, allow a little extra 'growing room' - perhaps 200-500
MB.
PROGRAM FILES PARTITION (1st hd - D drive) - 10 gb+ - imaged regularly
Its up to you on this, whether you want to keep your program files and windows together. If windows gets broken restoring a
simple ghost or driveimage of windows will take considerably less time to restore, than a big image with all the program files on as
well. I have a program files partition of quite a large space and about 15 gig+. One disadvantage is that if I want to test programs
etc out I have to image back 2 images (windows and program files images) instead of just one image. Just lately I have just been
having one partition for my system and program files and have a partition size of around 10 gig +
TEMPORARY FILES PARTITION (1st hd - E drive) - 500mb at most - never backed up
A handy partition to create is one to hold all of your temporary files and folders. These change most rapidly, and are easily
discardable. If they are left on a partition with Windows, with your apps, or with the swap file your computer can get very
fragmented and will slow down your computer. I have a 500 MB partition for this (just because I have the room), but rarely use
even 25 MB of it. Transfer such folders as MSDownLd.tmp, Recent, Temp, and Temporary Internet Files to this folder. Don't just
drag them! Move them as follows:
-Temporary Internet Files (TIF)
Move this from inside of Internet Explorer (Tools | Internet Options), or from the Internet Options applet in the Control Panel. In
either case, it is on the General tab, Temporary Internet Files box, Settings button, Move Folder button.
-Temp
You need to relocate this in two places. The first is in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. To move the Temp folder to the H: partition, for
example, the lines would be:
SET Temp=H:\TEMP
SET Tmp=%TEMP%
You must also make a change in the Registry. Go to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Temporary Files
Edit the Folder value (in the right pane) to be the location you desire for the Temp folder.
-Recent
You move Recent with TweakUI. Change the value for "Recent Documents."