Tweaking Optimizing Windows.pdf - GEGeek

Note that in doing this, you are consuming more of your system RAM than normal. While LargeSystemCache will cut back usage
when other apps need more RAM, this process can impede performance in certain intensive situations.
According to Microsoft, the "[0] setting is recommended for servers running applications that do their own memory caching, such as
Microsoft SQL Server, and for applications that perform best with ample memory, such as Internet
Information Services." I personally don't recommend enabling this value unless you have at least 256 MB of RAM.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\MemoryManagement
"LargeSystemCache"=dword:00000001
IOPageLockLimit
You can read more on this in NT tips. This tweak is of questionable value to people that aren't running some kind of server of off of
their computer, but we will include it anyway. This tweak boosts the Input/Output performance of your computer when it is doing a
large amount of file transfers and other similar operations. This tweak won't do much of anything for a system without a significant
amount of RAM (if you don't have more than 128 MB, don't even bother), but systems with more than 256 MB of RAM will generally
find a performance boost by setting this to between 8 and 16 MB. The default is 0.5 MB, or 512 KB. This setting requires a value in
bytes, so multiply the desired number of megabytes
* 1024 * 1024. That's X * 1048576 (where X is the number, in megabytes). Test out several settings and keep the one which
seems to work best for your system.
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
In this key double-click on the IOPageLockLimit registry value to open a DWORD editor window
(default value of 0 = 512KB).
Change from Hex (hexadecimal) to Decimal, change the value in the data field to reflect your preferred allocation size in KB (1024,
2048, etc.). Close the registry editor app, and reboot to implement the change.
RAM IoPageLockLimit
(MB) Decimal Hex
4 4096 1000
8 8192 2000
16 16384 4000
32 32768 8000
64 65536 10000
128 16384
256 65536
512 131072
12. Stop NTFS volume from generating MS-DOS compatible 8.3 file names
Disabling this feature can increase the performance on heavily used NTFS partitions that have large amount of files with long
filenames. Warning: Some 16 bit installation programs may have problems with this option enabled, you can either re-enabled 8.3
creation during the install or use directory names in the non LFN format i.e. "c:\progra~1\applic~1"
Registry Settings:
Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
Value Name: NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Data: (0=disable, 1=enable)
13. Increase NTFS Peformance by Disabling the Last Access Time Stamp
When Windows XP accesses a directory on an NTFS volume, it updates the LastAccess time stamp on each directory it detects.
Therefore, if there are a large number of directories, this can affect performance. Open your registry and find the key below.
Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, named "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate" and set it to "1" to prevent the
LastAccess time stamp from being updated. Restart Windows for the change to take effect.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate 0x00000001 (1)
14. Automatically Close Non-Responding Applications
Occasionally when XP shuts down, a task will return as 'Not Responding' and you are given the option to 'End Task'. This tweak
automatically closes any non-responding applications. Open the registry and find the key below. This tip also works with all other
Microsoft Os's.
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
Modify the value of 'AutoEndTasks' to equal '1' to automatically end tasks or '0' to prompt for action.
Also we will change the HungAppTimout - Right-click -> select New -> String Value -> call it "HungAppTimeout"
(no quotes). Double-click on "HungAppTimeout" and give it a value of 1000 (default is 5000 milliseconds = 5 seconds). This value
sets the manual timeout until a program is terminated by using System (Task) Manager.
Next Right-click -> select New -> String Value -> call it "WaitToKillAppTimeout" (no quotes). Double-click on
"WaitToKillAppTimeout" and give a value of 2000 (default is 20000 milliseconds = 20 seconds).
This value sets the automatic timeout until Windows shuts down/restarts, while trying to close all open programs.
For example, the setting may look like:
AutoEndTasks "1"
HungAppTimout "1000"
WaitToKillAppTimeout "2000"
15. Turn off autoplay for CDs