Tweaking Optimizing Windows.pdf - GEGeek

- Connect one NIC to your broadband connection device like normal.
- Install a second NIC in the machine with the broadband connection.
- Install a NIC in the second machine.
- Connect cross over cable between the second machine NIC and second NIC in the board band connection machine.
- Re-boot both.
- Run the networking wizard if necessary.
24. Software not installing?
If you have a piece of software that refuses to install because it says that you are not running Windows XP
(such as drivers) you can simply edit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/ProductName to say Microsoft Windows 2000 instead of
XP and it will install. You may also have to edit the version number or build number, depending on how hard the program tries to
verify that you are installing on the correct OS. Don't forget to restore any changes you make after you get your software installed.
You do this at your own risk.
25. Prefetch
This is an unique technique for XP, which could improve the performance significantly by tweaking the prefetcher. Recommended
hardware: PIII 800 or higher, 512M RAM or more. This will decrease the boot time and increase the performance of XP.
- Run "regedit";
- Goto [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher];
- Increase the value ("5" is recommended) and reboot
Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP some time, the prefetch directory can get full
of junk and obsolete links in the Prefetch catalog, which can slow down your computer notablely. My suggestion is: open C(system
drive):/windows/prefetch, delete those junk and obsolete files,reboot. It is recommended that you do this every couple of months.
Do rebuild the prefetch manually type into startmenu/run:-
rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
26. Automatically defrag drives with a new context menu item
Create a new Registry import file named context_defrag.inf in Notepad (be sure to save with it with the Save as type set to All Files
and not Text Documents) and place the following text inside:
; context_defrag.INF
; Adds Defrag to the right click context menu in Windows XP
[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
[DefaultInstall]
AddReg=AddMe
[AddMe]
HKCR,"Drive\Shell\Defrag\command",,,"DEFRAG.EXE %1"
Then, right-click and choose Install. This will add a context menu to XP that allows you to automatically defrag drives, using the
command line version of the built-in defragmentation utility. To use it, navigate to a drive in My Computer, right-click, and choose
Defrag. A command line window will appear, and that drive will be defragged. When it's complete, the window just disappears.
Defrag with command prompt
You can now defrag in XP from the command prompt.
defrag volume [-a] [-f][-v] [-?]
-a Analyze only
-f Forces defragmentation volume regardless of whether it needs to be defragmented or even if free space is low
-v Verbose output
The volume must have at least fifteen percent free space for Defrag to completely and adequately defragment it. Defrag uses this
space as a sorting area for file fragments. If a volume has less than fifteen percent free space, Defrag only partially defragments it.
To interrupt the defragmentation process, at the command line, press CTRL+C.
27. Unfragment the master file table
The MFT is actually a file usually stored at the beginning of the volume. It is a database which stores file location and attributes. It
also stores data about the volume. The MFT only exists on drives using the NTFS file system. Any file accessed on a drive must also
access the MFT. A heavily fragmented MFT can cause extremely bad performance. Even if the file is contiguous if the MFT is
fragmented it will take several I/O's to access the file.
This procedure cannot be ran on volumes using the FAT file system and this procedure requires Diskeeper.
Click Analyze, click ok, click Action, click view report, scroll threw the report and look for Total MFT Fragments. One Fragment is the
optimal number. To defrag the MFT click Action, click Boot-TIme Defragmentation, click on the appropriate drives, click Defragment
the MFT, click Set, restart the PC. The MFT is defragged during the boot process and can be lengthy.
28. Increase master file table allocation