Tweaking Optimizing Windows.pdf - GEGeek

When a NTFS drive is formatted it by default reserves 12.5% of that drive for the Master File Table. The MFT contains information
about the files on the drive. This includes size, date and permissions. If lots of files are expected to be added to this drive it is
recommended to increase the size of the MFT before formatting the drive. When a file is accessed Windows 2000 must also read
the MFT for file attributes. A heavily fragmented MFT will slow access to files on the drive. By default Windows allocates 12.5% of
the drives free space to the MFT. The values for this registry setting are 1=12.5% 2=25% 3=37.5% 4=50%.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
and add the key NtfsMftZoneReservation with the REG_DWORD value of 2.
29. Display the Sharing Tab in Folder Properties
In Windows 2000, getting to the Sharing options for a folder was simple: Just right-click, choose Properties, and you'd see a Sharing
tab. In Windows XP, this feature is missing by default, but you can make the system display the Sharing tab if desired. Simply open
up Folder Options (My Computer, then Tools, Folder Options) and navigate to the View tab. In the Advanced Settings section, scroll
down to the bottom and uncheck Use simple file sharing (Recommended). Now share your folders on the LAN as you would in
Windows 2000.
30. Control System Restore
System Restore is an incredible space hog. It might be worth it, if System Restore were a truly complete and foolproof form of
backup, but it's not. At best, System Restore can and will get the core operating system running again after a bad crash, but it
doesn't return all files to the pre-trouble state, and it can't remove all traces of a program that went bad. As a result, System
Restore's usefulness is limited, and so should be its appetite for disk space.
Right click on My Computer, select Properties, and select the System Restore tab. Select your main drive (usually C:), click Settings,
and move the slider to reserve a reasonable amount of disk space. With a good regimen of backup images from Drive Image or
Ghost you can even move the slider all the way to the left.
If you have more than one drive, you may wish to turn off System Restore entirely for non-system drives. There's little, if any,
benefit to be gained by having them monitored. And if you're really religious about making a full backup before you alter your
system or install new software, you may wish to completely turn off System Restore for all drives.
31. Backup your Fresh Install
After you complete your clean install and get all your software installed I would recommend that you use something like Drive
Image to do an image of your install partition, then burn the image to CD or DVD or another hard drive and keep it. XP is a different
creature for some people. If you mess it up when playing around with it, just bring the image back. You can be up and running
again in 20 minutes vs. the two to three hours it will take to get the whole thing and all your
stuff installed again.
Note the default install of XP is about 1.5 GB and the download image may be larger that 700 MB. So don't install too much on the
OS partition. To help downsize the Image I run the System File Checker and reset the cache size to 40 or 50 MB (it's well over 300
MB by default).
To run it open the command prompt and type:
SFC /?
SFC /purgecache
SFC /cachesize=50
and finally rebuild the cache with SFC /scannow (have the CD ready).
I also Delete the Pagefile.sys and Hibernate.sys files before running Drive Image, although I now have the pagefile on another drive
and hibernation turned off in power management.
32. Install Java Virtual Machine
JVM will not appear on Windows Update site either. Some web sites will prompt you to install it upon visiting their pages. You can
get the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and have it ready to use when you Install XP:
http://download.microsoft.com
33. Install BootVis
This is a tweak for Windows XP that can result in a much faster boot time. Download bootvis
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/fastboot (look for BootVis.exe Tool)
Once you've unzipped Bootvis, run the .exe and you'll notice several checkboxes on the left. I only selected "Boot Activity". Then I
chose "Trace", then "Trace Next Boot". When you reboot it will tell you how long it took to boot everything up. My PC took 35
seconds the first time I tried it. I had it down to 27 seconds after choosing the "Optimize System" feature under the trace menu and
various other tweaks. I imagine it could go faster, but I was happy enough with that. My services took about 15 seconds before
optimization.
34. Increase bandwidth for network connections - tame QOS !
XP reserves 20% of your bandwidth for quality of service - this is ridiculous and need to be sorted immediately !
XP seems to want to reserve 20% of the bandwidth for itself even with QoS disabled.
1. Make sure your logged on as actually "Administrator". do not log on with any account that just has
administrator privileges. To log in as an administrator:
-click on start->logoff->logoff
-in the logon screen hold Ctrl+Alt+Del.
-in the user field type 'Administrator'