# Windows XP Optimization Guide



## Death Star (Apr 23, 2006)

Link to my original guide: http://www.overclockstop.com/OCS_Fo...ystems/481-windows-xp-optimization-guide.html

*Unnecessary Services*​ 
Windows XP comes with a wide range of services that perform various tasks and functions. When the computer starts, many of these services are started and consume CPU and system memory resources. Not all of these services are needed and quite a few can be disabled. Disabling unnecessary services can make your computer boot and run considerably faster. The following are a list of services that come standard with windows that can be disabled to help free up resources.​ 
*There are also other services that are added when certain software products are installed such as Adobe Acrobat, nVidia and ATI drivers, Creative Mediasource, etc.; most of which can be disabled with no noticable effect.​ 

To begin you will need to open the system configuration utility. Do this by going to *Start>Run* and type *msconfig* and click *OK *then click on the tab labeled *Services*. Or if you prefer, you may also use *services.msc*.









​ 





*Indexing Service*

The Indexing Service creates and maintains a list of files and their locations on both local and remote computers in order to provide faster file searching. Unless you use the search feature of windows regularly and have a dependency on it this service may be disabled. If you disable this service you will also want to turn off indexing on all hard drives and partitions. To do this you just go to *My Computer>right click on the disk or partition that you want to disable indexing on>properties*. When the new window opens there is a box at the bottom of the window that is labeled *Allow indexing service to index this disk for fast file searching*, Uncheck the box and click apply. A message box may appear, if this occurs just click *Ignore all*.
​ 








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*Error Reporting Service*


When an application encounters a problem and closes, this is the service that generates the little box that asks you if you want to send an error report. This service is not necessary.


*Fast User Switching*
Manages applications that require assistance in multiple user environments. If you have no urgency to stay logged on to your current account when you switch users or if you only have one user account on your computer you may disable this service.​ 

*Help and Support*
This service is responsible for the Help and SupportCenter. This service is also responsible for the annoying little pop-ups that appear in the lower left of the screen. If you rely on the Help and Support center do not disable this service.​ 


*IMAPI CD-Burning **COM Service*
This service handles windows CD burning with the built-in windows CD burning software. Disable this service if you use a 3rd party software package for burning or if you do not have a burner.​ 


*Remote Desktop **Session Manager*
Controls the Microsoft remote assistance. If you call for remote desktop support from Microsoft or other users this is the service that handles the connection. Unless you rely on others remote desktoping your computer you may disable this service.​ 

*Remote Registry*
This service is along the same lines as the Remote Desktop
Session Manager, but it allows others from remote locations to only modify your registry. Unless you rely on remote registry editing you may disable this service.​ 

*Task Scheduler*
The task scheduler controls the scheduling of automated tasks by the user. It allows you to configure programs to run on a timely basis (every day, every other day, every week, etc.). If you don’t use it, disable it.​ 

*Secondary Login*
Allows different processes to start for different users when the user logs on. This service is pointless if you only have one user account on your computer.​ 


*Windows Firewall/Internet **Connection Sharing (ICS)*
Controls the windows firewall and internet connection sharing (ICS). If you don’t use the windows firewall or ICS you can disable this service.​ 

*Print Spooler*
The print spooler loads print jobs into system memory to provide faster printing. You can disable this if you don’t have a printer or don’t care about print jobs starting slightly faster.​ 

*System Restore Service*
Sets system restore points. If you don’t use system restore you can disable this service. You may also disable system restore by going to *Control Panel>System>System Restore* and checking the box labeled *Turn off system restore on all drives*. System restore uses up significant disk space.​ 

*Telephony*
If you don’t have a modem or don’t make telephone calls with you computer then you can disable this service.​ 


*Distributed Link **Tracking Client*
Maintains links between NTFS files within a computer or across computers in a network domain.​ 

*Windows Time*
Synchronizes the windows clock between networked computers so they all read the same time.​ 

*Security**Center*
This is that annoying little program that installs with service pack 2 that tells you that you don’t have antivirus protection, a firewall or if you don’t have automatic updates turned on. It doesn’t really help out at all.​ 

*Wireless Zero Configuration*
This service automatically configures 802.11 devices. If you don’t have any wireless networking devices that fall under the 802.11 specification then you can disable this service.​ ​ 





*Registry Tweaking*​ 



***BAKUP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE CHANGING ANY SETTINGS***​ 






To create a registry backup go to *Start>Run>regedit* and highlight *My Computer* in the left column on the top and then go to *File>Export* and then choose where you want to save your backup and the name for it. This may take several minutes depending on the speed of the computer and the file size may be 100+ MB.​ 









​ 




There are several registry tweaks you can do to help dramatically improve your system performance. Most of them have to do with how windows manages the memory subsystems in your computer. The following registry changes increased my 3dMark05 CPU score by almost 900 points over default registry settings with the system in my profile. I have noticed though that these changes affect the performance of Intel CPUs more than AMD CPUs, but there is still a noticeable increase for both.

To make the changes to the registry you will need to open the registry editor. To do so go to Start>run and type *regedit*.​ 

*Helping Windows detect your L2 cache*​ 
Windows has a difficult time with detecting how much L2 cache your CPU has. Instead of letting windows try to detect it, it is best to set the amount manually. To do this go to:​ 
*HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\*
*Session Manager\Memory Management*​ ​ 




*



*​ 




Find the registry key *SecondLevelDataCache *and double click it. A window opens which allows you to edit its value. The value you want to set is the amount of L2 cache your CPU has in kilobytes. Notice that the values are by default set to hexadecimal, you can change it to decimal by selecting the *decimal* radio button on the right portion of the window. Here are some decimal to hexadecimal conversions:

Dec..........Hex
128K L2 = 80
256K L2 = 100
512K L2 = 200
1024K L2 = 400
2048K L2 = 800​ 

*Keep Windows operating data in RAM*​ 
****Do not change this setting if your computer has less than 256MB of RAM****​ 
*HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\*
*Session Manager\Memory Management*​ ​ 




*



*​ 




Select the DWORD value *DisablePagingExecutive* and set its value to 1.

This prevents windows from loading kernel and driver files into the page file. The page file is much slower than RAM and keeping the core files in RAM provides a nice performance gain.​ 

*Create a large system cache*​ 
****Do not change this setting if your computer has less than 512MB of RAM****​ 
*The system cache is the area of reserved system memory used for the core components of the operating system. This option increases the size of the system cache.*​ 
*HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\*
*Session Manager\Memory Management*​ ​ 




*



*​ 




Select the DWORD value *LargeSystemCache* and set its value to 1.


*Disable DOS 8.3 naming convention*​ 
Windows keeps two different names for every file on your system. The full name of the file is the one you will see in explorer and a command prompt, but there is a name for the file that complies with the 8.3 naming convention for use with MSDOS applications. If you do not use pre-windows 95 programs then you should change this setting.​ 
*HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\*
*FileSystem*​ ​ 




*



*​ 




Select the DWORD value *NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation* and set its value to 1.


*Disable NTFS last access update*​ 
Each time a drive that is formatted with the NTFS file system is accessed, windows updates the time stamp on the directory and all of the sub directories. This can eat up significant amounts of system resources. If the registry key is not there, create a new DWORD value by right clicking and selecting *new>DWORD Value* and name it *NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate.*​ ​ 




*



*​ 




*HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\*
*FileSystem*​ ​ 




*



*​ 




Select the DWORD value *NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate* and set its value to 1.


*IRQ prioritizing*​ 
You can give certain IRQs priority over others with this option. The most common IRQ to prioritize is IRQ8 which is for the system I/O and Real Time Clock. Another commonly prioritized IRQ is the video card IRQ (usually IRQ16).​ 
*HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\*
*PriorityControl*​ 



 


Create a new DWORD value called *IRQ8Priority *(you can replace 8 with any IRQ number you wish to prioritize) and set its value to 1.​ 

*Miscellaneous*​ 

*Disabling unwanted startup programs*​ 
A lot of programs will automatically start up with your computer when it boots. These can slow down your system considerably. To choose which programs start with your computer go to *Start>Run* and type *msconfig* then go to the *startup* tab. Uncheck the boxes of the programs that you don’t want to have starting up with your computer.
Also go to *Start>All Programs>Startup* and delete any shortcuts out of this menu for the programs that you don’t want starting with your computer. Adobe usually puts some startup shortcuts in this folder.​ 



 



*Defragment regularly*​ 
Defragmenting your hard drive on a regular basis is one of the easiest things you can to keep your computer performing well. When a file becomes fragmented, it is physically out of order on the disk. Defragmenting puts the file back in order so that it can be continuously read without the read/write head jumping all over the place. To access the windows defragmenting utility go to *Start>all programs>accessories>system tools* and click disk defragmenter.​ ​ 








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*Run disk cleanup regularly*

Disk cleanup removes temporary files and other unnecessary files the are just wasting disk space. To access the disk cleanup utility go to *Start>all programs>accessories>system tools* and click disk cleanup.​ 



 



*Turn off automatic updates*​ 
Go to *Control panel>system>automatic updates* and select *turn off automatic updates *and click apply.​ 



 



*Use a registry cleaner*​ 
Use a registry cleaning utility to fix and remove bad registry entries. RegSupreme Pro is a handy program: ​ 
http://www.macecraft.com/regsupremepro/​ 

*Change the priority of your applications*​ 
Press *ctrl + alt + **del* to open up the task manager. Click on the *process tab* and right click on the process you wish to prioritize and go to *set priority* and select the priority level you wish.​ ​ 








​ 






*Use Anti-Spyware Software*​ 
​ 





Adaware SE 1.06​ 



http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10399602.html?tag=lst-0-1​ 



​ 

> With the ability to scan your RAM, Registry, hard drives, and external storage devices for known data-mining, advertising, and tracking components, Ad-Aware SE easily can clean your system, allowing you to maintain a higher degree of privacy while you surf the Web.


 



> Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition boasts a number of improvements. Extended memory scanning now scans all modules loaded by a process. Scanning uses the all- new CSI (Code Sequence Identification) technology to identify new and unknown variants of known targets. Extended Registry scanning now scans Registry branches of multiple-user accounts and performs additional smart checks to detect dynamically created references. Scanning speed is noticeably faster, and this version offers an Extended Scanning mode for known and unknown/possible browser hijackers.​
> 
> 
> New in version 1.06: Disk-scan is approximately 30 percent faster. CSI scan is now more efficient. Added "Scan for low-risk threats" option, to scan for targets with low TAC index. Ad-Watch CSI engine performance highly improved; using less CPU and Memory as well as having a smaller footprint. GUI adapted to use the new TAC.​





Spybot 1.4​ 

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10401314.html?tag=lst-0-1​ 





> Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove a multitude of adware files and modules from your computer. Spybot also can clean program and Web-usage tracks from your system, which is especially useful if you share your computer. Modules chosen for removal can be sent directly to the included file shredder, ensuring complete elimination from your system. For advanced users, it allows you to fix Registry inconsistencies related to adware and to malicious program installations. The handy online-update feature ensures that Spybot always has the most current and complete listings of adware, dialers, and other uninvited system residents.


 



> Version 1.4 has the first native multi-installation scanner, is noticeably faster than version 1.3 during scans, and has improved the tools and updated the interface.​







​ 

​ ​


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Apr 24, 2006)

The guide needs to be updated FYI, but otherwise good.


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## POGE (Apr 24, 2006)

How does it need to be updated?


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Apr 24, 2006)

Like a new version of AdAware came out etc.


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## malware (Apr 24, 2006)

Nice guide, especially the registry entries.


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## Alec§taar (May 16, 2006)

Here are two more sites you can try/use which I authored from 1997 onwards for public use/consumption!

(Yes, Mine IS the oldest & ORIGINAL + MOST COMPREHENSIVE article for this type of performance boosting no less - all others just "bit off my style" including THIS guide, & even sites based on this type of work, to be blunt about it):

*APK Internet Security & Speed tuneups:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------*

Goto:

http://www.avatar.demon.nl

and you see on top of the menu a  
Windows® flag? CLICK ON IT!

OR here (direct link):

http://www.avatar.demon.nl/page/index.html

Another link to it.



Both site pages are based off the original article #1 for this from NTCompatible.com which I authored years ago:

http://www.blacksheepnetworks.com/security/resources/article1-2.shtml

That's a cached copy someone else kept as to the orig. article that was @ NTCompatible.com from late 1997 iirc, & up to 2002 or so... 

Originally, circa 1997-1998 when I had this first there & afaik, it really is the oldest & original site with a page like those about Internet speed & security, as well as local system performance related tunings also!

It is, afaik & have seen 12++ years online? The OLDEST one out there, there is & "the original article" for security & speed of a Windows NT-based OS.

(These 2 sites expand HUGELY on the original & may contain things others do not, especially in the arena of security - things like, for example, port filtration & how simple + easy it is to implement for security).

APK

P.S.=> Nice as DeathStar's guide is (I am going to sound cocky, but any website doing it or others posting guides like these - just biting off my style, as I wrote the original article for this type of stuff)

? 

You'll find those FAR more comprehensive, for BOTH speed & security... 

*The proof of my rather admittedly BOLD statement?*

*OUR OWN TESTS HERE ON THE FORUMS* IN SCIENCEMARK in Casheti & Canuto's results scores increasing here:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=14736&page=63

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Canuto said:


> Alec i have to give you credit for your advice once again you gave me 12 extra points



&



tigger69 said:


> alec,ive got another 7 points on ya.same speed 4416mhz with explorer and some things stopped.



&

You're welcome... 

WELL, as the "King of Ithaca", Odysseus, said to Achilles in the film, TROY:

"You have your sword, I have my tricks... we both play with the toys the Gods give us!"



* Try everything I wrote in that last post of mine up there... you'll go higher!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To name JUST a few, only... from that thread, where performance? Is critical.

Not just for benchmarks either, but for DAILY USE & BETTER PERFORMANCE... 

Fact is, I have had people from "the great arstechnica" & "XP Myths" websites (& yes, others) say what I put in my tuning guides is b.s.? 

Well, proof's in the pudding above as to who is spouting fables... lol! apk


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## Urlyin (May 16, 2006)

Thanks for taking the time to post the guide Death ... nicely done


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## b1lk1 (May 16, 2006)

Thank you, I just finished doing all these tweaks and I haven't benchmarked yet, but my system booted up about 10 seconds faster!  Thank you!


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## cjoyce1980 (May 16, 2006)

thanks


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## gR3iF (May 16, 2006)

for registry tweaks u can use xp reg tune
http://www.polarsoft.de/html/polarsoft_-___download__.html

switch of services doesnt bring any performance gains
but all in all it makes your pc saver


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## Alec§taar (May 18, 2006)

*Windows NT-based OS' Services you can change from LocalSystem Logon entity usage*

*A little something I have been experimenting with, that aids in greater security of your machine, & @ the OS Services (like UNIX/Linux/MacOS X background daemon processes) level of operation, & you'll see it's undersecured & how to "harden/fortify" it:*

Lessing them from their default of LOCALSYSTEM entity logon persona (lessening them to lesser priveleged services, so they have less ability, & thus are more secured - especially when "bugs" related to security crop-up in them & they do).

This is not like "disabling" them wholesale (or, using diff. hardware profiles to enable/disable them for diff. types of logins to your OS), this allows them to run, albeit more securely, @ least potentially. You may also wish to look @ secpol.msc as well, & check what services & users are able to do what, in conjunction with this listing too!

*LOCAL SERVICE startable list (vs. LocalSystem Logon Default):
-----------------------------------------------------------------*

Virtual Disk Service
Windows UserMode Driver Framework
Remote Registry
UserProfile Hive Cleanup Service
Telnet
SmartCard
WinHTTP Proxy AutoDiscovery Service
Windows Image Acquisition
Indexing Service
Volume Shadowing Service
Tcp/IP NetBIOS Helper
COM+ System Application
Alerter (needs Workstation Service Running)
Office Source Engine

*3rd PARTY SERVICES that work as LOCAL SERVICE logon type:
-----------------------------------------------------------------*

Nvidia Display Driver Service
O&O Clever Cache
Sandra Service
Sandra Data Service

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*NETWORK SERVICE startable list (vs. LocalSystem Logon Default):
-----------------------------------------------------------------*

Remote Desktop Help Session Manager Service
Remote Packet Capture Protocol v.0 (experimental MS service)
Resultant Set of Policies Provider
Merger
Application Layer Gateway
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing Service
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM
Clipbook (needs Network DDE & Network DDE DSDM) 
DNS Client
DHCP Client
Machine Debug Manager
ASP.NET State Service
Performance Logs & Alerts
Error Reporting
Visual Studio 2005 Remote Debug

*3rd PARTY SERVICES that work as NETWORK SERVICE logon type:
-----------------------------------------------------------------*

FileZilla Server
PDEngine (Raxco PerfectDisk)
Executive Software Undelete

=======================================================================

* Each service uses a BLANK password when reassigning their logon entity (when you change it from the default of LocalSystem Account), because they use SID's afaik, not std. passwords - don't worry, even if they are blank passwords as you alter their logon entity, the system assigns them one via the SID for the user-entity you assign for their logon.

*IMPORTANT TO KNOW:*

If while you are "experimenting" on your home systems, something goes wrong & you cannot bootup again?

(Which is what I ran into by making RPC a "network service" logon type (rather than its default of LocalSystem logon), & hence, the edit/revision of the list done below 2x now partially, & other reason is because my first post had many overlap onto the same line & I was unable to edit it w/in 1 hr. because the DB was down (Wed. scheduled one)).

*TO RECOVER:* 

Just boot to "Safe Mode", & reset the ones you changed to LocalSystem once more & try again... 

It's how I did it in fact, because I screwed up on several in fact... I found you could change them to LocalService OR NetworkService in lieu of LocalSystem for the service's logon entity while in Windows, stop the service & start it again... & they worked JUST FINE!

However, on reboot? NOT SO FINE! 

Apparently, some services NEED to act as "LocalSystem" during boottime, & once in Windows, can act either way (meaning can change logon entity & appear to run fine).

The TRUE WAY to test this is rebooting by the way... it will tell you when & where you 'screwed up' changing these... in fact, I think it is the ONLY way really!

Anyhow - I am hoping some of you guys come up w/ diff. services than I listed here (which is possible, if you think about programs from 3rd party OEM/software publishing houses such as Diskeeper &/or O & O Defrag for instance)

(ENJOY IT, and if you find others? Add 'em on!)

ALSO - This patch update from MS should help as well (in conjunction with the lists above & what they do (assign less priveleged users than LocalSystem (OS user entity) such as Network Service OR Local Service to Service's logon users entities they require)):

*Patch which fixes Permissive Windows Services std. DACLs Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (914798)*

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-011.mspx



* Enjoy, & be sure to apply that patch folks...

APK

Alexander Peter Kowalski
apk4776239@hotmail.com
apk

P.S.=> If you find any difficulties with the setup/starting points I list above, please do let me know via private message here, &/or email (my email addy is above a few lines)... +, also, if you find others that fit here & work for you? Let us ALL know, TIA! apk


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## Jimmy 2004 (May 26, 2006)

Not a bad guide Death Star but for people on these forums I strongly recommend that you use services.msc rather than msconfig when disabling services to ensure that you don't disable the vital RPC. This site has a brilliant PDF tweak guide but it is quite long so just try to find the tweaks!


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## mikechinym (May 26, 2006)

there is also some tuning by software
right now i am using 2 tuning software.
1---->gamexp
2---->tunexp
i think someone try already
just for share


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## CUSACKOTG (Jun 1, 2006)

Thanks Death Star!

took off at least 8-9 seconds on my boot up with the changes i made in my registry that you recommended. Was pleasantly surprised

got any other tricks?


cheers

cusackotg


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## Jimmy 2004 (Jun 6, 2006)

If anyone wants faster boot times Google an M$ program called Bootvis and give it a go. Here's the best way to use it:

1. Install it (obvious!)
2. Load Bootvis and click on "Trace >Next Boot + Driver Delays" (this is required so Bootvis can work out how to best optimize your system) and click "Ok" or whatever comes up
3. When it restarts bootvis should reload go "Trace >Optimize System"
4. After it reboots, leave it for 5 minutes to do it's job (or until the window disappears)
5. Enjoy 30 second or better boot times (not guaranteed!!!)


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## Alec§taar (Jun 7, 2006)

*USING /PREFETCH:1 SWITCH & what BootVis does (which your system will do anyhow)*



			
				Jimmy 2004 said:
			
		

> If anyone wants faster boot times Google an M$ program called Bootvis and give it a go. Here's the best way to use it:
> 
> 1. Install it (obvious!)
> 2. Go to "C:\Windows\Prefetch" and delete everything in there
> ...



That program DOES work, but ONLY on Windows XP! I've tried to get it to run on Windows 2000 &/or Windows Server 2003, but NO DICE!

(Something to be aware of - but, I'd wager most folks here @ least run Windows XP!)

Eventually, boot-time optimization (present in XP/Server 2003) will do this job for you anyhow... but, it requires steady use of your PC & reboots (and iirc, the "task scheduler" services has to be operating too, and imo, also NOT disabling FileAccess stamps (a reg hack to this area of the registry for filesystem speeds (don't disable it for a month of use of your system or so @ least, the apply it, so that boottime optimizations DO take):

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"DisableLastAccessUpdate"=dword:00000001
"NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate"=dword:00000001

* That would ONLY be after several reboots & running your system as-per-usual (so that it can check what programs you run & how often, then raising those programs' placement on your disk up to the front/outermost-fastest tracks of your hdd platters) & MOSTLY that technique (which requires patience) would help not only your system's bootup reordering for its own libs/modules and programs, but also ones you use that are 3rd party or external to the OS itself.

BootVis tends to save time for BOOTUP programs (the OS' programs/drivers, startup groups, & registry RUN areas programs, etc.) right-off-the-bat though, & forces it to occur for that group of programs, should you use it.

* Another technique to try/use is the "/prefetch:1" switch on your shortcut commandlines, so you can force programs you use a lot to do this as well, so they too, load faster!

APK

P.S.=> I.E. - Want to make PARTICULAR programs you use "automagically" be faster, due to boot-time reordering on disk? 

Add /prefetch:1 to their shortcuts TARGET line @ the end of them... this works as well! 

E.G.-> C:\GAMES\Quake 4\Quake4.exe /prefetch:1

apk


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## Jimmy 2004 (Jun 7, 2006)

Alec§taar said:
			
		

> That program DOES work, but ONLY on Windows XP! I've tried to get it to run on Windows 2000 &/or Windows Server 2003, but NO DICE!
> 
> (Something to be aware of - but, I'd wager most folks here @ least run Windows XP!)
> 
> ...



I should have mentioned it's only for XP (and if you have hyperthreading or dual core it has to be SP2). I've read XP is supposed to do this eventually but I've never found it actually does it as well as Bootvis.

Another fact for you guys: if you disable the task scheduler service this will disable prefetching and slow down your load times for everything dramatically... *so don't disable it!*


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## Alec§taar (Jun 7, 2006)

Jimmy 2004 said:
			
		

> I should have mentioned it's only for XP (and if you have hyperthreading or dual core it has to be SP2). I've read XP is supposed to do this eventually but I've never found it actually does it as well as Bootvis.



Not as fast, takes reboots, & if you're not one to reboot often? Well, hence the delay, @least for bootup system files.

(Does it run on ALL revisions of XP? Such as SP's?? I don't & haven't run XP in ages, years really... so need to ask).



			
				Jimmy 2004 said:
			
		

> Another fact for you guys: if you disable the task scheduler service this will disable prefetching and slow down your load times for everything dramatically... *so don't disable it!*



I wonder if the "Process Idle System Tasks" command will trigger it though? That's another one I was wondering about...

APK

P.S.=> RunDLL32.EXE %WinDir%\system32\advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

Don't forget this either, it works with this stuff, same stuff as BootVis (but, not only for OS files):

start /high C:\GAMES\Quake 4\Quake4.exe /prefetch:1

(The PREFETCH switch for your favorite programs in their shortcut target (commandline I use for Quake4SMP is above, via a cmdfile it is in (StartHighQ4.cmd)))

apk


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## Jimmy 2004 (Jun 7, 2006)

I think it should run on all versions of XP, unless you have hyperthreading or possibly dual core in which case you need to have SP2 installed otherwise it just won't work in most cases. As for the processing idle tasks command, I'm not sure if that would do it but I know lots of people are under the impession they should run that before playing games, which is totally wrong because it takes up to 15mins to complete so it actually runs while your playing rather than when you're idle. I might try that prefetch command when I get time, I've been quite busy and will be for the next couple of weeks but after that I'll be doing some tweaking on my new XP istall. And learning to use ubuntu


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## laszlo (Jun 9, 2006)

is working faster;thanks 

i found this also :http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html


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## gR3iF (Jun 9, 2006)

may we do an windows version with nlite?
wizzard says if we have one good image he would upload it


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## Jimmy 2004 (Jun 9, 2006)

Problem with nLite is different people like and need different things. I might try and make a universal nLite image sometime if I can, one problem I've found with nLite is that it doesn't integrate ATI drivers correctly, it misses the smartgart part of it. Perhaps it would be better if someone just wrote a good nLite guide?


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## Migons (Jun 9, 2006)

Afaik, the L2 cache registry tweak is useless, because Win2k/XP recognizes size of L2 automatically.


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## POGE (Jun 12, 2006)

Migons said:
			
		

> Afaik, the L2 cache registry tweak is useless, because Win2k/XP recognizes size of L2 automatically.


Indeed. The tweak makes it so windows doesnt have to spend time recognizing it.


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## Migons (Jun 12, 2006)

POGE said:
			
		

> Indeed. The tweak makes it so windows doesnt have to spend time recognizing it.



...to spend time, which is propably measured in milliseconds


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## Jimmy 2004 (Jun 12, 2006)

Well it doesn't do any harm to apply it so if anyone wants to they can feel free. I don't personally do it because I don't think it does make a difference.


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## bim27142 (Jun 15, 2006)

this is a good guide!!!


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## Steevo (Jun 22, 2006)

The L2 cache was-is for older systes that had a l2 cache on the motherbard. All new L2 is controlled by the CPU as it is a integrated part.


Kinda like the old Soyo I used to have. *enter dreamy waves and blurred edges*


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## xman2007 (Jun 26, 2006)

thank you very much, as someone else stated this has helped my xp load up time by around 10secs  1 thing tho the service telephony which i disabled is actually used by my speedtouch adsl usb modem so i had to re-enable that but aside from that no bad side effects cheers


----------



## Aegis (Jul 11, 2006)

Nope, the SecondLevelDataCache doesn't even help speed up L2 Cache detection:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q183063/

And the IRQ prioritization tweak doesn't do anything. Can't find my source at the moment though.


----------



## Jimmy 2004 (Jul 11, 2006)

I think it's hard for these arguements to be settled because all different sources have different reasons and opinions. I personally don't bother with them anymore BUT it doesn't do any harm to apply them so if it keeps you happy...


----------



## zekrahminator (Jul 11, 2006)

This guide is amazing! It was easy to do everything, even for someone like me who's scared to touch the registry . Anyways, thanks a ton, keep up the good work.


----------



## Alec§taar (Jul 11, 2006)

*Hey Mikey! He likes it...*

See subject-line/title above:



			
				zekrahminator said:
			
		

> This guide is amazing! It was easy to do everything, even for someone like me who's scared to touch the registry . Anyways, thanks a ton, keep up the good work.



Heh, another "convert"... & now that you're no longer "afraid" of registry tweaking/hacking etc. et al, you'll probably go @ it like no tomorrow from now on, on every setup you do!

(*E.G.-> A GOOD TIP TO USE: * I export the original registry areas to .reg files, and then do the tweaks & export them to .reg files as well - makes for QUICK system hacks for performance, AND the ability to undo them as well... keep this in mind, *it's a REAL TIMESAVER!*)



* Doing this stuff, does make a BIG diff. to many things on your system... been doing it for years myself since the NT 3.51 days (not near as much to tweak, but it was a starting point)...

APK

P.S.=> I got a big "kick" outta the folks from the first page onwards saying stuff like "I shaved 10 seconds off my boot" etc. & more... it does work, for speed AND security! apk


----------



## Jimmy 2004 (Jul 11, 2006)

zekrahminator said:
			
		

> This guide is amazing! It was easy to do everything, even for someone like me who's scared to touch the registry . Anyways, thanks a ton, keep up the good work.



Yeah, the registry can be scary but in general, if you are a little careful you're unlikely to do too much damage and it can be extremely useful to edit to remove traces of programs that don't uninstall and fix little errors.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jul 11, 2006)

Great guide Death Star!

*****


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## Jimmy 2004 (Jul 11, 2006)

And it was his only post... probably doesn't even read our commends !


----------



## Alec§taar (Jul 11, 2006)

*Not sure I included this one, but it's a decent hack for multitasking performance*

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Executive]
"AdditionalCriticalWorkerThreads"=dword:00000002
"AdditionalDelayedWorkerThreads"=dword:00000002

(Watch the spaces before the last "02" here, if you copy this one! For SOME reason, the forums board here inserts a space prior to it... manually edit it is my recommendation!)

That is another "interesting" one for those of you that have DualCore/H-T Intel Chips/or TRUE SMP setups, & it extends upon what is in here:

*APK Internet Security & Speed tuneups:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------*

Goto:

http://www.avatar.demon.nl

and you see on top of the menu a  
Windows® flag



* They work well...

(Those pages extend upon the guide by DeathStar here & I am NOT SURE if I have this one listed above (adding worker threads hack) in the 2 guides above (they have more than DeathStar's guide does for more areas of potential performance gain & security as well)).

APK

P.S.=> I add 2 extra threads, this supposedly helps in multitasking... apk


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## zekrahminator (Jul 11, 2006)

Well, general system response is better, games are running smoothly, everything is going nicely...except 3Dmark05 . I don't even want to GUESS how much lower my score is now, all I know is I get like 10fps lower Battle for Proxycon...I cancel the rest of the benchmark out of shame lol.


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## demonbrawn (Jul 12, 2006)

whoah! That ram setting really sped up performance! Awesome....


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## Alec§taar (Jul 13, 2006)

demonbrawn said:
			
		

> whoah! That ram setting really sped up performance! Awesome....



If you're referring to the one I put up above (more about OS threads than RAM really)?



* It should!

(Especially for you & others w/ SMP-DualCore rigs...)

APK

P.S.=> Believe me, more where that came from, if you visit that URL I put up above... apk


----------



## Alec§taar (Jul 13, 2006)

*WazzleDoozle, got gmail err/abend msg... see inside*



			
				demonbrawn said:
			
		

> whoah! That ram setting really sped up performance! Awesome....



If you're referring to the one I put up above (more about OS threads than RAM really)?



* It should!

(Especially for you & others w/ SMP-DualCore rigs...)

APK

P.S.=> Believe me, more where that came from, if you visit that URL I put up above... apk


----------



## demonbrawn (Jul 13, 2006)

Not sure I included this one, but it's a decent hack for multitasking performance
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Executive]
"AdditionalCriticalWorkerThreads"=dword:000000 02
"AdditionalDelayedWorkerThreads"=dword:0000000 2

(Watch the spaces before the last "02" here, if you copy this one! For SOME reason, the forums board here inserts a space prior to it... manually edit it is my recommendation!)

That is another "interesting" one for those of you that have DualCore/H-T Intel Chips/or TRUE SMP setups, & it extends upon what is in here:

If this is the one you're referring to, then no I haven't tried this one yet.


----------



## Jimmy 2004 (Jul 13, 2006)

I'd also recommend AGAINST turning off automatic update unless you visit the Windows Update website every couple of days because it could leave you more vulnerable to certain attacks and has very little impact upon performance, even for users with slower computers and 56K, because the service will run in the background anyway even if this is disabled.


----------



## GIGGLA (Jul 13, 2006)

Here is a pretty good guide 175 pages I implemented the recommended tweaks and shaved at least 10-15 seconds off my boot time and my system shuts down in 4 seconds-   http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html


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## Jimmy 2004 (Jul 13, 2006)

GIGGLA said:
			
		

> Here is a pretty good guide 175 pages I implemented the recommended tweaks and shaved at least 10-15 seconds off my boot time and my system shuts down in 4 seconds-   http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html



Already posted a link to it in post #12.


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## GIGGLA (Jul 13, 2006)

The above link tweakguides.com will tell you how to tweak all your games too!


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## gR3iF (Jul 13, 2006)

is it worth the work?

i mean some tweaks are pretty good and helps windows to be better, faster, more stable or just good ;P


but sometimes it goes to far?


----------



## Jimmy 2004 (Jul 13, 2006)

I just apply tweaks from that site when I get the time, sort of a gradual process. I only use the major tweaks from that guide because some of it is wrong/misleading but in general it isn't a bad guide and some of the game tweaking guides can give some of the deeper information on how to boost performance.


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## gR3iF (Jul 13, 2006)

jup but the biggest boost you get out of some things like disable last acces timestamp
or disable that dlls are saved in the ram and so on^^


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## NamesDontMatter (Jul 13, 2006)

I suppose I can give you guys one of mine 

-*Speed Boot - Shave 2 Seconds*-
Create a batch file by doing the following:

1. Open notepad and enter the following lines:
-. RD /S /q "C:\Documents and Settings\"UserName without quotes"\Local Settings\History" 
-. RD /S /q "C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\History" 
-. RD /S /q "D:\Temp\" <--"Deletes temp folder, type in the location of your temp folder"
2. Save the fily and then rename is something like deltemp.bat
3. Now click Start, Run and type in gpedit.msc ->Computer Configuration ->Windows Settings ->Scripts and double click on Shutdown 
-. ->Click Add and find the batch file you created and press ok to set the script


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## POGE (Jul 13, 2006)

If you guys have any suggestions you want PM me and I'll have deathstar update this...  (he is a busy guy, doesnt appear on these forums much)


----------



## Alec§taar (Jul 13, 2006)

I've got to admit a "thought" or set of them, about disabling the 1st one you mention, because imo, it may have a "trade-off", just like the 2nd one has (I mention it to Cj_Staal here in this thread ->  http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=14326&page=2 ).

4th post down on that url/page in fact... decent read about "how" the first one you mention, in the "AlwaysUnloadDLL" hack being implemented REALLY works & what penalties you pay for using it...



			
				gR3iF said:
			
		

> jup but the biggest boost you get out of some things like disable last acces timestamp or disable that dlls are saved in the ram and so on^^



*ABOUT THE FIRST HACK YOU MENTION:*

E.G.-> Using something like the 2nd hack you mention by implementing the "AlwaysUnloadDLL" registry hack (to unload DLL's from memory &/or diskcache) once all reference counters to them are "zeroed-out" by the process scheduler portion of the kernel has a trade off as well, are we "losing" by using it too, to save memory (imo, on this one? Definitely yes, we lose using it, in the "long haul"):  

I.E.-> By unloading DLL's from RAM, yes, you save memory... but, you force a reload from disk as well once they are called upon again!

(AND, inevitably, DLL's will be once again by calling programs, this IS certain/inevitable)

Thus, slowing yourself down in the "long run"... a definite trade-off! 

*ABOUT THE SECOND HACK YOU MENTION:*

Yes, I use the 1st one myself too, but wonder about it, & it possibly adversely affecting Windows boottime optimization/prefetch abilities!

(Mainly, you DO gain in the short-term using it, because it is one less thing being "written to disk" when files are accessed!  Thus, it definitely speeds you up (albeit, if you think about what I am about to say, it may "hurt" some things)).

Prefetching &/or boottime optimization (placements of files most often accessed to the front/outermost/fastest portions of your diskdrive platters)... 

Is it affected by the lack of this "timestamping" occuring? 

Something has to be writing the entries for boottime optimization to work on, & imo? This may be it... or, part of it & necessary for it to work/function fully-properly.

I've always wondered about it! Are we making a "trade off" here using this one??

Yes, we do gain (in the short-term) by turning off this set of entries being written to disk for timestamping file accesses, but are we also losing?

(Simply by not keeping this set of accesses up to date, potentially 'adversely affecting' prefetch &/or boottime optimizations)...

* IIRC, it was mentioned here earlier that turning off the "Task Scheduler" service can affect boottime optimization &/or prefetch... could this one be also, because of what it is & what it's nature is for??

APK

P.S.=> Optimization is always "push/pull" (one area gains, but usually, another possibly may suffer, depending on HOW you use your machine)... & these 2 entries in particular, imo, have this as a potential loss in the long-haul, but short-term gain... apk


----------



## Jimmy 2004 (Jul 13, 2006)

NamesDontMatter said:
			
		

> I suppose I can give you guys one of mine
> 
> -*Speed Boot - Shave 2 Seconds*-
> Create a batch file by doing the following:
> ...



This will only work with XP Pro, XP Home cannot use GPEDIT.


----------



## NamesDontMatter (Jul 13, 2006)

oh. . . oops, well pro is better for reasons like this  lol


----------



## stealthfighter (Aug 5, 2006)

Wow, cool
you dont know how long I've been hacking at that services tab in msconfig, weeding crap out. You've helped me alot. As for registry entries last time I messed with registry (I let an auyomated program do it) my computer wouldant boot up so yeah... I'm afaraid to do that. Other than RegCleaner, it lets me choose registry entries from install'd progtams that may/may not be there anymore. It also lets me remove stuff from add/remove programs, in case I accidently deleted an uninstall file  
You also offered good explanation for newbies as to weather it's safe or not.
edit: is rundll32 safe to disable from startup list?
is nvcpl safe to remove from startup list?


----------



## randomperson21 (Aug 8, 2006)

Jimmy 2004 said:
			
		

> If anyone wants faster boot times Google an M$ program called Bootvis and give it a go. Here's the best way to use it:
> 
> 1. Install it (obvious!)
> 2. Go to "C:\Windows\Prefetch" and delete everything in there
> ...



holy crap that program is amazing. just installed it and rebooted a couple of times.

now, instead of saying "windows is starting up" and all that crap, right as i go into gui after the splashscreen, BAM! theres my login.

hdd isn't thrashing, no cpu load. it just sits there waiting for login.

wow. now my bootup sequence is about 45 seconds now.


----------



## Tatty_One (Aug 8, 2006)

Very useful thanks, have done some"tweaks" myself but this gives me a few more pointers.


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## cdawall (Aug 14, 2006)

this was great except it my comp forever to do the indexing crap


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## Alec§taar (Aug 16, 2006)

*WANT MORE, GUANANTEED (with proofs below)? Read on:*

Here are two more sites you can try/use which I authored from 1997 onwards for public use/consumption!

(Yes, Mine IS the oldest & ORIGINAL + MOST COMPREHENSIVE article for this type of performance boosting no less - all others just "bit off my style" including THIS guide, & even sites based on this type of work, to be blunt about it):

*APK Internet Security & Speed tuneups:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------*

Goto:

http://www.avatar.demon.nl

and you see on top of the menu a  
Windows® flag? CLICK ON IT!

OR here (direct link):

http://www.avatar.demon.nl/page/index.html

Another link to it.



Both site pages are based off the original article #1 for this from NTCompatible.com which I authored years ago:

http://www.blacksheepnetworks.com/security/resources/article1-2.shtml

That's a cached copy someone else kept as to the orig. article that was @ NTCompatible.com from late 1997 iirc, & up to 2002 or so... 

Originally, circa 1997-1998 when I had this first there & afaik, it really is the oldest & original site with a page like those about Internet speed & security, as well as local system performance related tunings also!

It is, afaik & have seen 12++ years online? The OLDEST one out there, there is & "the original article" for security & speed of a Windows NT-based OS.

(These 2 sites expand HUGELY on the original & may contain things others do not, especially in the arena of security - things like, for example, port filtration & how simple + easy it is to implement for security).

APK

P.S.=> Nice as DeathStar's guide is (I am going to sound cocky, but any website doing it or others posting guides like these - just biting off my style, as I wrote the original article for this type of stuff)

? 

You'll find those FAR more comprehensive, for BOTH speed & security... 

*The proof of my rather admittedly BOLD statement?*

*OUR OWN TESTS HERE ON THE FORUMS* IN SCIENCEMARK in Casheti & Canuto's results scores increasing here:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=14736&page=63

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Canuto said:


> Alec i have to give you credit for your advice once again you gave me 12 extra points



&



tigger69 said:


> alec,ive got another 7 points on ya.same speed 4416mhz with explorer and some things stopped.



&

You're welcome... 

WELL, as the "King of Ithaca", Odysseus, said to Achilles in the film, TROY:

"You have your sword, I have my tricks... we both play with the toys the Gods give us!"



* Try everything I wrote in that last post of mine up there... you'll go higher!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To name JUST a few, only... from that thread, where performance? Is critical.

Not just for benchmarks either, but for DAILY USE & BETTER PERFORMANCE... 

Fact is, I have had people from "the great arstechnica" & "XP Myths" websites (& yes, others) say what I put in my tuning guides is b.s.? 

Well, proof's in the pudding above as to who is spouting fables... lol! apk


----------



## Alec§taar (Aug 24, 2006)

*HOW TO SECURE WINDOWS SERVICES (good against current threats such as MS06-040)*

See my subject-line/title for this post above, & refer to this URL for the method:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=16097

This is a guide to securing your services against modern threats, & covers the default services, & quite a few 3rd party ones (saving you time & testing).

Should you have other services that I do NOT list there, that test OK under this technique?

Please - respond in that thread & I will add them to my lists. 

Thanks.

Anyhow/anyways:

The technique "stalls out" or completely possibly counteracts threats (current ones & their mechanisms) such as the ones noted as is regards the Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-040 (current)  patch which had holes & is being exploited & referred to, here:

http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/archives/2006/08/is_windows_inhe.html

(The reasoning behind it is simple & counteracts this security assessment of "Why MacOS X is more secure than Windows is" etc. (& it is, by default, but CAN be corrected, relatively EASILY on your parts until MS alters their logon entity from the default SYSTEM user)).



* Enjoy!

APK

P.S.=> There is another area, default ACL's which MS has done SOME work too in security updates, but @ the filesystem & registry hives level, you CAN do far more... I will post one of those as well, with what tools to use & how to go about it in the future here on these forums... apk


----------



## SeeK (Sep 4, 2006)

Great guide... my compie's booting much faster now... the registry tweaks were very helpful, and I never thought of disabling services, only autostart...


----------



## stealthfighter (Sep 5, 2006)

Disabiling services you don't use helps... ALOT. I use 85mb memory after boot in windows XP, used to be like 150... owned? yes.


----------



## powerup (Sep 5, 2006)

teh enable L2, that works with older cpu but I know lots of people that try it and there computer went alittle faster


----------



## Slater (Oct 23, 2006)

Alec§taar said:


> Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
> 
> [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Executive]
> "AdditionalCriticalWorkerThreads"=dword:00000002
> ...



Why desnt ur site work no more?


----------



## Alec§taar (Oct 23, 2006)

Slater said:


> Why desnt ur site work no more?



It may be down now... The guy who's server it is changes the site's scopes & pages every once in a while, I have NO idea why either (he has other things on it, UNIX oriented largely)... so I may have to check the correct URL to post here again is all!

APK

P.S.=> I just got into it... try it again... apk


----------



## demonbrawn (Oct 23, 2006)

> _Originally Posted by Alec§taar  View Post
> Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
> 
> [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Executive]
> ...



What does this do exactly?


----------



## Alec§taar (Oct 23, 2006)

This can help your networking performance:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/interopmigration/unix/sfu/perfnfs.mspx

*AdditionalDelayedWorkerThreads*

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Executive\ (REG_DWORD)

"Increases the number of threads in the Delayed Work Queue. Threads in this queue have a lower priority and therefore a higher latency because they must compete with other processing for CPU time. Increasing this value may give better performance in some situations."

&

*Performance Registry Secrets* (This one explains both in detail)

http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/69/06/1.html

"Managing the number of threads can help you optimize performance. When NT boots, it creates a pool of worker threads that NT’s kernel, Executive Subsystems, and device drivers use. When one of these components places a work item, such as the Cache Manager’s lazy cache flusher or the Memory Manager’s idle memory zero-filler, in a queue, a thread is assigned to process it. If too many threads are in the pool, they needlessly consume system resources. However, if not enough threads are in the pool, work items are not serviced in a timely manner. Adjust the following two registry keys to change the number of threads.

Hive:	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key:	System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Executive
Value Name:	AdditionalCriticalWorkerThreads
Data Type:	REG_DWORD
Value:	<any number> 

VI-2	Hive:	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
 	Key:	System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Executive
 	Value Name:	AdditionalDelayedWorkerThreads
 	Data Type:	REG_DWORD
 	Value:	<any number> 


The number you specify in the value increases the number of threads created for the specified work queue. NT has two thread queues. Threads in the Critical Work Queue execute in the low real-time priority range, so they have precedence over most system activity. Threads in the Delayed Work Queue have a slightly lower priority that results in higher latency — the threads that service it compete with other processing for CPU time. The number of threads created for each queue is based on two criteria: whether the system is a server or workstation and how much physical memory the system has. You can’t tell directly whether more threads in a particular situation give you better performance, but you can experiment with benchmark workloads to see if they provide a benefit."



* Use them if you think they will help you out...

APK

P.S.=> As reliable a set of sources as I could come up w/ offhand - on short notice... from the horses' mouth in the first case, there IS no better authority imo, but I did find the 2nd URL a bit MORE detailed on how these 2 settings actually work, & with what circumstances etc. & WHY, most importantly... apk


----------



## demonbrawn (Oct 23, 2006)

oh, alright thanks.


----------



## Alec§taar (Oct 23, 2006)

demonbrawn said:


> oh, alright thanks.



No problem...



* There is a ZILLION cool things to "tune/tweak" on Windows NT-based OS', moreso imo than there was in DOS/Win3.x or Win9x even!

APK

P.S.=> Afaik? Those 2 numbers up there DO have limits... 16 on both, but this may have changed... still, I wouldn't PUSH it too far on them! I found that adding 2 on each does the job (for a total of 2 extra on each)... See my system specs, because systems w/ more RAM may be able to do more! apk


----------



## Tatty_One (Oct 24, 2006)

I am going to have to have a play, some nice tips there Alec.


----------



## Alec§taar (Oct 24, 2006)

Tatty_One said:


> I am going to have to have a play, some nice tips there Alec.



If you can't reach the website I put up in here earlier in this thread? 

Then, the single webpage archive editions of my "tweak/tune & security guides" are in this thread here (I put them up for SLATER to use, since he was unable to reach the website for them, they are readable in IE):

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=19028



* If you think this "puny set of 'standalone' tips" was GOOD? Read those 2 .mht docs in IE... 

(Get ready for TONS more (far more than the default guide here))...

APK


----------



## Jimmy 2004 (Oct 24, 2006)

I've started to avoid registry tweaks in this install of XP... from past experience the tweaks that do work have little impact in most cases and a lot of them are debated to have negative effects for high RAM applications like games.


----------



## Alec§taar (Oct 24, 2006)

Jimmy 2004 said:


> I've started to avoid registry tweaks in this install of XP... from past experience the tweaks that do work have little impact in most cases and a lot of them are debated to have negative effects for high RAM applications like games.



*On the SPEEDUP page?*

To each his own... I just know I've been @ this stuff for more than a decade now (quite a bit more, on the NT-based OS family), & have a pretty SURE set of what works, & what doesn't, & where/why/how it might or might NOT be something to do.



SeeK said:


> Great guide... my compie's booting much faster now... the registry tweaks were very helpful, and I never thought of disabling services, only autostart...



Results like that one? Speak for themselves...

(& as far as debating them? There is usually exceptions to any rule! Mainly based on hardware types present (like amt. of RAM, etc.) on some tweaks - iirc, this SHOULD be noted in the page & the sites @ Microsoft to use to refer to what they do & how they do it... Still, it does take some understanding & KNOWLEDGE of how the system works to do them right, especially memory dependent settings!)

Heck? Here @ Home?? 

I did a PREBUILT SET of .reg files I use to implement ALL of the performance tweaks I use... & I actually did that in .reg files for the tweaks, using ";" .reg file comments with descriptions of each tweak line & corresponding Microsoft page describing each tweak for performance used!

Very fast implement this way, AND a "perfect reference" system as well, simply by opening the .reg files in notepad.exe to look @ them for 'exceptions'.

* I just know the ones I have work, & I avoided (for instance/example) putting in RAM dependent settings in the .reg files, & have for years now (almost 14) on ALL NT-based Os', but like anything, testing should be done by the implementor of the tweaks/tunes...

I wonder how many years "naysayers" of the settings in my .mht docs have been at this studying & testing the settings (XP Myths is one, & they are SO far out of it on some of the settings, it makes me laugh... some they are right about, some ARE for older NT-based OS' but others? LOL!)?

*The SECURITY page though?*

That's one I'd go @ w/ anyone, as "absolutes"... and, to ANY of its settings recommended/noted (w/ the exception of the removal of the IP stack procedure, this HAS changed & I need to update it).

APK

P.S.=> *The MAIN proof of the performance oriented tunings working (w/ folks here, no less)?* 

Well, in the ScienceMark 2.0 test we did here?? 

When I told folks HOW to get more on their score (via 'tuning' @ this level, software/OS), implementing only SOME of what I know can be done??? 

Folks who thought they couldn't get ANY MORE, suddenly went up another 10-15 points... proof enough imo & doubtless theirs also!

Still - I welcome 'scrutiny' of any of the settings & discussion on them... nothing & nobody is PERFECT, but these guides I'd wager? Are DAMN close... apk


----------



## Jimmy 2004 (Oct 24, 2006)

[QUOTE="Alec§taar]I did a PREBUILT SET of .reg files I use to implement ALL of the performance tweaks I use... & I actually did that in .reg files for the tweaks, using ";" .reg file comments with descriptions of each tweak line & corresponding Microsoft page describing each tweak for performance used![/QUOTE]

I'm not saying all of them don't work, just personally I don't know which ones I can trust so often avoid them. If you have prebuilt reg files with setting that you _know_ work I (and I expect many others too) would actually be quite interested in getting hold if those if you could upload them (unless they're already on your site of course).


----------



## Alec§taar (Oct 24, 2006)

Jimmy 2004 said:


> I'm not saying all of them don't work, just personally I don't know which ones I can trust so often avoid them.



Fair enough, & if you are in those shoes? Don't use them, OR read the URL's noted for them @ places like Microsoft (nobody knows it better than they - the WROTE the OS!)

The 'problem' w/ registry tweaking is what you state: UNDERSTANDING what it is you are messing with, & this is where ref's to pages from MS (or other noteworthy sites) help hugely, should you decide to try them (performance tuning oriented ones - again: The security oriented settings? Those I am VERY confident & sure of!).

I put in references to MS webpages in my guides, but the .reg files & HOW I did them? 

SO much better!

Especially the latest ones I have here @ least (specific definitions are in each one, w/ a backing Microsoft webpage to observe as to their veracity & for each line in all of my prebuilt .reg files (21 total files I did here 3 years ago, & tested (get this) across dialup, cablemodem, and DSL (latest connection method I use)) - this took me WEEKS to do right in fact.

Honestly? I couldn't DO it any better than that!



Jimmy 2004 said:


> If you have prebuilt reg files with setting that you _know_ work I (and I expect many others too) would actually be quite interested in getting hold if those if you could upload them (unless they're already on your site of course).



Sure!

Would you like them as a single zipfile attachment here to extract each of them, & then for you to look @ their interiors & understand them?

APK

P.S.=> Just say the word, I'll "zip 'em up" & attach them here... once you see HOW I did them INTERNALLY (w/ links to MS & other reputable sites that describe them, along w/ descriptions RIGHT in the file, per line 'tweaked', from MS descriptions & others)? 

You'll probably wonder WHY I did the web-based HTML & .MHT single archive versions noted above... period! 

BUT, the .mht style ones I did for SLATER?? Pretty much have all that is in them anyhow... but, doing .reg files made it FAST to implement here is all... apk


----------



## Alcpone (Oct 24, 2006)

Dont dis' this thread, very good indeed, keep it up!


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## Alec§taar (Oct 24, 2006)

Alcpone said:


> Dont dis' this thread, very good indeed, keep it up!



He's not "dissing" it I don't think, but is merely stating he "operates on the side of err'ing on the side of caution" more than anything... & he IS right about that much, I won't argue!

One of the BEST sayings in life, imo @ least?

"If you don't know WHAT to do? DON'T!"

(@ least, not until you KNOW what it is you're doing!)



* This is WHY I did the prebuilt set of .reg files I did, even BETTER than the .mht files, because they (UNLIKE the HTML & .MHT files I did for this stuff, which require manual entry via regedit.exe) can be INSTANTLY "merged" implemented into a system... fast.

BETTER THAN HAND-EDITING using regedit.exe etc., imo @ least, but also the reason WHY I fully internally documented them w/ references & descriptions from Microsoft (mostly)... so you CAN understand what's going on in them.

You can't go TOO far wrong using the "horses own mouth" as documentation of what each tweak/tune/security setting does & implements.

APK

P.S.=> Anyhow/anyways, if you would like a copy of those Jimmy2004? Just say the word, & I'll zip 'em up & attach them here!

DO examine their interiors, & apply them when you feel safe about them... 

Again: & inside of them, if you don't LIKE or TRUST a setting (or it interferes w/ something YOU do that needs them active etc.? Comment particular lines off using a ";" (like a REM statement in batchfiles, but for .reg files))... 

All you need to understand them? IS INSIDE OF THEM... (complete reference!)... apk


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## Jimmy 2004 (Oct 24, 2006)

Yeah, uploading your .reg files in one zip would be great Alec, I'm going to give your

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Executive]
"AdditionalCriticalWorkerThreads"=dword:00000002
"AdditionalDelayedWorkerThreads"=dword:00000002

tweak a try and see how I get on. The settings I'm think of that don't have a positive impact on performance are the Unload DLLs tweak (not supported after windows 2000 AFAIK), the IRQ priority tweak and the Large System Cache tweak which actually keeps windows in the RAM meaning other applications such as power hungry games have less RAM that they can use. Admittedly that one does make windows itself slightly faster but at a cost.

As for dissing the thread? Certainly not, I've tried to contribute to it where I can.


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## Alec§taar (Oct 24, 2006)

Jimmy 2004 said:


> Yeah, uploading your .reg files in one zip would be great Alec,



I'll get on it later, & sorry for the delay!

See, I just got a SamSung 250gb SpinPoint on sale ($65 after tax/title/registration) @ a CompUSA 'going out of business' sale (for store in my area only)... good deal, & now have IT as my storage disk... my other one (w/ the .reg files on it)?

I have to hookup again (WD "Raptor" 74gb, too small, but FAST). It's "offline" now, & I have to transfer its FILES (near completely full) to this larger disk, w/ other data here.

I'll put them up in here later, when I get those 2 straight!



Jimmy 2004 said:


> I'm going to give your
> 
> [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Executive]
> "AdditionalCriticalWorkerThreads"=dword:00000002
> ...



Do so, but read on the limitations & caveats of playing w/ it, first... this matters on this one!



Jimmy 2004 said:


> The settings I'm think of that don't have a positive impact on performance are the Unload DLLs tweak (not supported after windows 2000 AFAIK),



This one no longer works? News to me... but, I wouldn't recommend it anyhow... keeping DLL's in RAM (ref counts by memmgr subsystem) helps speed things up, by NOT having to "hit disk" all the time to reload.

(In low memory situations though (purely relative condition)? It MIGHT help though... this is one of those "it depends" ones imo!)



Jimmy 2004 said:


> the IRQ priority tweak



This one? It's an "older windows OS" tweak afaik, & no longer applies (nowadays & iirc, not for a while... still, if it IS in place? It harms nothing - just a 'bulk entry' single line in the registry (which lol, I suppose you could call 'registry bloat', but MASSIVELY negligible)).



Jimmy 2004 said:


> and the Large System Cache tweak which actually keeps windows in the RAM meaning other applications such as power hungry games have less RAM that they can use. Admittedly that one does make windows itself slightly faster but at a cost.



Actually, this one? It allocates MORE to the array/buffer the diskcache subsystem uses... keeps MORE in it, @ once, cached. AND, it also changes the "flush" algorithm aging some too, iirc, Holds data, longer.

The "rules" for how much the system uses? HUGE... I have read them, & it depends on system RAM online (starting @ 32mb & going up it increases & hits a point where for every (iirc) 64mb additional online, it boosts the cachesize by 16mb or something near that amount).

Yup, that's a memory-intensive one, & one of the ones you HAVE to understand what it is you're doing, before you set it.

(I use SuperCache-II here, a better diskcache period, & turn off Windows one (the program allows for that)).



Jimmy 2004 said:


> As for dissing the thread? Certainly not, I've tried to contribute to it where I can.



Never thought you did man... not once! You just voiced the necessary things, & did a SMART thing: Questioned them, or made voice about things to be cautious about!

APK


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## Jimmy 2004 (Oct 24, 2006)

If you go to this page and look down a little it says that the unload DLLs setting is no longer supported in 2000 or later, in case you were interested in my source!

This page links to an M$ article explaining that large system cache is only useful for servers (to put it in a general way).

For anyone interested in how to set windows services correctly to maintain funtionality/performance you should look here and here for more detail than provided on this thread. The black viper one may now be out of date, it's been a long time since that website disappeared...


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## Alec§taar (Oct 24, 2006)

Jimmy 2004 said:


> If you go to this page and look down a little it says that the unload DLLs setting is no longer supported in 2000 or later, in case you were interested in my source!



Well, like I said: I don't really recommend it anyhow... for reasons noted above.



Jimmy 2004 said:


> [URL2http://support.microsoft.com/kb/895932"]This[/URL] page links to an M$ article explaining that large system cache is only useful for servers (to put it in a general way).



This is one I would POSSIBLY debate though... for reasons noted above.



Jimmy 2004 said:


> For anyone interested in how to set windows services correctly to maintain funtionality/performance you should look here and here for more detail than provided on this thread. The black viper one may now be out of date, it's been a long time since that website disappeared...



The BlackViper guide, & yes others? 

They came LONG after the ones I put up, & noted in this thread in fact early on & proven so unless others can show/prove otherwise!

In fact, I am fairly certain the one I list showing the original model of my guides here:

http://www.blacksheepnetworks.com/security/resources/article1-2.shtml

? 

Show they ARE, afaik, & I have checked - the OLDEST online, bar-none... 

It started life in 1997 @ NTCompatible.com as "Article #1" & was housed there until 2002 in fact, & LONG before that, @ 3dfiles.com (no longer in existence) before that on their forums!

I hate putting it that way, because it sounds pretty 'bogus', but I would not say it unless I was TOTALLY confident of the statement!

Still, I have proofs of this I noted online & here in THIS thread & in the URL above earlier posted here now. 

HOWEVER, I didn't 'invent' very many of the tweaks, admittedly (but, some I did, some not)... Ms & their OS design teams did!

I just consolidated a LOAD of them, a decade ago almost, & MOST (like 99%)?

Still work fine!

(and I haven't REALLY had to edit the files since then, unless SOME exception results over time (OS internal changes), but that is what the URL's from MS in my docs are for - to check that)...

APK

P.S.=> Another one that is "dead" supposedly, FYI, is the L2 cache detection in Memory Mgt. in the registry... leaving it @ "0" default is supposed to do the job on today's more "modern" NT-based OS'... apk


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## Jimmy 2004 (Oct 24, 2006)

Alec§taar said:


> HOWEVER, I didn't 'invent' very many of the tweaks, admittedly (but, some I did, some not)... Ms & their OS design teams did!



Shame they don't integrate more of them into the OS by default! I guess it's linked to the fact that they want an equilibrium of performance in all environments, so if they apply some tweaks they may have adverse effects on the OS when used in a different situation.


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## Alec§taar (Oct 24, 2006)

Jimmy 2004 said:


> Shame they don't integrate more of them into the OS by default! I guess it's linked to the fact that they want an equilibrium of performance in all environments, so if they apply some tweaks they may have adverse effects on the OS when used in a different situation.



Some of them? Yes... Windows Server 2003 & its IP stack does (supposedly it is largely "Self-Tuning" but giving it a little help based on YOUR unique setup hardware/connectivity/software wise, never hurts - because THIS varies, & large... I get more into it later, read on & think about it!)

For instance, & so does its SCW now (security configuration wizard), much of what these guides do? 

It does... including services cut offs, automatically, and VERY GOOD JOB of it too, never messes up on 'dependencies', period... (the HARD part of that type of tuning!).

I don't think they can though, apply them OUTRIGHT wholesale to every OS distro... not really. 

Some stuff, which you ARE aware of? Is memory dependent for example, how much you have online, others based on how many CPU's you have online & more... 

Sure, the OS installer SHOULD check that & apply them based on say, mem amt. online... but, afaik they do not to date.

MS ships it as "generic" as possible for both speed & security... they sort of HAVE to... so it fits "many feet" (many OS & hardware setups)...

That's my thoughts on it anyhow...

APK

P.S.=> Are/were there 'specially hardened' versions of NT-based OS in the past? Yes... there were. From 3rd party vendors & such... possibly today too, but this I am no longer sure of... I can do the job myself, w/ little effort... those .reg files? They make 'short work' of it for me... I will have those up later... apk


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## Alec§taar (Oct 27, 2006)

Jimmy 2004 said:


> I'm not saying all of them don't work, just personally I don't know which ones I can trust so often avoid them. If you have prebuilt reg files with setting that you _know_ work I (and I expect many others too) would actually be quite interested in getting hold if those if you could upload them (unless they're already on your site of course).



Jim, files are attached: Before you use them? I truly, STRONGLY, suggest you look @ each one's interior, to see what I meant about each .reg file having "built-in" documentation & references from MS & other sites of note/good rep!

Read them, prior to applying them, & use the ones you see fit to try out, after knowing what it is each does, OR just ";" comment out the sections you do NOT see fit to use in them, & thus, only use partial sections of each if you wish!

(This WILL take you some time, but it is worth it, imo @ least).

* Can't just put my own descriptions in there: I didn't design the settings, only tested them on systems of mine over the years/over time (all the way from dialup, to CableModem, & now to DSL).

You asked for them, so enjoy!

APK

P.S.=> Sorry about delay also!

(I had trouble getting new Samsung Spinpoint 250gb working here in my external USB 2.0 drive enclosure, & instead found it worked best/fastest, using the onboard mobo Silicon Image 3114 SATA 2.0 capable controller instead (just as a singledrive) set @ SATA 2.0)

So, I had been TRYING to move files to it the past 2 days now was not working out in the external USB enclosure set @ SATA 1 or SATA 2... kept dropping data, hanging overnite even on copies, etc.!

(Which is funny, because a WD Raptor 74gb works just fine in it set SATA 1!)...  apk


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## Jimmy 2004 (Oct 28, 2006)

Sorry Alec, forget to check this thread. Just downloaded your zip file, thanks for that, I will take a look at it. Another thing I've decided upon is to re-enable the NTFS Last Access update setting, because a number of optimisation programs nad windows settings seem to use them as you have mentioned in this thread and others. TBH I'm not sure how much of a performance impact it has anyway, but I will leave it enabled for a few weeks before I run bootvis and perfect disk and see if I can get a little extra out of my system.

Edit: WOW... you really did cram in a lot of registry tweaks didn't you? I'll try to take a look few some of them, but TBH I think there is just too much there for me! You really know a lot about windows if you know what all of those settings do.


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## InfDamarvel (Oct 29, 2006)

So any of these helping FPS in games?


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## Jimmy 2004 (Oct 29, 2006)

InfDamarvel said:


> So any of these helping FPS in games?



Well disabling the services should help... if you're refering to registry tweaks, some do, some don't.


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## Alec§taar (Oct 30, 2006)

Jimmy 2004 said:


> Sorry Alec, forget to check this thread. Just downloaded your zip file, thanks for that, I will take a look at it. Another thing I've decided upon is to re-enable the NTFS Last Access update setting, because a number of optimisation programs nad windows settings seem to use them as you have mentioned in this thread and others. TBH I'm not sure how much of a performance impact it has anyway, but I will leave it enabled for a few weeks before I run bootvis and perfect disk and see if I can get a little extra out of my system.



That is one I have some potential 'reservations' about, & w/ the very programs you mention in fact... are they using it to gauge how often a particular file is accessed? IF SO, I would NOT turn it on (enable it)...

Fact is, I have been thinking about writing to folks like Raxco &/or Executive Software & finding out HOW they are gauging how often a file is accessed & IF they are utilizing what that setting does by default.

Turning it on/enabling it, means you aren't moving the heads doing the write for that, updating it... which is "good" for performance.

Question is though: HOW DO DEFRAGGERS "JUDGE" THIS? Are they using the entries this turns off?



Jimmy 2004 said:


> Edit: WOW... you really did cram in a lot of registry tweaks didn't you? I'll try to take a look few some of them, but TBH I think there is just too much there for me! You really know a lot about windows if you know what all of those settings do.



Yes... most all of them I had ever done any study on actually, for performance gains... like I said earlier about them? It took me FOREVER and a day to get them all into those files w/ their definitions from MS (or other reliable sources) & to place referring URLS into them also for validation/verification by end users (like both yourself & myself).

APK


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## Millennium (Nov 26, 2006)

I've read that Diskeeper IFAAST uses the last update flag. But then, you needn't leave it on, you could just profile your (base system?) usage for a while (maybe) then turn it off and your done.

By the way, I've not read the 9 pages of this thread, but is anyone else using 

Win32PrioritySeparation = 22 decimal

?

This is a non-standard setting, I.E one that that GUI (in XP at least) won't set by the way.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/29623.mspx?mfr=true

Setting of 22 is;

Longer intervals, Variable Length, 3:1 foreground weighting

which is in HAL quantums (not 100% sure about this -yet);

walk max 36 quantums (server-style app) for foreground process and 12 quantums for background processes.

By the way, I read that there is a disparity in the length of a quantum between Multiprocessor XP HAL and Uniprocessor XP hal (15ms vs 10ms). Does anyone know why, that is?


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## Alec§taar (Nov 28, 2006)

Millennium said:


> I've read that Diskeeper IFAAST uses the last update flag. But then, you needn't leave it on, you could just profile your (base system?) usage for a while (maybe) then turn it off and your done.



Excellent, & Thank you for the feedback on this note!

I did suspect "Last Date Accessed" stamps placed on files was what was being utilized... it makes sense, & no need to "reinvent the wheel" in this case.

Good point, & same principal as using BootVis (great for when you first setup your system, & then Windows Prefetch features take over after that, along w/ defraggers & BootVis' benefits are no longer apparent/worth it to use because of the other programs taking over said duties of fileplacement of most used files, by date of access stamps, nearer the fastest/outermost tracks of the diskdrive)

Turning the OS placing time/date stamps of access on files off? Good stuff, in that it prevents excessive & possibly unneeded hdd head movements & writes from occuring!

However, I agree & suspected it to be the case & true that turning it off should only be done when the system has been run for awhile & has begun optimizations based on YOUR personal use-patterns of files on your disk.



Millennium said:


> By the way, I've not read the 9 pages of this thread, but is anyone else using
> 
> Win32PrioritySeparation = 22 decimal
> 
> ...



That's not one I use (lol, one of the few), but I have heard tell of it, messing w/ the process priority quantum timeslice separations



Millennium said:


> By the way, I read that there is a disparity in the length of a quantum between Multiprocessor XP HAL and Uniprocessor XP hal (15ms vs 10ms). Does anyone know why, that is?



Perhaps due to overheads in the process scheduler subsystem component of the OS, & time it takes to send multiple threads to the multiple cores 2-N cpu's present?

* Not sure... just "guessing" on this note!

APK


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## rhythmeister (Mar 7, 2007)

Jimmy 2004 said:


> If anyone wants faster boot times Google an M$ program called Bootvis and give it a go. Here's the best way to use it:
> 
> 1. Install it (obvious!)
> 2. Go to "C:\Windows\Prefetch" and delete everything in there
> ...



Jimmy, u ROCK my box! Cut my booting times from over 1 min 30 to just over 45 seconds  
I advise EVERYBODY with XP Pro to use this tool


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## Jimmy 2004 (Mar 7, 2007)

rhythmeister said:


> Jimmy, u ROCK my box! Cut my booting times from over 1 min 30 to just over 45 seconds
> I advise EVERYBODY with XP Pro to use this tool



Glad it's still helping - I actually need to remove the thing about emptying the prefetch - it doesn't actually make any difference in the long run, but it's argued to be bad in the shortrun.

Bootvis is a great tool, it's a shame M$ don't support it anymore, Vista could use something like that.


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## rhythmeister (Mar 8, 2007)

Now I've got the 3200 upto 2.45GHz I can boot in 38 seconds WOOT WOOT!


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## ex_reven (Mar 8, 2007)

mine gets a windows error on bootup 
just as it loads the program it stops responding and kills the process


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## rhythmeister (Mar 8, 2007)

ex_reven said:


> mine gets a windows error on bootup
> just as it loads the program it stops responding and kills the process



I needed to give it a couple of goes after defragging the master drive. Also, I had some services turned off and it didnit like that, try running with default service settings 1st


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## ex_reven (Mar 8, 2007)

mine are default


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## rhythmeister (Mar 8, 2007)

Hmm, I had a few issues with it but I just kept rebooting and letting it do it's thing. Try stopping so many progs starting on bootup perhaps...I'm not the man to ask about it, try the guys with the BIG posts for better advice lol


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## demonbrawn (Apr 4, 2007)

This might be a dumb question, but when setting the SecondLevelDataCache for my X2 3800 939 CPU, should i make it 512 or 1GB?


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## psychomage343 (Apr 4, 2007)

512
it sets ti per physical core demon


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## demonbrawn (Apr 4, 2007)

I see. Thank you.


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## Jimmy 2004 (Apr 4, 2007)

demonbrawn said:


> This might be a dumb question, but when setting the SecondLevelDataCache for my X2 3800 939 CPU, should i make it 512 or 1GB?



I'm guessing you mean MB, not GB... and that tweak doesn't do anything by the way, it shouldn't do any harm but don't worry too much - if you aren't sure just don't change it


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## demonbrawn (Apr 4, 2007)

oh, yeah i meant 1MB. Hah, how ridiculous would that be...


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## inachu (Apr 17, 2007)

Many good tips but he also forgot to mention.....

Disable Themes under sytem services.  (gain back 10% system speed in most cases)

Use system mechanic to clean the system registry(much much better!)

built in defrag or disk keeper defrag is not as good as VOPT(vopt.com)

I have sent diskeeper(executive.com) many email regarding their defrag program and whiel the program itself does a great job defragging it fails in truly compressing the data when there might come a need to partition your hard drive then disk keeper fails as data is still most of the time all over the place.   vopt is a partitioning jobs friend in the end.  as it highly compresses data tightly together.

but before you run vopt run system mechanic first.

If you have more than one hard drive then put the system environment variables of TMP and TEMP on that second hard drive.    Or if you really want to be cool afte ryou did all that raid setup and use 3 hard drives for raid and have 2 others as slaves then do this......

1   raid
2   raid
3   raid
4   swap
5   temp\tmp    (system environment variables set to the E: or F:drive.)

You might not stop drooling if you setup  your system hard drives like that.
Or if you have 6 hard drives then make the 6th just for c:\program files and nothing else!


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## Wile E (Apr 17, 2007)

Disabling Themes makes no difference whatsoever on my system, it just looks ugly, and goes the same speed.

And you don't have to use System Mechanic to clean your registry, there are a number of great registry cleaners, some of them free. Like APK Registry Cleaning Engine 2002++ SR7.

O&O Defrag is another great defrag program as well. I'll have to try VOPT, however. Sounds interesting.


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## inachu (Apr 17, 2007)

The only reason why I say use system mechanic is that I have tried the others and while otehrs might rally fix more prolems I found system mechanic fixing things within the bounds of safety.    A few of them would clean so much than my system no longer booted.

My personal favorite version of system mechanic is V. 5  , Version 6 is bloatware and they improved this in version 7.

The simple school of training in Microsoft is that if there is a registry in the sytem that does not point to anything then THAT is an error in itself.

Of course we all know that many programmers place dead dummy registry entries as counters or place holders so that if it was uninstalled and reinstalled to bypass 30 day trial ware that it would still not work.    But people are smart by using tea timer from SPYBOT search and destroy to really cripple what software tries to do on our own system.

In essense you can just delete that registry entry and keep getting a full 30 days use every day forever.    

So I cry foul on any crafty reg hacker be they corporate programmers for the retail outlets or spyware idiots who want to hide entire programs within our system registries.

Either way no matter who it is it is WE the end consumer who own our computers should be able to control our system no matter how far and it is those people preventing us our own right to properly clean our system thus just making us reinstall windows.

I could go on and on on my wild tangents on the registry but I really miss the good ole days of the INI file.......   so simple.


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## ex_reven (Apr 28, 2007)

Hey, you know CLI.exe? 
its a service for ATI...but why do i have three of them?

they use about 28mb each...

Same with ati2evxx.exe, theres two of them


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## Namslas90 (Apr 28, 2007)

ex_reven said:


> Hey, you know CLI.exe?
> its a service for ATI...but why do i have three of them?
> 
> they use about 28mb each...
> ...



APK registry cleaner should have got em if you don't need em.  I had up to faive at one time, ran APK cleaner, down to one.  How many diff ATI cards u got?


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## ex_reven (Apr 28, 2007)

just the one...x1950 pro...

i tried to run apk's tool before...wouldnt work before, but il try again 
Im a clean freak, so its probably worth the effort lol.

Btw you running in invisible mode namslas ?


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## Namslas90 (Apr 28, 2007)

ex_reven said:


> just the one...x1950 pro...
> 
> i tried to run apk's tool before...wouldnt work before, but il try again
> Im a clean freak, so its probably worth the effort lol.
> ...



This time try the one in the TOP utilities folder not the bottom folder.


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## ex_reven (Apr 28, 2007)

lol i know, thats the one i ran last time haha, i couldnt get the program to initialise...im not stupid enough to think that a registry key is a program


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## Namslas90 (Apr 28, 2007)

ex_reven said:


> lol i know, thats the one i ran last time haha, i couldnt get the program to initialise...im not stupid enough to think that a registry key is a program



Didn't mean to imply anything, just noticed once when I was in a hurry i downloaded the wrong one.


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## ex_reven (Apr 28, 2007)

Thats ok lol

I redownloaded it and i got it working !
I must have missed one of the dlls or reg files last time when i had to copy them.
I remember copying them to those folders (they were still there in fact, because windows prompted me to overwrite the files)...so im guessing i must have missed one little file...oh well

What exactly can i do with APK tools that i cant with the typical WIndows stuff like services.msc, msconfig etc?


----------



## Wile E (Apr 28, 2007)

ex_reven said:


> What exactly can i do with APK tools that i cant with the typical WIndows stuff like services.msc, msconfig etc?


Find unused/useless reg keys. Well, you can do that with regedit, but that's a whole lot of manual searching. lol


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## Namslas90 (Apr 28, 2007)

ex_reven said:


> Thats ok lol
> 
> I redownloaded it and i got it working !
> I must have missed one of the dlls or reg files last time when i had to copy them.
> ...



Run it, click analyze, it'll run for about 20-30 minutes and test every registry link to ensure it is working and needed. If not it'll show up on the screen.  When it's done r-clk delete. (you can also back up registry first) Windows won't delete registry entries like AOL etc, they want u to use them.


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## Namslas90 (Apr 28, 2007)

did you dwnload APK TOOLS or APK Registry Cleaner Engine 2000 +


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## ex_reven (Apr 28, 2007)

Wile E said:


> Find unused/useless reg keys. Well, you can do that with regedit, but that's a whole lot of manual searching. lol



Ah i use Abexo Free Registry Cleaner for that, oh well



> Message to Namslas


Cool, i started scanning about 10 mins ago, so it just finished ...
Thanks for the heads up, il play around a bit with it


----------



## deyamag (Jul 28, 2007)

Really, thank U very much 4 Ol.


----------



## AsRock (Nov 19, 2007)

Good Job Death Star,


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## hat (Dec 2, 2007)

Got a quick question here. When tweaking the amount of L2 cache...
What if I have a dual-core CPU and I have 2MB total of cache (2x1024)? Do I tell it 1024, 2048, or what?


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## hat (Dec 2, 2007)

anyone?


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## Athlon2K15 (Dec 2, 2007)

you need to put 400 in the box in registry editor


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## Laurijan (Dec 2, 2007)

You should add something about page file optimization as well


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## hat (Dec 2, 2007)

The only thing that can be done to optomize the page file is make sure it's not on the system drive, as far as I know.


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## Laurijan (Dec 2, 2007)

What about its optimal size and what about making min and max value the same to prevent its fragmentation.


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## trog100 (Dec 2, 2007)

i always make mine a minimum size just to save disk space.. but assuming u have enough real ram windows wont use its fake hardrive memory.. why the hell should it.. 

once u turn out of the real stuff windows will use its pagefile.sys.. when it does your machine will grind to a halt..

years ago windows really had to use its pretend ram.. but years ago windows had to run on 32 megs of the real stuff..  most of what u read is way out of date.. just ignore it.. 

trog


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## Wile E (Dec 3, 2007)

trog100 said:


> i always make mine a minimum size just to save disk space.. but assuming u have enough real ram windows wont use its fake hardrive memory.. why the hell should it..
> 
> once u turn out of the real stuff windows will use its pagefile.sys.. when it does your machine will grind to a halt..
> 
> ...


That's not entirely true. Some programs require you to have a pagefile, or else they just won't run correctly.


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## Athlon2K15 (Dec 3, 2007)

like photoshop,lol


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## Wile E (Dec 3, 2007)

AthlonX2 said:


> like photoshop,lol


Yep. lol.


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## piebobs71 (Feb 18, 2008)

GIGGLA said:


> Here is a pretty good guide 175 pages I implemented the recommended tweaks and shaved at least 10-15 seconds off my boot time and my system shuts down in 4 seconds-   http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html




i downloaded the pdf but i read on this site somewhere the other night about certain pages to read which would be most beneficial but i cant find the thread now anybody know which one it is?


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## AsRock (Feb 18, 2008)

piebobs71 said:


> i downloaded the pdf but i read on this site somewhere the other night about certain pages to read which would be most beneficial but i cant find the thread now anybody know which one it is?



It pretty much depends on the programs you use.  A fixed one some programs still may crash the best way i found over the time is to have a separate 6-10GIG partition on your hard drive which 10GIG would be plenty.  You could try using Rivatuner and running your highest usage apps and see how much that says your taking and add a little extra for just in case.

By putting the pagefile on it's own partition you should not see any fragmentation at all IF you did all you would have to do is to turn off the page file reboot and sure the pagefile has been deleted ( Hidden file at root of drive ) and delete it empty recycle bin and make a new one then reboot.


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## deyamag (Apr 10, 2008)

Thank you very much, good effort.


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## Atom_Anti (Apr 30, 2008)

Does someone already wrote a good nLite guide?

I would need one, because I cannot make any good Windows XP with it.


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## AsRock (Apr 30, 2008)

Atom_Anti said:


> Does someone already wrote a good nLite guide?
> 
> I would need one, because I cannot make any good Windows XP with it.



Here ya go.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=46004&highlight=nlite+guide

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=19914&highlight=nlite+guide


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## eidairaman1 (May 11, 2008)

nice little tweak guide


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## MrHydes (Jun 7, 2008)

nice thread


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## KBD (Jun 20, 2008)

Very nice guide! 

It needs to be modified a bit though: Jimmy2004 is right, do not disable the Task Scheduler service as it will turn off prefetching and slow things down. Distributed Link Tracking Client should be switched to Manual if using NTFS.

There are also other services that can be disabled as well in addition to whats mentioned in the guide, i have them turned off on my PC, read the description and see if you actually  need them:

Alerter Service
ClipBook Service
Messenger Service
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing Service
Network DDE Service
Network DDE DSDM Service
Network Location Awareness (NLA) Service (turn this off if you have Firewall/ICS service disabled)
NT LM Security Support Provider Service
Portable Media Serial Number Service
Routing and Remote Access Service
Server Service
SSDP Discovery Service
Telnet
Terminal Services Service

Also, i left IPSEC Services Service on Manual but i read it could be disabled.


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## Cooldog (Apr 18, 2009)

Death Star said:


> *Security**Center*
> This is that annoying little program that installs with service pack 2 that tells you that you don’t have antivirus protection, a firewall or if you don’t have automatic updates turned on. It doesn’t really help out at all.​


Iv Learned that there is a reason for it, if you happen to get a virus that turns off The protection that you use, it will warn you that its not on. (For people who never check to see if its on).
So if you turn *Security** Center* off, and don't ever look to see if you're protection is on, and you get a virus that turns the protection off, it could do serious damage the further it gets.

I know that this is old, but it does seam like an Imported thing for people to know.


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## King Wookie (Apr 18, 2009)

Handy info. 

Thx to all who contributed.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 18, 2009)

Cooldog said:


> Iv Learned that there is a reason for it, if you happen to get a virus that turns off The protection that you use, it will warn you that its not on. (For people who never check to see if its on).
> So if you turn *Security** Center* off, and don't ever look to see if you're protection is on, and you get a virus that turns the protection off, it could do serious damage the further it gets.
> 
> I know that this is old, but it does seam like an Imported thing for people to know.



that capability was designed for drastic times before better AVs (Non Norton or McAfee) came about and before majority had Routers or even Broadband internet and MS never really updated it so its worthless.


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## Cooldog (Apr 18, 2009)

eidairaman1 said:


> that capability was designed for drastic times before better AVs (Non Norton or McAfee) came about and before majority had Routers or even Broadband internet and MS never really updated it so its worthless.



Not for me, because idk how, virus are always popping up on this comp (I bet its from someone else on this network), and it does help for me to get an early knowing of it. Stupid virus always killing my protection. :|


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## Wile E (Apr 18, 2009)

Cooldog said:


> Not for me, because idk how, virus are always popping up on this comp (I bet its from someone else on this network), and it does help for me to get an early knowing of it. Stupid virus always killing my protection. :|



Get a better antivirus. Use Kaspersky or NOD32, and you won't have that problem. Things like AVG don't cut it these days.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 18, 2009)

Cooldog said:


> Not for me, because idk how, virus are always popping up on this comp (I bet its from someone else on this network), and it does help for me to get an early knowing of it. Stupid virus always killing my protection. :|



Your computer was probably infected before you got updates to it even your AV installed, There are more than just Virus out there, Trojans, Worms, Grayware, Malware, Virus are easy to get rid of, Worms are not.


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## Cooldog (Apr 18, 2009)

Wile E said:


> Get a better antivirus. Use Kaspersky or NOD32, and you won't have that problem. Things like AVG don't cut it these days.



I have Nod32.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 18, 2009)

Cooldog said:


> I have Nod32.



Same here and i dont have the problems your experiencing, Only reason i still have it is the AV protected my Brothers Unpatched machine and denied quite a few attacks when he was on Dialup.


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## Sir_Real (Apr 18, 2009)

I remember reading somewhere something about turning off windows logging to decrease ram usage & increase performance. Theres an official microsoft prog to do just this.

I installed it, run it & removed all ticks ! Don't seem to have effected anything & as for performance i think it helped push up my 3dmark 06 score. By a tiny bit anyway.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 19, 2009)

any way of reversing the affects if you discover a Problem, because Logging applies to the OS partition aswell, its a Journal based System.


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## Sir_Real (Apr 19, 2009)

Ye run the prog & put the ticks back


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## Wile E (Apr 19, 2009)

Cooldog said:


> I have Nod32.



If NOD32 is getting disabled, the problem lies elsewhere I'm willing to wager.


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## FryingWeesel (Apr 19, 2009)

eidairaman1 said:


> (Non Norton or McAfee)



a little note for you, norton 2k8 and older are SHIT, but by all reviews and reports 2009 is great, im using the corp(symantec endpoint protection) version and its fully replaced my need for any other AV apps.

the fact is that the worst AV's currently on the market in wide use are AVG and mcafee, (mcafee is free from many isp's like crapcast) 

as a backup manual scaner i recomend people try clamwin and/or moon secure(based on cameav core) they are free and opensorce and have a good rep.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 19, 2009)

I stopped using Norton along time ago and Never Have looked back.


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## FryingWeesel (Apr 19, 2009)

eidairaman1 said:


> I stopped using Norton along time ago and Never Have looked back.



so had I, but never ASSume that an app that sucked in the past cant be great today, As a tech of some years experiance(over 12 years) I have seen apps go from great to CRAP and from CRAP to GREAT.

and in the case of norton, from great to crap to utter crap, to total and utter crap, and now its back to being great!!!!

WileE and a couple others convinced me to look into norton/symentec SEP (2k9/sep11) after looking at 10+ reviews, I decided to try it, honestly was SHOCKED it even runs on crappy OLD systems without having any noticed performance impact!!!

it uses less memory then nod32, kaspersky or any other AV i have tested in the past 5 years, honestly the change is SHOCKING.



Wile E said:


> That's not entirely true. Some programs require you to have a pagefile, or else they just won't run correctly.



photoshop, and a STACK of other apps wont run or wont run correctly without page file, i keep telling people that, hell i got games that wont run or run VERY POORLY without page file, even on 6-8gb system ram....sucks.


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## Wile E (Apr 19, 2009)

eidairaman1 said:


> I stopped using Norton along time ago and Never Have looked back.



09 is actually better than both Nod32 and Kaspersky. They rewrote it from the ground up, and did it right this time. I expect it to be bloated crapware again in 3 years or so. lol.


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## FryingWeesel (Apr 19, 2009)

yeah, they wont update it they will just pile more SHIT ontop of it till it crumbles like happened in the past :/


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## NeotonicDragon3 (May 1, 2009)

When i got tired of free programs really screwing up my computers. Avast, and AVG didnt do anything. it gave me false alerts, and it killed my old Gateway.. ughh
i will never use AVG or Avast again. it never protected my computers!!

So i began using NOD32 in 2006 and refreshed the trial untill 2008. then i bought it.. now i am at V4.


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