Windows XP Tips and Tricks: Speed UP Your XP

What Service to Disable and what not to disable?

2009-06-27T04:23:00.002+05:30

In our previous posts we have told you how to disable process and services from starting up and taking unnecessary resources. But you have to do this carefully, cause in case, if you disable some important service of the computer, there will be one of the days when you bang your head in frustration that some things are not working and you will not have a damn clue about it!

So to save you from this situation and also to save ourselves from a lots of curses, we give you all the needed information about which services and which process to disable. 1st of all we will tell you about the various services. And after reading this carefully, you will know if you need them or not. But 1st if don't know about services, Just see this article.
Now lets see what to disable or not.

Alerter: If you don't have a network connection, i.e. if your computer is not joined with network cables or otherwise with another computer like in a Cyber Cafe, You DO NOT need this service, cause the alert is for some changes in the network. So you do not need it and could disable it.

Automatic Updates: This is a kind of a hidden curse kind of a thing. If you are using a limited data transfer based internet connection, this will surely help you to lighten your pockets. This sometimes runs without the notice of the user and draws some bandwidth, and also before you know it, you have lost some valuable MB of data. But in the contrary, from the name of it, it updates your XP, keeps it up-to-date. But a very cautious word to those, who use Pirated XP and have internet connection. Be sure to disable it cause if you don't,after downloading and installing the "Genuine Advantage Validation" Update, the Pirated XP tag will haunt you down and it will be really embarrasing to show of your computer to your friends, unless they also have have the same tagg slapped to their PC.

Computer Browser: Now again, If you are not using a networked compter you don't need this also. So simply Disable it.

Cryptographic Services: Set this to manual if you are not sure you need it.

DNS Client: This service resolves the DNS of the computer. This is also a network based service. But it is also used for internet connection. So don't disable it. Jus set it to manual so it will run only when it is needed.

Error Reporting Service: Ok, now have you seen a program getting non-responsive, and the a window came giving 2 options, "Send", and "Don't send" and thats when if you have people peeking behind you will say, "Don't send". And you click the "Don't send" button. So here microsoft created an error reporting service solve your problems but believe me. They don't. It's an useless service and if you click on "Send" button, and if you expect some solution to that definite problem, you are asking Sun to come out of the west! So better disable it.

Fast User Switching Compatibility: Disable it if you have only a single user on your computer, or if you do not use fast user switching feature much. That is, if you completely log-off and then allow other users to use your computer, then you do not need this. Note that this service is completely useless for low memory computers. And if you don't even know what 'User' means here, then you definately need to Disable it.

FTP Publishing: Disable this if you do not use FTP.

Help and Support: If you need any help, just come here or e mail us, or call someone who knows all this. Don't waste your RAM's resources to run a program for "Help and Support". So disable it.

Indexing Service: This indexes all your hard drives files, so when you search for a certain file or folder using the search feature, it shows the results very quickly. But also it continuously runs on background to track all your files and data. So uses a greater part of CPU. So you can disable it.

Net Logon: Disable this feature also if you are not on a network.

NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing: Disable this if you do not use Remote Desktop feature. If you don't know what it is, then disable it anyways.

Network Provisioning Service: Disable this, it’s also useless if you are not on a network.

NT LM Security Support Provider: Disable this, its useless too.

Office Source Engine: This is for MS Office feature. If you have MS office this is for recovering sudden crash in MS office. Disable this if you have the MS office setup file.

Print Spooler: Disable it if you don’t have a printer.

Remote Desktop Help Session Manager:Disable this anyways. Cause you will not get any support and help from Microsoft any ways.

Remote Registry: This is a SERIOUS sequrity thread turned on in every XP by default. So turn it off NOW.

Security Center: This is a really useless feature. They will always show you some faults on your computer. Its better stay disabled.

Server: Set it to manual or disable it if you are not on network.

Smart Card: Disable it. Seriously if you use smart card for your computer, you must be my long lost great great Grandfather!

Telnet: Set it to manual if you use this feature, otherwise disable it, especially if you are home users.

Terminal Services: If you aren't using remote desktop. Disable this one also.

Uninterrupted Power Supply: If you don't have an UPS attached to the serial port, disable it. If you don't know what I was talkng about, Serial port is the port where you stuck your pen drive. If any one of the serial port is attached with the UPS, don't Disable it. Otherwise Disable it. If you still don't know what I am talking about, just leave it alone.

Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS): Disable this if you have another firewall software installed, otherwise let it remain ON for better security.If you don't know what Firewall is, Then leave this alone also.

Wireless Zero Configuration: Disable if not on a wireless network.

WMI Performance Adapters: Disable it, useless service for basic usage.

Workstation: Disable this one againg for you are not on a network.

Now apart from all these services listed above, let all the others stay as they are. Don't even try to change anything other than this. This may harm your computer and may cause a lots of frustration.

Now for the next step, the "Start Up" process. This one we will let you know in the next article. So keep watching. Till then, happy servicing.

Increase System's performance with style::

2008-08-05T15:57:00.006+05:30

Now every one knows that when you disable the flashy themes and effects you'll have a optimized performance. But what if you want your computer to look cool and still want to optimize your performance. In this post we're gonna tell you how to do that.

Just open my computer. Right click on any open space and select properties. Then GoTo advanced tab and Under Performance Box click on Settings button.

Here you'll see several options for your visual styles.

Now disable the following options:

Fade or slide menus into view
Fade or slide ToolTips into view
Fade out menu items after clicking
Show Shadows under menus
Slide open combo boxes
Slide taskbar buttons
Use a background image for each folder type
Use common tasks in folders

These are the most unwanted things. Disabling these effects will hardly change any visual effect but still optimize your machine's performance.

There, now Windows will still look nice and perform faster.

Hope this article helps you. So see ya soon Bye!

Optimize Performance By Managing Services

2008-08-01T00:01:00.003+05:30

So now you know how to optimize your machine's start up. If you haven't, please check it out here.
Now We are going to tell you another way to improve your computer's run time performance. that is, this article will show you how to improve your computer's overall performance.

When your computer is idle, and no window or software is running, and after optimising your Start Up, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to open the Task Manager. Then goto Process tab. Here you'll see a lot of processes running(approx 32). But where do they come from. It's not instructed to run on start up. Then? It's because behind the scene, Windows XP runs some Default Services which typically provide features such as client/server applications, Web servers, database servers, and other server-based applications to users, both locally and across the network.But actually it has become a high security risk and also slows down your machine.

To open the services console, Just goto Control Panel-->Administrative Tools-->Services. The Console will look like this.

You'll have 3 options there. Once you select the service you wish to modify, you have several buttons to turn the service off immediately, drop down choices to disable a service, make it automatic, or make it manual. So choose the service which you want to disable. Then click on Apply and Ok.

You'll see a optimized performance once you're down to below 25 processes. But be careful, Do not Disable any important services. The list of the services which you can Disable will be on the next post.

So see Ya soon. Bye!

Minimize Start Up Time

2008-07-27T23:29:00.013+05:30

So the first thing we are gonna discuss here about is the start up. If your computer needs so much of your valuable time to start up; its time to read this article. It's really very simple to boost your computer's performance and reduce start up time but you should also have to be very careful doing this.

Ok, first let us tell you why your computer is slowing down or why the start up is so slow on your computer. This is because all the softwares you install. Most of them automatically creates a start up entry in the registry so that it can start automatically when windows starts or it can update or do some certain stuff automatically. Apart from the Anti Virus programs, all of the start up entries are mostly useless as they take much useful space of your RAM and much more memory to initialize. Thus slowing down the whole start up process.Sometimes Viruses or Trozans make themselves run while windows starts everytime. Thus they also makes your computer slow. That is why it is important to keep track with your start up options.

Now, we're gonna tell you the method to get your PC up and running. First go to "Start Menu". Then click on "Run". On the Run dialogue box type "msconfig" (without the quotes). It will look like dis...

Then goto the "StartUp" Tab. Here you'll see the list of the programs on your StartUp entry. Now carefully uncheck all the programs except the Anti Virus. Like dis...

Now click on "Apply" then "ok". After that a dialogue box appears telling you to "restart windows" or "exit without restart". You can click on the either one but we recommend "restarting windows" immediately for the changes to take effect. Now you'll surely see a optimised performance of your computer.

Now for a note of caution: There may be some programs which is in the RUN ONCE registry value of the "StartUp" entry. Make sure you doesn't delete those entries because that programs are for some software installations which may require Windows Restart. They then create a value in the Run Once folder to run them after restart. So unchecking them will cause corrupted sofware install. So be careful about this. So you should always check the registry location of the StartUp entry before unchecking it.

So to keep yourself away from this kind of confusion, there is a tool for you that shows the locations of the start up entry in TABS and you also don't have to remember any "Run" commands. It creates a control panel entry from where you can edit your StartUp options. You can even change location of the entry. The tool is called StartUp CPL and it is a free tool.

So to keep your computer fast you have to check your Start Up option regularly, like everytime you install a software. There are more advanced way to minimize your start up time. We'll discuss that on our next post. So keep watching.

So bye for now. See ya soon!

Start Up Booster for Multiple OS

2008-07-27T00:05:00.000+05:30

From the method written in the last article you will see a very much optimized performance of your system. Now if you have more than one operating system read this article. If don't, you may skip this step.

First Goto RUN and write msconfig and press ENTER key. Then Goto BOOT.INI tab. It will look like this.

Now here you'll see a text like this
[boot loader]
timeout=30
Now change this timeout value to whatever you want. In order to do that change the value in the RED CIRCLED text box. To minimize start up time you must change it to a lower value. And what it does is that, when your computer is booting and if you have more than one operating system you'll have an option to chose from those 2. If you don't press any key before that given time (timeout time) the default selected OS will be loaded.

So if you want the default OS to be loaded every time anyway, you don't have to press any key or don't have to wait for so long if you minimize the timeout.

Hope this article helped you. See ya soon. Bye!

Advanced Method of Optimising Performance:

2008-07-27T00:01:00.003+05:30

If you have seen our previous posts about how to optimize the Start Up in a easier way. Now this article is for advanced user.

There is a component in Windows XP called Prefetcher. This is a part of the Memory Manager of windows which can Speed Up the booting process. At windows Start Up, a huge number of files or programs needs to be loaded into the memory. And it needs to load different parts of each file at a diffirent times. So you can see that windows will spend some time to access those files.

Now here comes the utility of Prefetcher. It watches the code and the data accessed at the time of booting and saves these activities in a folder: c:\windows\prefetch

Now we are gonna tell you how to use this component. Go to RUN and type regedit. It opens the registry editor window. Now you have to be very careful using this. Next Go to the key:>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

Now here you'll see a value named EnablePrefetcher. Now here it can be set with 4 DWORD value. To change the value you have double click on it. Now you'll have 4 options for the value.

By changing the value to '0': You'll disable tha prefetcher. It is totally unwanted.
By changing the value to '1': You'll activate the "Application launch prefetching enabled" option. It will now only monitor your applications but not the booting. If you want slow booting but only application optimisation you can enable this.
By changing the value to '2': You'll activate the "Boot prefetching enabled" option. It will now only monitor the booting process. Doing so it will prevent the prefetcher to optimize the application's performance but it will monitor the booting process.
By changing the valure to '3': You'll activate the "Applaunch and Boot enabled" option. By the name of it you can understand what it does. It does the both thing. And it is may be the default setting on your computer. So it is the optimal option to choose from. So your computer will be optimized in not only the booting process but also with the applications.

Hope this post helped you. See ya soon bye!

Problems And Solutions

2008-07-27T00:01:00.002+05:30

In this section we are going to solve your PC problems. If you have any problems in your computer just drop us a mail at: xp.problemsandsolutions@gmail.com We will be happy to help as soon as possible.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem:
My computer is not booting and when I try to power it on it is giving only BEEPs? What is the problem? Do I need to format the HDD?
by Alex

Solution:
No, You don't need to format; cause anyways, you simply can't! Cause the problem may be in your hardware. Please check your RAM is properly connected with your MotherBoard or not. It will be better if you just completely remove the RAM chip and clear the joinning edges with a lint free cloth and then reconnect it. Then unplug your Keyboard and plug it properly again. It will solve your problem. If not either of your RAM or your Keyboard is damaged OR Your Hard Disk Is fully Damaged.

Tune Up Utilities 2008

2008-07-26T00:02:00.001+05:30

Tune Up Utilities 2008

Tune Up Utilities is the most useful software if you want keep your computer neat and clean in a hassle free way. This Software will help you too Boost Up your computer's performance. This tool helps you to defrag you Hard Disk and registry. Check for registry Errors and solves those. It also speeds Up your Internet connection or changes visual style by your needs. So you Must buy this software to keep your computer well maintained.

Download Free trial

Start Up Control Panel

2008-07-26T00:01:00.003+05:30

StartUp Control Panel

Start Up control panel is a small tool that manages your StartUp options. You can easily access the programs Run in the Start Up entry By this software by Mike Lin. After Extracting the downloaded file just install it. It will then create an icon in your control panel. This will help you managing your start up.

Download it Free

Contact

2008-07-26T00:01:00.001+05:30

We are here to help you with your computer problems. We dedicated this site specially for the people who wants to keep their computer well maintained and fast. So please send in your suggestions and feedback on the email addresses below:

For Queries, feedback and Advertisement purpose contact us at: lazypunk.george@gmail.com
For Problems and Solutions please contact us at: xp.problemsandsolutions@gmail.com