Lesson 1: The basics

In this lesson we’ll look at a couple of simple and relatively quick things you can
do to speed up your computer.

In this course, we’ll zero in on some key ways you can make your PC run faster.
Really. When you first take a new PC out of the box, Windows comes with many
“default settings” that can significantly slow down your system. Fortunately there
are many ways you can adjust those settings to get more performance out of
your machine. Sometimes you’ll have to strike a balance between speed and
looks, but in most cases there’s no tradeoff — you simply need to change the
way Windows works with your hardware and software.

Of course, making adjustments in Windows can be intimidating. But that’s why you’re
here. We’ll try to make this a simple, step-by-step process that anyone can do.

ALERT:
This course only offers recommendations for speeding up the
performance of your Windows XP PC. Before you do any
troubleshooting or changing to your PC settings, we recommend
that you do a full back-up of all your files.

Memory boost

To start off, the single most important thing you can do to increase your
computer’s speed is to add RAM--random access memory. It’s also the one thing
in this course that will cost you money (but it’s worth it).

Think of your hard drive as a big box full of puzzles and games, and your RAM is
like a table where you can assemble puzzles and play games. The bigger the
table, the more puzzles and games you can play with at once. Conversely, when
you have a small table (limited memory), your hard disk is forced to serve as an
“artificial table” (or virtual memory). This fake memory trick works fine, but it
causes the computer to slow way down. So it’s far better to have enough RAM so
that your PC isn’t forced to use its hard drive for virtual memory.

The price of memory has dropped dramatically in the last few years, making an
upgrade an inexpensive way to get a big boost in performance.Adding or
replacing RAM is relatively simple to do: You simply plug some chips into sockets
on your computer’s motherboard.

The challenge, however, is getting the correct memory module for your PC. Just
about every computer is different. Some are already equipped with plenty of
memory, while others have very little. And there are a lot of different types of
memory, so you need to be sure to get the exact right module for your system.

A good reference on this topic can be found at CNET Labs’ guide to buying
RAM. This guide explains what RAM is and how to install it. There’s also an
online tool called a memory configurator that tells you exactly what kind of
memory your computer make and model uses.

Cut the graphics

Whether or not you choose to add memory, another easy way to speed up
Windows XP is to change your graphics settings. The more gratuitous effects you
use, the slower your computer will work. So let’s reduce or eliminate them.

If you’ve used other versions of Windows, you know that XP has a very different
look. Unfortunately, that look comes at the expense of some speed because it
uses more graphics. So if you don’t mind a simpler, no-nonsense interface, dump
it and reclaim the power.

Here’s how:

 Go to Control Panel and choose Display (you may have to click

Appearance and Themes first).
 On the Themes tab, change your current theme to Windows Classic,
which uses fewer resources than the new look does. You can then click
the Appearance tab and change that look to suit yourself.

We’re not finished. Windows also uses its graphics power to provide all sorts of
special effects — menus that fade, shadows under the mouse cursor, and so on.
All of these effects sap performance. So:

 Go into Control Panel and choose System (you may have to click
Performance and Maintenance first).
 Click the Advanced tab.
 In the Performance box, click Settings.
 You can now select Adjust for best performance, or you can choose
Custom and play around with the settings. The more you uncheck, the
less work your computer will have to do.

Browse files faster

Finally, a useful change to speed up your file browsing. When you open a folder
or run Windows Explorer, Windows will automatically search your network for
folders and printers you might want to access. That takes time, and is especially
annoying if you don’t need to access one at the time.
So let’s tell Windows not to search for them unless you ask it to. Here’s how:

 Open My Computer.
 Click the Tools menu.
 Choose Folder Options.
 Click the View tab.
 Uncheck “Automatically search for network folders and printers.”
 Click OK.

The next time you reboot your computer, browsing your folders should be a little
faster.
We’ll make them faster still in the next lesson, when we do some spring cleaning
of your hard drive.

Lesson 2: Clean your drive

In this lesson you’ll learn how to clean up the data on your hard drive to make
accessing files faster.

Hard disks run faster and more consistently when not completely filled. Having a
large block of unused disk space is essential for both speed and stability. So it’s
useful to look through your hard disk and remove files that you no longer need
(and you’ll probably be surprised how many there are!).

Before you begin, check how much space you currently have on your hard drive.
To do this, open up My Computer, right-click on your hard disk’s icon, choose
Properties, and then make a note of how many gigabytes or megabytes of free
space you have.

Now go through your My Documents folder. Delete what you don’t need, or if
there’s stuff you want “just in case,” consider storing it on a CD, DVD, or second
hard drive so your main drive doesn’t have to wade through it.

Eliminate extra software

That done, continue your cleanup by getting rid of any software you don’t use.
Go to your Control Panel and select “Add or Remove Programs.”

A list of your installed software will appear. Scroll through it and remove anything
you don’t use anymore. (Some programs might have been preinstalled on your
computer when you bought it.)
 ALERT:
Once you remove a program, the change is permanent--so if you’re
not sure about whether you’ll need a particular program, do not
remove it!

Next, click the big button on the left labeled “Add/Remove Windows
Components.” This lists XP components that were automatically installed with
Windows. Remove whatever components you don’t need.

Eliminate fonts

If you’re feeling up to it, clean out your fonts. Create a folder (maybe within My
Documents) called “Unused Fonts.” Then use Windows Explorer to go to your C:\
WINDOWS\FONTS folder, and drag any fonts you never use into that Unused
Fonts folder. (You can double-click a font to see what it looks like.) Just moving
those fonts will speed up some applications.

Clean your disk

Finally, let Windows find some more unused gunk.

 From My Computer, right-click on your hard drive.

 Choose Properties.
 Click “Disk Cleanup.”

It will take a few moments to scan your disk for files you can delete. When it’s
done, click OK and then Yes (you do want to perform those actions).

Even though you may have uninstalled some programs, many of them leave
“residue” in the Windows Registry, which Windows uses to store just about
everything about your system. We’ll work with that in a future lesson.

Clean the Registry

For now, let’s just clean out anything that doesn’t belong. There are a lot of
Registry cleaners out there, and my favorite--because it’s (a) easy to use and (b)
free--is EasyCleaner.

 Download and install it. When you start the program, you’ll get a grid of 16
things from which to choose.
 Click the Registry button.
 Click the Find button on the bottom. EasyCleaner will search your Registry
for the leftovers of old programs and other detritus. This could take several
minutes.
 When it’s done, click the Delete All button. (You can’t click it till it’s
finished.)
  Click Yes to confirm you really want to delete the bad entries.

That’s it! Click Close and let’s move on.

Time to defrag

With all that cleaned out, it’s time to defragment your hard drive.

When your computer stores files on your drive, it puts files in whatever empty
space is available. The result is that over time individual files are actually split up
and stored in several places on the drive. (Imagine a library where the different
chapters of a book are on different shelves.)

Defragmenting--often referred to as simply “defragging”--puts those pieces

together so your computer spends less time accessing files.

The procedure is simple:

 First, shut down any running programs. Then disable your screen saver
through your Control Panel by choosing Display (you may have to click
Appearance and Themes first).
 That done, go to My Computer and right-click on your hard drive.
 Choose Properties, then click the Tools tab.
 There you’ll see “Defragment Now.” Click on it and then let the computer
complete the process without any disturbance. This can take anywhere from
minutes to hours, depending on the size of your drive and the level of
fragmentation.

ALERT:
During the defragging process, the PC cannot be used for anything
else, and you should be especially careful not to accidentally turn it off.
It’s essential that this procedure run its course without interference, or
data loss could occur.

When you’re all done, check to see how much free space your drive now has (go
to My Computer, right-click on the drive, and choose Properties). Hopefully you’ll
see a difference.
Lesson 3: Get more out of your hardware

In this lesson you’ll get into some of the deeper parts of your computer to change
the way Windows works with your hard drive.

One of the slowest things about your machine is your hard drive. It takes a
computer forever (comparatively) to read the disk and write things to it. So it
makes sense that anything you can do to speed up your drive will also speed up
your computer.

In this lesson, we’ll cover two permanent changes you can make that affect how
Windows works with your hard drive. The first upgrades your file system — the
way Windows stores information on your drive. The second speeds up how
Windows moves that information from place to place.

It’s possible your computer is already set the right way. Let’s find out.

The file system is how Windows stores your files on your hard drive, and it’s akin
to the way a library arranges books on a shelf. Older versions of Windows used a
file system called FAT32 (File Allocation Table, if you must know). Newer
versions use one called NTFS (New Technology File System).

NTFS has several benefits. Most importantly, files don’t get fragmented as much,
so you won’t have to defrag as often (see Lesson 2 for instructions on how to
defrag).

You can’t tell which way your drive is set up just by using it. But to get the most
out of your machine, you’ll want to make sure that you’re using NTFS.

Losing FAT

First, check to see if you’re already using it. Go to My Computer, then right-click
on your hard drive and choose Properties. On the window that appears, you’ll
see either “File system: FAT32″ or “File system: NTFS.”

If it’s FAT32, you should convert it. Here’s how:

 Shut down any running programs.

 Click Start, then choose Run.
 In the box, enter cmd, which will bring up a black command-line window.
You’ll see a prompt that says something like “C:\WINDOWS” with a
blinking cursor. (If you’ve ever used DOS, you’ll recognize this.)
 Enter the following: convert c: /fs:ntfs (If your hard drive isn’t drive C:,
substitute the correct letter, and don’t forget the space between the colon
and the slash.)
  When you press Enter, you’ll probably see a message saying the
conversion will take place next time you start Windows. So click Start,
choose Shut Down, and choose Restart. Windows will convert your drive--
and it will also reboot your computer twice.

Hook into DMA

Next, let’s make sure your computer is transferring data efficiently by using a
technology called DMA (direct memory access).

 Go to your Control Panel and double-click System, then choose the

Hardware tab. Click Device Manager. This will bring up a list of every type
of hardware your computer has, from “Computer” to “Disk Drives” to
“Monitors,” and more.
 Click the plus sign next to “IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers.”
 Double-click “Primary IDE Channel.” (If you have two of them, don’t worry.
Just repeat this procedure.)
 Click the Advanced Settings tab. You’ll probably see two devices listed (0
and 1).
 For each one, click the drop-down arrow next to Transfer Mode and
choose “DMA if available.” Then click OK. (If you have another Primary
IDE Channel, repeat this procedure.)
 Close Device Manager and reboot your computer.

Congratulations! You’ve just made two simple changes that most people have
never heard of, that will add a bit more speed and stability to your system.
Lesson 4: Reduce start-up programs

In this lesson, you’ll prevent Windows from automatically running programs you
don’t need.

You may be working in a program and wondering why it runs so slow —

especially if you don’t have any other programs open. The problem is that when
Windows boots up, a lot of programs are automatically loaded to run “in the
background” where you can’t see. Of course, some of these are quite valuable
(virus protection for instance), but many are useless and simply eating up your
system resources for no reason.

Seek and destroy

Here’s how to get rid of these unnecessary start-up programs:

The first and easiest way to seek and destroy unnecessary start-up programs is
to look in your Startup folder.

 Click Start, then choose All Programs or Programs (depending on your

setup).
 Find the Startup folder on the list and hover your mouse over it.
 The list of programs that automatically start will appear. Check this list,
and if you see something you don’t want or need to start automatically —
such as some Microsoft Office task — right-click it and choose Delete.

Repeat as necessary.

Stop automatic starts

Now let’s go a little deeper. Remember EasyCleaner from Lesson 2 ? It has

another useful function besides cleaning the Registry: It can tell you what
programs start automatically and let you stop them. Here’s how:

 Start the program and click the Startup button.

 You’ll see a list of all the programs that start automatically with Windows.
Most of these should start: your anti-virus
program, a Windows program called HDAShCut, maybe a driver or two.
But some things just waste resources.
 Most notorious for loading themselves are media players such as
Quicktime and RealPlayer. There’s no need for them to be loaded until
you need them. If you see things like that which don’t belong, select them
and click the Delete button. When you’re done, click Close and close
EasyCleaner.
Deep cleaning

That done, let’s go even deeper. Besides programs that run automatically when
you start up, Windows also launches services — internal software that does
important things, such as making your network run, managing users, and a host
of other things.

But there are some services you just don’t need; running them is a waste of
resources.

 To get to the list of services, click Start, then Run.

 Enter services.msc in the box. The screen that pops up is a bit
intimidating at first, but it’s actually pretty straightforward. It lists every
service on your machine and tells you whether it starts automatically or
manually, among other things.
 Click the Extended tab on the bottom, which will create a space that will
give you a description of each service.
 Now click on the words “Startup Type” at the top of that column, which will sort
the services. The ones that say “Automatic” are — obviously — the ones that start
when Windows does. They’re the only ones you care about.

ALERT:
Some services are critical for your computer to run. So don’t disable anything
that’s not on the list below unless you’re absolutely sure that it’s an expendable
item.

The following lists services you can probably do without. Of course, if you
recognize one that you use such as Windows Messenger or Telnet, don’t turn it
off.

Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Error Reporting Service (if you don’t want to be asked to send error reports to
Microsoft anymore)
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Access Devices
IPSEC Services
Messenger
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry
Routing & Remote Access
Secondary Logon
Server
SSDP Discovery Service
Telnet
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Upload Manager
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Workstation

Pick one from the list and double-click it. You’ll see a drop-down menu next to
“Startup type” that is currently set to Automatic.

Change it to Manual and click OK. This way the service will start only if it’s
needed, not all the time.

Special services

Two services deserve special mention: the indexing service and Windows
themes.

The indexing service’s job is to keep track of every file on your computer, so if
you use Windows’ search function you’ll be able to find things faster. But if you
don’t use search that often, the indexing service is a waste of resources and will
slow you down.

That’s why disabling the indexing service is high on the list of many speed
tweakers. To do that, go back to your list of services (Start, Run, enter
services.msc — see above), scroll down to Indexing Service, and set the Startup
type to “Disabled.”

Finally, if you’re using the Windows Classic theme (we suggested switching to it
in Lesson 1 ), you can free up some memory. Scroll down the list of services to
Themes and set it to “Disabled.”
Lesson 5: Tweaking the Registry and more

In this lesson you’ll get into the nitty-gritty with the Windows Registry–the heart of
the operating system, and a place full of ways to squeeze some more speed from
your computer.

The Registry stores all sorts of information about your system in what are called
“keys.” A key might describe how Windows handles a particular type of file, or
how it manages memory, and many other things. You get into the Registry by
clicking Start, choosing Run, and entering regedit in the box that appears. Then
welcome to the Registry, perhaps the most intimidating part of Windows. Here
you can make all sorts of internal changes to the way Windows operates.

Note:
Changes made to the Registry will not take effect until you restart
Windows.

ALERT:
Be very cautious editing the Windows Registry. Changes made here
can completely disable your computer if they’re done incorrectly. We
recommend that you follow the instructions below very carefully, and
encourage you to back up your data files before proceeding.
Saving your configuration

Before you do anything else, set up a System Restore Point. That tells Windows
to save everything about your current configuration, so if something goes awry
you can tell it to revert back to that point — kind of like a big “undo” button.

To set a Restore Point:

 Click Start and choose either Programs or All Programs.

 Go to Accessories, then System Tools, and choose System Restore.
 On the welcome screen, you’ll be asked whether you want to restore or
create a restore point. Choose Create a Restore Point.
 Name it something you’ll remember, such as “Before CNET Changes.”
 Click Create.
 Now if something doesn’t work, you can repeat these steps and choose
“Restore” instead, to return to the status you just saved.

That done, let’s tweak.

The first things you’ll see are the five main sections of the Registry’s entries.
They have cryptic names: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_CURRENT_USER,
and so on. Next to each of those five sections is a small plus sign. Click that to
view that section’s subsections. Note that you can end up going several levels
deep before getting to the key you want to change. The standard way to point to
a key is to list the various levels separated by slashes. For example, if you see:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / Desktop

it means you should click the plus sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then
the plus sign next to Control Panel, then look for Desktop.

Make your menus load faster

For your first trip to the Registry, we’ll do something simple: Make your menus
work faster.

 Start regedit (see above).

 Navigate to the following key by clicking the plus signs next to the name of
each level:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel
 Click “Desktop.”� A list of entries will appear on the right side.
 Double-click “MenuShowDelay”� and change the Value data to 0.
 Click OK.
Free up memory from closed programs

When you shut down a program, Windows will often keep part of it in memory
even if it’s not being used. Called dynamic link libraries (DLLs), they take up
memory and sometimes cause other problems. You can change a Registry key
to prevent Windows from doing this.

 Start regedit, following the instructions in this lesson.

 Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / Windows /
CurrentVersion
 Under CurrentVersion, right-click on Explorer, then choose New->Key.
 In the box that appears (”New Key #1″), change the name to
AlwaysUnloadDLL.
 Hit Enter. On the right side, double-click the word (Default).
 For the value data, enter 1.
 Click OK.
 Close regedit (unless you want to tweak some more).

Speed program startup

Windows can be set to load information about some applications to make them
start up faster by changing how much work a program called the Prefetcher
does.

 Using regedit (instructions above), navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control /

Session Manager / Memory Management / PrefetchParameters

 When you click PrefetchParameters, the right side of the editor will display
a list of entries.
 Double-click “Enable Prefetcher” and change the value data to 5 (in
decimal, not hexadecimal).
 Click OK.
 Close regedit.

Reduce Windows’ workload

If you have many folders and subfolders, every time you access one, Windows
will spend a lot of time updating the “last accessed” time for that folder and all its
sub-folders. Stopping that process will buy you some time.

 Using regedit (see instructions above), navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / System / CurrentControlSet / Control
 Under Control, right-click on FileSystem, then choose New, then DWORD
Value.
  Replace “New Value #1″ with NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and hit
Enter.
 Double-click NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and change the Value data to
1.
 Click OK.

Improve Swapfile performance

many programs use a lot of memory, and if you run more than one or two at
once, Windows might run out of RAM. In that case, it will start using a section of
your hard disk called the “swapfile” to store information. It’s a lot slower than
RAM, but it beats not being able to run a program. But sometimes Windows uses
the swapfile before it has to. This tweak will tell it to wait till the last moment
before doing that.

 Click Start, then Run.

 Enter msconfig in the box.
 Click on the System.ini tab.
 Click the plus sign next to 386enh.
 Click New, then type “ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1″ in the box that
appears.
 Click OK.

LESSON ASSIGNMENT:

Answer the following question(s):

 Set a system restore point on your computer.

 Run regedit and navigate to one of the keys mentioned in the lesson. If
you're ready, change one or more of the keys as described.
Lesson 6: Improve your Internet browsing

In this lesson you’ll learn a couple of tricks to make your broadband

connection work more efficiently with Windows.

First, you might want to test your current connection speed. A good tool to do this
is the CNET Bandwidth Meter speed test. Run the test a few times to get a
better idea of your average bandwidth speed, then check again after you’ve
made these changes to see whether your connection speed improves.

Stop QoS

First, let’s get rid of a system that’s supposed to make sure your network is
working, but in reality isn’t helpful and can eat up to 20 percent of your
bandwidth. It’s called QoS, for Quality of Service, and here’s how you stop it.

If you have Windows XP Professional, follow these instructions to disable

QoS:

 Click Start, then Run.

 Enter gpedit.msc in the box.
 Under “Local Computer Policy,” click the plus sign next to “Computer
Configuration,” then the one next to “Administrative Templates.”
 Click the plus sign next to “Network” and select “QoS Packet Scheduler.”
 In the right-hand box, double-click on “Limit Reservable Bandwidth.”
 On the Settings tab, choose Enabled.
 In the “Bandwidth Limit %” box, set it to 0%. (Do not leave it blank.)
 Click OK.

If you have Windows Home Edition, follow these instructions to disable

QoS:

 Click Start and then the “Settings” option.

 Select the Control Panel, and open up “Network Connections”
 Right-click “Local Area Connection”and choose Properties.
 On the General tab, uncheck QoS.

Network settings

Now let’s change some other networking settings.

Out of the box, Windows networking comes configured for a generic user with a
generic connection. It has no idea what kind of Internet connection you have —
whether you’re using dialup or DSL or a cable modem. Because of that, its
network settings are also generic.

It’s helpful to tailor these settings to your connection. The easiest way to do this
is to use a (free) software program that will do it for you.

There are several programs that will let you manage those changes. Some
require you to enter values in boxes; they then edit the Registry for you. But a
much easier-to-use one is TCP Optimizer from Speed Guide, a Web site
dedicated to broadband issues.

The nice thing about TCP Optimizer is that you only have to use a slider to
indicate your connection speed, tell it how you connect, and click on the Optimize
button. When you reboot, your connection should be noticeably faster (and you
can always go back to Speakeasy.net to check it).

The measures we’ve covered in this course will help speed your computer, but
they’re only the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of small tweaks you can
make, and the only limitation is how deep you’re willing to delve into your system.

A number of Web sites are dedicated to helping people squeeze every last drop
of speed from their machines. Searching for “speed up Windows XP” or
“Windows XP speed tweaks” will help you find some.

In particular, check out the System Performance section of TweakXP.com , and

the Broadband/Registry Tweaks section of Speed Guide — both have some
excellent suggestions with detailed instructions, along with a community of
people you can ask for help.

LESSON ASSIGNMENT:

Answer the following question(s):

 Make the tweaks described here and test your connection again. Did you
find a difference?