10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows XP
Update: If you are using Windows Vista then check out 10 Simple Ways To SpeedUp Windows Vista. If are feeling more adventurous I have also posted 10 Intermediate Ways To Speed Up Windows and also More Ways to Speed Up Windows XP
I’ve just finished setting up a new PC for a friend and I think some of you will be interested in some of the tweaks I make to all of my PCs to make them quicker. I’ve focused here on the ones which are simple to do and won’t cause problems if you get it wrong, rather than listing registry tweaks etc.
1. Disable Indexing Services
Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. If you don’t search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service is completely unnecessary. To disable do the following:
- Go to Start
- Click Settings
- Click Control Panel
- Double-click Add/Remove Programs
- Click the Add/Remove Window Components
- Uncheck the Indexing services
- Click Next
2. Optimise Display Settings
Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimise:
- Go to Start
- Click Settings
- Click Control Panel
- Click System
- Click Advanced tab
- In the Performance tab click Settings
- Leave only the following ticked:
- Show shadows under menus
- Show shadows under mouse pointer
- Show translucent selection rectangle
- Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
- Use visual styles on windows and buttons
3. Speedup Folder Browsing
You may have noticed that everytime you open my computer to browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing significantly:
- Open My Computer
- Click on Tools menu
- Click on Folder Options
- Click on the View tab.
- Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
- Click Apply
- Click Ok
- Reboot your computer
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Nice tips. I’m currently using just 3 methods out of your 10 and my computer is a lot faster. Many thanks!
Hmmn, those are some very useful tips. You might also wanna check this out. There are quite a few very interesting posts especially the one on how to increase your internet speed.Â
Gotta love windows XP over vista.
Windows XP is very fast anyway but it does need 756MB to 1GB of ram to start flying and any of these tweeks can go out the window. If you browse the internet Firefox is a must becuase multiple Tabs in IE start to make the PC crawl. If you play some computer games like BF2 and want increase load times more 2GB really speed the loading times up. Sorted.
Going back to what Nicholas said along time ago…
“I’m confused about number seven. Do you increase the initial size to match the maximum size or vice versa? I just want to make sure I’m doing this right.”
I understand that you want to make sure the numbers are the same as someone replied, but could somebody please clarify which number you change? For example, I had an initial size of 768 and a max size of 1536. Do I make both of them 1536 or both of them 768?
Thanks!
Great tips. I thought I was pretty knowledgable in the PC field, but this is quite detailed and very useful advice on speeding up slow PCs.
Good post.
But i have upgraded to windows vista :p
I’m still using Pentium 3 pc and this tricks helps me a lot. Thank you.