Faster Win-XP Boot up and improve PC performance

Well My experience with Norton and McAfee is same as asish has pointed out. Both makes PC considerably slower and CPU /RAM utilisation shoots up. Even Premium PCs go like a BullockCart.

(Read All posts before proceeding. If needed download whatever software is mentioned and install them. In some cases they need extraction, use winzip. To clear doubt, additional resources web pages are listed. I can also clarify if asked.)

Recently, I tuned up my PC for faster bootup and peformance. I thought it is better to post my experience during that process and .This is certainly going to help computer-savvy/layman alike who are mainly concerned with speedier responses to their mouse clicks and programmes and safety issues while connecting to Internet.Techies have no problems but layman like you and I does have a problem and often call help of some techie friend to do the job

To get a good software one need not pay always. There are many freeware utilities which serve your PC better than umpteen paid professional version. Many time Free version of paid software is enough for our job. In some cases one may need to get Professional Softwares, for better performance.Of course you have to pay for it. Never rely on cracks etc.A person who can crack the software can also make it return your sensitive data to them without your knowledge by the very same programme.

Most of the steps and utilities I have used are freely available and have proven track record and will not cause damage to your computer.

My system configuration
WinXp professional updated till date
CPU AMD64 ( mind you no Dual core as of now)
RAM 2 GB DDR2 PC 2400
HDD 320 GB SATA 16 MB cache. 7200 rpm
HDD 80 GB SATA 16 MB cache. 7200 rpm

Advice before starting on performance tuning.

If you are running Win Xp get 1.5 GB DDR2 RAM.Dual channel is better. You can consult your PC supplier or techie friend for this.If you want to know yourself Go to Control Panel >> System and see details.

Normally while booting up PC Boot sequence looks for places to boot from.
They are Hard Disk, CDROM Floppy Drive, LAN, USB(Removable devices) etc.

If you are always booting from HDD then your bootsequence should be

HDD>>CDROM>>FLOPPY.( LAN is not used for Home users normally)

If your bootup screen searches for CD/DVD drive before booting from HDD the you need to change Boot sequence.This can be done easily by pressing DEL or Delete Button while initial boot up messages appear.
This will give you Many options. Don't touch any of them if you don't know.
To Change the Boot Sequence select BIOS settings and change the First option to HDD or Hard Disk. Second to CDROM and third to Floppy.

Don't do anything else. Press F10 ( function keys marked with F and an integer. F1- F12). Press Y on prompt . System will bootup again.

If you are using only one operating system then you need not wait for 30 second for OS to start. Default is 30 Second. This can be changed and safe option is 5-10 seconds. I use 10 seconds as I have Dual Boot system configured for Linux as well. Normally 5 Second is fine. This gives you option to Press F8 for advanced startup options in case of need for safe booting etc.

To change this You can use msconfig available with all WinXP.
Click Start>> Run and enter msconfig. It will open up a dialog box with tab entries. One of the entries will be boot.ini Click on that.
In the text box change the number to anything between 5-10. Putting 0 will start loading OS immediately.

Continued....

Once done that just exit msconfig. It will ask you to reboot. Close it without reboot. We have plenty of time when it will be done later.

Get a Programme called startup inspector or startup optimiser. Both are good. Run any one of them You will be presented with a detailed list of programmes that start with booting process. They load drivers and dll files .
The programme will indicate if any entries is really required during startup. Normally Adobe Acrobat Reader, Real Player and many programme set themselves up to run automatically during startup. Unckeck all such programme you don't need. They have manual update options which can be used later.

Apply the changes and exit.

Next Get some good registry cleaner software. I use RegCleaner , TweakNow Regcleaner and Ccleaner., in that order.I have found that using all three of them usually does a good job and later I don't find any errors.

In Regcleaner you click Tools>>RegistryCleanup>>Do them All.

In TweakNow Select >>Select All>> ScanNow
Results will give you options and indications of which file entry is safe to delete.

Once both are done, run cCleaner. Here check all boxes for Windows and Applications Tab.

Clcik 'Analyze' and once over click on button named 'Run Cleaner'.

You will find options to clean registry also.

All these programmes create backup files for registry. You can restore the backup from regcleaner ,if needed, as that was run first.

Once done with above steps run registry Defrag.
For this use WIN ASO RegistryDefrag or AUSLogic Registry Defrag.
It will ask you to analyse. For that Close all other programmes that show up in systray at right bottom corner of screen After that click Next. It will prompt you for closing all programmes. As you have done that click next and wait for scan to complete.

Here you will have time to take tea or coffee with light snack.

Once results are displayed check the extent of defragmentation. If it s between 1-2 % you can close the programme. More than that you click for defragmentation of registry.

The Programme will reboot.Wait for its completion and meanwhile finish snadwitches.

If screen goes blank for 8-10 minutes without responding reboot and login. Run the programme again. It will display the final result of defragging.

You have successfully done registry defrag.

Now click on My Computer icon.

Click on the drive that has your Operating system. Right click and in the context menu click on Properties. This will show you a dialog boxes.

If you want you can click disk cleanup not not required as you have done that with cCleaner. Click on Tools Tab and click Check Disk.
Once you have completed your breakfast and check disk its time to look into system tweaks.

Click on Control Panel in the Start Menu. Click on System icon. and In the dialog box click on Advanced Tab.

In the resulting screen click on Setting under Performance heading.

You will get to a page with tab options for Visual Effects, Advanced and Data Execution Protection. Click on Advanced.

Here you will see that three options are available.
Processor Scheduling, Memory Usage and Virtual Memory.

In processor Scheduling check Programme Radio Button. This is because most of us run programmes so CPU is giving more priority to programmes.
In second option also select Programmes.
In third option you can specify the amount of Virtual Memory Windows will use. Many time Windows will use Virtual memory(on the HDD) rather than RAM even though adequate RAM is available. If you need virtual Memory it is better to be placed at the beginning of the drive for easy accesibility.

Here you click Change and specify No Virtual Memory. It will ask for Reboot before settings take effect.

Reboot and Login.

Now open Command Prompt. type CD C:\
It will take you to C: Drive( where your OS is installed. It could be D or E also)
Type Attrib -a -r -s -h pagefile.sys
again go to My Computer>>C: Drive in Explorer window. Open C Drive. You will see a file named pagefile.sys
Delete this file.
You can use Command Prompt also type Del C:\pagefile.sys.


Once done that. Close Command prompt.
Again right click on C : Drive and click on Properties>>Advanced>> Disk Defrag.

This is windows in built dis de-fragmentor. Other programmes are O&O defrag and Ultimate Defrag. For better performance you can use either of them. They are paid versions. I use Ultimate Defrag. With following options.
Consolidate>> In Options >> Respect High Performance>>Put Directories close to MFT.. Defrag .

Now it will be time for other works. and by the time you finish your lunch etc it will have defragged your C drive. (Depending on size of HDD it can take up to 4 hrs) just ensure that power does not go off during this process. Defrag other drives if you have many partitions.


Again go to C Drive and to to Virtual memory options as described earlier. If your RAM is above 1.5 GB keep it zero. If it is less than that enter the size of virtual memory as twice the RAM ( i.e. if 512 then Virtual memory would be 1024 and if 1 GB then it is 2024) Save and reboot.
Once done it is time for some more work

Continued...........

Now you can download a programme called Bootvis. and extract it to c Drive.

Run this programme from Bootvis folder.

It will scan for boot sequences and analyze for timings. Select All check boxes and then click Trace Menu>>Next Boot+Driver Delays.. In the resulting Dialog box enter 2 in the number of repetitions.Then Click reboot.

It will reboot and login. Please Login as quickly as possible to avoid skewed results.

Wait patiently for Bootvis to display dialogboxes. Say about 10 minutes. As two passes are there so same thing will be done twice. and it will write files and display results in graphs.

Again Click Trace menu and click optimise button. Again Reboot. (programme will reboot in 10 seconds and you can cancel it before that.

Wait for the Login and login when prompted.

The programme will arrange boot files and driver files in such a way that boot sequence is faster.

Once this is finished you are almost done. Reboot and see how fast programme loads.

Once all this steps are done you will notice that you programme runs faster and lighter, mouse clicks seems more responsive and loading time of programmes have improved. This is without sacrificing on any of the WINXP frills and visual effects for which it is well recognised.

Improvement will be 30-50% for minimum.


One more this Don't put any Folder on the desk top. If you have any, put them in some other folder else Desktop load will be slower.


Links to the programmes in next posts.

continued.......

rootkitrevealer http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/RootkitRevealer.zip
Running this will detect which tiny malwares hooks into windows kernel,

undetectable by normal programmes.Read more here. Further resources are listed. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Security/RootkitRevealer.mspx

HijackThis http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php#hijackthis
It detects the programmes which has propensityto hijack your computer. (symptoms automatically opening popus of IE communicating with internets in the background or transfering data without user intervention. This will give a logfile. Layman cannot understand this. You have to copy this and post logfile to http://www.techsupportforum.com for advice. They are quite reliable and give correct analysis. You can browse forum and see if any of the entries mentioned in your logfile finds mention in solutions posted there, if you don't want to register and post log file.)

AVG Anti Virus http://free.grisoft.com/
Also run this before starting anything. Takes time.
ADAWARE - http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
This should be run before starting anything.

Start Up Inspector

http://www.windowsstartup.com/startupinspector.php
Startup Optimizer http://www.shareup.com/downloading-47143.html
RegCleaner http://www.worldstart.com/weekly-download/programs/regcleaner.exe
TweakNow http://www.tweaknow.com/download/RegCleaner.exe
AUSLOGIC Reg Defrag http://www.auslogics.com/registry-defrag/
CCLEANER http://www.ccleaner.com/
O&O DEFRAGGER V6.5 - http://www.oo-software.com/en/products/oodefrag/pro.html
BOOTVIS - http://www.soft32.com/download-BootVis-19687-5.html

Read this article for better understanding in technical terms

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1785996,00.asp
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=235571

Windows XP has a system restore function which creates restore point. With this You may not need Norton Ghost. But it creates lot of restore files. You can limit this by setting appropriate options in Control Panel >>System>>System Restore>>Settings .

Pankaj

Many many thanks from a novice in computer.

Wow....thanks Pankaj.hope To Learn From U In Future Too.

Hi

Thanks both of you. I was doing tune up and this was almost the better sequence of all activities I could do After lot of trial and errors over a long period of time. Every time I will do tune up I had to do one or the other activities.Like defragging again after Cleaning up.wasting lot of time. So when finally I got all steps required for tuning by layman user I thought I would post it for others benefit. With the sequence described tuning will be almost complete.But it does take at least half day. But most of the tuning is without much technical knowledge or internal settings. I have described what is best for general users without technicalities. After that you PC will be running faster. Hopefully One finds time to do that in their busy schedule.

Pankaj

Thank u PK,
I have started solving my problems & learning aswell.
ranga

Thnaks rangarajan

Over a period of time WIN XP System doesn't work as it used to work just after fresh install.Many users would have felt like that and generally go for format/reinstall.Sometimes they lose data as well. So, after doing lot of optimisation/tuning I finally thought this was the best sequence for lay users like us without doing any major tweak or losing data as we are not familiar with XP internals and don't want to be. System should run fine.That is our objective.

After doing in that way I found that it feels as light as it was when I used for the first time.

Secondly, little investing in more than required RAM say 1.5-2 Gb and removing pagefile.sys improves performance a lot rather than anything else

Pankaj

Hi pankaj
I tried this but it is not working. I do not know why. It is telling bad command. Can you guide us further. The other softwares which you suggested are very good at their tasks. Thank you for the good suggestions.
gvnarendra