I was surfing the Internet and came across an interesting article which gives a range of definition on marketing. Hope you guys enjoy reading it.
You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and say, "I am very rich. Marry me!"
That's Direct Marketing
You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl.
One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says, "He's very rich. Marry him."
That's Advertising.
You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and get her telephone number.
The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm very rich. Marry me."
That's Telemarketing.
You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl.
You get up and straighten your tie; you walk up to her and pour her a drink.
You open the door for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, "By the way, I'm very rich "Will you marry me?"
That's Public Relations.
You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl.
She walks up to you and says, "You are very rich, I want to marry you."
That's Brand Recognition.
You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and say, "I'm rich. Marry me"
She gives you a nice hard slap on your face.
That's Customer Feedback
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Saturday, 21 February 2009
امير حمزه شينواری
مرحوم امير حمزه شينوارى د مرحوم ملک مير باز خان اشرف خېل شينواري زوى ،چې پر (1907 ع ) کال د لنډي کوتل په خوزه خېلو کښې يې په يوې اسلامي درنې کورنۍ کښې سترګې غړولي دي. لومړنۍ زده کړه يې د لواړګې په لومړني ښوونځي کښې پېل کړه او ورسره يې د دري او عربي ژبو د نحوې، صرف او فقهې مقدماتي کتابونه هم له استادانوزده کړل .بيا د پېښور په اسلاميه کالج کښې شامل شو. د درس تر څنګه به يې اردو اشعار او نثرونه ليکل او د پېښور د پښتو اکاډمۍ مشر ( موليناعبدالقادر ) ته به يې ښودل. دهغه په اشعارو کښې د خوشحال بابا ، عبدالرحمان بابا او حميدبابا ،مير زاغالب او علامه اقبال الهامات هم ځليدلي دي، خو په پښتني ادب کښې ، نوى اسلوب اوسبک لري. حمزه بابا له تحصيل وروسته،د تورخم په سياسي اداره کښې ، د پاسپورټ دڅانگې مامور وټاکل شو او پلار يې د تورخم د اور گاډي د ادارې منتظم و ؛ نو حمزه بابا هم د اورگاډي په اداره کښې سياره دنده واخستله او د هند گڼو ښارونو ته يې سفرونه وکړل . د بمبيي ښار ،چې د هنري فلمونو دجوړولو مرکز و ، لومړى يې دچويو فلمونه په جوړولو کښې فعاله ونډه واخيسته ، بيا يې په وياندو فلمونو کښې ، په ( 1941 ع) کال کښې د ( ليلا مجنون ) ، ( پيغلې )، ( يوسف خان اوشهربانو ) او ( علاقه غير ) فلمونه سمبال کړل. د حمزه بابا په زړه کښې به ، هميشه د تقوا او عرفان ډيوه بلېدله ، نو په ( 1931 ع) کال کښې ، چې د حيرت آباد او اجمير له سفره پېښور ته را ستون شو ، له سيد عبدالستار شاه ( باچاجان ) پيرڅخه يې ، د چشتيه تصوفي طريقې لاس نيوى وکړ او په ( 1937 ع) کال کښې يې د خپل پير د نظر لاندې د (بزم ادب ټولنه ) او بيا يې د پښتو ( ولسي ادبي جرگه ) جوړه کړه .په ( 1940ع) کښې حمزه بابا ، دستر متصوف عبدالرحمن بابا پر مزار پښتو مشاعرې پېل کړې ، له بلې خوا حمزه بابا داردو ژبې د ادبي هنري او عرفاني ( اداره ادبيه ) ټولنې بنيادي غړى هم و؛ نو ار دو ليکنې به يې په پښتو او پښتو آثار به يې په اردو ژبه کښې ژباړل. سربېره پر دې ، حمزه بابا د لنډو او اوږ دو کيسو کتابونه ، مقالې او ډرامې په پښتو ژبه کښې وليکلې ، چې په ډله ييزو خپرونو کښې خپاره شوي دي. همدغه راز حمزه بابا د ارواښاد بايزيد انصاري پير روښان د ادبي _عرفاني (رنسانس)او د ارواښاد خوشالخان خټک بابا د مبارزو د حماسي غورځنگ پېر تازه او ځلاندکړ؛نو د ادب دمشعل ،د غزل د بابا او د تصوف د لار ښود پر صفاتو وستايل شو. حمزه بابا د ( نهج البلاغه ) ، ( ارمغان حجاز) او ( جاويد نامه ) پر کتابونو شرحې وليکلې ، چې د پېښور په (( پښتو اکاډمى )) او د کراچۍ په (( اقبال اکاډمۍ )) کښې چاپ شوې او د هغه (1300) غزليات په څلورو ټو کونو کښې را ټولې شوې. ارواښاد حمزه بابا د فطري ذکا ، ذوق او نبوغ د لرلو له لامله پر خپلې مورنۍ ژبه پښتو ، اردو انگريزۍ ، دري ، او عربي ژبو پوره پوهيده . هغه په (1994ع) کال کښې د ( 87) کلونو پر عمر مړ شو اود لنډي کوتل په خپل کلي کښې خاورو ته سپارل شوى دى.
Sunday, 15 February 2009
BBC Persian Service Launches - at what cost?
Funding the transmission of programmes to other countries is not a new concept nor is without it's supporters or indeed critics.
Indeed throughout the last fifty years, many examples can be identified where Radio and Television programmes have been transmitted to other countries, both near and far. So its not new nor is it without its supporters and detractors.
Earlier this week, (14/01/09) the BBC launched its Persian Service - BBC Persian. This new service is totally funded by the British Taxpayer to the tune of £15 Million ($23.5 Million) and is transmitted from BBC World Service HQ in the centre of London, with the language used being Farsi.
Back in March 2008, BBC Arabic Television started transmission, again funded from the same sources.
This was not the first time that the BBC has attempted to set up an Arabic television service.
This attempt for BBC Arabic Television closed on 21 April 1996, after 2 years on air, when the BBC's partners, Orbit Communications Corporation (owned by King Fahd's cousin, Prince Khaled) pulled the plug after the BBC broadcast an episode of topical current affairs programme, Panorama, which was critical of the Saudi Arabian government.
Many of the staff who worked for the original BBC Arabic Television service went on to work for Al Jazeera television - Al Jazeera being one of BBC Arabic Television's main competitors.
It's not the aim here to highlight the politics or the rights or wrongs of which country or countries should be transmitted 'too' and by 'whom'. I am carefully avoiding the word propaganda as it does attract to other discussions about Government paranoia and propaganda, but is this not all really the case that this is indeed state-funded propaganda, funded by the tax-payer and therefore is it justified?
Do these broadcasts actually bring 'free-speech' to countries where this concept may be deemed to be unknown. In the current difficult economic conditions, to fund in large amounts of cash to pay for these services is difficult to justify.? UK tax-payers may have additional questions about this when they currently have to pay £135 ($211) a year to watch television for regardless of content and source
Indeed throughout the last fifty years, many examples can be identified where Radio and Television programmes have been transmitted to other countries, both near and far. So its not new nor is it without its supporters and detractors.
Earlier this week, (14/01/09) the BBC launched its Persian Service - BBC Persian. This new service is totally funded by the British Taxpayer to the tune of £15 Million ($23.5 Million) and is transmitted from BBC World Service HQ in the centre of London, with the language used being Farsi.
Back in March 2008, BBC Arabic Television started transmission, again funded from the same sources.
This was not the first time that the BBC has attempted to set up an Arabic television service.
This attempt for BBC Arabic Television closed on 21 April 1996, after 2 years on air, when the BBC's partners, Orbit Communications Corporation (owned by King Fahd's cousin, Prince Khaled) pulled the plug after the BBC broadcast an episode of topical current affairs programme, Panorama, which was critical of the Saudi Arabian government.
Many of the staff who worked for the original BBC Arabic Television service went on to work for Al Jazeera television - Al Jazeera being one of BBC Arabic Television's main competitors.
It's not the aim here to highlight the politics or the rights or wrongs of which country or countries should be transmitted 'too' and by 'whom'. I am carefully avoiding the word propaganda as it does attract to other discussions about Government paranoia and propaganda, but is this not all really the case that this is indeed state-funded propaganda, funded by the tax-payer and therefore is it justified?
Do these broadcasts actually bring 'free-speech' to countries where this concept may be deemed to be unknown. In the current difficult economic conditions, to fund in large amounts of cash to pay for these services is difficult to justify.? UK tax-payers may have additional questions about this when they currently have to pay £135 ($211) a year to watch television for regardless of content and source
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Boot Into XP Using A USB Flash Drive!
Booting into Windows XP can be done through USB drive. This can be useful if you are getting any booting errors and also if you don’t have that bootable cd or cd drive available. This involves a simple process which will copy down the files required for booting into the USB drive and then operating the whole process through it. You can use any removable media like floppy disk,removable hard Disk etc.
In order to this, First format the USB drive using XP’s format utility: open My Computer, rightclick theUSB drive, and select Format.
Copy the files ntldr and ntdetect.com from the i386 folder in the Windows XP CD to the root of the usb drive. Then create a file called "boot.ini" in the root of the USB drive to contain information corresponding to the computer which you want to boot using the floppy. The boot.ini file should look something like this:
It contains data like this..
[boot loader]
timeout = 30
default =
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
---------------------------------
If XP is installed in any directory other than "Windows", say "x", the third line must read:
default = multi(0)
disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\x
and the fifth line must read:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(
1)\x = "Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
Also, in the third and fifth lines, in partition(y), y indicates the partition number in which XP has been installed. Change it to the appropriate value. To find the exact values for your system, in XP, right-click My Computer and click on Manage. Click Disk Management in the left pane. Now you will be able to view all the drives and their partitions on the right-hand side, look at the bottom right part of the window.
Each drive is labelled; there is the drive letter along with the drive name, in the next line you will see the drive capacity and the file-system and in the last line, you will see the health status. Observe this last line for each drive and in one of the drive, you will see the status as Healthy (System). This is the boot partition where XP resides. Note the disk number, say X, at the right of this drive, this is the value which you should put in the rdisk(X). You will be graphically able to find the partition number by counting the partition from left. If the system partition is the first then you should use partition(1), if it is second then it will be partition(2), an so on.
If the computer boots from a SCSI hard disk, multi(0) must be replaced by scsi(x), where x depends upon the adapter specified in the SCSI driver. If the scsi(x) option has been made use of in the boot.ini file, copy the device driver for the SCSI controller and put it in the root of the usb drive, along with the three other files, and rename it to ntbootdd.sys. In the case of SCSI hard disks, in the third and fifth lines, in disc(z), z represents the SCSI-ID of the hard disk that must be booted into. Change it to the appropriate value.
You’re done, that is it. Just remove the Flash Drive, and boot from it. There are several ways to get your computer to boot from the USB Flash Drive now. My computer hitting F8 during the BIOS load screen allows me to choose what drive to boot from. I prefer this way because you should only ever need to boot from removable media once. The other way is to get into your bios and change the boot order so that the USB drive boots first. After it has reset once, you need to change it back unless you want it to install over and over again. I would go over how to do this but each bios is pretty much unique to the hardware.
Also, assuming you have the space, you can add any drivers or other programs that you may need to this flash drive because it is going to be there any ways..!
In order to this, First format the USB drive using XP’s format utility: open My Computer, rightclick theUSB drive, and select Format.
Copy the files ntldr and ntdetect.com from the i386 folder in the Windows XP CD to the root of the usb drive. Then create a file called "boot.ini" in the root of the USB drive to contain information corresponding to the computer which you want to boot using the floppy. The boot.ini file should look something like this:
It contains data like this..
[boot loader]
timeout = 30
default =
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
---------------------------------
If XP is installed in any directory other than "Windows", say "x", the third line must read:
default = multi(0)
disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\x
and the fifth line must read:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(
1)\x = "Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
Also, in the third and fifth lines, in partition(y), y indicates the partition number in which XP has been installed. Change it to the appropriate value. To find the exact values for your system, in XP, right-click My Computer and click on Manage. Click Disk Management in the left pane. Now you will be able to view all the drives and their partitions on the right-hand side, look at the bottom right part of the window.
Each drive is labelled; there is the drive letter along with the drive name, in the next line you will see the drive capacity and the file-system and in the last line, you will see the health status. Observe this last line for each drive and in one of the drive, you will see the status as Healthy (System). This is the boot partition where XP resides. Note the disk number, say X, at the right of this drive, this is the value which you should put in the rdisk(X). You will be graphically able to find the partition number by counting the partition from left. If the system partition is the first then you should use partition(1), if it is second then it will be partition(2), an so on.
If the computer boots from a SCSI hard disk, multi(0) must be replaced by scsi(x), where x depends upon the adapter specified in the SCSI driver. If the scsi(x) option has been made use of in the boot.ini file, copy the device driver for the SCSI controller and put it in the root of the usb drive, along with the three other files, and rename it to ntbootdd.sys. In the case of SCSI hard disks, in the third and fifth lines, in disc(z), z represents the SCSI-ID of the hard disk that must be booted into. Change it to the appropriate value.
You’re done, that is it. Just remove the Flash Drive, and boot from it. There are several ways to get your computer to boot from the USB Flash Drive now. My computer hitting F8 during the BIOS load screen allows me to choose what drive to boot from. I prefer this way because you should only ever need to boot from removable media once. The other way is to get into your bios and change the boot order so that the USB drive boots first. After it has reset once, you need to change it back unless you want it to install over and over again. I would go over how to do this but each bios is pretty much unique to the hardware.
Also, assuming you have the space, you can add any drivers or other programs that you may need to this flash drive because it is going to be there any ways..!
How To Install Windows XP Over Vista
Installing Windows Vista over Windows XP is pretty simple. But If you are a XP lover like me, you can even Install Windows XP over Windows Vista. One way of doing this is a clean install of XP which is done by formatting the drive and installing a fresh copy of XP over it. The other way is as follows..
To install Windows XP, first you need an empty partition. If you don’t have one, use computer Management or any Partition Management Software to resize the existing partition and make space for a new partition in the hard disk.
Under the Disk Management application, right click on the partition and click on Shrink Volume. choose the space you want free after the shrinking process. change the drive letter of your CD/DVD drive to avoid any confusion by right-clicking on the drive and then clicking change drive Letter and Paths.
Now right-click on the empty space created and click on New Simple Volume and create the partition with the right drive letter. Boot using the XP installation CD and install it.
-----------------------------------
You will then no longer be able to boot into Windows Vista. Now, Boot into XP and install a software called VistabootPrO from www.vistabootpro.org which will allow you to make entries and changes to the boot record. This software is useful for Dual booting Windows XP, Vista and also for the latest Windows 7.
To install Windows XP, first you need an empty partition. If you don’t have one, use computer Management or any Partition Management Software to resize the existing partition and make space for a new partition in the hard disk.
Under the Disk Management application, right click on the partition and click on Shrink Volume. choose the space you want free after the shrinking process. change the drive letter of your CD/DVD drive to avoid any confusion by right-clicking on the drive and then clicking change drive Letter and Paths.
Now right-click on the empty space created and click on New Simple Volume and create the partition with the right drive letter. Boot using the XP installation CD and install it.
-----------------------------------
You will then no longer be able to boot into Windows Vista. Now, Boot into XP and install a software called VistabootPrO from www.vistabootpro.org which will allow you to make entries and changes to the boot record. This software is useful for Dual booting Windows XP, Vista and also for the latest Windows 7.
Download Free AVG 8 Antivirus Working License Serial Key
Here is the License Serial key for AVG Antivirus 8. AVG is one of the most popular Antivirus software in the business. This key is 100% working and is valid for 10 Years i.e., till 2018.. Also check the post on Kaspersky Antivirus and Internet Security 2009 License Key.
To use AVG Antivirus , you have to download it. Here is the link where you can download latest version of AVG Antivirus ( Paid version ). DOWNLOAD AVG .
After you install the downloaded software, Install it. When it prompts for License key, Enter the following serial key to activate your AVG Antivirus.
AVG Antivirus 8 License Serial KEY till 2018
8MEH-REDSL-7ETEC-ULA8R-EAOKL-4EMBR-ACED
The license number will activate a full version of AVG Anti-Virus 8.0, and most likely all its future upgraded version or new releases. Once installation is completed, AVG Anti-Virus full retail edition will have the license expiry date of 2/26/2018. Thanks to DigitalLife. Enjoy..!
------------------------------------------
Note: I am no way concerned with the license key. If you have any queries or objections, do leave them as comments.. I will react on them as soon as possible.
To use AVG Antivirus , you have to download it. Here is the link where you can download latest version of AVG Antivirus ( Paid version ). DOWNLOAD AVG .
After you install the downloaded software, Install it. When it prompts for License key, Enter the following serial key to activate your AVG Antivirus.
AVG Antivirus 8 License Serial KEY till 2018
8MEH-REDSL-7ETEC-ULA8R-EAOKL-4EMBR-ACED
The license number will activate a full version of AVG Anti-Virus 8.0, and most likely all its future upgraded version or new releases. Once installation is completed, AVG Anti-Virus full retail edition will have the license expiry date of 2/26/2018. Thanks to DigitalLife. Enjoy..!
------------------------------------------
Note: I am no way concerned with the license key. If you have any queries or objections, do leave them as comments.. I will react on them as soon as possible.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
How to Hide Hard Drive Partitions
In order to protect your data from others there are many ways like preventing access to your drives by locking them with the help of a software or you can even lock the folders without using a software so that others can’t open them. Another method is hiding your drives partitions which will make your drives invisible. Here is a cool technique which hides entire hard disk drive partitions by a simple procedure without using Registry editor i.e., regedit.
The procedure just involves some very simple command line prompts which will be as follows:
1. Go to Start > Run and type diskpart. A DOS window will appear with following description. DISKPART>
2. Then type list volume
3. Suppose you want to hide drive E:, type select volume 3.
4. A message will now appear in the window saying “Volume 3 is the selected volume”.
5. Now type remove letter E. You may have to reboot the computer.
Diskpart will remove the letter. Since Windows XP doesn’t have the capability to identify the unknown volume, it won’t display or show results from it. To access the contents of the hidden drive, repeat the process, but in the fourth step, replace remove to assign, i.e., assign letter E.
The procedure just involves some very simple command line prompts which will be as follows:
1. Go to Start > Run and type diskpart. A DOS window will appear with following description. DISKPART>
2. Then type list volume
3. Suppose you want to hide drive E:, type select volume 3.
4. A message will now appear in the window saying “Volume 3 is the selected volume”.
5. Now type remove letter E. You may have to reboot the computer.
Diskpart will remove the letter. Since Windows XP doesn’t have the capability to identify the unknown volume, it won’t display or show results from it. To access the contents of the hidden drive, repeat the process, but in the fourth step, replace remove to assign, i.e., assign letter E.
Tips to speed up your computer
Make Your Windows Xp Run Faster Than Never Before
These Are Some Tricks That Make Use Of Programs Listed In This Guide And Nothing Will Happen Even If You Go
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:
1. Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Double-click Add/Remove Programs
5. Click the Add/Remove Window Components
6. Uncheck the Indexing services
7. Click Next
OPTIMISE DISPLAY SETTINGS
Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimise:
1.Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Click System
5. Click Advanced tab
6. In the Performance tab click Settings
7. 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
DISABLE PERFORMANCE COUNTERS
Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.
To disable:
1. download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List(http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/remove404.mspx)
2.Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom.button below.
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:
1. Open My Computer
2. Click on Tools menu
3. Click on Folder Options
4. Click on the View tab.
5. Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
6. Click Apply
7. Click Ok
8. Reboot your computer
IMPROVE MEMORY USAGE
Cacheman Improves the performance of your computer by optimizing the disk cache, memory and a number of other settings.
Once Installed:
1.Go to Show Wizard and select All
2.Run all the wizards by selecting Next or Finished until you are back to the main menu. Use the defaults unless you know exactly what you are doing.
3.Exit and Save Cacheman
4.Restart Windows
OPTIMISE YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION
There are lots of ways to do this but by far the easiest is to run TCP/IP Optimizer.
1. Download(www.speedguide.net/files/tcpoptimizer.exe) and install
2. Click the General Settings tab and select your Connection Speed (Kbps)
3. Click Network Adapter and choose the interface you use to connect to the Internet
4. Check Optimal Settings then Apply
5. Reboot
OPTIMISE YOUR PAGEFILE
If you give your pagefile a fixed size it saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file.
1. Right click on My Computer and select Properties
2. Select the Advanced tab
3. Under Performance choose the Settings button
4. Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
5. Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.
Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.
RUN BOOTVIS - IMPROVE BOOT TIMES download from(www.majorgeeks.com)
BootVis will significantly improve boot times
1. Download and Run
2. Select Trace
3. Select Next Boot and Driver Trace
4. A Trace Repetitions screen will appear, select Ok and Reboot
5. Upon reboot, BootVis will automatically start, analyze and log your system’s boot process. When it’s done, in the menu go to Trace and select Optimize System
6. Reboot.
7. When your machine has rebooted wait until you see the Optimizing System box appear. Be patient and wait for the process to complete
REMOVE THE DESKTOP PICTURE
Your desktop background consumes a fair amount of memory and can slow the loading time of your system. Removing it will improve performance.
1. Right click on Desktop and select Properties
2. Select the Desktop tab
3. In the Background window select None
4. Click Ok
REMOVE FONTS FOR SPEED
Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.
1. Open Control Panel
2. Open Fonts folder
3. Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.
DISABLE UNNECESSARY SERVICES
Because Windows XP has to be all things to all people it has many services running that take up system resources that you will never need. Below is a list of services that can be disabled on most machines:
Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Fast User Switching
Help and Support - (If you use Windows Help and Support leave this enabled)
Human Interface Access Devices
Indexing Service
IPSEC Services
Messenger
Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
Remote Registry Service
Secondary Logon
Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
Server
SSDP Discovery Service - (Unplug n’ Pray will disable this)
Telnet
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Upload Manager
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration (Do not disable if you use a wireless network)
Workstation
To disable these services:
Go to Start and then Run and type “services.msc”
Doubleclick on the service you want to change
Change the startup type to ‘Disable”
TURN OFF SYSTEM RESTORE
System Restore can be a useful if your computer is having problems, however storing all the restore points can literally take up Gigabytes of space on your hard drive. To turn off System Restore:
Open Control Panel
Click on Performance and Maintenance
Click on System
Click on the System Restore tab
Tick ‘Turn off System Restore on All Drives’
Click ‘Ok’
DEFRAGMENT YOUR PAGEFILE
Keeping your pagefile defragmented can provide a major performance boost. One of the best ways of doing this is to creat a separate partition on your hard drive just for your page file, so that it doesn’t get impacted by normal disk usage. Another way of keeping your pagefile defragmented is to run PageDefrag. This cool little app can be used to defrag your pagefile, and can also be set to defrag the pagefile everytime your PC starts. To install:
Download(www.sysinternals.com) and Run PageDefrag
Tick “Defrag at next Reboot”,
Click “Ok”
Reboot
SPEEDUP FOLDER ACCESS - DISABLE LAST ACCESS UPDATE
If you have a lot of folders and subdirectories on your computer, when you access a directory XP wastes a lot of time updating the time stamp showing the last access time for that directory and for ALL sub directories. To stop XP doing this you need to edit the registry. If you are uncomfortable doing this then please do not attempt.
Go to Start and then Run and type “regedit”
Click through the file system until you get to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Cur rentControlSet\Control\FileSys tem”
Right-click in a blank area of the window on the right and select ‘DWORD Value’
Create a new DWORD Value called ‘NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate’
Then Right click on the new value and select ‘Modify’
Change the Value Data to ‘1′
Click ‘OK’
DISABLE SYSTEM SOUNDS
Surprisingly, the beeps that your computer makes for various system sounds can slow it down, particularly at startup and shut-down. To fix this turn off the system sounds:
Open Control Panel
Click Sounds and Audio Devices
Check Place volume icon in taskbar
Click Sounds Tab
Choose “No Sounds” for the Sound Scheme
Click “No”
Click “Apply”
Click “OK”
IMPROVE BOOT TIMES
A great new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow for faster booting. By default this option in enables but on some builds it is not so below is how to turn it on.
Go to Start Menu and Click Run
Type in “Regedit” then click ok
Find “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\M icrosoft\Dfrg\BootOpt imizeFunction”
Select “Enable” from the list on the right
Right on it and select “Modify”
Change the value to “Y to enable”
Reboot
IMPROVE SWAPFILE PERFORMANCE
If you have more than 256MB of RAM this tweak will considerably improve your performance. It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.
Go to Start then Run
Type “msconfig.exe” then ok
Click on the System.ini tab
Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
Click on new then in the blank box type”ConservativeSwapfileUsage =1″
Click OK
Restart PC
MAKE YOUR MENUS LOAD FASTER
This is one of my favourite tweaks as it makes a huge difference to how fast your machine will ‘feel’. What this tweak does is remove the slight delay between clicking on a menu and XP displaying the menu.
Go to Start then Run
Type ‘Regedit’ then click ‘Ok’
Find “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\”
Select “MenuShowDelay”
Right click and select “Modify’
Reduce the number to around “100″
This is the delay time before a menu is opened. You can set it to “0″ but it can make windows really hard to use as menus will open if you just look at them - well move your mouse over them anyway. I tend to go for anywhere between 50-150 depending on my mood
MAKE PROGRAMS LOAD FASTER
This little tweak tends to work for most programs. If your program doesn’t load properly just undo the change. For any program:
Right-click on the icon/shortcut you use to launch the program
Select properties
In the ‘target’ box, add ‘ /prefetch:1′ at the end of the line.
Click “Ok”
Voila - your programs will now load faster.
IMPROVE XP SHUTDOWN SPEED
This tweak reduces the time XP waits before automatically closing any running programs when you give it the command to shutdown.
Go to Start then select Run
Type ‘Regedit’ and click ok
Find ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\’
Select ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’
Now select ‘HungAppTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’
Now find ‘HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop’
Select ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’
Now find ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Cur rentControlSet\Control\’
Select ‘WaitToKillServiceTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’
SPEED UP BOOT TIMES I
This tweak works by creating a batch file to clear the temp and history folders everytime you shutdown so that your PC doesn’t waste time checking these folders the next time it boots. It’s quite simple to implement:
1. Open Notepad and create a new file with the following entries:
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\” <â€â⒁”"Deletes temp folder, type in the location of your temp folder”
2. Save the new as anything you like but it has to be a ‘.bat’ file e.g. fastboot.bat or deltemp.bat
3. Click ‘Start’ then ‘Run’
4. Type in ‘gpedit.msc’ and hit ‘ok’
5. Click on ‘Computer Configuration’ then ‘Windows Settings’
6. Double-click on ‘Scripts’ and then on ‘Shutdown’
7. Click ‘Add’ and find the batch file that you created and then press ‘Ok’
SPEED UP BOOT TIMES II
When your PC starts it usually looks for any bootable media in any floppy or cd-rom drives you have installed before it gets around to loading the Operating System from the HDD. This can waste valuable time. To fix this we need to make some changes to the Bios.
1. To enter the bios you usually press ‘F2′ or ‘delete’ when your PC starts
2. Navigate to the ‘Boot’ menu
3. Select ‘Boot Sequence’
4. Then either move your Hard drive to the top position or set it as the ‘First Device’
5. Press the ‘Escape’ key to leave the bios. Don’t forget to save your settings before exiting
Note: Once this change has been made, you won’t be able to boot from a floppy disc or a CD-rom. If for some strange reason you need to do this in the future, just go back into your bios, repeat the steps above and put your floppy or CD-rom back as the ‘First Device’
SPEED UP BOOT TIMES III
When your computer boots up it usually has to check with the network to see what IP addresses are free and then it grabs one of these. By configuring a manually assigned IP address your boot time will improve. To do this do the following:
1. Click on ‘Start’ and then ”Connect To/Show All Connections’
2. Right-click your network adapter card and click ‘Properties’.
3. On the ‘General’ tab, select ‘TCP/IP’ in the list of services and click ‘Properties’
4.I n the TCP/IP properties, click ‘Use the following address’ and enter an IP address for your PC. If you are using a router this is usually 192.168.0.xx or 192.168.1.xx. If you are not sure what address you could check with your ISP or go to ‘Start/run’ and type ‘cmd’ and then ‘ipconfig/all’. This will show your current IP settings which you will need to copy.
5. Enter the correct details for ‘Subnet mask’, ‘Default gateway’ and ‘DNS Server’. Again if you are not sure what figures to enter use ‘ipconfig/all’ as in stage 4.
FREE UP MEMORY
I found this useful app via FixMyXP. ClearMem Is an Excellent Tool for speeding up your XP Computer (especially if your system has been on for awhile and you have a lot of applications open). What it does, is it Forces pages out of physical memory and reduces the size of running processes if working sets to a minimum. When you run this tool, the system pauses because of excessive high-priority activity associated with trimming the working sets. To run this tool, your paging file must be at least as large as physical memory. To Check your Paging File:
1. Go to your control panel, then click on ‘System’, then go to the ‘Advanced’ Tab, and Under ‘Performance’ click ‘Settings’ then the ‘Advanced’ Tab
2. On the Bottom you should see ‘Virtual Memory’ and a value. This is the value that must be at least as large as how much memory is in your system.
3. If the Virtual Memory Value is smaller than your system memory, click Change and change the Min Virtual Memory to a number that is greater than your total system memory, then click ‘Set’ and Reboot.
4. Once you have rebooted install ClearMem
ENSURE XP IS USING DMA MODE
XP enables DMA for Hard-Drives and CD-Roms by default on most ATA or ATAPI (IDE) devices. However, sometimes computers switch to PIO mode which is slower for data transfer - a typical reason is because of a virus. To ensure that your machine is using DMA:
1. Open ‘Device Manager’
2. Double-click ‘IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers’
3. Right-click ‘Primary Channel’ and select ‘Properties’ and then ‘Advanced Settings’
4. In the ‘Current Transfer Mode’ drop-down box, select ‘DMA if Available’ if the current setting is ‘PIO Only’
ADD CORRECT NETWORK CARD SETTINGS
Some machines suffer from jerky graphics or high CPU usage even when a machine is idle. A possible solution for this, which, can also can help network performance is to:
1. RightClick ‘My Computer’
2. Select ‘Manage’
3. Click on ‘Device Manager’
4. DoubleClick your network adaptor under ‘Network Adapters’
5. In the new window, select the ‘Advanced’ tab
6. Select ‘Connection Type’ and select the correct type for your card and then Reboot
REMOVE ANNOYING DELETE CONFIRMATION MESSAGES
Although not strictly a performance tweak I love this fix as it makes my machine ‘feel’ faster. I hate the annoying ‘are you sure?’ messages that XP displays, especially if I have to use a laptop touchpad to close them. To remove these messages:
1. Right-click on the ‘Recycle Bin’ on the desktop and then click ‘Properties’
2. Clear the ‘Display Delete Confirmation Dialog’ check box and click ‘Ok’
If you do accidently delete a file don’t worry as all is not lost. Just go to your Recycle Bin and ‘Restore’ the file.
DISABLE PREFETCH ON LOW MEMORY SYSTEMS
Prefetch is designed to speed up program launching by preloading programs into memory - not a good idea is memory is in short supply, as it can make programs hang. To disable prefetch:
1. Click ‘Start’ then ‘Run’
2. Type in ‘Regedit’ then click ‘Ok’
3. Navigate to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Cur rentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\ ‘
4. Right-click on “EnablePrefetcher” and set the value to ‘0′
5. Reboot.
These Are Some Tricks That Make Use Of Programs Listed In This Guide And Nothing Will Happen Even If You Go
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:
1. Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Double-click Add/Remove Programs
5. Click the Add/Remove Window Components
6. Uncheck the Indexing services
7. Click Next
OPTIMISE DISPLAY SETTINGS
Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimise:
1.Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Click System
5. Click Advanced tab
6. In the Performance tab click Settings
7. 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
DISABLE PERFORMANCE COUNTERS
Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.
To disable:
1. download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List(http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/remove404.mspx)
2.Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom.button below.
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:
1. Open My Computer
2. Click on Tools menu
3. Click on Folder Options
4. Click on the View tab.
5. Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
6. Click Apply
7. Click Ok
8. Reboot your computer
IMPROVE MEMORY USAGE
Cacheman Improves the performance of your computer by optimizing the disk cache, memory and a number of other settings.
Once Installed:
1.Go to Show Wizard and select All
2.Run all the wizards by selecting Next or Finished until you are back to the main menu. Use the defaults unless you know exactly what you are doing.
3.Exit and Save Cacheman
4.Restart Windows
OPTIMISE YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION
There are lots of ways to do this but by far the easiest is to run TCP/IP Optimizer.
1. Download(www.speedguide.net/files/tcpoptimizer.exe) and install
2. Click the General Settings tab and select your Connection Speed (Kbps)
3. Click Network Adapter and choose the interface you use to connect to the Internet
4. Check Optimal Settings then Apply
5. Reboot
OPTIMISE YOUR PAGEFILE
If you give your pagefile a fixed size it saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file.
1. Right click on My Computer and select Properties
2. Select the Advanced tab
3. Under Performance choose the Settings button
4. Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
5. Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.
Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.
RUN BOOTVIS - IMPROVE BOOT TIMES download from(www.majorgeeks.com)
BootVis will significantly improve boot times
1. Download and Run
2. Select Trace
3. Select Next Boot and Driver Trace
4. A Trace Repetitions screen will appear, select Ok and Reboot
5. Upon reboot, BootVis will automatically start, analyze and log your system’s boot process. When it’s done, in the menu go to Trace and select Optimize System
6. Reboot.
7. When your machine has rebooted wait until you see the Optimizing System box appear. Be patient and wait for the process to complete
REMOVE THE DESKTOP PICTURE
Your desktop background consumes a fair amount of memory and can slow the loading time of your system. Removing it will improve performance.
1. Right click on Desktop and select Properties
2. Select the Desktop tab
3. In the Background window select None
4. Click Ok
REMOVE FONTS FOR SPEED
Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.
1. Open Control Panel
2. Open Fonts folder
3. Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.
DISABLE UNNECESSARY SERVICES
Because Windows XP has to be all things to all people it has many services running that take up system resources that you will never need. Below is a list of services that can be disabled on most machines:
Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Fast User Switching
Help and Support - (If you use Windows Help and Support leave this enabled)
Human Interface Access Devices
Indexing Service
IPSEC Services
Messenger
Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
Remote Registry Service
Secondary Logon
Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
Server
SSDP Discovery Service - (Unplug n’ Pray will disable this)
Telnet
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Upload Manager
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration (Do not disable if you use a wireless network)
Workstation
To disable these services:
Go to Start and then Run and type “services.msc”
Doubleclick on the service you want to change
Change the startup type to ‘Disable”
TURN OFF SYSTEM RESTORE
System Restore can be a useful if your computer is having problems, however storing all the restore points can literally take up Gigabytes of space on your hard drive. To turn off System Restore:
Open Control Panel
Click on Performance and Maintenance
Click on System
Click on the System Restore tab
Tick ‘Turn off System Restore on All Drives’
Click ‘Ok’
DEFRAGMENT YOUR PAGEFILE
Keeping your pagefile defragmented can provide a major performance boost. One of the best ways of doing this is to creat a separate partition on your hard drive just for your page file, so that it doesn’t get impacted by normal disk usage. Another way of keeping your pagefile defragmented is to run PageDefrag. This cool little app can be used to defrag your pagefile, and can also be set to defrag the pagefile everytime your PC starts. To install:
Download(www.sysinternals.com) and Run PageDefrag
Tick “Defrag at next Reboot”,
Click “Ok”
Reboot
SPEEDUP FOLDER ACCESS - DISABLE LAST ACCESS UPDATE
If you have a lot of folders and subdirectories on your computer, when you access a directory XP wastes a lot of time updating the time stamp showing the last access time for that directory and for ALL sub directories. To stop XP doing this you need to edit the registry. If you are uncomfortable doing this then please do not attempt.
Go to Start and then Run and type “regedit”
Click through the file system until you get to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Cur rentControlSet\Control\FileSys tem”
Right-click in a blank area of the window on the right and select ‘DWORD Value’
Create a new DWORD Value called ‘NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate’
Then Right click on the new value and select ‘Modify’
Change the Value Data to ‘1′
Click ‘OK’
DISABLE SYSTEM SOUNDS
Surprisingly, the beeps that your computer makes for various system sounds can slow it down, particularly at startup and shut-down. To fix this turn off the system sounds:
Open Control Panel
Click Sounds and Audio Devices
Check Place volume icon in taskbar
Click Sounds Tab
Choose “No Sounds” for the Sound Scheme
Click “No”
Click “Apply”
Click “OK”
IMPROVE BOOT TIMES
A great new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow for faster booting. By default this option in enables but on some builds it is not so below is how to turn it on.
Go to Start Menu and Click Run
Type in “Regedit” then click ok
Find “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\M icrosoft\Dfrg\BootOpt imizeFunction”
Select “Enable” from the list on the right
Right on it and select “Modify”
Change the value to “Y to enable”
Reboot
IMPROVE SWAPFILE PERFORMANCE
If you have more than 256MB of RAM this tweak will considerably improve your performance. It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.
Go to Start then Run
Type “msconfig.exe” then ok
Click on the System.ini tab
Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
Click on new then in the blank box type”ConservativeSwapfileUsage =1″
Click OK
Restart PC
MAKE YOUR MENUS LOAD FASTER
This is one of my favourite tweaks as it makes a huge difference to how fast your machine will ‘feel’. What this tweak does is remove the slight delay between clicking on a menu and XP displaying the menu.
Go to Start then Run
Type ‘Regedit’ then click ‘Ok’
Find “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\”
Select “MenuShowDelay”
Right click and select “Modify’
Reduce the number to around “100″
This is the delay time before a menu is opened. You can set it to “0″ but it can make windows really hard to use as menus will open if you just look at them - well move your mouse over them anyway. I tend to go for anywhere between 50-150 depending on my mood
MAKE PROGRAMS LOAD FASTER
This little tweak tends to work for most programs. If your program doesn’t load properly just undo the change. For any program:
Right-click on the icon/shortcut you use to launch the program
Select properties
In the ‘target’ box, add ‘ /prefetch:1′ at the end of the line.
Click “Ok”
Voila - your programs will now load faster.
IMPROVE XP SHUTDOWN SPEED
This tweak reduces the time XP waits before automatically closing any running programs when you give it the command to shutdown.
Go to Start then select Run
Type ‘Regedit’ and click ok
Find ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\’
Select ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’
Now select ‘HungAppTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’
Now find ‘HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop’
Select ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’
Now find ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Cur rentControlSet\Control\’
Select ‘WaitToKillServiceTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’
SPEED UP BOOT TIMES I
This tweak works by creating a batch file to clear the temp and history folders everytime you shutdown so that your PC doesn’t waste time checking these folders the next time it boots. It’s quite simple to implement:
1. Open Notepad and create a new file with the following entries:
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\” <â€â⒁”"Deletes temp folder, type in the location of your temp folder”
2. Save the new as anything you like but it has to be a ‘.bat’ file e.g. fastboot.bat or deltemp.bat
3. Click ‘Start’ then ‘Run’
4. Type in ‘gpedit.msc’ and hit ‘ok’
5. Click on ‘Computer Configuration’ then ‘Windows Settings’
6. Double-click on ‘Scripts’ and then on ‘Shutdown’
7. Click ‘Add’ and find the batch file that you created and then press ‘Ok’
SPEED UP BOOT TIMES II
When your PC starts it usually looks for any bootable media in any floppy or cd-rom drives you have installed before it gets around to loading the Operating System from the HDD. This can waste valuable time. To fix this we need to make some changes to the Bios.
1. To enter the bios you usually press ‘F2′ or ‘delete’ when your PC starts
2. Navigate to the ‘Boot’ menu
3. Select ‘Boot Sequence’
4. Then either move your Hard drive to the top position or set it as the ‘First Device’
5. Press the ‘Escape’ key to leave the bios. Don’t forget to save your settings before exiting
Note: Once this change has been made, you won’t be able to boot from a floppy disc or a CD-rom. If for some strange reason you need to do this in the future, just go back into your bios, repeat the steps above and put your floppy or CD-rom back as the ‘First Device’
SPEED UP BOOT TIMES III
When your computer boots up it usually has to check with the network to see what IP addresses are free and then it grabs one of these. By configuring a manually assigned IP address your boot time will improve. To do this do the following:
1. Click on ‘Start’ and then ”Connect To/Show All Connections’
2. Right-click your network adapter card and click ‘Properties’.
3. On the ‘General’ tab, select ‘TCP/IP’ in the list of services and click ‘Properties’
4.I n the TCP/IP properties, click ‘Use the following address’ and enter an IP address for your PC. If you are using a router this is usually 192.168.0.xx or 192.168.1.xx. If you are not sure what address you could check with your ISP or go to ‘Start/run’ and type ‘cmd’ and then ‘ipconfig/all’. This will show your current IP settings which you will need to copy.
5. Enter the correct details for ‘Subnet mask’, ‘Default gateway’ and ‘DNS Server’. Again if you are not sure what figures to enter use ‘ipconfig/all’ as in stage 4.
FREE UP MEMORY
I found this useful app via FixMyXP. ClearMem Is an Excellent Tool for speeding up your XP Computer (especially if your system has been on for awhile and you have a lot of applications open). What it does, is it Forces pages out of physical memory and reduces the size of running processes if working sets to a minimum. When you run this tool, the system pauses because of excessive high-priority activity associated with trimming the working sets. To run this tool, your paging file must be at least as large as physical memory. To Check your Paging File:
1. Go to your control panel, then click on ‘System’, then go to the ‘Advanced’ Tab, and Under ‘Performance’ click ‘Settings’ then the ‘Advanced’ Tab
2. On the Bottom you should see ‘Virtual Memory’ and a value. This is the value that must be at least as large as how much memory is in your system.
3. If the Virtual Memory Value is smaller than your system memory, click Change and change the Min Virtual Memory to a number that is greater than your total system memory, then click ‘Set’ and Reboot.
4. Once you have rebooted install ClearMem
ENSURE XP IS USING DMA MODE
XP enables DMA for Hard-Drives and CD-Roms by default on most ATA or ATAPI (IDE) devices. However, sometimes computers switch to PIO mode which is slower for data transfer - a typical reason is because of a virus. To ensure that your machine is using DMA:
1. Open ‘Device Manager’
2. Double-click ‘IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers’
3. Right-click ‘Primary Channel’ and select ‘Properties’ and then ‘Advanced Settings’
4. In the ‘Current Transfer Mode’ drop-down box, select ‘DMA if Available’ if the current setting is ‘PIO Only’
ADD CORRECT NETWORK CARD SETTINGS
Some machines suffer from jerky graphics or high CPU usage even when a machine is idle. A possible solution for this, which, can also can help network performance is to:
1. RightClick ‘My Computer’
2. Select ‘Manage’
3. Click on ‘Device Manager’
4. DoubleClick your network adaptor under ‘Network Adapters’
5. In the new window, select the ‘Advanced’ tab
6. Select ‘Connection Type’ and select the correct type for your card and then Reboot
REMOVE ANNOYING DELETE CONFIRMATION MESSAGES
Although not strictly a performance tweak I love this fix as it makes my machine ‘feel’ faster. I hate the annoying ‘are you sure?’ messages that XP displays, especially if I have to use a laptop touchpad to close them. To remove these messages:
1. Right-click on the ‘Recycle Bin’ on the desktop and then click ‘Properties’
2. Clear the ‘Display Delete Confirmation Dialog’ check box and click ‘Ok’
If you do accidently delete a file don’t worry as all is not lost. Just go to your Recycle Bin and ‘Restore’ the file.
DISABLE PREFETCH ON LOW MEMORY SYSTEMS
Prefetch is designed to speed up program launching by preloading programs into memory - not a good idea is memory is in short supply, as it can make programs hang. To disable prefetch:
1. Click ‘Start’ then ‘Run’
2. Type in ‘Regedit’ then click ‘Ok’
3. Navigate to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Cur rentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\ ‘
4. Right-click on “EnablePrefetcher” and set the value to ‘0′
5. Reboot.
How to prevent access to Drives from My Computer
This is very useful to those people who don’t want others to access their information or data they store on thheir Hard Disks. We can redtrict the acess by using Group Policy Editor. This is used in order to make modifications in the XP as per our needs. I will be posting more on this later. First let us see how to prevent access to drives from My Computer.
First Goto Start then to Run.
In run type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
Then you can see a window. On the left side click on User Configuration.
Expand Administrative Tempelates and in that click on Windows Explorer
On the right side you can find the option "Prevent access to drives from My Computer"
Double click on it. A new window will get opened.
In that window select Enable. ( here you have the option of selecting the specific drive to restrict or you can restrict all drives by choosing from the drop down menu below the options )
Click Apply. Then OK
Note:Â The affect will take place immediately
First Goto Start then to Run.
In run type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
Then you can see a window. On the left side click on User Configuration.
Expand Administrative Tempelates and in that click on Windows Explorer
On the right side you can find the option "Prevent access to drives from My Computer"
Double click on it. A new window will get opened.
In that window select Enable. ( here you have the option of selecting the specific drive to restrict or you can restrict all drives by choosing from the drop down menu below the options )
Click Apply. Then OK
Note:Â The affect will take place immediately
How to Disable User Access Control in Vista
User Access Control is that annoying thing that keeps on popping up tirelessly to ask you if it is OK to install a particular program when you try to install one. It is one of the biggest irritants in Vista, but I must warn you that disabling it will render your system less secure.
Open the Control Panel, type in user account in the search box, and press [Enter].
You’ll see the link for Turn User Access Control (UAC) on or off. Click it.
Uncheck the box, reboot your computer, and you will no longer be bothered by UAC.
For the security-conscious, I’d suggest an alternative method. In this one, only the UAC of the Administrator account is disabled; other users will go through the same security mechanism as before. Open the Registry Editor and go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Create a 32-bit DWORD ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin and set its value to 0. Restart. What actually happens here is, you elevate the privilege level for the administrator.
Open the Control Panel, type in user account in the search box, and press [Enter].
You’ll see the link for Turn User Access Control (UAC) on or off. Click it.
Uncheck the box, reboot your computer, and you will no longer be bothered by UAC.
For the security-conscious, I’d suggest an alternative method. In this one, only the UAC of the Administrator account is disabled; other users will go through the same security mechanism as before. Open the Registry Editor and go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Create a 32-bit DWORD ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin and set its value to 0. Restart. What actually happens here is, you elevate the privilege level for the administrator.
How to disable the Windows System tray
One of the most frequently accessed places on your desktop will be your Windows System tray. What is good about this little tray is that it gives access to some of your running programs through a tiny icon. But when the installed programs are more it will occupy most of the space in the taskbar. Although there is an option of hiding the inactive icons so that only some are visible , for a person like me who dont use the windows system tray that much often it will be cool to disable it completely.
Open the run programs dialog box (either by hitting Win+R or finding the Run icon in the Windows Start Menu)
Type “regedit” to open the Windows Registry Editor
Find this section: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Create a new 32 bit DWORD Value by right-clicking and selecting new DWORD or clicking Edit, then New, then DWORD
Name your DWORD Value NoTrayItemsDisplay
Set the value to 1
And it is done. After Next time you log out of Windows or reboot your system tray should be gone. All of your programs will continue to run, but you won’t see any icons at the bottom right of your screen. You can even remove the clock by right clicking on the tray and disabling the clock.
This hack will not disable the applications , it just disables the tray. The useless applications should be disabled individually
To remove the hack, just delete the key, or change the value to 0. Note that the same registry key may exist in more than one location, so if you are trying to reverse this hack, you should search the registry for NoTrayItemsDisplay.
NOTE : you can use this hack in the reverse way that is if your system tray is disabled and you don’t know why, you should check this registry key.
Open the run programs dialog box (either by hitting Win+R or finding the Run icon in the Windows Start Menu)
Type “regedit” to open the Windows Registry Editor
Find this section: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Create a new 32 bit DWORD Value by right-clicking and selecting new DWORD or clicking Edit, then New, then DWORD
Name your DWORD Value NoTrayItemsDisplay
Set the value to 1
And it is done. After Next time you log out of Windows or reboot your system tray should be gone. All of your programs will continue to run, but you won’t see any icons at the bottom right of your screen. You can even remove the clock by right clicking on the tray and disabling the clock.
This hack will not disable the applications , it just disables the tray. The useless applications should be disabled individually
To remove the hack, just delete the key, or change the value to 0. Note that the same registry key may exist in more than one location, so if you are trying to reverse this hack, you should search the registry for NoTrayItemsDisplay.
NOTE : you can use this hack in the reverse way that is if your system tray is disabled and you don’t know why, you should check this registry key.
How to Disable Right-Clicking or Context Menu Anywhere on the Desktop
You can disable context menu or the menu you get when you right click on your mouse. You can use this trick as a prank or you can use this to prevent any one from changing options of your folders and applications by right clicking on them. Here is a way to disable the right-clicking or context menu on the entire Desktop, including the Start Button, Taskbar and the System Tray.
You need to use the Windows registry editor. Start the registry editor by going to Start > Run, typing in “regedit” and pressing [Enter].
First, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT _USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
Right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD value. Name this DWORD key as “NoViewContextMenu”. Double-click on this DWORD and set its value to 1. Click ‘OK’. This step will disable the context menu for the Desktop.
Next, in the same registry key as above, again right-click in the right pane and create another, new DWORD value. Name this DWORD “NoTrayContextMenu”. Double-click on this DWORD and set its value to 1. Click‘OK’. This step will disable the context menu for the System Tray.
Finally, we’ll disable the context menu for the Taskbar. To do this, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
Right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD value as before. Name this DWORD “TaskbarContextMenu”. The new DWORD will have a value of 0 - let it remain.
That’s it, you’re done.Exit the registry editor. Log Off and then log back On for the new settings to take effect. Now try right- clicking anywhere - you won’t be able to!
To restore the context menus, repeat the above procedures, and simply change back the values from 0 to 1 and 1 to 0 as necessary.
You need to use the Windows registry editor. Start the registry editor by going to Start > Run, typing in “regedit” and pressing [Enter].
First, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT _USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
Right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD value. Name this DWORD key as “NoViewContextMenu”. Double-click on this DWORD and set its value to 1. Click ‘OK’. This step will disable the context menu for the Desktop.
Next, in the same registry key as above, again right-click in the right pane and create another, new DWORD value. Name this DWORD “NoTrayContextMenu”. Double-click on this DWORD and set its value to 1. Click‘OK’. This step will disable the context menu for the System Tray.
Finally, we’ll disable the context menu for the Taskbar. To do this, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
Right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD value as before. Name this DWORD “TaskbarContextMenu”. The new DWORD will have a value of 0 - let it remain.
That’s it, you’re done.Exit the registry editor. Log Off and then log back On for the new settings to take effect. Now try right- clicking anywhere - you won’t be able to!
To restore the context menus, repeat the above procedures, and simply change back the values from 0 to 1 and 1 to 0 as necessary.
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