How To Cope With XP in 2009 And Beyond

This was originally written for a friend who had problems with an aging XP system that was cripplingly slow, but since I haven't posted anything of substance in a while I thought I'd share with the world wide web.

 

These tips are best used on an XP system already in good order to maintain that order and a system that is hobbling like a lame duck really should undergo a full formatting and OS re-install - but if you really can't be arsed with that then following this guide should see you some sort of performance boost, and some of the programs I've advised (such as Ccleaner and Revo) will see you gain a substantial amount of HD space (in many cases).

 

• Clean your case! Your computer sucks in cool air from outside the case to circulate around the inside carrying heat produced by the computers components and to be dumped out the back. Air contains dust and that dust will often remain inside your case: it particularly likes to stick to fans. Excessive dust can cause unwanted temperature increases (putting additional unnecessary strain on your system) and make your fans much nosier than they should be. To clean the inside of the computer acquire yourself two small/fine paint brushes, an anti-static wrist band and a can of compressed air (no lubricant). Open the side panels of your case, clip on your wrist band and use the compressed air to blow out the dust. The brushes should be used to hold still any fans while you blast them with air (the fan can build up harmful charge if allowed to freely spin), stubborn dust may require use of the brushes to remove. Important areas to clean are: the CPU fan, The GPU fan, the PSU and any case fans - these are the places the worst of the dust will gather and the places that will have most impact on your system. DO NOT vacuum the inside of your machine, vacuums may generate static which can damage your components. Instead use the procedure outlined above and vacuum the freed dust out side the case once it's closed back up.

 

• Many XP users either don't use any or use crappy system sucking programs for system protection. Many people are using inferior products from the likes of Norton and paying for them when a variety of great free alternatives exist. Everyone should have at the very least a firewall, popular free firewalls include ZoneAlarm and Comodo. I have used both and preferred Comodo - as long as you turn off Comodos Defense+ features.There are also a variety of free virus scanners around, check out the download.com charts to see what's currently in vogue. I have used AVG in the past and currently use Avast!. I'd advise AVG for people who want to install and forget, Avast! for people who value the concept of a boot-time scan, Avast! also had better real-time protection compared to the version of AVG I bumped it for (some time in 2008)

 

• Using Microsoft's Internet Explorer? Stop! It's slower and less secure than almost every other web browser out there, try an alternative: Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Safari

 

• Download Ccleaner, one of the best Windows maintenance tools around. Run the Registry cleaner regularly (at least once a month) and the Cleaner function periodically (check through both the windows and application tabs and uncheck anything you don't want cleaned, in the advanced section check old prefetch data and hotfix uninstallers)

 

• The default Microsoft defragger is crap, download Smart Defrag, this has 2 powerful features, 1) it arranges data so the most frequently used stuff is at the start of your drive, giving you faster access and 2) it runs in the backround using minimal system resources and auto-defrags your drive keeping it in tip-top condition.

 

• Add/Remove programs doesn't properly remove programs, it leaves all sorts of shit behind, Revo Uninstaller does a better job, it will gut out any and all registry keys and leftover folders after programs are uninstalled meaning they are fully uninstalled. Always use Revo to uninstall programs. Revo has a bunch of other useful features, check them out yourself.

 

• You can use either Ccleaner or Revo for this one - in either program you're looking for the Tools menu, then the autorun manager/startup tool. Here is a list of every program and service that starts when your computer boots. Look through them and decide which ones you need and which ones you don't, keeping this list to a minimum will greatly improve the time it takes your machine to boot. Be careful though, some of these are critical Windows processes, so if you're not sure what it is leave it be or google it to find out if it can be safely stopped or not. 

 

• Most people have Virus Scanners and Firewalls, but what many don't have are anti-malware, spyware and adware programs - these are all things that Virus scanners miss and they're all harmful to your machines performance and your personal privacy. Malwarebytes is an excellent malware detector.

 

• Running XP from memory can keep the system running at its fastest - provided you have a decent amount of memory (at least half a gig) do the following: Start>Run>type 'regedit'>locate the following folder: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management>in Memory Management doubleclick DisablePagingExecutive and swap the 0 for a 1>close regedit and reboot.

 

• XP caches DLLs in memory even after the program has been shutdown, prevent this as follows: start>run>type 'regedit'>Locate HKEY_LOCAL-MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer>rightclick in an empty space in the Explorer folder>create new DWORD value called AlwaysUnloadDLL>double click the new value, give it a value of 1>close regedit and reboot.

 

• Chkdsk your harddrives: this checks for and fixes drive errors. Rightclick your harddrive in My Computer>Properties>Tools>Error Checking: Check Now>click both options, click start>reboot. Warning: This may take fucking ages.

 

• Is your system slow to shutdown? After you do this it won't be: start>run>type 'regedit'> find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control>rightclick WaitToKillServiceTimeout>enter 1000 as a value>close regedit and reboot, yournext shutdown should be quicker.

 

• The following registry tomfuckery will stop Windows asking you if you want to close programs that are hanging when you shutdown: it'll just close them itself. Open regedit again, find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, doubleclick AutoEndTasks change from 0 to 1, close and reboot.
   

That's about all folks. All that's left to say is that if your computer is old, you're not ready for a new one and you're fed up of Windows, check out Linux, it may just change the way you think about computing forever.

 

freedoms_stain, apparently "tomfuckery" isn't a word, out.