Speed Up Windows XP – Master Tutorial to Make Windows XP Super Fast

If you like this article, please share it with your friends and contacts on Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter using following buttons so that they can also enjoy the article:

This tutorial is meant for increasing the performance of Windows XP, either it can be a fresh installation or an older one.

1. Following is a registry file containing a few registry modifications, which are completely safe and can increase the performance of Windows. Just download the attached ZIP file, extract it and then run the file:

Tweak Windows XP

Restore Default Settings (Use this file if you want to restore default Windows settings)

2. Right-click on Desktop and select Properties, Now in the new window goto Appearance tab and click on Effects button. Now in the new opened window uncheck the following options:

Use the following transition effect for menus & tooltips.
Show shadows under menus.

3. Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Properties (or press <WIN> key + <Pause/Break> key), now goto Advanced tab in new window and click on Settings button in Performance section.

Now disable all unnecessary options in Visual Effects tab, you can remain following options enabled according to your requirements:

Show window contents while dragging.
Smooth edges of screen fonts.
Use common tasks in folders (If you use the left side pane in My computer)
Use drop shadows on icon labels on the desktop. (to make the desktop icons label transparent.)
Use visual styles on windows and buttons. (If you use XP themes.)

4. Open Windows Explorer and click on Tools -> Folder Options. Now go to View tab:

Now uncheck following options:

Automatically search for network folders & printers.
Display file size information in folder tips.
Display simple folder view in Explorer's Folders list.
Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color.
Show pop-up description for folder and desktop icons.
Use simple file sharing.

Other options don't affect the system performance. You can enable/disable them according to your requirements.

5. Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Manage (You can also open it by typing services.msc in RUN and press Enter). Now goto Services & Applications -> Services. Here you can set a few unnecessary services to Manual, which will not start with windows and will decrease the boot time and will increase system performance. Please follow the following tutorial to know about which services can be safely set to MANUAL:

Windows XP Services Configuration: Turn Off / Disable Unnecessary Services to Optimize Performance

6. Type msconfig in RUN and press Enter. Now goto Startup tab and deselect the unnecessary entries, which you don't want to start automatically with Windows, e.g. you can disable VGA driver utility, Sound Card utility, etc to speed up the startup time and to increase system performance.

7. Open Sound & Audio Devices in Control Panel (or type mmsys.cpl in RUN), goto Sounds tab and select No Sounds in Sound Scheme section. Or you can remain some of your favorite sounds but set Exit Windows, Start Windows, Windows Logoff, Windows Logon to (None).

8. Also don't forget to:

Defrag the hard disk regularly
Install only necessary software
Use the latest device drivers
Keep your Windows up-to-date

After following all the above mentioned points, you'll definitely notice major improvements in your Windows XP performance.

Other similar articles that may interest you:

This article was posted by VG in following section: Windows XP.

If you enjoyed this article, you can subscribe to our RSS feed or free newsletter to get all new articles directly in your Inbox. Also check out our most popular articles and archive to read other interesting articles. If you have some news or tip to share, please send us.

Have You Checked Out Following Popular Articles?

VG

^^ Try to repair Windows using setup disc.
Srinivas

Please follow the navigations to speed up your right click context menu.

Go to Registry Editor.(Start-> Run-> regedit)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.

In the right pane you will find "MenuShowDelay" DWORD Value. By default it will be 400.

Make it 200 or 100 and reboot your machine.

You will find good difference while loading right click context menu when select file or folder.

Thanks and Regards
Srinivas.
RAM

hi VG
when i run "xp_reg_codes", the error message is displayed:
"Cannot find regedit.exe file.
Do you want to create new file?"

plz help me.......
VG

^^ Make sure regedit.exe file exists in your Windows folder.
Shankar

Please make Step 4 more specific. From where to go to TOOLS
VG

^^ In Windows Explorer menubar.
iceman

Dear Sir.

Thank you very much for your informative walk-through. I am a computer numptie but even i managed to follow your commands and it has transformed my dongle supplied internet a great deal.

I shall now trawl through your site to see what else will help speed-up this previously very poor internet experience.

Best regards and thanks...

..iceman
VG

^^ Glad to help you. Enjoy your stay here.
oto

Thanks so much. This is nice!
Malik Asjid

wow mister its realy amazinggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg