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:
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.
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.
danny
you are the man. it is nice to see someone helping the little guy
NSDCars5
Thanks, all I have to do now is restart my notebook and see :D
Uewd
The problem Which I faced with XP sp3 is the slowness of this OS. When I installed XP sp2 (before upgrading to sp3), System was super fast. After installing sp3, it STARTS CRASHING. As I also read a topic on the internet:
#1 Asked:
After successful install of Windows XP sp3 my system is super slow. Takes
2-3 minutes to open any window or execute any command. I get no errors or
blue screen like others in this discussion thread get with sp3. It is just
so slow as to be unusable. I ran defrag and rebooted several times.
Suggestions?
#2 answered: If you uninstall SP3 does the problem still exist?
#1 replied: Yes. My computer back to super fast after uninstall SP3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT'S NOTICED ON MY PC
When using SP2
Idle RAM usage: from 100MB to 190MB
When using SP3
Idle RAM usage: from 120MB (Very rare) to 300MB
Performance is noticeable on a PC
The only problem that it uses a lot of ram. There is nothing instead of that problem. It is very fast, but crashes sometimes. Any help?
RGV
Hi... VG. my dvd drive not worked. can i format my pc using pen drive..? how ?
VG
^^ You can check following articles:
http://www.askvg.com/setup-from-usb-yet-another-utility-to-create-bootable-usb-drive-to-install-windows-vista-and-7/
http://www.askvg.com/wintoflash-utility-to-create-bootable-usb-drive-to-install-windows-xp-server-2003-vista-server-2008-and-7/
http://www.askvg.com/a-bootable-usb-utility-to-create-bootable-usb-drive-to-install-windows-vista-server-2008-and-7/
Uewd
I have a 512MB ram. I am planning to install 1GB ram, What is its price for a Dell laptop (Windows xp installed)?
Man Bahadur
It works ☺☺☺☺☺
Salman Yousuf Khan
The other simpler way, disable explorer and use xplorer2 as a replacement. I seriously hate the default windows explorer shell.
It might take time to figure how to completely disable explorer.exe and launch xplorer2 right at the startup but it sure works for me.
Hint: 1. Google how to disable explorer, there are thousands of articles online.
2. Use xplorer2 as a windows service. Adding it to the startup won't make it launch if you have disabled explorer
Edchelle
Thanks man! you're great!
ashley
hey vishal., can u plz help me., i think my xp is corrupted the system files.., whenever i minimize a windows it does not show up in the start taskbar...., and all services show disabled n the theme automatically goes to classic mode.., i hav got xp with sp3 .., plz help .., tc