Get Rid of your Sluggish Windows XP Install Forever

The Windows registry is a directory which stores settings and options for the operating system for Microsoft Windows 32-bit versions, 64-bit versions and Windows Mobile. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, operating system software, most non-operating system software, users, preferences of the PC, etc. Whenever a user makes changes to Control Panel settings, file associations, system policies, or most installed software, the changes are reflected and stored in the registry. The registry also provides a window into the operation of the kernel, exposing runtime information such as performance counters and currently active hardware. This use of registry mechanism is conceptually similar to the way that Sysfs and procfs expose runtime information through the file system (traditionally viewed as a place for permanent storage), though the information made available by each of them differs tremendously.

The Windows registry was introduced to tidy up the profusion of per-program INI files that had previously been used to store configuration settings for Windows programs. These files tended to be scattered all over the system, which made them difficult to track.

The introduction of the registry created a new problem. As more programs write to the registry, the database size grows. As it grows, system performance can begin to suffer. Uninstall programs and poorly written applications do not properly clean up after themselves. This compounds the problem.

There are two solutions to this problem. Reinstall Windows or install a registry cleaner.

Windows can run many applications in the background. Often these programs run without your knowledge. Before long, you can have many programs running that can slow down your system. Take control of these programs with a simple tool to manages what runs during your system startup.

You can get some sense of what is running in the background by look at your task tray area. Each of those small icons represents a running background program.

This many not be the entire picture. Some programs that run in the background to not have an associated icon so you will not know there are there.

To get a good sense of what is running in your system during startup you can look at your Start folder and the registry. Startup programs are added to both of these areas when you install software.

The items in the startup tab are not system critical items. You generally won’t crash your computer or break anything by not running these items. You may however loose functionality.

For example, I use the OpenOffice productivity suite. There is a startup item that loads OpenOffice on system boot. This makes launching OpenOffice faster when I’m ready to use it. I can remove it from startup and OpenOffice still works ok.

You can remove these programs with the System Configuration utility included in your Windows installation. The System Configuration utility helps you find problems with your Windows XP configuration.

Run it by clicking Start->Run and typing msconfig in the dialog box. Click Ok.

One of the tabs you will see is the Startup tab. This tab displays all of the programs that run during startup and allows you to selectively enable and disable them. After changing the items on or off, click Ok. You will have to reboot your computer to have the changes take effect.

I would disable everything than selectively enable each item until you begin to experience the performance hit. Once you’ve identified the culprit(s) you can make a judgment call over whether it is worth using the offending application.

If you are looking for a more user friendly way to manage your startup programs. Your Uninstaller! is a commercial alternative which will do this and much more.

Which ever way you go, it’s important to understand what applications are running on your system and more importantly how to control them.

If you have to wait every time you open a new Explorer window then this tip is for you.

Open up Explorer and select the Folder Options menu underneath the Tools menu.

This will open a set of property pages which lets you change various folder options. Select the View tab and then uncheck the option Automatically search for network folders and printers.

Click Ok to close the dialog box.

This tip will work if your machine is connected to a network and you have network shared folders. If you have any network folders under Network Places then Windows will look for them to display in the explorer. If you have a slow connection it will take a while for Windows to recognize that the folder isn’t available. In the meantime, the Explorer window doesn’t display.

If you have any other Explorer tips, please tell us about them.

Windows applications running in the background, if poorly written, can wreck havoc on your PC. This article looks at how to track them down and kill them.
Continue reading →

On Microsoft Windows operating systems, a Windows service is a long-running executable that performs specific functions and which is designed not to require user intervention. Windows services can be configured to start when the operating system is booted and run in the background as long as Windows is running, or they can be started manually when required. They are similar in concept to a Unix daemon. They appear in the processes list in Windows Task Manager, most often with a username of SYSTEM, LOCAL SERVICE or NETWORK SERVICE, though not all processes with the SYSTEM username are services.

Many of these services are not required to run Windows properly. You can improve your system performance by stop the services that are not needed regularly.

Disclamer: Stopping services can have unintended consequences on your system. You should proceed with caution.

When looking for services to stop, I generally test one at a time. If there are no side effects, I’ll keep going, otherwise I’ll turn the service back on.

The general procedure for disabling themes is the same for every theme. First, will look at the procedure, than I’ll provide you with some services you can probably disable (note the disclamer above).

Open the Services Applet

1. Open the Control Panel by Clicking Start->Control Panel
2. Double click the the Adminstrative Tools folder
3. Double click the Services applet.

Select the service

When you open the Services applet, you are presented with a list of all the services installed on the system. Right click the service you want to disable and select Properties.

Once you open the properties, select the Startup Type drop down list and choose Disabled. Click the Stop button then click OK.

Once you click Ok, the service will no longer run on startup.

Now that you have the basic procedure, here are some services you probably don’t need.

• Alerter
• ClipBook
• Messenger
• Net Tcp Port Sharing
• Network DDE
• Network DDE DSDM
• Routing and Remote Access
• Telnet

Here is a big list of Windows XP services installed with Windows.
The services you have installed and enabled will vary depending on your system configuration.

If you know of other services to disable, please share them here.