Well who doesn’t need a performance boost to their computer? Well may be someone who have a ‘Dell Studio’ with 4 GB ram and 1GB graphics card will laugh about performance boost…  Anyway there are people like me who need  little tweaks to speed up their system. Heres some simple steps to make your windows work faster..

There are a few unwanted “features” windows offer that eats up your CPU, they are good tools though but if performance comes above visual effects in your priority list then this trick is for you..

On Windows :

1. Right Click on ‘My Computer’ select ‘Properties’
   (Short-cut: Win Key + Pause/Break)
2. If you are using Windows Vista, Click on the ‘Advanced system settings’ on the left panel
3. Now you are in ‘System Properties’ window, click on the ‘Advanced’ tab
4. Saw the ‘Performance’ section? click ‘Settings’ next to it
   
5. In the ‘Visual Effects’ tab you can see various options to enable or disable
6. You can Disable all the effects to get the maximum performance or you could just disable the most unwanted effects
7. Heres a list of effects that wont be much of use to you :
   • Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
   • Fade or slide menus into view
   • Fade or slide tooltips into view
   • Fadeout menu items after clicking
   • Show shadows under menus
   • Slide open combo boxes
   • Slide taskbar buttons
8. The second optional list to disable that really change the style of your Windows :
   • Use a background image for each folder type
   • Use common tasks in folders
   • Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop
   • Use visual styles on windows and buttons
9. You could simple select ‘Adjust for best performance’ option to disable all effects and styles

Now considering how you choose the options the system performance really changes!

Ever thought of downloading Windows Updates from their site without using ‘Automatic Updates’? If you are a ‘techie’ you must have thought of it at least once. Here is a simple way to do this :

1. Go to the Windows Update Web Site. Make sure you open it in Internet Explorer, for some reason this site wont open in any other browsers!
2. In the left panel, under Other Options, select “Personalize Windows Update”.
3. Under “Set Options for Windows Update”, select the checkbox for “Display the Link to Windows Update Catalog under ‘See Also’”, then click “Save Settings”.
4. Go back to the Windows Update web site.
5. In the left pane, under “See Also”, select “Windows Update Catalog”.
6. Select “Find Updates for Microsoft Operating Systems”.
7. Select the operating system and language of your choice.
8. Select “Critical Updates and Service Packs”.
9. Select all of the patches you’d like to download.
10. Then click on “Go to download basket” to download them..

Thats it!

Do you know? There are lots of tools that makes your life easier by configuring them in your Windows XP? But some of the cool tools are hidden by Microsoft for some reason, dont ask me why.. Anyway here are a handful of them..

To run any of these apps go to ‘Start’ => ‘Run’ and type the executable name (ie charmap).

1. Character Map = charmap.exe (very useful for finding unusual characters)
2. Disk Cleanup = cleanmgr.exe
3. Clipboard Viewer = clipbrd.exe (views contents of Windows clipboard)
4. Dr Watson = drwtsn32.exe (Troubleshooting tool)
5. DirectX diagnosis = dxdiag.exe (Diagnose & test DirectX, video & sound cards)
6. Private character editor = eudcedit.exe (allows creation or modification of characters)
7. IExpress Wizard = iexpress.exe (Create self-extracting / self-installing package)
8. Microsoft Synchronization Manager = mobsync.exe (appears to allow synchronization of files on the network for when working offline. Apparently undocumented).
9. Windows Media Player 5.1 = mplay32.exe (Retro version of Media Player, very basic).
10. ODBC Data Source Administrator = odbcad32.exe (something to do with databases)
11. Object Packager = packager.exe (to do with packaging objects for insertion in files, appears to have comprehensive help files).
12. System Monitor = perfmon.exe (very useful, highly configurable tool, tells you everything you ever wanted to know about any aspect of PC performance, for upper-geeks only )
    
13. Program Manager = progman.exe (Legacy Windows 3.x desktop shell).
14. Remote Access phone book = rasphone.exe (documentation is virtually non-existant).
15. Registry Editor = regedt32.exe [also regedit.exe] (for hacking the Windows Registry).
16. Network shared folder wizard = shrpubw.exe (creates shared folders on network).
17. File siganture verification tool = sigverif.exe
18. Volume Contro = sndvol32.exe (I’ve included this for those people that lose it from the System Notification area).
19. System Configuration Editor = sysedit.exe (modify System.ini & Win.ini just like in Win98! ).
20. Syskey = syskey.exe (Secures XP Account database – use with care, it’s virtually undocumented but it appears to encrypt all passwords, I’m not sure of the full implications).
21. Microsoft Telnet Client = telnet.exe
22. Driver Verifier Manager = verifier.exe (seems to be a utility for monitoring the actions of drivers, might be useful for people having driver problems. Undocumented).
23. Windows for Workgroups Chat = winchat.exe (appears to be an old NT utility to allow chat sessions over a LAN, help files available).
24. System configuration = msconfig.exe (can use to control starup programs)
25. Group policy editor = gpedit.msc used to manage group policies, and permissions

Please note that adding or editing any settings in these tools may harm your computer. Please make sure you know what you are doing..