System Tweaks for Gameing and Performance

Sourcer_2002

Ok everyone does it....im not talking about overclocking...im talking about what you do to your windows XP or other version of windows to get the most out of it. What do you tweak, install, disable, activate....that you think helps you machine preform better?

digitalwanderer

I use an XP tweaker utility and just hit it's auto-tweak button, and I now score BETTER in XP than in 98se!

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WTF is up with the sigs?

shuki

what!!!!! when did DW go up to XP???

digitalwanderer

Just a dual-boot on Bubbles, I HAD to ta see how the new rig performed under it.

Well, that and it was the only way I could get Chaser or TR:AOD to install....

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WTF is up with the sigs?

Mr cairo

i do a few things after a reinstall ( dunno if their all good or not )


1//// i use blackvipers services guide to disable the non essential stuff

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm



2/// i run an app called atomicxp http://www.subzeropc.com/downloads/ it says it should only be used on a clean install so best to stick with that

heres what it does ( you can choose to make the change or not it dosnt change anything without asking first )

Listed below are the changes you can choose to make to your system with
atomicXP.

INSTALLS
--------
* CD Player Deluxe (Adds to the Start Menu as Well)
Directly from Windows 2000, the way a CD SHOULD be played.
("CD Player Deluxe")

* ASPI layer 4.60(1021)
Required for Windows to talk properly to your CD and DVD drives, especially
for burning programs.

* Associate .cda files with CD Player Deluxe
("Associate .cda Files with CD Player")

* Associate media files with Media Player 6.4, Add Media Player 6.4 to the
Start Menu (Whingers can run Media Player 8.reg in the Program Files\atomicXP
directory to return file formats to WMP8)
("Associate Media Files with MP 6.4")

CREATES SHORTCUTS TO
--------------------
* Regedit
The Registry Editor
("Create System Tools Shortcuts")

* MSConfig
Alter your system startup routines
("Create System Tools Shortcuts")

* Group Policy Editor
Alter almost everything on your system
("Create System Tools Shortcuts")

WINDOWS EXPLORER
----------------

* Disable Zip Folders.
Disables the extremely slow function in Windows Explorer that displays Zip
Files as folders. NOTE: this will return the zip file association to being
opened by Windows. If you have installed WinRAR or some equivalent, you will
have to reassociate these files.
("Disable Zip Folders in Explorer")

* Remove shared user folders.
If you have other users on your computer, their document folders show up in Windows
Explorer as shared folders.
("Remove Shared User Folders")

* Set Control Panel to Classic View.
("Classic Control Panel")

* Show hidden files.
("Show Hidden Files")

* Show "Protected Operating System Files".
Windows hides files which are critical to the system running, or are design
elements (such as Thumbs.db and Desktop.ini) by default. This allows you to
view them.
("Show Protected OS Files")

* Show known file extensions.
Windows by default hides the extensions of known files. This shows the full
file name.
("Show Known File Extensions")

* Disable "Simple Folder View".
By default when you click on a folder, it expands the contents of that folder
in the tree view. This returns browsing to normal Windows standards.
("Disable Simple Folder View")

* Disable Baloon Tips.
Removes the annoying Baloon Tip "Helpers"
("Disable Baloon Tips""

* Display Correct Capitalisation.
Forces Windows Explorer to display paths with their correct capitalization,
not the "fake" windows capitalisation (useful for web designers using linux
boxes!).
("Display Correct Capitalisation")

* Turn off "Web Barricades".
Switches off the html files that block the root directory of your hard drive,
windows and program files directories for "safety".
("Turn Off Web Barricades")

* Turns off default "click" noise.
("Turn Off Default "Click" Noise")

* Disable Searching for Scheduled Tasks.
Most people don't ever use scheduled tasks. This speeds up network connections
by stopping the check for Scheduled Tasks on remote machines. Especially useful
when connecting to Windows 9x based machines.
("Disable Network Scheduled Tasks""

* Force the search engine to search for all files.
Makes the search engine in Windows Explorer search system directories, hidden
files, and "slow" files.
("Force Search to Search All Files")

* Turn on Advanced Search panel.
Removes the annoying search assistant, autocomplete, and returns the panel to
Windows 2000 style.
("Force Win2k Style Search Panel")

* Turn off "Use Simple File Sharing".
Makes things more of a headache in terms of file sharing across a network and
setting permissions. This reverts the share dialogue back to Windows 2000 style
shares.
("Turn Off Simple File Sharing")

* Clears recent documents on exit.
Empties the "Documents" folder in you Start Menu when you restart/shut down/
log off.
("Clear Recent Documents on Exit")

* Start Windows Explorer in a separate process.
Run every instance of Explorer as a separate process. While it may use more
memory, if one instance of Explorer goes down, it doesn't take the other with
it.
("Start Explorer in a Separate Process")

START MENU
----------
* Turn off "Personalized Menus".
Removes the extremely annoying feature which truncates your menus based on
how often you do or do not use an application.
("Turn Off Personalized Menus")

* Expand Control Panel.
Under "Settings" on the Start Menu, the Control Panel is now expandable.
("Expand Control Panel")

* Expand Network Connections.
Under "Settings" on the Start Menu, the Network Connections are now
expandable.

* Remove "My Documents" from the Documents menu.
("Remove My Documents from Start Menu")

* Remove "My Pictures" from the Documents menu.
("Remove My Pictures from Start Menu")

OPERATING SYSTEM AND DESKTOP
----------------------------
* Add a huge amount of more options to the "Add/Remove Windows Components"
section.
("Add More Options to Add/Remove")

* Auto end non-responding tasks.
("Auto End Tasks")

* Set the "Group Taskbar" function to operate when 2 or more instances of
the same application are open, rather than when the taskbar is full.
("Set Group Taskbar < 2")

* Remove "Shortcut to" prefix from shortcuts.
("Remove "Shortcut to" Prefix")

* Turn off "Desktop CleanUp Wizard".
("Turn Off Desktop Cleanup Wizard")

* Turn on Numlock by default.
("Turn On Numlock by Default")

* Turn on "View Windows Content While Dragging".
("View Window Contents When Drag")

* Turn on Font Smoothing.
("Enable Font Smoothing")

* Set the Command Prompt File Complete and Path Complete key to TAB.
("File/Path Complete = TAB in CMD")

* Turn on QuickEdit in the Command Prompt.
("Enable QuickEdit in CMD")

* Remove the "Places" section from the Open and Save dialogs.
("Remove "Places" from Open/Save")

* Turn off StickyKeys and Togglekeys.
("Turn Off Sticky/Toggle Keys")

* Turn off Low Disk Space Checks.
("Turn Off Low Disk Space Checks")

* Turn off Autorun.
("Turn Off Autorun")

* Turn off Dr Watson.
Stops Dr Watson from dumping files and taking up space, and stops Dr Watson's
debugger from automatically launching.
("Turn Off Dr Watson")

* Disable Task Scheduler.
("Disable Task Scheduler")

* Disable the Automatic Update service.
("Disable Automatic Updates")

* Disable sending error reports to Microsoft.
("Disable Error Reporting to MS")

* Disable IMAPI CD Burning Service.
Stops Windows XP's nasty burning service, allowing third party programs like
Nero and CDRWin to function better.
("Disable WinXP CD Burn Service")

* Add speaker icon to systray.
Adds the volume icon to the system tray, aka previous versions of Windows
(sound card must be installed in Windows first)
("Add Speaker Icon to Systray")

* Stop Windows Messenger from autoloading with Windows.
("Stop Windows Messenger Auto Load")

* Force QOS to give all available bandwidth.
By default, QOS reserves 20% of your bandwidth for operating system purposes.
This allows you to regain full control of all your bandwidth.
("Force QOS to Give Full Bandwidth")

* Hide inactive icons in the system tray.
("Hide Inactive Icons in Systray")

INTERNET EXPLORER
-----------------
* Set homepage to about:blank.
Loads up Internet Explorer with a blank page, so you don't have to wait for
anything to load.
("Set Homepage to about:blank")

* Disable the script debugger.
Stops Internet Explorer bitching about scripting problems on the page.
("Disable Script Debugger")

* Stop Internet Explorer checking for new updates.
("Turn off Automatic update")

* Turn off Personalized Menus.
Removes the extremely annoying feature which truncates your menus based on
how often you do or do not use an application.
("Turn Off Personalized Menus")

* Turn off the "My Pictures Hoverbar".
("Disable My Pictures Hoverbar")

* Turn off the "Auto Image Resize".
("Disable Auto Image Resize")

* Make it possible to remove "Links" folder from the favourites menu.
("Allow Removal of Links Folder")

* Cache updates once per session.
("Update Cache Once Per Session")

* Return the search function to Windows 2000 style.
("Make Search Win2k Style")

NOTEPAD
-------
* Set font to Courier New.
("Set Font to Courier New")

* Turn word wrap on.
("Turn Word Wrap On")

MEDIA PLAYER 8
--------------
* Alter Media Player 8 Settings.
Turns off "Allow Internet sites to uniquely identify your Player", turns off
"Acquire licenses automatically", turns access right of Internet sites to
"No access", turns off automatically adding purchased music to the library,
Turns off "Protect content" under the "Copy Music" section, turns access
rights of your music for other applications to full.
("Alter Media Player 8 Settings")

* Disable downloading codecs automatically.
Disables the automatic downloading of needed codecs.
("Disable Automatic Codec Download")

MICROSOFT OFFICE XP
-------------------
* Disable sending error reports to Microsoft.
("Disable Sending Error Reports to MS")

* Turns off Personalized Menus.
Removes the extremely annoying feature which truncates your menus based on
how often you do or do not use an application.
("Disable Personalized Menus")

* Removes every last trace of the Office Assistant (Please do NOT install this
in the Office XP installation, for your own sanity).
("Remove Office Assistant")


i do the stuff on dead fish site

http://www.dead-fish.com/articles/Re...esources.shtml



finally i do a few registary tweaks to sort out the pagefile and stuff but my cd with all the tweaks on is AWOL at the mo ill upload a zip file as and when

then the obvious stuff update drivers defrag etc

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merry

And also set all (most) games' compatibility mode to Win95

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There is a war between the ones who say there is a war
and the ones who say there isn't.
~~Leonard Cohen

Dyre Straits

Why? I haven't set any games to compatibility mode yet.

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BWX

huh? Better on XP than 98se? Woe- that is amazing. Tweak XP? I think I've had that on my machine before- Is it freeware? Does it say what it tweaks when it does it's auto tweak? That's amazing- I've always gotten better scores/performance in games and benchies w/ 98se.

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Warpy

Tweak Xp 2.0.11a was excellent till i came across this: WInXp Manager 4.7.1

This tweaker wicked! The GUI is outstaning and the opimization stuff beats TweakXp hands down.

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Esaz666

I use 98lite with micro option enabled. Ive regressed from xp.
Ive got no Internet exsplorer or any web integration, also ive got 512mb
so with 98 I have it set to no swap most of the time.

I tend to reinstall every few month's especially if ive been messing around
tweaking drivers and stuff. Im not sure which is the best os for game's
but i tend to get better fps with 98se. Some games work much better.
It seemes to make a difference if i have reinstalled the ati cat's,i allways seem to get
a smother performance when i have re-formated and only installed cat's once.it seems strange
iv'e had it with Xp and 98, it's not allway's the case but more often than not. it's a good idea to
run a duel boot system,1 for games and stuff and the other for apps's music etc.
Im still learning new stuff every day im on the computer.

cheer's for your time.

Warpy

Thats great Esaz666, but try and space out your replies..... Some of us need to exercise our eye muscles! Welcome aboard anywaz.

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