Speed Tweaks For XP - Get Maximum Windows Performance

We would surely want to get the best out of the operating system that we have in our own computers. Sometimes, many experience a little slow down with our Windows operating system. We still haven't fully identified some of the things that could speed up our Windows XP operating system. All you need to have are some speed tweaks for XP. Once you are able to know some of these, you will have your Windows XP work to their full advantage without even budging a little. This article will offer some of the hundreds of speed tweaks for XP to give your Windows a little performance boost at every use.

Having the best out of your Windows XP system is not only about making it work faster than you want it to be. It is also being able to see the fonts clearly in your screen so you could input data faster. ClearType is one of the options provided by Microsoft in their systems in order to provide the users with a clearer and more improved appearance of text, especially when they are using LCD flat screen monitors. All you have to do is to visit the Microsoft Typography services and follow the instructions that it says. After installing the software provided in the link, you can now adjust ClearType in your Control Panel.

The Windows Media Player is another tool which we often use in our computer. Sadly, though, there are times that we haven't fully used the capability of this program to its best extent. If you are a movie buff and you would like to watch a flick while enabling the best high quality video and audio in your media player, then all you have to do is to tweak your XP to set it in an above normal priority. Just create a new textfile in your C drive, but give it with a .bat extension. Once that you've saved it, right click the file and choose Edit. Put this line in the textfile: start /AboveNormal C:\"Program Files"\"Windows Media Player"\wmplayer.exe %1 %*. Save the file and close it promptly, making sure that it has a .bat extension. Next step is to register your media files to be included in this batchfile. In Windows Explorer, go to Tools, then choose Folder Options. Go to File Types. Go to the AVI filetype and click Change. Point to the Above Normal file that you have created and click OK.

If you want to speed up the performance of your system, then you have to adjust the graphics. Sure, Windows XP boasts of a lot of state-of-the-art graphics, but this can sometimes make your system run slower. Go to the My Computer icon and click Properties. Go to the Advanced tab, and click the button under Performance, and navigate to the Visual Effects tab. Select Adjust for Best Performance. This will let your windows assume a Windows 2000 look, but nevertheless, this will speed up the performance of your operating system.

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NTP Servers - Basic NTP Configuration

Network Time Protocol has been developed to keep computers synchronized. All computers are prone to drift and accurate timing is essential for many time critical applications.

A version of NTP is installed on most versions of Windows (although a stripped down version called SNTP -Simplified NTP- is in older versions) and Linux but is free to download from NTP.org.

When synchronising a a network it is preferable to use a dedicated NTP server that receives a timing source from an atomic clock either via specialist radio transmissions or the GPS network. However, many Internet time references are available, some more reliable than others, although it must be noted Internet based time sources can't be authenticated by NTP, leaving your computer vulnerable to threats.

NTP is hierarchical and arranged into stratum. Stratum 0 is timing reference, while stratum 1 is a server connected to a stratum 0 timing source and a stratum 2 is a computer (or device) attached to a stratum 1 server.

The Basic configuration of NTP is done using the /etc/ntp.conf file you have to edit it and place the IP address of stratum 1 and stratum 2 servers. Here is an example of a basic ntp.conf file:

server xxx.yyy.zzz.aaa prefer (time server address such as time.windows.com)
server 123.123.1.0
server 122.123.1.0 stratum 3
Driftfile /etc/ntp/drift

The most basic ntp.conf file will list 2 servers, one that it wishes to synchronise too and an IP address for itself. It is good housekeeping to have more than one server for reference in case one goes down.

A server with the tag 'prefer' is used for a trusted source ensuring NTP will always use that server when possible. The IP address will be used in case of problems when NTP will synchonise with itself is. The drift file is where NTP builds a record of the system clock's drift rate and automatically adjusts for it.

NTP will adjust your system time but only slowly. NTP will await at least ten packets of information before trusting the time source. To test NTP simply change your system clock by half an hour at the end of the day and the time in the morning should be correct.

Source : http://www.ezinearticles.com/index.php?NTP-Servers---Basic-NTP-Configuration&id=1257344

Three ways on how to make your computer run faster

In this computer how to guide I will you the three most important things to make your computer run faster. If you these 3 really simple instructions your computer will strengthen its performance.

Using MSCONFIG To Toggle Off Start Up Applications

Using MSCONFIG will authorize you to close all applications that are loading up when you start up your pc. Most of applications take it upon themselves to believe that they need to be taking up space in the background even when they are not being taking advantage of. we might need to running such as our anti viruses, but a many of them we don't really need. A great example is MSN Messenger. When you download and use this app, it will automatically use up RAM when you start your computer, you don't have to have that.. I will show you now how to get rid of pesky programs at boot up time to make a computer run faster.

1. Move your mouse to your start button, press it and press "Run". It should be instantly right on "all programs".



2. A box will appear labeled "Open:" MSCONFIG in the area provided and click enter or pressOK.



3. You will now show the System Configuration Utility. Press the "startup" tab all the way to the right.



4. You are going to be be taken to a list of all the "startup"applications.



In Windows XP, all of Windows' must have applications are booted up through titled "Windows Services." This basically means that almost allof the startupapplications you in XP are 100% optional and could beswitched off. However, a good rule of thumb is to stop just those applications that you are familiar with and don't have to have running all day. When in doubt, leave it on.

5. Click the Ok button. You are going to receive a prompt that will request you to reboot your PC before any of the changes take place. Pressrestart and your PC will automatically restart and your options will . You will now have a quicker start up time and your computer will move speedier without all those applications running in the background.

Stopping all the start up programs is a terrific way on how to make your computer run faster.


Every Microsoft Windows operating system contains a registry. Your system registry has a massive amount of info about your PC, and is why we continue to ger feedback frompeople that after utilizing their PC for a short range of time, it won't work the way it started. This is created by lost entries that inhabitt in your system registry, that probably exist because of you don't use or that never got correctly taken off your computer. By getting rid of these entries, you can significantly accelerate the performance of your PC.

Around the web there are tons of alike programs on the internet, but worked the for me. Its consistent and always the correct problem. I have installed a applications claiming to be similar to this one that claims it searches for and errors but really finds nothing, just a scam.

You a 100% free scan so you can try it out to see how many errors your PC has. Now go ahead and click below to use your free scan to search out your system and see how many errors your computer probably has.

To all the errors Registry Fix will cost you a little bit for a complete version of their software. Believe me though if you need a speedy jump in computer performance this is an absolute must. The registry must be fixed to make a computer run faster.

As you use your hard drive, it can create bad sectors. Bad sectors reduce hard disk performance and more often than not make data writing (such as file saving) challenging, or even impossible. The Error Checking program scans the hard drive for damaged sectors, and scans for file system errors to look and see whether specific files or folders are unorganized.

you make us of your PC daily, you need to run this tool every seven days to help neglectdata . also help in your attempt to make a computer run faster!

To use the Error Checking utility:

Important: Make sure to exit out of all files before using the Error-Checking utility. This can also make a computer run faster!

1. Press Start, and then hit My Computer.



2. When you get to the My Computer window, right-click the hard drive you to run a scan for broken sectors, now please press Properties.



3. In the Properties dialog area, hit the Tools tab.



4. hit the Check Now button.


5. In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Scan for and tryrecovery of bad sectors check box, and then tab Start.

In most circumstances, select Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

6. If broken sectors are detected, choose to fix them.

Only choose the Automatically fix file system errors check box if you think that your disk has bad sectors.


Source : http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=973463