More Power: Registry Hacks to Speed Up XP Hack #110
Put your Registry-hacking knowledge to good use: hack your way to running
Windows XP at top speed.
Creating and marketing tuning and customization utilities for the Windows
XP operating system is quickly becoming big business. A Google search will
turn up hundreds of sites and programs dedicated to tweaking Windows XP.
But no matter what type of interface is developed to make system tweaking
easier and safer for the average user, the end result is that the changes are
reflected in XP by modifying the Registry. For some people, commercial
tweaking utilities might be the method of choice, but with a few precautions
and safeguards it’s possible to enhance system performance using only
those tools supplied with Windows XP.
As you learned in Chapter 7, you can use the Registry Editor [Hack #83] to edit
the Registry. Make sure you take the precautions outlined in that chapter
and back up your Registry [Hack #86], no matter how comfortable you are editing
the thing.
No single tweak is going to take an ancient PC and turn it into a gamer’s
dream machine. It’s even unlikely that a number of tweaks will achieve substantial
performance gains, but every little bit does help. As long as you keep
your expectations realistic, you’ll learn something about the Registry and
hopefully see a performance increase in the process.
Menu Speed
When XP first appeared, there was a lot of conversation about the new interface,
both good and bad. In spite of the initial complaints, most users stick
with the default settings rather than reverting to the Classic interface found
in previous Windows versions. But you might want to change the delay you
notice when you click the Start menu. I see no reason for there to be any
delay when I click the Start menu. Effects are pretty, but I wouldn’t click it if
I didn’t have business inside, so let’s get it open and get moving. The default
speed can be adjusted with a quick Registry hack.
Go to the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\
MenuShowDelay. The default value is 400. Set it to 0 to remove the delay
completely, but if you do that it will be nearly impossible to move the
mouse fast enough not to activate All Programs if you mouse over it en
route to your final selection. Pick a number that suits your style, make the
change, and then test it until you find a good compromise between speed
and usability.
476 | System Performance
#110 More Power: Registry Hacks to Speed Up XP
HACK
Place Windows Kernel into RAM
It’s a given that anything that runs in RAM will be faster than an item that
has to access the hard drive and virtual memory. Rather than have the kernel
that is the foundation of XP using the slower Paging Executive functions,
use this hack to create and set the DisablePagingExecutive DWORD to a
value of 1.
Perform this hack only if the system has 256MB or more of
installed RAM!
Edit the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive to 1 to
disable paging and have the kernel run in RAM (set the value to 0 to undo
this hack). Exit the Registry and reboot.
Alter Prefetch Parameters
Prefetching (the reading of system boot files into a cache for faster loading) is
a commonly overlooked component that can have a significant impact on
system boot time. This tweak allows you to select which components will
make use of the prefetch parameters. To see which files are gathered using
each setting, clear the prefetch cache located at C:\Windows\Prefetch and
then enable one of the settings listed in this hack. Clear the cache and repeat
for each setting.
Set the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher
to 0 to disable prefetching, 1 to prefetch application launch files, 2 to
prefetch boot files, or 3 to prefetch as many files as possible.
Disable 8.3 Name Creation in NTFS
Files that use the 8.3 naming convention can degrade NTFS drive performance.
Unless you have a good reason for keeping the 8.3 naming convention
intact (such as if you’re using 16-bit programs), a performance gain can
be achieved by disabling it.
Set the Registry DWORD key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to 1. Exit the Registry
and reboot.