In the past, we often used "defragmentation" to make Windows run faster. But now the 7200-rpm hard drive sold on the market has improved in both seek and transmission. Many models also come with an 8M cache. And the NTFS file system used by WinXP is more efficient than the FAT system. Therefore, "defragmentation" has a very limited effect on improving computer performance. Here are 23 tips that can greatly improve the performance of your computer and make WinXP run faster and more reliable. I hope it will help you:
1) Install the Ultra-133 hard drive expansion card or 8M in the system. The cached ATA hard drive can effectively reduce the startup time of the system.
2) Increase the memory to more than 512M.
3) Make sure that Windows XP is using the NTFS file system. Check method: Double-click "My Computer", right click on the C: drive, select "Properties", check the file system type. If it is FAT32, convert it to NTFS by first backing up all important data, then selecting "Run" in the "Start" menu and entering CMD to confirm. At the prompt, type CONVERT C : /FS :NTFS and Enter. In this process, it is best not to abort midway and ensure that there are no viruses in the system.
4) Turn off the file index function. The Windows Indexing Service extracts information from a large number of files on the hard disk and creates a "keyword index". This function speeds up the search for information from these files if there are thousands of files on the hard disk. But Windows takes a lot of time to create this index, and most people never use this feature. To close it, double-click "My Computer", right-click on the hard disk and the subfolders below, select "Properties", and cancel "Use Index to Quickly Find Files". If there is a warning or an error message (such as "Access Denied"), click "Ignore".
5) Upgrade the motherboard and graphics driver, upgrade BiOS.
6) Empty the Windows pre-read folder (WindowsPrefetch) once every three months or so. Windows stores frequently used data in a pre-read folder, which can greatly speed up the reading when you need to use the data again. But after a long time, there will be a large amount of garbage data that is no longer used in this folder, which will increase the reading time of Windows and affect the system performance.
7) Run the disk cleanup program once a month to delete temporary and useless files. Method: Double-click "My Computer", right click on the C: drive, select "Properties" and click the "Disk Cleanup" button.
8) Double-click the IDE ATA/ATAPI controller in the "Device Manager" and set the transfer mode of all connected devices to use DMA (if available) in the Primary/Secondary IDE Channel.
9) Update the wiring. After adopting the new hard disk, you should replace the 80-line Ultra-133 cable for all IDE devices at the same time. If only one hard disk is installed, the hard disk should be installed at the top of the cable. Do not install the interface in the middle of the cable. Otherwise, a signal abnormality may occur. For Ultra DMA hard drives, these anomalies can affect the best performance of the drive.
10) Clear all spyware (spyware). There are a lot of free software, like AdAware, that can do this. After the removal, the software containing spyware will not work properly. If you really need one of the software, reinstall it again.
11) Remove unnecessary programs from the startup group. Method: Select "Run" in the "Start" menu, enter "msconfig", enter the "Startup" tab, and cancel the items that you do not want to load at system startup. For projects that are not certain, check out the "WinTasks Process Library", which contains descriptions of known system processes, applications, and spyware. Can also be found in google and other WEB search engines.
12) Go to the "Add/Remove Programs" item in the Control Panel to delete unnecessary and unused programs.
13) Close all unnecessary animations and active desktops. Method: Click the "System" icon in the Control Panel, go to the "Advanced" tab, and "Set" the "Performance". On the "Visual Effects" tab, select the "Customize" radio button and the relevant user interface will be displayed. The feature is set to disabled.
14) Use Tweak-XP software to edit the system registry to further improve performance.
15) Regularly visit the Microsoft Windows Update site to download all updates marked with the "Critical" logo.
16) Update anti-virus software every week. It is best to install only one anti-virus software in the system. Installing multiple sets of software will adversely affect performance.
17) Do not install more than 500 fonts. Too many fonts will slow down the system.
18) Do not partition the hard disk. Windows XP's NTFS file system is more efficient to run on a larger partition. Previously, people had to partition the hard disk without having to format the entire hard disk in order to facilitate data organization or reinstall the operating system. In the Windows XP NTFS file system, reinstalling the operating system eliminates the need to reformat the partition, and data organization can be done through folders. For example, you don't need to put a lot of data on the D: disk, you can create a folder named "D disk". The data is placed in this folder, which does not affect the system performance. Good organization.
19) Test the memory module (RAM) is intact. It is recommended to use the free program MemTest86, first use this program to make a boot disk. After booting the computer with this disk, the program will run 10 different tests on the memory stick, and each test will be performed 3 times. If you encounter an error during the test, turn off the computer, unplug one of the memory modules (if there are multiple), and retest. The memory stick that is still broken, put on a good one.
20) If a CD or DVD burner is installed on your computer, sometimes upgrading the driver will make the recording faster.
21) Cancel unnecessary services. Windows XP calls a number of services that users may not use at all. These services not only affect the speed of operation, but also protect the security of the system. Therefore, you can disable unnecessary system services as needed. Method: Select "Run" in the "Start" menu, enter "Services.msc" to open the "Service Management Console", and start or stop the service by changing the startup type of the service.
22) If you feel that the Windows single window browser is slow, you can improve it by opening "My Computer" and clicking "Tools" -> "Folder Options" -> "View", Check "Use a separate process to open the folder window." This prevents a slower device from affecting the response speed of the user interface.
23) Open the case and clean the dust and debris, at least once a year. Also check that all fans are working properly and that the capacitors on the motherboard are not expanding or leaking.
At this point, 23 strokes have been used again, is it more satisfied with your system?
Reminder: Although "defragmentation" has limited effect on improving computer performance, a hard disk without debris is always more than one. Fragmented hard drives consume less power. Moreover, once the hard drive is damaged, if the data on the hard drive is stored continuously, it is easier to recover. Therefore, it is still recommended to wait at intervals (depending on the machine usage, from months to a year) , do a "defragmentation" of the hard disk.