Monday, March 24, 2003		Feature

THE Windows XP operating system assumes a lot of things to give you the best performance and looks. The end result is that your computer looks like a racehorse but runs slower that a tortoise. Things like cursor shadow, sliding menus do look sleek but at the same time they consume lot of system resources.

The good thing about Windows XP is that it is customisable. Here we will tell you how you can fine-tune Windows XP to add that extra punch to your computer.

1. Unwanted Effects

In Windows XP, menu transitions are animated, dialogues and mouse cursors have shadows, and screen fonts are tweaked for maximum readability. For good system response, it’s best to keep these under check. To do this, right-click on the desktop and select Properties, go to Appearance and then Effects. Ideally, you should uncheck everything. From the second drop-down menu, choose Clear Type smoothing technique. Press OK to save changes. Next, open the System Properties tool by right-clicking on My Computer and then clicking on Properties. Go to the Advanced tab, choose Custom and uncheck all those options that you do not want.

2. System Restore

Perhaps the coolest feature in Windows XP is the System Restore feature. System Restore creates periodic snapshots of your critical system files (like the registry files, COM+ database etc.) and stores them as a "restore point." Should you install an application or do something really bad that makes the PC go topsy-turvy, you can revert the computer to the state it was before you made that change.

Restore points are automatically created by the System Restore service when a new application is installed, a Windows update is applied, an unsigned driver is installed, or a probably hazardous event occurs. You may create manual restore points through System Restore’s main interface. You can access it through Start\ Programs\ Accessories\ System Tools\ System Restore.

You can control how much space is available to System Restore. Click on System Restore tab in the System Properties tool and adjust the percentage. The ideal amount is 10 per cent.

3. Add/Remove optional features of Windows XP

To dramatically expand the list of applications you can remove from Windows XP after installation, do a search for the file sysoc.inf. It will be under\ WINDOWS|INF. This file contains several line of text, some of which have the word ‘hide’ in them. The entries that include the text hide or HIDE will not show up in Add/Remove Windows Components by default. To fix this, do a search and replace for, hide and change each instance of this to, (a comma). Then, save the file, re-launch Add/Remove Windows Components, and tweak the installed applications to your heart’s content.

4. Disable Drive Indexing

Another system slowdown is the drive-indexing feature. To disable it, open My Computer > right click on each drive and choose Properties > under the General tab, uncheck the box that says ‘Allow the Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching’. A window will pop up, make sure the box is checked that says, ‘ Apply change to (drive letter):\ , subfolders and files and click OK. Windows will apply the changes’, click OK and reboot the computer to save the changes.

5. Create a Password Reset Disk

If you forget your Windows XP password, you cannot recover it. But you can create a password-reset disk to log onto your computer if and when you forget your password. To create the disk:

Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click User Accounts.

Click your account name. Under Related Tasks, click Prevent a forgotten password. Follow the directions in the Forgotten Password Wizard to create a password-reset disk. Store the disk in a secure location, because anyone using it can access your user account

6. Clean-up Startup Menu

Type ‘msconfig’ in the Run dialog box to invoke the Windows XP’s System Configuration Utility (SCU). Under the Start-up tab, you’ll find a listing of each program that start each time you boot windows. It’s here that you can disable things that are totally unnecessary, such as Quicken Agent, Yahoo! Messenger etc. The beauty of the SCU is that disabled items aren’t permanently deleted; they just don’t start automatically any more.