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MS Windows XP Professional - Performance Tweaks

Please note, not all of these tweaks have been tested, they are used at your own risk.
The following information has been compiled from various internet sources.
Thank you to all those who took the trouble to publish these tips and tweaks to make life easier for us all.

Contents.

• User Interface Tweaks
• System Performance Tweaks
• Internet Tweaks
• Networking tweaks
• Miscellaneous Tweaks
• Hardware tweaks
• Security
• Microsoft Windows shortcut keys

User Interface Tweaks

System utilities

• Add the System Policy Editor
  Add the shortcut C:\WINDOWS\system32\gpedit.msc to your administrative tools folder.
  This allows control of almost everything.
• Add the System Configuration Utility
  Add the shortcut C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\Binaries\msconfig.exe to your Administrative Tools folder.
  This allows control of StartUp files, Applications and System Files.
  Services.msc may be safer

Pop up balloons

1. Open your registry and find the key below.
2. Create or edit the existing DWORD value named "Hide Messenger" and set the value to "2" to disable the popup.
3. Key:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express]
4. Value Name: Hide Messenger
5. Data Type: REG_DWORD
6. Data:(2 = disabled)

Passport balloon.

1. Open your registry and find the key below.
2. Edit the existing BINARY value named "PassportBalloon" and set the value to "0a" to disable the reminder
3. Key:[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MessengerService]
4. Value Name: PassportBalloon
5. Data Type: REG_BINARY
6. Data:(0a = 10)

Remove Shared Doc's from My Computer

Stop the "search web for program" pop up

Do not Cache Folder Thumbnails

Quick switch user screen

Quick opening of explorer

Create your own popup menu in the TASK BAR

Remove the annoying and useless search dog

Reinstall programs the easy way

• ; MSMSGS.INF
  
• ; Setup INF file for Messenger
  

Fast web page entry for .com sites

Desktop icon to send mail without opening outlook express

1. Find a free space on your desktop and right click on it on New -> Shortcut
2. Enter in the space 'mailto:' (w/out quotes)
3. Press 'Next' button.
4. Enter in the space a name for the icon (i use 'mail')
5. Click 'finish'.

Windows media player on XP can encode high quality mp3.

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System Performance Tweaks

Speed up Diskcache

XP memory tweaks

DisablePagingExecutive - When enabled, this setting will prevent the paging of the Win2k Executive files to the hard drive, causing the OS and most programs to be more responsive. However, it is advised that people should only perform this tweak if they have a significant amount of RAM on their system, more than 128 MB, because this setting does use a substantial portion of your system resources. By default, the value of this key is 0. To enable it, set it to 1.

LargeSystemCache - When enabled, the default on Server versions of Windows 2000, this setting tells the OS to devote all but 4 MB of system memory, which is left for disk caching, to the file system cache. The main effect of this is allowing the computer to cache the OS Kernel to memory, making the OS more responsive. The setting is dynamic and if more than 4 MB is needed from the disk cache for some reason, the space will be released to it. By default, 8MB is earmarked for this purpose. This tweak usually makes the OS more responsive. It is a dynamic setting, and the kernel will give up any space deemed necessary for another application, at a performance hit when such changes are needed. As with the previous key, set the value from 0 to 1 to enable. Note that in doing this, you are consuming more of your system RAM than normal. While LargeSystemCache will cut back usage when other apps need more RAM, this process can impede performance in certain intensive situations. According to Microsoft, the '0' setting is recommended for servers running applications that do their own memory caching, such as Microsoft SQL Server, and for applications that perform best with ample memory, such as Internet Information Services.

IOPageLockLimit - This tweak is of questionable value to people that aren't running some kind of server off of their computer, but we will include it anyway. This tweak boosts the Input/Output performance of your computer when it is doing a large amount of file transfers and other similar operations. This tweak won't do much of anything for a system without a significant amount of RAM, if you don't have more than 128 MB, don't even bother, but systems with more than 128 MB of RAM will generally find a performance boost by setting this to between 8 and 16 MB. The default is 0.5 MB, or 512 KB. This setting requires a value in bytes, so multiply the desired number of megabytes * 1024 * 1024. That's X * 1048576, where X is the number, in megabytes. Test out several settings and keep the one which seems to work best for your system.

1. Create a new textfile in the root of c:\, but instead of giving it the .txt extension you name it wmp_AboveNormal.bat
2. Right-click this file and choose 'Edit', you'll see it'll open notepad. Put this line in: start /AboveNormal C:\"Program Files"\"Windows Media Player"\wmplayer.exe %1 %*
3. Save (make sure you save it as .bat, not as .txt) and close. Now all you have to do is register your mediafiles to this batchfile. Here's how to do that:
4. In Windows Explorer choose Tools>Folder Options >File Types
5. Scroll down(press A) to the AVI filetype
6. Click 'Change' and point to c:\wmp_AboveNormal.bat . Click OK and Close.

1. Create a new textfile in the game-app wathever-directory (let's say C:\HN), but instead of giving it the .txt extension you name it HN.bat
2. Right-click this file and choose 'Edit', you'll see it'll open notepad. Put this line in: cmd /c start /High HN.exe
3. Save (make sure you save it as .bat, not as .txt) and close.
4. Now create a shortcut to this file and place it on your desktop. Every time you doubleclick this shortcut HIGH NEEDS will open with priority set to 'high'. (ofcourse you can also create a batchfile on your desktop, containing the full path of the app you want to start but the nice thing of creating a shortcut is you can give it an icon).

Unload unused .dlls to free up memory

1. Find the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer].
2. Create a new sub-key named 'AlwaysUnloadDLL' and set the default value to equal '1' to disable Windows caching the DLL in memory.
3. Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

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Internet Tweaks

Allow more than 2 simultaneous downloads in IE 6

1. Start Registry Editor
2. Locate the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/InternetSettings
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value , and then add the following registry values:
   "MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=Dword:0000000a
   "MaxConnectionsPerServer"=Dword:0000000a
4. Quit Registry Editor.
5. Reboot

Enable mIRC identd

1. Go into Control Panel-> Network Connections
2. Right click "Local Area Network" and select "Properties"
3. Left click the advanced tab
4. Left click the settings button
5. Under services, left click the add button
6. For description type "Ident", for Name of IP put the name that identifies your system with your ISP OR your IP if it is static.
7. Both external and internal ports are 113 by default and TCP.
8. Click OK all the way out.

Disable Schedule Task in IE

Get rid of Internet Browsing history

• Launch Internet Explorer.
• Select the Tools from the menu bar.
• Then select Internet Options... from the drop down menu.
• Once the internet options has loaded click on the general tab.
• Under the history section change the days to keep in history to 0.
• Also click the clear history button to get rid of everything else.
• Click OK

Change Web Page Font Size on the Fly

Branding ie6

Checking home page for browser hijack

The local host file can be used to block requests that would normally go to another website and load their rubbish to your browser or worse still, your computer. With this method, the requested banner ad, cookies etc, in effect doesn't exist. The browser then skips the requested page or action and then moves on to loading the next part of the web page that is being viewed. In essence, the server supplying unwanted content to your browser and pc is blocked because the request is redirected to your pc, where of course, the files don't exist and therefor won't load. Warning: Before altering the existing hosts file be sure to make a backup of it.

For Windows XP, the localhost file resides in DRIVE:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.

The following is the default file;

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com     # source server
#        38.25.63.10     x.acme.com          # x client host
127.0.0.1 localhost

To block an unwanted site simply add them to the list, e.g.;

127.0.0.1 www.dataminer.com
127.0.0.1 very.nasty.com
127.0.0.1 install.trojan.com

#127.0.0.1 www.dataminer.com

Please note that IP addresses and http:// and a trailing \ are not allowed parameters in the hosts file

Some trojans will write entries to the hosts file to redirect you to undesirable websites. To prevent this, set the hosts file to read only. Remember that you will have to change this setting to alter the file.

If the file becomes quite large, to around 120kb, internet browsing can slow down. To work round this issue, open services (services.msc from the run box) and set the dns client to manual. From the command prompt this can be done with the following commands;

sc config DNSCache start= demand
sc stop DNSCache

A summary of the steps to configure the hosts file.

Backup the original host file.
Add the required entries.
Set the properties of the host file to read only.
Set the dns client to manual if the host file size becomes large.

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Networking tweaks

Improve Network Bandwidth

1. Expand the "Computer configuration" branch
2. Expand the "Administrative templates" branch
3. Expand the "Network" branch
4. Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left window
5. In right window double click the "limit reservable bandwidth" setting
6. On setting tab check the "enabled" item
7. Where it says "Bandwidth limit %" change it to read 0-- Click apply, OK, and exit the Policy Editor
8. Right Click the relevant NetWork Connection and ensure QoS packet scheduler is enabled.
9. Click Ok
10. Restart.

Speed up Network Browsing

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Miscellaneous Tweaks

To Keep Media Player from maintaining the Recent Files List.

Media Player - DVD

Media Player - Play List

Clear pagefile on shutdown

1. Start Regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > SessionManager > Memory Management
3. Select ClearPageFileAtShutdown from the list on the right.
4. Right on it and select Modify.
5. Change the value to 1 to enable.
6. Reboot your computer.

OR for Win2k

• Go to Start --> Run and type 'regedit', without the quotes.
• Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management.
• Modify or add the REG_DWORD entry "ClearPageFileAtShutdown" (without the quotes) and set its value equal to 1.
• You must restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Disable error reporting

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Preformance and Maintenance.
3. Click on System.
4. Then click on the Advanced tab
5. Click on the error reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
6. Select Disable error reporting.
7. Click OK

Display message on startup

• Start regedit,
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon
• Modify the key legalnoticecaption with what you want to name the window.
• Modify the key legalnoticetext with what you want the window to say.
• Reboot.

Turn off system beeps

1. Start Regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Sound
3. Once there, locate Beep on the list on the right.
4. Right click on it and select Modify
5. Change the value equal to no
6. Reboot your computer and the beeps will be gone!

Create a shortcut to lock computer

• Right click on desktop and select new -> shortcut.
• Then copy and paste this in the program location box "rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation"
• Click next and enter a name for you shortcut and then click finish.
• Now you can copy and paste that shortcut anywhere you want on your computer.

Repair broken system files

1. Click Start.
2. Click Run.
3. Type SFC /scannow in the run command slot. (Note: there is a space after SFC and that's a FORWARD slash in the middle, there.)
4. Press OK button below on run command menu box.

Netmeeting in XP

Regedit stays expanded

Speed up Nero in XP

Show hidden devices

• Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
• Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
• Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press ENTER.
• Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.

Explorer shortcut

1. Create short cut on the desktop
2. In the target box add;
   /e,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}.
   Useful if no winkey is present on the keyboard.

Showing hidden apps in add/remove programs

• In the %SystemRoot%\Inf folder on the system volume, use a text editor, such as Notepad, to open the Sysoc.inf file.
• Locate the "old base components" line.
• For each component you want to appear in the Add/Remove Programs tool, remove the "Hide" comment.
  For example, change Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,HIDE,7 to:
  Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7
• Also remove the "HIDE" option from the "AccessUtil=" line. If you leave this option hidden, then none of the other components in the "old base components" section are available in Add/Remove Programs.
  Save and then close the file.
• Displaying the Items During Setup
  Copy the I386 folder to a distribution share.
• expand the Sysoc.in_ file using the following command
  expand -r sysoc.in_
• Edit the Sysoc.inf file using steps above.
• Rename the Sysoc.in_ file to Sysoc.bak.

Make self extracting files using the Iexpress2.0 tool.

1. Navigate to Windows\system32\
2. look for a file called iexpress.exe.
3. Double left click on it and follow the wizard.

Auto complete in dos box

Boot - Disable Splash Screen

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Hardware tweaks

Swapping hard drive to another motherboard

Burn cds on locked cd writers

Change cd and hard drive letters

1. Click the start button
2. Go into Administrative tools (either in the start button or in "All Programs"
3. From Administrative Tools, go into "Computer Management"
4. In "Computer Management", click on "Disk Management" under "Storage" from the left menu
5. You should see a window from the lower right hand corner open (it shows all the hard disk drives and cd-rom drives)
6. To change...
   • ...hard drive, click on the hard disk with a blue horizonal bar, the box should be shaded; next right click that box that you desire to change the letter then click on "Change Letter Drive and Path"
   • ...cd-rom drive, click on the box that you desire the drive letter; next right click that box that you desire to change the letter then click on "Change Letter Drive and Path"
7. click the "change..." button
8. from the "assign the following drive letter", select the letter you want to assign to the hard drive or the cd-rom drive
9. click ok
10. click ok
11. (optional) redo the whole step to reassign other hard drives or cd-rom drives
12. Notes: You can not change the drive letter of your boot or system drive this way. You can not assign drive letters that are already in use. Assign temporary letters as a workaround.

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Security

Moniter the keys that are written or modified in the registry by applications.

1. Go to start>run and enter regedit
2. Right click the HKEY_CURRENT_USER branch and from the drop down box select export.
   Name the file user1.reg
3. Right click the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE branch and from the drop down box select export.
   Name the file machine1.reg
4. Run the application or installation.
5. Reopen regedit and repeat steps 1 and 2 above. The exported registry branches should named as user2.reg and machine2.reg.
6. Go to start> and enter cmd. Using the cd command, browse to the directory that contains the exported registry files.
7. The following uses the file compare utility, fc.exe. Enter the command below, without quotes,
   'fc /u user1.reg user2.reg >user.txt'. Repeat the procedure for machine*.reg. The differences are output to the user and machine text files.

Changing user password

AutoComplete - Clear

Control the Auto Complete Mode

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\AutoComplete. Value Name: Append Completion, Data Type: REG_SZ (String Value), Value Data: yes or no.
• Create a new string value, or modify the existing value, named "Append Completion" and set it to "yes" to append the suggested text as you are typing or "no" to only show a drop-down list.
• Restart Windows for the change to take effect.
  Note: This setting also changes the auto complete functionality of Internet Explorer.

AutoComplete Keys and Storage

Unencrypt files

1. Login as Administrator
2. Go to Start/Run and type in cmd and click OK.
3. At the prompt type cipher /r:Eagent and press enter
4. This prompt will then display:
5. Please type in the password to protect your .PFX file:
6. Type in your Administrator password
7. Re-confirm your Administrator password
8. The prompt will then display
   Your .CER file was created successfully.
   Your .PFX file was created successfully.

The Eagent.cer and Eagent.pfx files will be saved in the current directory that is shown at the command prompt. Example: The command prompt displays C:\Documents and Settings\admin> the two files are saved in the admin folder. For security concerns, you should house the two files in your Administrator folder or on a floppy disc.

• Go to Start/Run and type in certmgr.msc and click OK. This will launch the Certificates Manager.
• Navigate to Personal and right click on the folder and select All Tasks/Import. The Certificate Import Wizard will appear. Click Next.
• Browse to the C:\Documents and Settings\admin folder. In the Open dialog box, change the Files of Type, at the bottom, to personal Information Exchange '*.pfx,*.P12'.
• Select the file Eagent.pfx and click Open. Click Next.
• Type in your Administrator password,leave the two checkboxes blank, and click Next.
• Make sure the Radio button is active for the first option, automatically select the certificate store based on the type of certifcate.
• Click Next. Click Finish. You'll receive a message that the import was successful.
• To confirm the import, close Certificates Manager and re-open it. Expand the Personal folder and you will see a new subfolder labeled Certificates.
• Expand that folder and you will see the new entry in the right side column. Close Certificate Manager.
• Go to Start/Run and type in secpol.msc and click OK. This will launch the Local Security Policy.
• Expand the Public Key Policies folder and then right click on the Encrypted File System subfolder and select Add Data Recovery Agent.
• The Wizard will then display. Click Next. Click the Browse Folders button.
• Browse to the C:\Documents and Settings\admin folder. Select the Eagent.cer file and click Open. The wizard will display the status User_Unknown, that's ok.
• Click Next. Click Finish.
• You will see a new entry in the right side column. Close the Local Security Policy.

You, the Administrator are now configured as the default Recovery Agent for All Encrypted files on the Local Machine.

1. If you have completed the above steps BEFORE an existing user encrypted his/her files, you can log in to your Administrator account and navigate to the encrypted files. Double click on the files to view the contents.
2. If you have completed the above steps AFTER an existing user has already encrypted his/her files, you must login to the applicable User's User Account and then immediately logout.
3. Next, login to your Administrator account and navigate to the encrypted files. Double click on the files to view the contents.
4. *Warning. Do not Delete or Rename a User's account from which will want to Recover the Encrypted Files. You will not be able to de-crypt the files using the steps outlined above.

MS vulnerability

1. Open Regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>System>CurrentControlSet>Control>Lsa>restrictanonymous
3. Change "Value Data" from 0 to 1
4. This will disable remote logon to a null IPC$ share

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Microsoft Windows shortcut keys

Windows System Key Combinations

Windows Program Key Combinations

Mouse Click/Keyboard Modifier Combinations for Shell Objects

General Keyboard-Only Commands

Shell Objects and General Folder/Windows Explorer Shortcuts

General Folder/Shortcut Control

Windows Explorer Tree Control

Accessibility Shortcuts

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Keys

Microsoft Natural Keyboard with IntelliType Software Installed

Dialog Box Keyboard Commands

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