XP Speedup

Put your Registry-hacking knowledge to good use: hack your way to running

Windows XP at top 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.

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).

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.

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.