SON SON
Vista may be on the way, but XP hasn’t outlived its usefulness. These tips will help you keep the older operating system vibrant.
Tip 1: Get off the upgrade bandwagon
If you constantly upgrade to the latest powerhouse versions of your favourite applications without also upgrading your hardware and Windows version, your system will seem older and creakier than ever. Instead of listening to the siren call of endless upgrades, stick with application versions that you know work well with your system.
In the same vein, consider turning off the auto-update features that so many applications have these days (with the exception of your firewall, antivirus and anti-spyware tools).
An example is Adobe Reader, which seems to phone home faster than you can open a file. To block automatic updates in Adobe Reader 7, click Edit, Preferences, Updates and select Do not automatically check for critical updates. Why should developers decide when and how you update your apps? If you’re experiencing a specific problem with a program, or if you need a particular new feature, surf over to the vendor’s website and download the upgrade manually.
Individual products use different methods to monitor for upgrades, so you’ll have to check the documentation of each one. It also helps to have a tool like Startup Control Panel to help you remove software that runs in the background and constantly checks for updates).
Tip 2: Swap when you need to
Windows designates a portion of hard-disk space as virtual memory (also called the “swapfile” or “pagefile”) to supplement RAM. The OS assigns some virtual-memory space to all processes, and the virtual memory itself gets used even if some RAM is still available. Accessing a hard disk is always slower than using RAM, so, if your system has oodles of memory, you may improve performance slightly by telling Windows not to use the pagefile for some of its own code until it has used up available RAM. How much memory is in an oodle? That depends on the number and types of applications you typically run on your system–but don’t make this adjustment unless your PC has at least 1GB of RAM.
To make Windows use virtual memory only as a last resort, you have to edit the Windows Registry. And, because anything can happen when you change your Registry, you must back it up first. (Note that Microsoft recommends against eliminating your pagefile entirely.) With your Registry backup in place, choose Start, Run, type regedit and press <Enter>
In the tree pane on the left, navigate to and select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management. Double-click the Disable, Paging,Executive icon in the right pane. Change the ‘0’ in the Value data box to 1, click OK and restart your computer.
Tip 3: Go with the NTFS flow
If you’ve been hanging onto your old FAT32 hard disk format, it’s high time you switched to NTFS. Besides being faster and more secure, NTFS also gives you encryption, folder and disk compression, and other superior features. About the only reason to stick with FAT or FAT32 is if you need to be able to access your disk from DOS or Windows 98 (puh-leaze!) Don’t worry, you can switch to NTFS without reformatting your hard disk and restoring your apps and data from a backup. Just choose Start, Run, type cmd.exe and press <Enter> to open a Command Prompt window. Now, type convert followed by a space, the drive letter, a colon, another space and, finally, /fs:ntfs. For example, enter convert c: /fs:ntfs if you want to convert your C: drive to NTFS.
Tip 4: Reset your system restore priorities
System Restore has saved my bacon many times, so I reserve as much disk space as possible for its restore points. (Not everyone feels the way I do about System Restore, however, because it doesn’t always work. Answer Line columnist Lincoln Spector discusses a System Restore alternative in his FAQ item “Why is My PC Acting Oddly?”
To adjust the amount of disk space System Restore claims, right-click My Computer in Explorer or on the desktop and choose Properties. Click the System Restore tab and select a drive whose storage settings you want to change. Choose Settings, drag the slider to the desired level and click OK twice.
Tip 5: Relocate system stuff
Some files–System Restore points, for example–must be stored on your Windows drive. But, if you have multiple hard disks or partitions, you can free up space on your Windows drive by moving other system files elsewhere.
When you use Windows’s hibernation feature to start up faster, the OS puts everything in RAM in a single hidden file named ‘hiberfil.sys’ on your hard disk. The file is roughly the same size as your RAM–for example, 512MB for a machine with 512MB of RAM. Like System Restore points, your hibernation file must be on the same drive as Windows. If you’re running out of space on your Windows drive and you don’t use the hibernation feature (or don’t find it terribly useful), you can save a huge chunk of disk space by turning the feature off, and thereby deleting the hiberfil.sys file: Choose Start, Run, type powercfg.cpl, and press <Enter>. Click the Hibernate tab, and uncheck Enable hibernation. Click OK.
Tip 7: Eliminate clutter
The easiest way to keep your disks free of clutter is by using Windows’s Disk Cleanup tool to create custom cleaners. This utility lets you discard the junk you don’t want while keeping your internet cache intact for optimum browsing performance, among other options.
Tip 8: Clean deeper
Unfortunately, the Disk Cleanup tool misses certain temp files. Here’s a little batch file to complete the task: Open Notepad or your favourite text editor and type del /s /q C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temp\*.*”, replacing ‘Username’ with the name of the user account and adjusting the drive letter as needed. Save the file with a name like deltemp.bat (be sure to use the .bat extension) and store it with your other batch files (if you don’t have other batch files, your Desktop or any other easy-to-access folder will do). Then, add the file to your Startup folder (Start, All Programs, Startup) so that it deletes the files every time you log in to Windows.