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BOOT CAMP 357 (21/12/04)
XP TUNING TIPS, part 3
Our short series on
streamlining the Windows XP (Home or Pro) boot up process concludes with some
tips for advanced users so novices avert your eyes. Please don’t attempt these
tweaks unless you are confident in your abilities and have taken the usual
precautions of backing up your data and setting a new Restore Point before you
begin, and don’t forget you try them entirely at your own
risk!
One of the main causes
of a sluggish start up are the scores of ‘Services’ that Windows XP insists on
loading and on some PCs this can easily add a minute or more to boot up times.
Services are programs and processes that operate in the background and because
Windows is designed to operate in as wide a range of configurations as possible
Microsoft take the view that it is better to have most of them running, whether
you actually need them or not. Programs installed in your PC can also create
their own Services and these can include ‘malware’ components that hijack your
Internet connection, so we definitely need to get rid of those, but there will
also be things that you want, like your virus scanner, Firewall etc., so you
need to be quite careful.
To see what Services are
running on your PC go to Run on the Start menu and type ‘services.msc’ (without
the quotes) and this will open the Services dialogue box with a long list of
items. You may recognise a few of them, like your anti-virus program but most of
the file names are not very informative. If you look down the Startup Type
column you will see they are all in one of three states: Automatic, Manual and
Disabled; we are interested in thinning the Automatic ones, which start with
Windows and if there’s a lot of them -- more than half the list, say, -- then
there should be plenty of scope for improvement.
For a general idea of
what each Service does highlight each item in turn and a brief, jargon-riddled
explanation appears to the left of the list (make sure the ‘Extended’ tab at the
bottom of the list is highlighted). This is not terribly helpful but there are
ways of finding out what they really do, and if you need them, but we’ll come
that in a moment. To change the status of a Service double-click on the entry
and a dialogue box opens; on the General tab, under Startup Type, there’s a
drop-down menu that lets you select Automatic, Manual or Disabled, but don’t
touch anything yet!
Unfortunately there is
no quick or easy way to disable unwanted Automatic Services en masse so you are
going to have to work your way through the list and the best way to decide if a
particular Service is required on your PC is to visit the following web
sites:
www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
www.beemerworld.com/tips/servicesxp.htm
Both sites have
extensive lists of the most common entries along with explanations of what they
do written in more or less plain English plus recommendations on which ones to
change, according to how your PC is used. You may find it easier to print the
lists out, to save having to continually revisit the web sites. If, for any
reason you need to get your PC back to its original state there is a list of the
default settings for Windows XP Home and Pro at:
www.tweakhound.com/xp/defserv.htm
I suggest that you only
change one or two settings at a time and then carry out a full shut down and
‘cold boot’ and keep an eye out for warning messages. Keep a tally on the boot
up time as you go by referring to your benchmark time, made before you carried
out any modifications (see part 1 in Boot Camp 355).
Our final tip is also
for experts, faced with a stubbornly slow PC that hangs for a long time on the
XP startup or logon screens. It involves modifying the Windows Registry to
display which Services and processes are being processed during boot up. Editing
the Registry is not difficult but it is imperative that you do a backup before
you start so that any changes can be easily undone.
Start by opening the Registry Editor (type ‘regedit’,
without the quotes in Run on the Start menu) and make a backup by going to
Export on the File menu. Under File Name type in today’s date then click Save
and a .reg file will be saved in My Documents. If you need to restore the
Registry just double-click the .reg file icon.
Now in Regedit work your
way to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\
Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Double-click the System
icon, right-click into the right hand window, select New > DWORD Value, then
whilst it is highlighted rename it ‘verbosestatus’ (without the quotes) and
press Enter. Next right-click on the new key, select Modify and change Value
Data from 0 to 1. Exit Regedit and restart your PC and if it spends more than a
few moments on any Service or Process the name of the offending item will be
displayed on the screen; if you see nothing then you can assume that something
else is causing the hold-up. To remove the key right click on it and select
Delete.
Next week – Browser tuning tips
JARGON FILTER
COLD BOOT
Starting a PC from its switched-off state, as opposed to a
Restart or Suspend or Hibernation modes
REGISTRY
A
large, constantly changing collection of Windows system files containing details
of how your PC is set up and information on the programs stored on the hard
disc
RESTORE POINT
A backup of important system files created by the Windows XP
System Restore facility, used to return a PC to a previous known good
configuration
TIP OF THE WEEK
Here are a couple of quick tips that could reclaim a few
seconds from boot time; again they are for intermediate and advanced users who
know their way around their PC’s BIOS program (the small program that tests and
configures your PC hardware prior to loading Windows). Most BIOS’s have a
facility called ‘Allow Quick Boot’ or ‘Fast Boot’ and this should be enabled.
The Boot Order should be set to start on the main C:\ drive and you should
disable any unused IDE and external drive channels.
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