Speed Up Windows XP

Does it ever seem as if the little squirrels inside your computer aren’t racing fast enough on their conveyor belt? Yeah, we’ve been there, too. Memory-hogging start-up programs, a hard drive that has not been defragged since a Democrat was in the White House, and that one nasty spyware app—all of them can really bog down Microsoft Windows XP. These days, even novices know about tweaking MSConfig, defragging, and installing Ad-Aware. Short of a complete reinstall or upgrading to Windows Vista, I have a few unusual methods that help give my PC a new zest for life.
We’ll start by killing memory-hungry processes; they’re the major speed-sucking culprit in Windows XP. Processes include applications, network services, and DLL (dynamic link library) files that control file access. Sysinternals’ free Process Explorer utility helps you see what is running on your system and lets you kill any processes that are slowing Windows XP to a crawl.

Get started by nabbing Process Explorer from www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx. Unzip it—there’s no installer—and fire it up.
Select Columns
Because we’re focusing on performance, start by right-clicking on any column header, then choose Select Columns, then click the Process Performance tab. Place a check next to CPU Usage and CPU Time. Click on the Process Memory tab and place a check next to Virtual Size.
View Columns
Click on any column heading to sort by that column. For example, if you click the Virtual Size header, you will see the most memory-consuming processes listed first. Click the CPU header and you’ll see processes that are using all the processor power on your PC.
Kill Processes, carefully
Click on a process that is high in CPU time or virtual size and press the Del key to end it. But be careful! If you kill a process that Windows needs, your PC will crash. Searching a process name online should turn up what it does and whether it’s safe to kill.
Quick Power Tips
Enable DMA
Amazingly, some Windows XP systems are not configured to use DMA, a mode in which your hard drive bypasses the CPU and accesses memory directly from RAM. DMA enables the CPU to work less and therefore faster. Go to Device Manager (Control Panel | System | Hardware | Device Manager) and look for the IDE ATA Controllers section. Click the Plus sign, then double-click Primary IDE Channel. Click Advanced Settings. Make sure the DMA option is selected for both Transfer modes. Click OK. Repeat for the Secondary IDE Channel. Click OK.
Convert to NTFS
NTFS (New Technology File System) is, as its name implies, a faster file access method than FAT (File Allocation Table). You can convert to the newer standard even if the hard drive you have is using FAT. Just go to Start, then Run, then type cmd. Type convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs into the command line, where drive_letter is the letter for your primary drive. Press Enter. Warnings: Some DOS and older Windows apps can’t read an NTFS drive, although there are utilities to overcome that problem. Also, you can’t convert back to FAT. Finally, the conversion can take a while, so sit back and count ceiling tiles while you wait.
Disable COM ports
The less Windows XP has to think about, the better. You can disable COM, LPT, and USB ports that you don’t use to give your PC a small boost, especially for boot-ups. Just go to Device Manager (Control Panel | System | Hardware | Device Manager), scroll down to Ports, and click the Plus sign. Right-click on a port and select Disable. The same applies to USB ports: Scroll down to the Universal Serial Bus section, click the Plus sign, and disable any ports you don’t need.

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