Me
Blog
Mail
Site Map

Main
Computers
Furry
Science Fiction
Stuff
Technomage
Vegetarianism

Windows Tweaks


  1. Routine tune-ups
  2. Remove startup programs
  3. Faster Boot
  4. Faster dialing
  5. Faster connect
  6. Accelerate parallel zip access
  7. File System Caches
  8. Faster Internet
  9. Internet Cache
  10. Enable IDE Bus Mastering
  11. Use a local DNS Lookup (gets you to the web page faster)




1. Routine tune-ups
         Update your drivers
                www.windrivers.com
         Check for BIOS updates
         Check for windows updates
                windows 95 updates
                windows 98 updates

         Clean out c:/windows/temp/ by adding these lines to your AUTOEXEC.BAT File:
                @DelTree /Y C:\WINDOWS\Temp
                @MD C:\WINDOWS\Temp
         Scan for viruses
         Run ScanDisk
         Defragment your harddrive(s)
2. Remove startup programs
Windows 98
         Run "Msconfig"

Windows 95
Look under:
a. start menu>programs>startup
b. Registry:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/
    Windows/Current Version/
    look under "Run" and "RunServices"
c. c:/windows/win.ini at "load=" and "run="
3. Faster Boot
         using notepad edit c:/msdos.sys
         make sure you have (if not, add it):
         BootDelay=0
         this is the number of seconds windows pauses
         on boot.

Disable search for new floppy drives on boot
system panel > performance tab > file system button >
floppy tab
*Uncheck "search for new floppy drives"

4. Faster dialing
> modems panel > properties button > advanced button >
extra settings
type: S11=40
This is the number of milliseconds between
tones when dialing.
5. Faster connect
dial-up networking > my connection > my connection panel >
server types
uncheck:
"Log on to network"
"NetBEUI"
"IPX/SPX Compatible"
6. Accelerate parallel zip access
         Run parallel port acceleratorParallel port accelerator
         under iomegaware in the start menu
        (c:/program files/iomega/tools/ppaopt.exe)

         You only have to run it once
         it changes adaptor settings
7. File System Caches
use a program like Cacheman
to easily adjust the caches

For the curious
Settings are stored in:
c:/windows/system.ini
[vcache]
MinFilecache=
Maxfilecache=
chunksize=

and in the Registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/
Windows/CurrentVersion/FS Templates
8. Faster Internet
Use a program like EasyMTU
to tweak tcp/ip settings
Modem tweaks




* Set Bits Per Second (BPS) to match or exceed your modem
* Set Flow Control to Hardware
9. Internet Cache
Check under the preference section of your browser
faster computers with more resources can take advantage of
larger internet caches
10. Enable IDE Bus Mastering
First be sure your motherboard and drive
support it.
If you are using windows 95 original or version A
then you will need BM Drivers
later versions have it built in
Go to cmos and enable IDE DMA Access
then in windows
system properties
disk dma
* Check the "DMA" box on your drive
11. Use a local DNS Lookup (gets you to the web page faster)
When you type a URL address into your browser it accesses a
DNS server to look up the name and get an IP address
If you have commonly used URL's in your computer, this step
is accelerated by not having to go to the server to look it up
and also a smaller list. The lookup table can be entered in:
c:\windows\hosts.sam (open this up with your note pad)
you will see some comments explaining how to set it up with
examples.

For example, lets say you use yahoo.com a lot.
1. go to the ms-dos prompt
2. type "ping www.yahoo.com"

you will get back some information,
"Pinging www.yahoo.com [204.71.200.75] with 32 bytes of data:"
what you want is the IP address,
this is the number in brackets on the first line
in this case: 204.71.200.75

3. open up the c:\windows\hosts.sam file with notepad
4. add a line "204.71.200.75 www.yahoo.com"
5. save it, and that's it (for www.yahoo.com)

Hint: If your setting up a microsoft network, you can
add entries for local machines in the c:\windows\lmhosts.sam
1