En liten test av optimalisering

[jogil]

Hmm, fikk litt problemer med skjermkortet som brant. Dumme vifte. Men men, da er jeg tilbake. Ja, fikk en til å lage en tweaking guide. Her er den, beklager forsinkelsen: Den er på engelsk for at alle i clanen skulle forstå da.

 

 

Here is some more tweaks everyone should do on there computers!

 

 

 

! PRINT THIS POST BEFORE YOU START APPLYING CHANGES !

 

Do NOT start this if you are not sure about the following issues:

 

- You know how to work with windows. I made this quite easy, if you can't make it through, go back to boardgames, or buy yourself a good windows XP-book.

- XP Service pack 2 with all updates available (sorry for you that can't update because of WGA and illegal versions, but that's your problem, don't come whining if there's problems and your windows is not fully updated).

- Every part of your hardware should be properly installed.

- Your system must be Spyware / Virus / Addware free. If not, don't even think of tweaking anything.

- You must be the administrator-user on your system.

- This is written based upon a standalone computer. Keep it in mind, because some settings will affect home-network settings and will disable some functionality on that.

- Your filesystem should be NTFS

 

! IMPORTANT !

 

- Create a system restore point before starting and allways create a system restorepoint before tweaking and after completing a tweak.

- Export a full registry Backup with regedit.

- When applying registry settings, allways backup the key you are gonna change first before changing.

- Feel free to ask me about things, but don't come whining if you screwed up before you even asked.

 

! RESTOREPOINT !

 

First some small basic tweaks:

 

1: Basic harddisk performance in windows.

 

! before you do this, do yourself a favor, do it right. Find out what you don't use on your computer and clear the mess of installed programs that's there !

 

Do the following for every logical harddrive you have on your system:

- Right click on the drive Icon

- run diskcleaning

- goto the "extra" tab

- run defragmentation

- Go back to the first tab

- disable compression, disable indexing

- apply the settings

 

After you did this for all your drives goto:

- control panel -> software

- add/remove programs

- add/remove windows components

- uncheck the Indexing services

- apply the settings

 

Goto My computer:

- toolsmenu

- folderoptions

- "view" tab

- uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers"

- OK

- reboot your PC

 

A lot more settings can be done for your harddrive, but those are more user-dependant (as in do you want it or not), so I left those out.

 

! RESTOREPOINT !

 

Now some better Tweaks.

 

2: Somewhat advanced settings. READ before you apply.

--> menu start -> run -> regedit

--> find the key

--> export it's contents

--> apply settings

 

a) Turning off the diskspacecheck:

- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MicroSoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

- set D_word value for "NoLowDiskSpaceChecks" to 1

 

b) Turn on automatic defragmentation of your system files for faster startups

- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction

- set "Enable" to Y

 

c) Speed up the NTFS filesystem:

- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem

- DisableNTFSLastAccessUpdate=00000001 (turning off registration of last opening time/date of files)

- NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation=00000001 (Filenames will no longer be stored for compatibility with older versions of windows)

 

d) Changing the Size of your MFT (master FAT table)

! ONLY apply when you have bigger sized harddisks (>120 GB) with lots of files. Won't have effect on smaller ones !

- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem

- NtfsMftZoneReservation=00000004 (Default is 1, range is 1-4)

 

reboot your PC

 

! RESTORE POINT ! + ! full registry BACKUP !

 

3: Easy tweaking windows:

 

! Windows comes standard with a lot of things running you don't really need. A lot of things such as ballontips, autostart of CD's inserted, error reporting, time synchronization, and more of that. !

 

- Download the following tool: XP-Antispy at http://www.xp-antispy.org/

- install it and run it

- You can easily check things you want disabled and apply them, but pls READ before you apply everything. Some things can cause loss of functionality you still want. It can't hurt your PC.

- For this tool you have to find out yourself what you want. I disabled about 90% off all options.

- You might have to restart after setting some.

 

! RESTORE POINT !

 

4: Swap file tweaking if you have less than 2048 RAM. It can be applied on 2048 RAM to, without causing problems, but on the end of this post there is a better tweak for systems with 2048 RAM that 'll overwrite this anyways.

 

 

! The size of the swap file is automatically set, I prefer a fixed setting !

 

 

-> My computer -> properties -> tab "advanced" -> Settings, next to visual/processor/memory -> tab advanced -> click on change

- choose to set a custom size: minimum 1.5 x RAM, max 2.5 x RAM.

- apply and restart.

 

! RESTORE POINT !

 

5: Startup Tweaking:

 

! A lot of programs nest themselves into your startup routines !

 

-> Start menu -> RUN -> msconfig

 

- On the "startup" TAB you find all programs checked that start up when you turn on your computer. A lot of those can be disabled and that way free op resources. It all depends on what you have installed on your system what is in there. Disabling things in the list there cannot hurt your computer, but disabling the wrong things loose functionality that might be needed. Read the following list of quite common programs that can be disabled. You can have a lot more or less, but since I cannot make a list containing all possible combinations, I made a list of things I have found to be quite common on a lot of PC's.

 

- Itunes

- nvidia tray (dont disable the driver startup)

- nwiz (coming from nvidia)

- ATIVEXX (dont disable driver startup)

- Backweb (installed with Logitech Setpoint for Logitech mouse and keyboards)

- LVCOMSX (installed with Logitech webcams)

- Logitray (installed with Logitech webcams)

- ISStart (installed with Logitech webcams)

- ManifestEngine (installed with Logitech webcams)

- all NERO entries

- all Powerdvd entries

- Adobe Gamma

- Adbobe Reader

- CTFMON

- msmsgs

- jusched (java updater)

- updreg

- Printer/scanner tray icons

- Soundcard tray icons

- motherboard monitoring and overclocking utilities

- screen resolution changing tools

 

! Don't pin yourself down on this list, you really need to find out things yourself (All things can be found by typing in with Google, see the end of this post) on what to disable and what should be still running. Play with it. If you accidentally disable something you can allways turn it back on (use SAFE mode when necessary) !

 

! RESTORE POINT !

 

6: System services tweaks:

 

! Windows comes with a hell of a lot of services you don't really need. Services can be disabled easily through a console. This is also dependable on what you do with your PC and what you want it to do. Services can be set to start up in 3 modes (auto, manual, disabled). Auto will allways run the service, manual will run the service on demand, disabled will fully unload it from memory and it can't be started on demand, but only through the console again. !

 

-> Start menu -> RUN -> services.msc

 

The following services can be disabled without causing any problem:

 

! NOTE ! This is based upon a single user, no home network installation. If you have multiple users or are using a home network be carefull and inform yourself before applying everything without questioning. Write down what you disable, looking back in your own memory if you are tweaking a lot of things at a time is more buggy than than Windows itself ! NOTE !

 

- Alerter

- Automatic Updates

- Background Intelligent Transfer Service

- Clipbook

- Computer Browser

- Error Reporting Service

- Event Log

- Fast User Switching

- Help and Support

- Indexing Service (see harddisk tweaks, should be disabled or not there if you followed the whole)

- Machine Debug Manager

- Messenger

- Netlogon (unnecessary unless networked on a domain, could be ISP dependable)

- Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing

- Office Source Engine

- Print Spooler

- Protected Storage

- Remote Desktop Help Session manager

- Remote Procedure Call Locator

- Remote Registry

- Routing and Remote Access

- Security Center

- Server

- Shell Hardware Detection

- SSDP Discovery Service

- System Event Notification

- Task Scheduler

- TCP/IP Netbios Helper

- Telnet

- Terminal Services

- Universal Plug and Play Device Host

- Upload Manager

- WIA

- Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing

- Windows Time

- Wireless Zero Configuration (not if you running wireless)

- Workstation

- Webclient

 

In doubt just test and find out. Therefor you need to write down what you do.

 

! RESTORE POINT ! + ! full registry Backup !

 

7: Apply this ONLY on 2048 MB RAM without risk. It can be applied on any PC with more than 512 MB RAM, but if you play games, DO NOT apply under 2048 MB

 

Both tweaks should be applied in order to get full benefit of it.

 

Explanation of what the tweaks when they are installed.

 

The tweaks reconfigure your swapfile to 400 MB fixed size and change the windows system settings on how and when to use the swapfile. If both applied on your system, windows will make full use of your internal memory before using the swapfile. Therefor it cuts down an awesome lot on disk activity, because windows normally ALLWAYS uses the swapfile.

 

How to do it:

- open notepad

- copy paste the code of the first block into your notepad

- save the file to your desktop (name the file to what you want) but make sure the extension is .REG

- clear your notepad

- copy paste the code of the second block into the notepad

- save it to a another filename .REG again, also on your desktop

! You should allready have a registry backup if you worked your way down, if not, DO IT NOW !

 

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000000"DisablePagingExecutive"=dword:00000001"LargeSystemCache"=dword:00000000"NonPagedPoolQuota"=dword:00000000"NonPagedPoolSize"=dword:00000000"PagedPoolQuota"=dword:00000000"PagedPoolSize"=dword:00000000"SystemPages"=dword:0000c350"PagingFiles"=hex(7):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,70,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,66,00,69,00,6c,\ 00,65,00,2e,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,20,00,34,00,30,00,30,00,20,00,34,00,30,00,\ 30,00,00,00,00,00"PhysicalAddressExtension"=dword:00000000"SessionViewSize"=dword:00000030"SessionPoolSize"=dword:00000004"IoPageLockLimit"=dword:00010000"SecondLevelDataCache"=dword:00000200[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]"VideoInitTime"=dword:00000457"EnablePrefetcher"=dword:00000000"AppLaunchMaxNumPages"=dword:00000fa0"AppLaunchMaxNumSections"=dword:000000aa"AppLaunchTimerPeriod"=hex:80,69,67,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff"BootMaxNumPages"=dword:0001f400"BootMaxNumSections"=dword:00000ff0"BootTimerPeriod"=hex:00,f2,d8,f8,ff,ff,ff,ff"MaxNumActiveTraces"=dword:00000008"MaxNumSavedTraces"=dword:00000008"RootDirPath"="Prefetch""HostingAppList"="DLLHOST.EXE,MMC.EXE,RUNDLL32.EXE"

 

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000000"DisablePagingExecutive"=dword:00000001"LargeSystemCache"=dword:00000001"NonPagedPoolQuota"=dword:00000000"NonPagedPoolSize"=dword:00000000"PagedPoolQuota"=dword:00000000"PagedPoolSize"=dword:00000000"SystemPages"=dword:0000c350"PagingFiles"=hex(7):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,70,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,66,00,69,00,6c,\ 00,65,00,2e,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,20,00,34,00,30,00,30,00,20,00,34,00,30,00,\ 30,00,00,00,00,00"PhysicalAddressExtension"=dword:00000000"SessionViewSize"=dword:00000030"SessionPoolSize"=dword:00000004"IoPageLockLimit"=dword:00010000"SecondLevelDataCache"=dword:00000200[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]"VideoInitTime"=dword:00000457"EnablePrefetcher"=dword:00000000"AppLaunchMaxNumPages"=dword:00000fa0"AppLaunchMaxNumSections"=dword:000000aa"AppLaunchTimerPeriod"=hex:80,69,67,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff"BootMaxNumPages"=dword:0001f400"BootMaxNumSections"=dword:00000ff0"BootTimerPeriod"=hex:00,f2,d8,f8,ff,ff,ff,ff"MaxNumActiveTraces"=dword:00000008"MaxNumSavedTraces"=dword:00000008"RootDirPath"="Prefetch""HostingAppList"="DLLHOST.EXE,MMC.EXE,RUNDLL32.EXE"

 

- Doubleclick the new created files on your desktop to add them to the registry, restart you PC and be happy. Remember 2048 RAM, if not, don't complain if you try and it turns out wrong.

 

! NOTE ! I did not write these 2 myself. I cannot tell you what they exactly do and how they work. I now have those applied for about 2 months without experiencing any problems with any kind of program, and I am very happy with them. They are written by someone I know who knows a damn lot about windows. I allready provided these 2 tweaks to other gamers and the ones that applied it on their 2048 RAM system are very happy with. I have them available for downloading too, so the lazy ones don't have to copy and paste, but now everyone can see what it is and if you are expert on this things you know what they do and how they work. Download the RAR-archive with the 2 .REG file from This Link. If you don't trust me on this, just don't use them ! NOTE !

 

8: Security:

Security will allways be an issue. It's not very likely your home PC will get hacked to get information from it. Don't think there is hackers around everywhere scanning your PC for you creditcardnumbers or bankaccounts when you turn of you firewall. The 1st point in having a Firewall is to prevent people from "Spoofing" your IP through your wireless or over the internet. Your computer really being hacked and taken over is quite impossible to without you noticing. Spoofing (using someone elses IP for illegal stuff, so it looks like he did it) can be a problem unnoticed, so you still want your firewall running.

 

Since windows is actually a big hole with some security leaks patched, don't trust on that firewall and securitycenter. Disable it using the services.msc interface you used in 6.

 

Get yourself a decent internet security program. Panda Titanium, Zone-Alarm, Mc-Afee, Norton, whatever you like. There are also some good freeware programs for home users. , Bitdefender, Avast, AVG and A2 (for troyans only) are quite allright.

 

This is something you have to do yourself. Security also depends on your internet behavior. There is a lot of sites on the internet that can cause security problems, don't say you didn't know, because anyone telling he never ever visited a site that has cracks / hacks / porn / downloads / musics / movies / etc. on it is lying. It's all about knowing what to expect. Do not click on yes as soon as you see a popup, READ READ READ what it says. If in any doubt, close it, and go away. It'll save you soo much time in cleaning up the messes that can be caused by sites like this.

 

My securtity is built up as stated below:

- Windows Security Center fully disabled

- Panda Titanium 2006 installed for Virusscan on demand + emailscan + firewall only, no process protection services, no auto-updating, no detecting of unknown issues, and some more disabled. This was done because Panda is a very overall package and very good, but I know what I need and what I don't need. I cut the running services of Panda from 6 down to 3 doing this, freeing up more resources.

- Router in which everything is set to my wishes by hand. Nothing automatic. Wireless disabled. So I know what goes in and out thru what port. All other ports and pingresponds just don't work, and none of my ports is visible. Backed up by the firewall of Panda it's more than enough security for a home user's PC, with someone behind it that has some sense and thinks before doing, when surfing the net.

- Netbios through TCP/IP disabled (can be ISP dependable if possible or not)

 

9: If I accidentally (yes it happens) catch up with spyware or a virus I use the following tools:

 

! NOTE ! some links can be in Dutch they come straight from my list of favorites, but all can be found in a lot of different languages ! NOTE !

 

Antispyware:

- Ewido

- MS antispyware (I wonder where MS stole it because it's actually a good program )

- Hitmanpro (a very overall solution)

- HijackThis (A tool to be VERY carefull with)

- CC cleaner (very handy cleaning up things)

- Adaware (included in Hitmanpro)

- Spybot Search & Destroy (included in Hitmanpro)

- CW shredder (scrambles the regions that were affected by spyware and spyware traces in order to really delete them)

Online scanners:

- Panda

- Housecall

- Mc-Afee

- Bitdefender

- Kaspersky

- Symantec

Freeware Antivirus protection:

- Antivir

- AVG

- Bitdefender

 

10: Google tips

 

Searching is an art . Be creative in how you search. Here is just a list of tips that can be used for Google. Those can help you getting a much faster and more direct result that's not a list of 100.000 pages.

 

Use "" to make your searching term exactly to what you type.

 

explanation: "Delta Force Xtreme" will search for the whole string, without the "" around it it will result in all pages that contain Delta or Force or Extreme

 

If you are searching for example documents add 1 of the following to your search string:

 

- filetype:pdf

- filetype:doc

- filetype:rtf

- filetype:txt

- any more possible types? Yes mp3, avi, wmv, jpg, gif, bmp, ...........................

 

If you are looking for a specific kind of page containing your information there is a very handy add to your search. The inurl: extra will let you define what has to be there in the pages URL to have it in the search results.

 

examples:

- inurl:.de -> returns mostly pages located on a .de domain, very handy works with all domain names like inurl:.com, inurl:.co.uk, inurl:.nl, inurl:.tw

- inurl:forum -> I use this a lot when I search things it 'll return more forumpages than you can think off.

- inurl:microsoft -> very handy to search trhough microsoft pages with google

 

If the quarter didn't fall yet, read again.

 

More similar tips and very usefull things can be found on Google Support

 

Happy searching.

 

This is just some basic things for all of you. If you really want to go on tweaking, you need to find out yourself what's all tweakable and what isn't for you. The things above are just a nice start and some basic things to begin with. The added anti-spyware and anti-virus links is just for the people that have problems with it and can't get rid of it and still want to give it a go on tweaking. A lot of things depend on how much time you want to spend on informing yourself.