Unite To End The War

Understanding Screen Savers

Theoretically, screen savers are one of the least intrusive forms of glitz you can add to a system. The diminutive SCR files you can find in the \Windows\System32 folder containing the screen savers range in size from 8KB to 652KB for a default Windows installation. The default setup only contains 11 files for a total of 2.46MB. In short, even if you remove the screen savers you don’t want, you’ll save little hard drive space. Because screen savers run when you aren’t using the system, you don’t have to worry too much about how many processor cycles they use either. The only way that you’ll save much is by disabling screen savers completely to save the memory they use.

Screen savers do offer quite a bit to the user. The obvious benefit is that the screen saver reduces “burn in” the effect that occurs when a monitor displays the same information repeatedly. Of course, you can avoid this problem by shutting the monitor down after a period of inactivity. Many corporations prefer this course because shutting the monitor down also reduces the power bill for the system.

Most screen savers also provide password protection. When the screen saver activates, you can’t get it to go away unless you enter your name and password. You can avoid this cost by logging out of the system whenever you leave the room. The time required is the same, but it’s a little more work for the user. In addition, the user might forget to log out and the screen saver is automatic.

The bottom line is that screen savers are a cheap piece of glitz and they serve a useful purpose. Generally, it’s not worth your time to remove them unless you have significant performance problems to overcome.

Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization

Removing Gizmos from Your Systems (2)

The Desktop tab offers a few places for optimization. You can do things like rely on a plain background or one with patterns, rather than a picture, to save memory. This option doesn’t save it a lot, but it does save some and admittedly, most people don’t see the background on their monitor anyway. Click Customize Desktop and you’ll see the Desktop Items dialog box. Removing all of the checks next to items on the Web tab can save considerable memory, hard drive space, and network bandwidth. Make sure you delete any items you won’t use.

One of the best places to save system resources is on the Appearance tab. One simple change from Windows XP Style to Windows Classic Style in the Windows and Buttons field can make a big difference in system performance. Click Effects and you’ll see the Effects dialog box. Clearing all of the options except font smoothing will net another big performance boost.

The second place to look for themes settings to optimize is in the System Properties dialog box that you access by right-clicking My Computer and choosing Properties. Select the Advanced tab and click Settings in the Performance section of the dialog box. You’ll see the Performance Options dialog box. The Visual Effects tab contains a number of special effects that you can remove to improve system performance. Again, make sure you keep font smoothing to help the user see well.

Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization

Removing Gizmos from Your Systems (1)

One of the most vicious memory hogs is the one that people are least likely to give up. Everyone loves gizmos. They help make the system feel friendly and special, even though they contribute nothing to the computing experience. Gizmos add pizzazz, the ooh and ah of computing, but other than that, they’re a waste of system resources and time for the most part. A few of these gizmos really are helpful and the following sections tell which ones.

Understanding Themes
You might be under the impression that themes are a complete waste of time, but they aren’t necessarily. To see for yourself what features themes control, disable the Themes service found in the Services applet of the Control Panel and reboot your machine. The rounded corners and other aesthetic features that Windows XP offers are noticeably absent, but so are some features that some people need to use the computer successfully. For example, font smoothing, a feature that makes the screen easier on the eyes, is gone. Even though the best option from a system performance perspective is to get rid of themes completely, the human using the machine probably needs a few of those features to remain comfortable.

Unfortunately, Microsoft didn’t place all of the theme support in one place. To optimize themes, you need to look in at least two places. First, right-click the Desktop and choose Properties from the context menu. The Themes tab doesn’t offer much in the form of direct optimization. However, remember that themes can consume a lot of disk space, so deleting any themes you aren’t using from the list can optimize hard drive use. Simply select the theme and then click Delete to remove it from the drive. Windows does a good job of removing the bits and pieces of the theme for you, so this is one case where a look at the hard drive probably isn’t necessary.

Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization

Other Drug Abuse

Several illegal drugs— including marijuana, amphetamines, cocaine, and heroin— can damage brain functions, including memory. As with alcohol, the aging brain shows heightened sensitivity to most drugs of abuse, increasing the risk of memory loss.
Read more »

Removing Application Tidbits (1)

Many applications leave tidbits behind. Previous sections of the chapter have already told you how to manage some of these tidbits. For example, the “Working with Components” section discusses
application components and the “Following the Flow of Registry Entries’ section describes the inner workings of file associations. This section provides some additional pointers on getting rid of applications you no longer need. It’s important to remember to save these application settings, should you need them later, by exporting and archiving them.

Deleting Old Setup Data
Even after you uninstall an application, many applications leave registry settings in place. The most common registry entries are user or system settings. The “Working with Application Entries” section of the chapter describes how to work with these settings. However, once you get past these settings, you’ll often find other settings left behind. These settings can cause any of the following problems:

Inefficient Use of System Resources As with many other elements of the registry, Windows believes everything it has to say. When the registry tells Windows that there’s an application available to handle a particular file or other need, Windows believes it. Even when the application folder for the application is missing, Windows will faithfully search for it, consuming your time, system processing cycles, and memory. Anything you can do to keep old setup information out of
the registry optimizes Windows.

System Reliability Problems Old registry settings cause more grief than you can imagine. It’s possible for these settings to affect system stability. When your machine thinks it has a resource that no longer exists and the machine tries to use that resource, reliability problems begin to manifest themselves. You won’t always see an outright crash. For all its flaws, Windows does recover remarkably well from single or even double errors. However, as the number of registry errors increase, the fixes for the problem become more problematic and you begin to notice system glitches. At some point, the recovery system becomes overwhelmed and your system begins to crash or exhibit other strange behavior.

Application Reliability Problems Applications receive input from a number of sources in Windows. You don’t see most of the activity that goes on behind the scenes, but your application is constantly interacting with Windows, device drivers, and even other applications. As the number of resource or application interaction errors increases, the reliability of your application decreases. Imagine this scenario. You open a document that contains an embedded document from another application. The application requests server support from the other application through Windows. Unfortunately, you have already uninstalled the other application. Unless the equesting application has good error handling (most don’t) the application will crash—all because a leftover registry entry led the requesting application to believe a server was available for the embedded file.

Security Issues All of the accumulated dirt in a registry can also lead to security problems. For one thing, all of those old entries provide more places for virus, adware, and spyware application entries to hide. The extra registry entries make it harder for antivirus and other helpful applications to locate the applications you don’t want. In addition, older files often contain bugs that let these unwanted applications in the door. For example, even if you aren’t using an older DLL, a registry entry could tell Windows to load it into memory. The second this event happens, your system becomes vulnerable to the attacks the older DLL allows.

Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization

Modifying Network Connections (2)

Windows Explorer automatically causes some optimization problems in the way that it works. For example, open the Folder Options dialog box using the Windows Explorer Tools
Folder Options command. Look at the Automatically Search for Network Folders and Printers option on the View tab. When this option is checked, Windows Explorer searches all of the network drives every time you start it up. It’s better to clear this option to save time when opening the application, but some people prefer to leave it on because it does provide a small performance boost when you search network drives. However, even if you keep this option checked, you can reduce its impact by removing excess network connections.

One source of network connections you might not know about is in My Network Places. As you roam the network, Windows XP helpfully creates links such as those shown in Figure 7.19 to places you visit regularly to make it easier for you to find these locations again, even when you’ll never visit them again. The My Network Places folder appears on your Desktop, but it also appears within Windows Explorer. In fact, when you look at these links in Windows Explorer, they appear as specialized folders. Whenever you open Windows Explorer, Windows also tends to update these links. It’s possible for a system to accumulate a hoard of these helpful links that the user doesn’t even know about that end up slowing the system to a crawl.

NOTE The My Network Places links problem is especially severe when some of the links point to locations online and the user has an inactive dial-up connection. Users have reported that Windows appears to connect to the Internet for seemingly no reason at all—this is one source of that problem.

Of course, features such as Automatic Updates also play a part in the mysterious Internet connection problem.

Of course, like any tool, My Network Places does have a use. You can optimize your network browsing by adding your own custom links. Simply double-click the Add Network Place icon that appears in My Network Places. Follow the prompts to add the kind of connection you want to create (there are several). The difference between the custom links that you create and those that Windows creates arbitrarily is that you know about them, so you’re likely to use them. In addition, these custom
links actually point to locations that you want to view. Consequently, the arbitrary links are a source of system resource drain, while the custom links are an example of network connection optimization.

Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization

Modifying Network Connections (1)

Network connections can be a source of unseen optimization issues. Some of the costs are evident. For example, every network connection costs memory because Windows maintains facts about the connection
and processing cycles because Windows updates the connection information it possesses as needed. These housekeeping tasks ensure that you see the most current information when you access the network with an application or perform a search.

The visible costs of network connections make it well worth the effort to remove unneeded connections from your machine. To remove a network connection, right-click the connection in Windows Explorer and choose Disconnect from the context menu. You can easily reconnect later if needed. Likewise, to remove a printer, fax, or other equipment connection, open the Printers and Faxes applet in the Control Panel, right-click the connection you want to remove, and choose Delete from the context menu. The act of deleting the connection doesn’t make the printer inaccessible.

TIP If you’re like me and print only about once a week, you can save additional system memory by setting the Print Spooler service in the Services applet of the Control Panel to manual. Stop the service
until you actually need it (stopping the service also releases all printer and fax connections). Start the service and create a connection to the network printer you want to use before you print. The “Clearing Unnecessary Services” section of the chapter tells more about working with services. This particular system change not only reduced memory use and made my system faster, it also reduced the amount of paper I use by about half—I find that I make fewer frivolous printouts that end up in the recycle bin.

The hidden costs of excess network connections depend on how you use your system. For example, when you use Windows Explorer to search, you could end up looking through every network drive on your system every time you perform a search unless you search carefully.

Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization

Clearing Unnecessary Services (3)

To modify a service, right-click the service and choose Properties from the context menu. You’ll see a Properties dialog box like the one shown in Figure 7.18. You’ll seldom need to use anything other than the General and Dependencies tabs. Always check the Dependencies tab before you stop a service to ensure that no other services (ones that you need) rely on the current service. Stopping a service that has dependent services always stops the dependent services as well.

The Startup Type field is very important for operation. Set this field to Automatic for services that you always want to start, Manual for services that you might want to start manually, at some point, and Disabled for services so dangerous that you never want them to start for any reason. The Service Status field tells you the current service status. Click Stop to stop a service that you no longer need.

The complexity of configuring a machine to use an optimal number of services has led to a number of lists online. Black Viper presents one of the better lists at http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/ servicecfg.htm. This list considers a number of factors, including how you use your system. However, no one list is perfect. You might find that you need some services that other people don’t need.

Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization

Clearing Unnecessary Services (2)

Although services don’t necessarily use any processing cycles unless an application makes a request and you can’t easily remove them to recover the hard drive space they use, services do use memory that you can recover. Because services can become very large and memory is a precious commodity, removing the services you don’t need is a good idea.

You need to consider the ramifications of removing some services, but disabling others is a no brainer. For example, disabling the Messenger service (not related to Windows Messenger) is a no brainer because this service has been linked to a number of viruses and few people seem to use it, even on those large corporate networks. However, you wouldn’t want to disable the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) / Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service unless you have a third party firewall and don’t need to share your Internet connection with anyone. Unfortunately, running a firewall is going to slow your online game—you have to make a choice between a secure connection and a fast connection.

NOTE It’s possible that a service you didn’t need in the past suddenly becomes necessary after an update. For example, Windows Update version 4 will scan your system and download updates to it without having either the Automatic Updates or Background Intelligent Transfer Service services started. However, once you upgrade to Windows Update version 5 (an automatic update when you install Windows XP Service Pack 2) these two services become mandatory because Microsoft checks for them. Windows Update will complain when you try to access it without the services started. To ensure your system can remain updated and yet not use precious resources needlessly, you can keep these two services set to manual and only start them when you want to perform an update of your system.

Taken From : Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization