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