Windows XP Pro vs. Home

I've never given SR a chance to help me, it's something of a non-no for me... I'd consider it humiliating to use it. It eats disk space anyway.

Agreed

I use Quick Launch too.

What does the system say the RAM allocation is at boot time? Yes, I know you never reboot, but may be just this once.

Disabling unecessary hardware, therefore freeing system IRQ lines, and preventing drivers from loading in the first place. Drivers. just sit in RAM. Kill Parallel Ports & COM ports if you can afford to do so - especially integrated NIC/Sound/Video.

Kill balloon notifications - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ EnableBalloonTips=0x00000000
By by search assistant - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState & set the value of Use Search Asst to "no"
Disable the darn indexing service on all volumes and then kill the service off My Comp > <drive letter> > properties > Allow indexing service > all files and sub folders, then hit the services manager

Prevent Windows Messenger from bothering you >EVER< again:
Start > Run > RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

If you can live without the UI fluff and a start-up sound, disable the Themes service

Disable system sound events completely

Don't use the welcome screen

Disable themes on the log-on screen (otherwise all you're doing is loading and then unloading the themes services)

If you're really stuck for RAM:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AlwaysUnloadDLL set the default to 1. This will force unload link libraries from RAM after request fulfilment... however it will add milliseconds to load times and program access i/o. P.S. there are arguments over whether this does anything under XP, as I said above, I have not used it since the days of 9x.

Remove as much as you can from the Windows Comp list in Add / Remove

LOL, actually I dont do any unloading. I have a few registry tweaks, but these can go pretty deep for the average user.
Most of my tweaks are done by disabling services (start-run-"services.msc" and ofcourse msconfig (start-run-"msconfig"

I am not too picky about memory useage in general, actually, for the ones who know what I mean with this, I have kernel/os paging TURNED OFF. This basically does not allow windows to use the swapfile for storing parts of the actual OS. (meaning, it actually uses more memory then it normally does) if I tweak my XP to the max with bare necesities (meaning, only avg-free running at start-up) I can get it down to 80 orso mb in use.

The way you should look at memory (linux users, come join us) is that it is nice to have a system that uses little memory, but if you have the memory, you should use it. Problem is, with Windows so much stuff is loaded at startup (same as with Linux machines, note) that you hardly use on a day to day basis.

Maybe we should start a new thread about how many icons people have running next to their clock. Lots of stuff is there that you do not use on a day to day basis. Quicktime, realplayer etc. Those all load at startup, and even if not loaded, It still load when needed. Other programs, such as Nero, or certain dvd-player software for example. These all show up when you run msconfig.

I never use MS Config, because it flags the registry into booting into a different mode. Go for the source and hit HKLM/HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run.

Export the key for a backup and pull things out of it.

actually, it does not flag the registry differently.
The HKM and the HKCU run keys are not deleted through the registry, but they are moded to a key called "-run" instead of the "run". So msconfig does not delete the keys, it just moves them to a different location.
Now if you start chaning services behaviour through msconfig, thats a different story, but for removing stuff from startup, it works pretty good. (it also handles the shortcuts in the startup folder in the startmenu, something people tend to foget whom are registry-wiz)

I keep my startup folder completely empty at all times. If I need boot code I run it through group policy. Good tip though


It does flag the registry differently, it puts itself into an "undo" mode, not the diagnostic flag like if you pull the services out.
Key backups are stored in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg

OK, C:Amie, i turned off the system restore thing happily just now! thanks..

oh well, ok, i'll reboot now.. i promise.. system has been running for over 457 hours now (and the last reboot was totally unnecessary iirc.. i almost reached 1000 hours and then the stupid reboot which didn't solve anything anyway... )

good idea about disabling the paralllel port.. i use the printer on the other pc.. where can i do this?

the damn notifications, i already disabled them without having to go to the registry
honestly i've never really tweaked anything in the registry...

what does the indexing service do or what is it supposed to do? i never touched it because i have no idea about it. i don't fiddle with stuff i dunno about.

winmessenger... i don't even have it installed...

how do you mean disabling themes on the logon screen?

the other stuff is already OK.. (hmm maybe i'll have to uninstall the CE stuff that sits here installed just because i needed some cab... and no i won't fiddle with the dll unload thingie thats goes too far in tweaking IMO)

five:

1) safely remove hardware (i have the usb reader plugged in)
2) firewall (sygate)
3) activesync
4) antivir software (nod32)
5) UPS software


too much?

Edited by cmonex 2006-05-08 4:50 PM

reboot done... btw it took 40 secs to get to the login screen of XP. a few more secs for the desktop to get ready.


137 MB was available before the restart when i closed everything except the stuff in the systray, and almost 180 when i rebooted. (still don't know how much the video card uses )

i'd like to improve on this.. (have 384 in total as i said)

It will tell you the vRAM in the BIOS and in the driver advanced settings area in display or in the control panel applet, assuming that you are still running the Intel driver and not the Windows XP driver.cab one.

1) safely remove hardware (i have the usb reader plugged in) - shell hardware service
2) firewall (sygate) - service - process - application - drivers
3) activesync - process
4) antivir software (nod32) - service - process - application
5) UPS software - service - driver - may be service

Not a lot you can do about them really, you could disable shell hardware detection, but you'd not be able to plug n play into the system or eject devices

well i need all these (AS could be eliminated but i dont want to have the hassle of starting it up everytime i need it)

so i guess i cant get below 100 mb?

control panel display applet / advanced / adapter says 32 MB.. wow..

Drop it to 8/16 in the bios. Unless you're gaming you don't need it for 2d, especially 24-bit.

I don't know what my boot RAM use is at the moment, I wont be able to reboot probably for another week, may be two, even three.

This is a bit off topic, but where can I delete the Luna theme in XP?

Well, in summary: you don't

The control files are in a sub folder off of the Win dir, but if you delete it SFP will put it back. It is unlikely that you have actually stopped using it in your session, you just can't see it currently

If you decide you want to upgrade to XP Pro, you can get an authentic copy off eBay for less than $200. The prices will come down even more as the Vista release date nears. I have two identical Dell desktops, one with XP Home and one with XP Pro. I do everything but serious PC gaming though. The only difference I notice is that Home boots faster and it works snappier than Pro.

I experiment with the Home system. I keep the Windows XP Home system original factory install, allowing no microsoft security updates. Instead, I rely on an old PII Acer PC I set up as a Linux driven security server. After autoinstall updated my Windows XP Pro system to service pack 2, I noticed a clear slowdown. My children swear the XP Home Dell system is much faster than XP Pro with SP2 and all the updates.

--Bruised