How to speed up Windows XP

1. Format hard drive using NTFS.
2. Defragment hard drive twices a month.
3. Disable fast user switching:
- Start > Run, and typing ‘control userpasswords’ and pressing [Enter].
- On the User Accounts window, click on ‘Change the way users log on or off ‘ ; make sure the ‘Use the Welcome screen’ option is ticked, and uncheck ‘Use Fast User Switching’. Click on Apply Options and close the window.
4. Turn off all the effect

• Go to Start
• Click Settings
• Click Control Panel
• Click System
• Click Advanced tab
• In the Performance tab click Settings
• Leave only the following ticked:

• Show shadows under menus
• Show shadows under mouse pointer
• Show translucent selection rectangle
• Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
• Use visual styles on windows and button.

5. Update windows
6. Optimize virtual memory

• Press [Windows] + [Pause Break]
• Go to Advanced.
• under Performance click on Settings.
• go to Advanced tab.
• Make sure ‘programs’ is selected for both Processor scheduling and Memory usage.
• under Virtual memory, click on change.
• If you have two physically separate hard drives, set the virtual memory on the drive that doesn’t hold XP.
• If you have only one hard drive, set it to another partition that does not hold XP.
• select the drive where you wish to place your page file, and select ‘Custom size’.
• Enter a number that is twice the size of your installed RAM in the initial as well as maximum size dialog boxes and click on ‘Set’.
• click OK thrice and restart the computer for the settings to take effect.
  

7. Remove unwanted program from startup.

• Start > Run, type ‘msconfig’ and press [Enter].
• Click on the Startup tab and uncheck any programs you dont want Windows to load at startup

8. Turn-off system restore

• Press [Windows] + [Pause Break].
• Click on System Restore, and select ‘Turnoff System Restore on all drives’ and click ‘Apply’.

9. Disable sounds, wallpapers and screensavers.

• Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices, and click on Sounds.
• Disable all sounds you don’t want. To speed up booting of Windows disable the Windows Startup and Shutdown sounds.

10. Disable compressions and indexing.
Right-click on an NTFS drive and select properties. At the bottom of the dialog that pops up you will see two check boxes called ‘Compress drive to save disk space’ and ‘Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching’. Uncheck both check boxes and click ‘Apply’.
11. Remove unwanted fonts and programs.
12. Disable Services.
Go to Start > Run, type in ’services.msc’.
Disabled under Startup type.For normal use, disable the following services:

• Alerter
• Background Intelligent Transfer Service
• ClipBook
• Computer Browser
• Error Reporting Service
• Help and Support
• Indexing Service
• IPSEC Services
• Messenger
• NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
• Network DDE
• Network DDE DSDM
• Performance Logs and Alerts
• Portable Media Serial Number
• QOS RSVP
• Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
• Remote Registry
• Secondary Logon
• Server
• Smart Card
• Smart Card Helper
• SSDP Discovery Service
• System restore Service
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
• Uninterruptible Power Supply
• Universal Plug and Play Device Host
• WebClient
• Windows time
• Wireless Zero Configuration
• WMI Performance Adapter