1) Tune XP's Visual Performance
To adjust XP's desktop animations and visual effects,
right click on My Computer and select
Properties/Advanced/Performance Settings. You can choose
to activate/deactivate individual items or use the
general "best performance/best appearance" buttons. When
you've made a change, click Apply, and you'll see the
effects almost immediately. (By the way: Selecting Best
Performance makes your desktop look very much like the
classic desktop in Win98/Win2K.) Experiment until you've
found the mix of speed and visual effects that works best
for you.
2) Improve XP's Folder Views
Now click to the Tools menu and select Folder Options.
Under the View tab, tell XP to show you the full path, to
show hidden and system files, not to hide any file
extensions, and not to hide protected folders--plus any
other settings you want. When you have the folder options
set the way you desire, click the "Apply to all folders"
button at the top of the dialog. This adjusts all windows
opened by Explorer, so they'll inherit the visual choices
you made for this one window.
3) Customize the Taskbar
One I always select is Toolbars/Desktop. I place the new
Desktop toolbar far to the right on the Taskbar, over by
the clock area. Whenever I want access to something on
the Desktop that's covered with open windows, I can use
this new Desktop toolbar as a shortcut to get to the item
on the Desktop without having to close or move any open
window.
4) Just Say "No" To Phoning-Home
You can turn off both behaviors by right clicking on My
Computer, selecting Properties, and first choosing the
Automatic Updates tab. Select either Turn Off or,
minimally, Notify me.
Now select the Advanced tab and click on Error Reporting.
Check "Disable error reporting," but leave "notify me
when critical errors occur" checked
5) Control Your Trash
Right click on the Recycle Bin, select Properties, and on
the Global tab, decide how much space you want the
Recycle Bin to consume, either for all drives in your
system, or on a per-drive basis. (It's a percentage of
the total space. I adjust the slider way to the left, so
I'm using "only" a few hundred megs of space for trash.)
Similarly, open Internet Explorer, and select
Tools/Internet Options. Under Temporary Internet Files,
click the Settings button and select a reasonable size
for this cache area. Generally speaking, if you have a
fast connection, 5 Mbytes to 10 Mbytes is adequate; 25
Mbytes or so is usually enough with a slower dial-up
connection.
6) Rein In System Restore
Like the items in No. 5, above, System Restore is an
incredible space hog. It might be worth it, if System
Restore were a truly complete and foolproof form of
backup, but it's not. At best, System Restore can and
will get the core operating system running again after a
bad crash, but it doesn't return all files to the pre-
trouble state, and it can't remove all traces of a
program that went bad. As a result, System Restore's
usefulness is limited, and so should be its appetite for
disk space.
Right click on My Computer, select Properties, and select
the System Restore tab. Select your main drive (usually
C
, click Settings, and move the slider to reserve a
reasonable amount of disk space. With a good regimen of
daily backups, you can even move the slider all the way
to the left. (I do.)
If you have more than one drive, you may wish to turn off
System Restore entirely for non-system drives. There's
little, if any, benefit to be gained by having them
monitored. And if you're really religious about making a
full backup before you alter your system or install new
software, you may wish to completely turn off System
Restore for all drives.
7) Improve XP's Virtual Memory Settings
Swapfile management has been somewhat of a black art in
previous versions of Windows, but the XP Help System
actually has good information on the subject (a first for
Windows!). Select Help And Support from the Start menu,
and do a search for "virtual memory." Be sure to check
out the "related topics" delivered by the search for
additional good information.
8) Control XP's Hidden Devices
To see if this is the case, right click on My Computer,
select Properties, Hardware, and Device Manager. In
Device Manager, select View and Show Hidden Devices.
Depending on how XP was set up, you may find a number of
networking devices--"Miniports"--that the Networking
applet didn't display. In my case, I found unnecessary
PPOE, PPTP, L2TP, and Dial Out elements. I disabled all
these unneeded elements, leaving only the IP miniport
enabled, and thus restored some sense of control over my
networking setup. Depending on how your system is set up,
you may find other hidden devices, or no others. It
varies hugely. But at least now you'll know if XP is
hiding things from you.
9) Take The Brakes Off Your Network Settings
XP's default network settings for Maximum Transmission
Unit, Receive Window, and such, may or may not be ideal
for your circumstances. The only way to know is to take a
close look: For example, DSL Reports and SpeedGuide have
excellent free information, online tests, and even one-
click tweaks that can automatically optimize all or some
of XP's internal plumbing for high-speed connectivity.
DSL Reports also offers a free, simple network tweaking
tool called DrTCP that lets you instantly and easily
adjust a variety of parameters; this tool makes iterative
testing a snap, as you experiment to find the best
settings for your particular setup.
(Incidentally, when WinXP-specific solutions aren't
offered, use those for Windows 2000; that's the closest
match for XP.)
10) Lock The Door
XP has a built-in desktop firewall, but it's turned off
by default. To turn it on: Right click on My Network
Places, Properties, right click on your connection (e.g.
Local Area Connection), select Properties again, then
Advanced, and then click the box for Protect My Computer.
But note that the built-in firewall is very basic, as the
free LeakTest tool will demonstrate for you. A third-
party firewall (such as ZoneAlarm will do a much better
job than XP's built-in firewall.
And whatever you use for desktop security, be sure to
test your system using any of the safe, free, online
security scans. Be sure to follow any suggestions the
sites make to close security holes detected by the tests.
For example, there are excellent tests available at:
Shields Up
DSL Reports Port Scan
DSL Reports Full Scan
