Tweaking XP, the article that never was.

Alf

Alf

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Hello There! you remeber way back Ian when you said you would put out a article on how to Tweak Xp? yup, when is that coming out? not to be annoying or anything hows that coming along
biggrin.gif
 
You do a search in google and enter windows xp tweaks and that will tell you all you need to know. easy..
 
Personally I find there is nothing to "tweak" in XP

The only thing I have really done is to re-name "msmsgs.exe" to msmsgs.sav ... I don't like messenger. ;)

:thumb:
 
Here's a couple to be going on with:

XP Anti Spy. Tailor the way Windows starts, stop those annoying pop up speech balloons, and more. I use this all the time.

MRU Blaster Cleans out all those lists of Most Recently Used applications.

Both freebies.
 
floppybootstomp said:
Here's a couple to be going on with:

XP Anti Spy. Tailor the way Windows starts, stop those annoying pop up speech balloons, and more. I use this all the time.

MRU Blaster Cleans out all those lists of Most Recently Used applications.

Both freebies.
Click to expand...
MRU Blaster will save time "hacking the registry" ... it will also auto turn-off email notifications from your Hotmail & MSN accounts and even OE, but you can turn it on again.

NOTE
Did you know that;
In Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word:
On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the General tab, clear the Recently used file list check box.

;)
 
muckshifter said:
Personally I find there is nothing to "tweak" in XP

The only thing I have really done is to re-name "msmsgs.exe" to msmsgs.sav ... I don't like messenger. ;)

:thumb:
Click to expand...


what would be the point of doing this?
 
psd99 said:
what would be the point of doing this?
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What would the point of doing what? Renaming msmsgs?

By renaming msmsgs one does eradicate any misconceptions for XP ... if XP can't find the file, it can't use it. It's a simpler "fix" than any of the others I've come accross


I reiterate ... I don't like or use messenger. ;)

:D
 
Alf said:
Hello There! you remeber way back Ian when you said you would put out a article on how to Tweak Xp? yup, when is that coming out? not to be annoying or anything hows that coming along
biggrin.gif
Click to expand...
You know, you are quite right :) I have the article template started on the temporary forums, but I haven't added any content to it.

I've been revising for my uni exams since the middle of December, and they finish in about a week (just got back from one now) - so I won't be able to start it until after that. But... I will do it as soon as all my exams are out the way :) Only a few more days to go until I will have free time again :D

Mucks is right when he says there isn't too much to tweak, although there are lots of common sense tips that often get overlooked when using PCs. The article will be a summary of all of these things, as well as a section dedicated to tweaking the small things that may make a difference in performance.
 
muckshifter said:
What would the point of doing what? Renaming msmsgs?

By renaming msmsgs one does eradicate any misconceptions for XP ... if XP can't find the file, it can't use it. It's a simpler "fix" than any of the others I've come accross


I reiterate ... I don't like or use messenger. ;)

:D
Click to expand...

now i understand!

thanks

you are right msn is an abysmal peice of software!
 
christopherpostill said:
How are the exams going Ian?
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Not bad so far, had 2 and they were ok - but the ones I'm looking forward to are this week. I can't wait to get them out the way, I've never revised so much in my life! It seems to have taken the entire of the last 4 weeks up, but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel :)
 
Ian Cunningham said:
Not bad so far, had 2 and they were ok - but the ones I'm looking forward to are this week. I can't wait to get them out the way, I've never revised so much in my life! It seems to have taken the entire of the last 4 weeks up, but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel :)
Click to expand...
Good luck. Fingers crossed for you :)
 
The only Things i can remember after a night of 23 beers + is that on xp for tweaking, best things to do is clean out your registry... on a mnthly basis. DO NOT EDIT IT IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. You can just as easily use a program for that. Also, under run, type: msconfig

On the top you see tabs, the far right one shows startup or start-up.ini (because it goes for more then just xp). It'll show you a list then at the bottom half with check marks next to each item. Look threw each of those and any that you feel are not vital to run at ALL times; uncheck them.

Note: These Items all load on start-up. But also continue to run the entire time your on your computer slowing you down (real bad for gaming or system intensive programs) unless you use Cntrl+Alt+Del to remove them manually each time you start your computer. My suggestion is to remove all but stuff required. Xp will give an error msg when you uncheck something it needs to run right so your pretty safe.

The again under msconfig.... right next to start-up tab is a services tab. And again, uncheck all that you dont want or feel isnt required.

Other then that, under your internet options; make sure you dump your temporary internet files on a regular basis along with deleting your cookies. (located right next to temp files button. and then i also clear my history. Do this a a very regular basis. the more you install or delte, the more this needs to be done, but not exclusive to installing/uninstalling. I do it once every day or two.

From there, keep up with your defrag, anti-virus, and spyware removers. (I strongly suggest not having them run in the background the entire time. they are huge cpu boggers.

They arent "real" tweaks but its a good start on keeping it up to par. There is more but too complicated for a recovering drunk to go threw. hope this helps someone.

Cheers.
 
sorry moco but thats bad advice, msconfig is a troubleshooting utility and is not designed for "tweaking" as tempting as it might be ;).

although it's true that alot of the services that windows xp starts by default are unecessesary alot of the time, msconfig is not the way to go about disabling them.

To stop services starting go to "START" -> "RUN" -> "SERVICES.MSC" here you will see a list of installed services including Microsoft services and others. to stop an unwanted service starting double click on the desired service and select startup to "MANUAL".

TIP:

If you sometimes want maxium performance and less features and vice versa, rather than having to go through and enable and disable loads of services everytime you want a different config why not either create a hardware profile or even write a quick batch file to start and stop services without rebooting,

example batch file to start services;

net start messenger
net start schedule
net start spooler

example batch file to stop services

net stop messenger
net stop schedule
net stop spooler

before playing with the above make a backup or restore point.

J

PS Windows XP is great for tweaking!, i would be quite happy to write an article to show the many ways this can be done!.
 
Techy said:
PS Windows XP is great for tweaking!, i would be quite happy to write an article to show the many ways this can be done!.
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That would be great if you want to, as I won't be able to write one for another few weeks and you know your stuff :D
 
what this article template ian?

can i have a copy so i can write it straight into a webpage so i can get the formatting correct?

J
 
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