So Must do Tweaks for Windows XP

Microsoft has got its new OS, Windows Vista making many as-ta-la-vista-baby (in both bad and good ways). This OS is currently available in plenty . I personally believe it is not much better, than it should have been.

But now I am also using Vista. I just transfered from XP to Vista.Until now (67% user) were satisfying their needs with Windows XP. Still many use it, but most don’t tweak their system for performance. They don’t get the full power and pleasure out it.I have heard that no more official updates for XP will be released after this June.

Thus this post is also as a tribute of mine to Windows XP. I used it for more than 4 years.

Here are some tweaks for Windows XP {by tweaks I mean updating, installation of some softwares and some hack (registry)} Here are they: categorized below:

Must have softwares:

1.Auto patcher
It is an unofficial program which contains the latest upgrades, tweaks, MS software (IE7, WMP11 etc), security patches etc. It automatically upgrades your system.It is opposed by Microsoft but you should use it.

2.Upgrading and servicing packs
Install the latest service pack 2 (SP2) for XP. There is also news of the 3rd service pack (SP3) being released, so do look for that as well.I do not have any news about it.

3.SAPI and TTS
SAPI and TTS are speech API and text to speech softwares, they are available from Microsoft. You can install them and also language packs and voices to enjoy software recognition and reading article by hearing i.e. changing text to speech.

NOTE: I have not provided any links. You must search them through Google search.

Must do hacks:

To do registry hacks, type regedit in run command box which is accessible from start menu. This will open the registry editor.

1.Load Application faster
Navigate to:
HLM\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Session Manager\Memory Management\Prefetch Parameters.
Here Enable Prefetches has default value 3, change it to 5 to make application load faster. Maximum value can be up to 9. A reboot is needed.

2.Save Processor Power
Processor enquires USB port once very milliseconds. It keeps doing so even if no USB device is attached. You can increase the enquiring interval by enabling “USB idling”.
Navigate to:
HLM\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Control\Class\ {36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}\0000
Create a new DWORD value called Idle Enable and set it to 1 to enable USB idling. Restart Windows. Do these hacks only if you do not make use of USB ports.

3.Disable Password Caching
When a user first logs on to computer, the password is cached by Windows. There are security risks related to it to disable this.
Navigate to:
HCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Network
And to:
HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Network
Here, set the DWORD value Disable Pwd caching to 0. The change will be effective the next time you log on.

4.Windows Forgetting Settings
Windows sometimes forget your folder customization, display options icons and folder positions etc. This happens as XP can remember settings for only 400 folders by default. But it can as a matter of fact reach a maximum of 8000.
Navigate to:
HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
And to:
HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell No Roam

Find BagMRU in both and increase the value to 8000 (this is in decimals).

NOTE: SP2 increase the above value from 400 to 5000 if it is installed.

CAUTION: The above registry hacks are safe but I won’t be responsible for any harm, thus do them at you own risk or ask your system administrator for help

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