1. Optimize Paging File
A paging file located on your hard disk is used by Windows XP to store
information associated with insufficient RAM memory. Since hard disk
access is generally slower than RAM access, optimizing your paging file is
highly suggested. This will come in quite handy when you are working on
a word document too large for your computer's RAM.
2. Optimize Display Settings
Impressive graphics may decorate your computer screen and make it
more attractive, but it also affects performance, which is especially
detrimental to an older PC. To experiment with changes, try the following
steps: click on the Start button, right-click on My Computer, select
Properties, choose the Advanced tab, click on the Settings button located
under Performance, choose the Visual Effects tab and select "Adjust for
Best Performance" and click OK.
3. Double-Click Title Bars
When you double-click on a window's title bar, the full screen size makes
editing much easier and quicker. This also helps to eliminate unnecessary
scrolling.
4. Utilize Quick Launch
To gain easy and speedy access to your most-used dial-up connections
and favorite folders – make sure to utilize Quick Launch. Overall, you can
fit about 20 items on the Quick Launch bar.
5. Rely on Convenient Buttons
Spend less time fussing with Windows by reducing the amount of
dependency and use of your mouse movement. For example, you may
right-click on the taskbar to close windows or when you wish to close a
program or window running in the foreground, you can press Alt + F4.
6. Sleep and Hibernate
Completely shutting down and rebooting your computer is a waste of time
and energy, which is why many users rely on "Sleep" and "Hibernate,"
which allows them to keep their favorite programs open. It is suggested
to save all work and close a few documents when placing a machine in
Sleep or Hibernate mode.
7. Right-Click Shortcuts
Life is much easier and quicker when you learn the common right-click
shortcuts that increase computer performance and output. Shortcuts are
known to allow easy copying (Ctrl+C), easy pasting (Ctrl+V), easy email
reply (Ctrl+R), and ease looking for words and phrases in documents and
on the Internet (Ctrl+F).
8. Disable Recent Documents History
With Window XP, there is a feature that permits a user to keep track of all
recent documents that have been opened or used. When you select the
Start/Recent Documents History, documents are quickly reopened, but
when Windows is rebooted, the overall process slows as the computer
tries to figure out the items situated in the History. Disabling the Recent
Documents History is suggested to boost speed.
9. Reduce Wait Time
Before you shut down Windows XP, the computer first quits or ends the
live applications or processes that are currently running. Closing all
applications before shutting down the computer is suggested, which will
decrease the amount of time that Windows XP has to wait before these
instances are closed internally.
10. Set Your Computer to Automatically Kill Tasks Upon Shutdown
Dialog boxes that ask if you wish to "kill" an application that is currently
running is known to slow down computer shutdowns. Instead of waiting
for prompts, you can set Windows XP to automatically take care of this
task by: opening the Registry Editor, locating
HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop, highlighting the value
AutoEndTasks (changing the value to 1), and closing the Registry Editor.
