Optimising xp for old machine

neon_glows

Hi guys im fixing up a pc for some friends who are adamant that they want windows xp install on it, the machine in a 32mb, 499mhz dell, iv beefed up the ram to 80mb and installed xp and everything seems honky dorey so far, iv turned of all visual enhancements. Im now curious if it is possible to tweak windows more to run faster and if so are there freeware/opensource tools or instructions available, cheers.

tba

for a start delete loads of unwanted fonts, and stop windows sounds from playing they use up valuable memory.

neon_glows

Good idea, iv just switched of windows sounds. If i manually go into a folder and remove fonts will this be safe?

conzy

Use a program called nlite

www.nliteos.com

Remove languages, tours, help, programs, anything you dont use, even the little paperclip guy:)

I cut my windows down to 200megabytes from 575megabytes it runs much nicer without all the woindows "security" features

neon_glows

lol

neon_glows

How many processes do you have running?
How big is your page file?

1. Turn off System Restore Process?:
Start > Control Panel > Select Performance and Maintenance > System > System Restore Tab > "Turn off System Restore" > Click Ok
After that, Disable and Stop the System Restore Service:
Start > Run > services.msc > System Restore Service > Stop and Disable

2. Turn off Indexing Service
You can disable the service from:
Start > Run > services.msc > Indexing service > Stop it, then choose ‘disabled’ fro the startup option.
You can remove the function via the "Add / Remove Programs" icon in the control panel (Windows Setup Programs) to get rid of it altogether

3. Remove Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Sharing
Start > Control Panel > Select Performance and Maintenance > System > Remote Tab> Uncheck both "Remote Assistance and Desktop Sharing" options > click OK

4. Disable Windows XP Themes
Start > Control Panel > Select Performance and Maintenance > System > Advanced Tab > Performance > Settings > Visual Effects Tab > "Adjust for best performance." > Click OK

Disable and Stop the Themes Service:
Start > Run > services.msc > Themes Service > stop and disable it from startup

5. Use Msconfig
Run msconfig and get rid of any annoying startup programs that may be hiding.
Start > Run > msconfig > Startup (don’t disable services from in here, use services.msc in ‘run’ instead)

6. Disable Hibernate Function
To save on disk space is it a good idea to disable the hibernate feature from Windows. Do so in Control Panel > Power Options > Hibernate > Untick ‘Enable hibernate’

7. Services
You can disable these:
Alerter
Error Reporting
Indexing
Messenger (this is NOT MSN messenger, it’s the annoying popups!)
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing]
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM
Performance Logs and Alerts
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry Service
Smart Card
Smart Card Helper
System Restore Service
Uninteruptible Power Supply
Upload Manager
WebClient
Windows Time
WMI Performance Adapter

Capt'n Midnight

neon_glows wrote:

Hi guys im fixing up a pc for some friends who are adamant that they want windows xp install on it, the machine in a 32mb, 499mhz dell, iv beefed up the ram to 80mb and installed xp and everything seems honky dorey so far, iv turned of all visual enhancements. Im now curious if it is possible to tweak windows more to run faster and if so are there freeware/opensource tools or instructions available, cheers.

It's a complete waste of a legit XP license - you could sell the license and buy a better PC complete with a windows 2000 license.

TerrorFirmer

You know if word processing and that sort of stuff is all they want to do 500mhz and 80mb ram is okay. There's no need to be disabling sound and all that crap!

WinXP will actually work on lower spec then you have, and as I said, unless you are being foolish enough to try run anything demanding on a 500mhz machine, you won't encounter any problems with xp doing basic things like net browsing and word processing.

Let it be and don't go messing about and eh....mess something up!

I personally ran XP on 500mhz with 96mb ram no problems. I'd understand if you were trying to get it working on a 300mhz 32mb ram machine or something but....

K.O.Kiki

LINUX!!

Note: I, in no way, am an advocate, nor have any experience with said OS. Mac all the way, baby!

Capt'n Midnight

Run MsConfig - choose Diagnostic startup
then add in services you need (can't find the hack to kill a few of the ones remaining)

Get rid of compex wallpaper, reduce colour depth

Real shame you can't use the old 98lite trick of replacing explorer with a previous version.

Again if they are adamant about it, they will have to stand and deliver when it comes to licensing.

Airblazer

neon_glows wrote:

Hi guys im fixing up a pc for some friends who are adamant that they want windows xp install on it, the machine in a 32mb, 499mhz dell, iv beefed up the ram to 80mb and installed xp and everything seems honky dorey so far, iv turned of all visual enhancements. Im now curious if it is possible to tweak windows more to run faster and if so are there freeware/opensource tools or instructions available, cheers.

give them a kick in the bollix..tell them to cop the fuuck on and buy a decent system..christ I picked up a P4 2.4GHz,256Mb Ram, 40Gb drive and dvd plus 128MB FX5200 for €160 ...
I'm always getting ppl asking me to put xp on their system..I tell them to fuuck off ,and stop annoying me as they're hardly going to pay me if they're too mean to fork out for a better pc...my days of free tech support are well and truly over..
people who've been in the same boat will understand..anyone else is probably someone that looked for xp!!!

Cake Fiend

Make sure they know not to come moaning to you when it takes an hour to open up a Word document... :rolleyes:

If they have to have an MS OS, try to convince them to stick 2K on instead - it'll provide most of the functionality of XP (and is still compatible with most modern drivers I've thrown at it), but won't hog as many resources.

DemonOfTheFall

If you want a lite copy of xp, just make a disc with this www.nliteos.com and reformat. It's soooo much easier, youre wasting your time doing anything else.

Well, you're wasting your time in the first place. XP with absolutely everything ripped out and not a single feature left intact will still run like ass on a 500mhz 80meg of ram machine.

Get Win2k, nlite that, and then you'll have a very nice and useable machine.

XP and 2k are basically the same once youve ripped everything out with nlite.

Shiny

I got XP pro running on a 500mhz machine at home.
128 megs of ram.

And it can still play AOE2 fine too.

Basically if they dont realise how crap their PC
is, then they wont realise how slow XP is running
on the machine either.

Just throw it on and that will shut them up, then
give them a fake number so that they never call
you ever again.