I recently found a fantastic article that listed some great ways of speeding up your Windows installation. Many of the fixes were registry edits and got a bit involved. For those people that probably shouldn’t be messing around in the Windows registry, I have compiled all of the registry edits listed in the article into a reg file. All you have to do is execute the reg file below once and you can enjoy such benefits as faster folder access, improved boot times, faster menu loading as well as decreased shutdown time. Save the code below as a .reg file. Once you execute the reg file, reboot. After following those tips, my shutdown time went down to about 3 seconds!
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction]
"Enable"="Y to enable"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"MenuShowDelay"="100"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="1000"
"HungAppTimeout"="1000"
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="1000"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control]
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="1000"
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Sounds cool, but are there any risks involved using this reg file, and do you have a reg file that will reverse the changes if something goes wrong?
As for the reg files to reverse changes… no. Backup your registry. If you look into the reg file I made, you will see how simple it is. It just navigates to a directory and adds or changes a value. The values changed/adding in the file are not powerful enough to hinder your computer’s use if anything terribly wrong happens.
Hey paul !
I love your site, i visit ur blog daily… just noticed that the link is incorrect it links to : “10 Apps Every New Mac User Should Download”, I mean the fantastic article one.
Keep up the great work. :D
Ah, thanks for catching that! I’ll fix it right away.
Paul
Q. Does this quick fix work with win2k, sp4?
p.s. If you ever tackle vmware workstations(win\linux) and/or vmware player, I will be waiting?
Harold, I have no idea but I’m assuming that the registries for XP and win2k are very similar. I don’t think anything horrible would happen if you tried it… it just adds a few values here and there. But don’t try it on your main computer if you do. :-|
Hi.. sorry just wondering… after Ive download the file what do i do with it? It opens with Windows Media when I click on it
Sam, assuming you have saved it to your desktop you should just be able to double click it. If that doesn’t work as it sounds it doesn’t your file type associations are all wrong but I think you can try right clicking the reg file and selecting open or open with and hit browse. Navigate to C:\Windows\regedit.exe. Let me know if that works.
Hey Paul I also thought about some stuff: how about the virtual memory (which I memorise as the working place when Windows is running and where it puts its luggage when it’s room (RAM) is a bit fully) by increasing it, I think we can get some speeds by doing a right click on My Computer > Properties > Advanced > on the Performance space > click Settings > Advanced and changing the amount of virtual memory by clicking the Change button. Increasing it can get us some speed. Click Apply to save that setting.
There is another very good way which I myself use : how about getting the visual effects to the minimal, I know we will get that old sluggish interface of the 98 but still that greatly increases speed truly I can say up to 50% if we put it to Adjust for best performance. This is done by doing a right click on My Computer > Properties > Advanced > on the performance space > click Settings > and here we get it at Visual effects > now make your choices and get your Windows the warp speed. Don’t forget to make the Apply button to save those settings.
Getting that program that’s eating out our CPU (the processor: the one who works for our computer) needlessly would also get us some performance. Sometimes I have Download Accelerator running (but not actually downloading anything) and when I looked at the CPU it is using : it just came up to some 99% so that should be kill off instantly. So would you also like to know which programs are utilizing that precious CPU of yours : check it out by doing CTRL ALT DEL > the Windows Task Manager pops up > so now get in the Processes tab > there you will see all sorts of programs which are running and you may recognize some of them (just dig up and you will understand : I give you an example firefox.exe would be my Firefox browser) so now if a program is utilizing your precious performance by having a high CPU value (give a look among the columns you will also see how much memory that program is using in the Mem Usage column) you could close it out by clicking on it and making End Process making sure you know the program in person and is not actually using/needing it.
There are also some childish tricks like not putting too much icons on the desktop.
I will think of some more and if I came up with fresh new ones I will tell ya. I also wanted to tell you about my new site/blog: “tingy ideas†which is a blog for my techy ideas: you could check it out at http://neoideas.wordpress.com when you have some time. Thanks, see ya and nice that you’ve put some stuff for the Windozians.
Good job Pauls. Eventhough it is risky to try download, and merge it to my pc reg, well, lucky that i did backup my reg just in case. Now, no need to restore, works fine. Operate smoother. no need to take a drink while waiting for the pc to shut down.
I know a heap of registry commands to change things like for example, My “Start” button is no longer start it is Dale’s PC. I know a few but if you would like to know just leave a post here, of course if thats ok with Paul.
Dale, Windows User.
WOW >>> WORKS LIKE A TREAT!!!! WITH XP: SAVE LINK TO UR DESKTOP, RIGHT CLICK THE FILE & MERGE & THEN REBOOT.
THIS GOT MY SHUTDOWN DOWN FROM 20 SECS TO 3.5 SECONDS!!!!!!!!!!!!1
OUR SYSTEMS ARE WELL MAINTAINED & CLEANED BUT WE HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO SPEED UP THE SHUT DOWN. YOU CAN GO TO MICROSOFT & GET THEIR VERSION BUT YOU HAVE TO GO THORUGH THEIR VALIDATION PROCESS! YEH RIGHT.
THANXS FOR THE FILE…AWESOME & VERY SIMPLE!!!!!!!!!!
STU
how do you get the file
Paul, I just noticed that the file you have posted has a .MP3 extenstion.
Was this what you had to do in order to upload it to the site or was this just a type-O and it needs to be saved as a .REG File?
Please let me know before I try running this on my PC.
Thank you for you time, Jeremy Allen
@Jeremy – not sure what you mean, it’s a .reg on my end. If you click on it, quicktime might try to open it for some weird reason, but just right-click > save, then execute.
Hey,
I don’t get what i have to download. Ther is no file at the bottom of my screen. Maybe I’m being silly, but could you please explain what i have to copy.
Thanks.