On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it may not be on yours, or it may have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot defragment is enabled on your system, run the Registry Editor [Hack 68] , and go to:.
Edit the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y. Exit the Registry and reboot. Windows uses this directory as a way of speeding up launching applications. It analyzes the files you use during startup and the applications you launch, and creates an index to where those files and applications are located on your hard disk.
By using this index, XP can launch files and applications faster. So, by emptying the directory, you are most likely slowing down launching applications. If shutting down XP takes what seems to be an inordinate amount of time, here are a couple of steps you can take to speed up the shutdown process:. For security reasons, you can have XP clear your paging file pagefile. Your paging file is used to store temporary files and data, but when your system shuts down, information stays in the file.
Some people prefer to have the paging file cleared at shutdown, because sensitive information such as unencrypted passwords sometimes ends up in the file. To shut down XP without clearing your paging file, run the Registry Editor and go to:. Close the Registry and restart your computer. Clearing the page file can provide more security, but that comes at the expense of speed. If you are more concerned with the shutdown speed, then you will want to disable this option in the registry.
Waiting for your computer to boot can be a painful process. Though Microsoft has taken steps to speed up the boot process, it still can be improved.
Here a few suggestions you can follow to speed up your Windows XP boot time. Boot Defrag. If your boot files are closer together it will take less time for your hard drive to seek the files, therefore giving you a faster boot time.
This was enabled by default on my machine, but you will want to make sure you have the option enabled in the registry. For the version of the operating system that loads in Safe Mode but that still allows networking, you could create this entry:. INI tab, shown in Figure One of the nice things about XP is how malleable it is.
No problem; change it. Take my splash screen, please! The techniques in this hack work only with versions of XP before SP2. Many people, myself included, would prefer to see a more interesting splash screen also called the startup screen than the default gives you on startup. You can change your splash screen to any of hundreds that have been created, or make one of your own—for example, with your picture or company logo on it. I live in wintry but civilized New England, and during the winter I like to imagine myself in a far wilder place, so I use a picture of wolves in the wilds of Alaska for my splash screen.
You can see it pictured in Figure It will be downloaded as a. If something goes wrong, you can revert to that restore point. Unzip the contents of the. There will be one or more files, including ReadMe files. The boot screen itself, however, will be named ntoskrnl. Check the documentation of the file you download to make sure. Your version of the operating system will be displayed.
If you have Service Pack 1, it will say so on that screen. The ntoskrnl. So, to change your boot screen, replace your existing ntoskrnl. Never download and use a boot screen that is packaged inside a. Always use. Many boot screen installation programs that change your boot screen contain spyware that they install on your PC without telling you, so stay away from them.
For details about how to detect and kill spyware, see [Hack 34]. You might think that all you have to do is copy the new ntoskrnl. First you have to get around a feature of Windows XP that protects system files from being overwritten.
Windows File Protection protects many other files, not just ntoskrnl. Also included are. Copy it to another folder or rename it as a backup so that you can revert to it when you no longer want to use your new boot screen, or if something goes wrong when you install the new screen.
Now copy the new ntoskrnl. If you have to use the ntoskrnlSP1. Now your new splash screen will appear every time you start your PC.
To revert to your old splash screen, repeat the steps, copying your original ntoskrnl. Depending on my mood, I might not want to be greeted by huskies every morning.
To create a startup menu, first download all the screens you want to use. Then rename the ntoskrnl. Following the instructions in [Hack 1] , create a multiboot screen by editing your boot. In the [operating systems] section of the boot. Also edit the description so that it describes the boot screen. For example, if the primary entry is:. Create as many entries as you want in the [boot loader] section.
My boot. If you have a laptop, for example, you might set up a menu that lets you choose a businesslike startup screen at work and a more entertaining one at home. So far, this hack has shown you how to use a startup screen that someone else built. The program will convert graphics from many different formats to a boot screen graphic, then use it as your boot screen, or build a boot menu for you so that you can choose from multiple boot screens.
Select a graphic that you want to use as a boot screen, and then click a button to convert it to the pixel, color bitmap startup screen standard. Shorten the time it takes for your desktop to appear when you turn on your PC, and make XP shut down faster as well. Here are several hacks to get you right to your desktop as quickly as possible after startup.
When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster. On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently.
To make sure that boot defragment is enabled on your system, run the Registry Editor [Hack 83] and go to:. Edit the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y.
Exit the Registry and reboot. Windows uses this directory to speed up launching applications. It analyzes the files you use during startup and the applications you launch, and it creates an index to where those files and applications are located on your hard disk. By using this index, XP can launch files and applications faster. So, by emptying the directory, you are most likely slowing down launching applications. You can speed up your startup procedures by changing the BIOS with the built-in setup utility.
Here are the choices to make for faster system startups:. When you choose this option, your system runs an abbreviated POST rather than the normal, lengthy one. Disable this option. Some systems let you delay booting after you turn on your PC so that your hard drive gets a chance to start spinning before bootup.
If you run into problems, however, you can turn it back on. Over time, your Registry can become bloated with unused entries, slowing down your system startup because your system loads them every time you start up your PC.
Get a Registry clean-up tool to delete unneeded Registry entries and speed up startup times. Registry First Aid, shown in Figure , is an excellent Registry clean-up tool.
It combs your Registry for outdated and useless entries and then lets you choose which entries to delete and which to keep. It also creates a full Registry backup so that you can restore the Registry if you run into a problem. After you clean out your Registry, you might want to try compacting it to get rid of unused space. Compacting your Registry reduces its size and decreases loading time.
If shutting down XP takes what seems to be an inordinate amount of time, here are a couple of steps you can take to speed up the shutdown process:.
For security reasons, you can have XP clear your paging file pagefile. Your paging file is used to store temporary files and data, but when your system shuts down, information stays in the file. Some people prefer to have the paging file cleared at shutdown because sensitive information, such as unencrypted passwords, sometimes ends up in the file.
To shut down XP without clearing your paging file, run the Registry Editor and go to:. Close the Registry and restart your computer. Services take time to shut down, so the fewer you run, the faster you can shut down.
For information on how to shut them down, see [Hack 4] instead. One of the best ways to speed up your PC without having to spend money for extra RAM is to stop unnecessary programs and services from running whenever you start your PC.
When too many programs and services run automatically every time you start up your system, startup itself takes a long time, and too many programs and services running simultaneously can bog down your CPU and hog your memory.
Some programs, such as antivirus software, should run automatically at startup and always run on your computer. But many other programs, such as instant messenger software, serve no purpose by being run at startup. And while you need a variety of background services running on your PC for XP to function, there are many unnecessary services that run on startup. Stopping programs from running at startup is a particularly daunting task because there is no single place you can go to stop them all.
But with a little bit of perseverance, you should be able to stop them from running. Start by cleaning out your Startup folder. Next, clean out your Scheduled Tasks folder. To stop XP from loading any programs in the Startup folder, hold down the Shift key during boot-up. No programs in the Startup folder will run, but the items will still remain there so that they will start up as they would normally the next time you boot. The best tool for disabling hidden programs that run on startup is the Startup tab in the System Configuration Utility, shown in Figure To run it, type msconfig at a command prompt or in the Run box and press Enter.
To stop a program from running at startup, go to the Startup tab in this utility and uncheck the box next to the program. It can sometimes be difficult to understand what programs are listed on the Startup tab. Some, such as America Online, are clearly labeled. To get more information about a listing, expand the width of the Command column near the top of the Startup tab.
The directory location should be another hint to help you know the name of the program. So, stop one and restart your PC.
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