Tech Stuffs

How to Speed Up Windows XP~

Although Windows XP is considered outdated compared to Vista, but I think most of the people is still using it right? So here are some tips and hacks for you to speed up your Windows XP. Warning: These tips will change some of the registry values so make sure you get it right or backup whatever you did.

1. Reduce Start Menu Delay

When you hover your mouse pointer over the start menu, there is a delay to show up the sub-menus. To cancel the delay time, just follow these steps.

Open Start menu –> Run. This will open up a window for you to run any programs. Type in “regedit” and you will open the registry editor. Then, find this folder

“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Desktop”

On the right column, find this key: “MenuShowDelay”. Double click the key and type in “0” for the key. The default value would be 150 and you can try numbers that is less than that. I chose 0 for that. That’s it! Now your submenu will show up without any delay.

2. Speed Up Windows Startup time

How long is your Windows XP startup time? If it is slow, you can try using this method to speed it up. Download Bootvis.exe and run it. In the menu, click “Trace→Optimize System”. It will ask you to restart your computer after that. Click yes and restart your computer. Once your Windows XP is restarted, the program will start doing some analysis on your system and optimize it. This will take a few minutes depends on your system.

Most computers will gain faster Windows startup time but it is not guaranteed. So you can try it.

3. Speed Up Shut Down Time

If your computer takes a lot of time to shut down, you should try this. Run “regedit” again, find this folder:

“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop”

The same folder as above, in the right column find this key: “HungAppTimeout”. The value for this key should be 5000 so if not, change it to 5000. Next, find this key: “WaitToKillAppTimeout” and change the value to 4000 (default value should be 1000).

Next find this folder in registry editor:

“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ CurrentControlSet\Control\”

and find this key: “WaitToKillServiceTimeout” and change the value to 4000 as well. This should reduce your Windows XP shut down time.

4. Disable Internet Connection Bandwidth Limitation

Most people don’t know that Windows XP limits the Internet connection bandwidth by 20% by default. This could slow down your connection. To disable it, run “gpedit.msc” to open a group policy window. On the left column, under Computer Configuration, click Administrative Templates->Network->QoS Packet Scheduler. On the right column find this key: “Limit Reservable Bandwidth”. Double click it and click Disable to disable the limitations.

I don’t see much effects after this hack but it is better to do this than letting Windows limits your bandwidth right?

5. Use Low Graphic Themes and Wallpaper

This is a simple hack that does not require any registry editing. If your computer is running under low RAM (like my previous office computer that is running only 128MB of RAM), try using Windows Classic styles themes rather than using the original Windows XP style themes. You will see a lot of difference after using it because the default theme actually uses a lot of resources (if your computer is running on low RAM).

Other than that, try using a blank wallpaper rather than using colorful ones. This will speed up your Windows a little as well.

So I guess this is it. Do you have any other hacks as well? Please let me know so that I can add in here~

An engineer which have a lot of interests in gadgets and technology stuffs. The blog varies from life events to gadgets reviews and hacks.

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