# Windows Performance Tweaks



## Irreverent (Mar 18, 2010)

Got a cool tip, patch or tweak for the Wintel platform?  Fallen in love with a must have or "killer app?"  Post your suggestions and links here!


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## Rhetorica (Mar 18, 2010)

Right, let's try some of the basics:

Disabling seldom-used Windows services can speed up a machine drastically. Here's a Windows Vista guide, and here's an  Windows  XP one, and 
Annoyances.org: just about every tweak known to humanity
Various Windows 7 Tweaks: this is mostly about visual effects. The registry file adds a "Take Ownership" command to the shell context menu, and reduces a few timeouts (like how long to wait for a hung app before prompting to kill it), but doesn't actually improve performance. (Gentoo users, this is the Windows analogue to -O9)

The Windows 7 tweaks, above, are mostly focused on the Visual Effects tab of Performance Options. This exists in Vista and XP, too, although the options are different. The instructions to getting to this control panel are, fortunately, the same, so you can follow along with the tutorial above until it gets to screenshots. (But the registry file will probably be less useful on Windows XP)


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## CyberFoxx (Mar 18, 2010)

Let's see...
1. Install Server 2008 or Server 2008 R2 instead of Vista/7. You'll get a rock stable OS, with none of the bloat. Sadly, this will cost quite a bit more... Unless you just download the OS free from MS. (*Cough* It's a trial...)
2. Follow the tips on http://www.win2008workstation.com/ if you want at least some of the fun stuff in 2008 that is from Vista/7.
3. Install several of the apps from Sysinternals. I recommend Process Explorer (Great taskman replacement, actually shows real memory usage), Autoruns (Lets you edit what runs on startup, login, etc) and Contig (Great command line app that let's you defrag a single file. Perfect to do on an ISO before burning it.).


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## Rhetorica (Mar 18, 2010)

Woah, woah, slow down there. Be cautious about that first step. Server versions of Windows have _very_ different userlands, and you can find yourself equally lost if you've never used a Server version of Windows NT before.

If your goal is just avoiding bloat, you may want to consider *nLite*. It lets you build a custom install CD image: add your favourite drivers and remove all the slack you don't plan on using.

Speaking of nLite, if you happen to be running XP and don't want to reinstall, *XPLite* can let you remove much of the junk in a similar way, though after the system is installed. It's essentially what the "Add/Remove Windows Components" section of the Add or Remove Programs control panel is supposed to be. The vendor, LitePC, also has similar programs for 2000 and 98, but I doubt anyone will ever need those.


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## ToeClaws (Mar 18, 2010)

Excellent!  Thanks Irre - hopefully we can put this to good use.  Okay, I shall give some tips on Windows XP.  As I do not use (or intend to use) Vista and 7, I cannot speak directly about them, but the basic principles of tweaking still apply.  So, here we go...

As with any factory delivered product, Windows arrives on your system in a far from optimal state.  There are a number of enhancements that can be made that will increase the performance of the operating system without compromising stability (in fact, they should increase stability).  For Windows XP, this is especially the case since so many extra (and unnecessary) services were added.  Rhetorica posted an excellent link on how to disable/tune XP's services, here.  Any machine will benefit from this, but older machines with less CPU power and/or RAM will really stand to benefit from this.  Services take resources to run, so the less you're using, the more you have for other things!

*Before you begin, part 1: Service Packs and Patches*

Microsoft releases Service Packs and Patches for their operating systems.  These packs contain accumulation of hundreds of critical fixes, driver updates, and general improvements to the Operating System (OS), so before going to all the trouble of tweaking, it's best to apply then latest service pack and patches, THEN do this.  Each Service Pack can also add unwanted services or features that further hinder Window's performance.  

*Before you begin, part 2: Get rid of the TSRs!*

TSR is an old term for "Terminate and Stay Resident" software.  LOTS of software today could be called a TSR, and though some of them such as anti-virus scanners or firewalls are useful, most of them are not and only consume system resources.  Spyware is probably the most famous new type of TSR, or at least some Spyware is (usually the worst kind).  If your PC has been in use for a while, you likely have TSRs loaded at startup.  Also, if you bought a pre-built PC or laptop from someone like HP or Dell, then you definitely have lots of this stuff floating around in your system's memory.  

So first course of action will be to get rid of any of the TSRs that are garbage - that is, not critical in the least for the functionality of your system.  There are many ways to do this, but one of the easiest is to get a small freeware program that's good at cleaning up the messes in Windows.  One handy utility to get started with this is called EasyCleaner.

This little program is very easy to use, and does lots more besides just being able to get rid of the startup TSRs.  Install it, and run it - when you do, select the button called "Startup."  In the window that pops up is a list of all the programs your computer launches when Windows starts.  There's probably a lot more there than you thought you had.  Simply put, this list should be as small as possible.  There may be a need for 2 or 3 things (anti-virus, firewall launcher, Nvidia or ATI control panel DLLs - stuff like that) but the rest are likely just agents, updaters, IM launchers, etc.  While sometimes slightly handy, these things are definitely not needed in memory ALL the time.  What's nice about EasyCleaner is that it also has an "Undo" button/section, so don't worry - if by chance you remove something you needed, you can go and put it back.  As for what you should or shouldn't remove, that's up to you - you can be as aggressive or cautious as you wish.

I have worked on friends and family's systems were this list is sometimes HUGE, and the amount of resources consumed by this stuff is insane.  Most of the time, it's put there when you install software without you even knowing it (or being given a choice about it), so checking the startup list once and a while is good practice for maintaining your PC.

Another great thing you can do with EasyCleaner is scrub your registry.  The Windows Registry is basically where Windows keeps track of all of its settings and primary configuration, however, it isn't very good at housekeeping.  Over time, the registry tends to get a lot of orphaned entries and obsolete entries, and enough of these can start slowing down your system.  If you click on the Registry button, it launches a program that scans for these entries and can then remove them.  

Now I've run across a lot of registry scrubber programs in my years, and one issue can be that some of them are too aggressive - I've never found that with EasyCleaner.  EasyCleaner doesn't make guesses at entries, rather, it only removes the ones that are confirmed as no good.  It even keeps undo information for these too in case you need to roll back (though I never have).  The only problem with EasyCleaner's registry scrubber is that it's dated, and not quite as good as some of the newer ones.  One of the best state-of-the-art ones I've found is the Wise Registry Cleaner.

There are lots of other handy things that EasyCleaner can do as well, such as clearing temporary files (another thing Windows is bad at), so check it out and remember to use it once and a while.

If you removed a lot of junk already, you may want to reboot your PC if you haven't already to clear up the TSRs left over in the memory. 

Next up, let's also make sure there's nothing nasty running in the system in the way of low-level worms and Trojans and spyware.  There's lots of good apps out there for checking spyware and low-level viruses.  I would suggest visiting MajorGeeks (an excellent source for Windows applications) and take a look at their top Freeware picks, which list excellent anti-spyware and malware applications among many other useful programs:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20

There are over 800,000 ways that a Windows box can be compromised, ranging from very petty (like tracking cookies) to very major (like rootkits).  Good anti-malware scanners like Anti-Malwarebytes and Spybot Search and Destroy will help find the sort of things anti-virus scanners miss.

*Now that the TSRs are gone, do a nice quick automated tweak...*

I think it took about 5 or 6 years for someone to write decent free tweaking software after XP came out, but finally you can download and run some pretty slick free applications.  The best one that I've found is called "Advanced Windows Care".  It's tweaks are great except for one thing - it turns on Font Smoothing, which I hate (discussed further down).  You can always fix that later.  AC3 also has a registry scrubber built into it, albeit only a weak one like EasyCleaner.  Some of the stuff suggested below may be automatically done by AC3 if you run it.

*Changing Windows defaults*

XP changes the location and layout of just about everything from earlier Windows versions in an effort to make the OS easier to use, though fine for the typical user, it makes administrating the machine more of a headache, and certainly removes XP completely in terms of looks and feel from prior Windows Operating Systems.  Before doing any of the following, I strongly suggest switching back the shell's interface options to the "classic" settings.  Not only are they more administration friendly, they will make XP's layout look more like Windows 2000, which in my opinion, was the closest Microsoft ever came to getting the ease-of-use and layout correct.  Click on Start and select the Control Panel.  You'll notice that even the Control Panel has completely changed.  On the left hand column, there is an option to "Switch to Classic View" - click on it, and you'll get the real Control Panel.  You may also want to open up "Taskbar and Start Menu" and switch them to "Classic" as well, on the Start Menu tab.  While in the Control Panel, you can now begin the following.  Remember that some of these settings are for the current profile only, meaning that you'll have to do them for each profile on the system.

*System*

Clicking on System opens the System Properties box, which has several tabs.  Here's where several of the basic system performance settings can be altered.      

Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Visual Effects

The more of these that are on, the more the CPU works at making Windows look pretty.  If you want performance, turn them off!  XP does not task the GPU with any of these - it handles them directly, which is why they chew up resources.  If you click on the performance option, it will automatically deselect them all.  If you like, you can enable only the ones you really desire.

Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Advanced

Here you find three tweakable settings - Processor Scheduling, Memory Usage, and Virtual Memory.  The first two will be set more precisely by the registry tweaks so don't worry about them.  The Virtual memory however needs to be changed.  By default, Windows picks a couple numbers for this file as a minimum and maximum.  The problem with this model is that it allows XP to dynamically allocate the file as needed, often changing the size of the paging file on the fly.  This takes time and can also fragment the file badly.  Change the minimum and maximum number to the same value, and XP will create a permanent file.  The number you choose should be the recommended setting that XP shows in the bottom area of the box, or larger.

Advanced > Startup and Recovery > Settings

By default, there are a lot of delays and extra options on here that don't need to be.  The first option is for displaying the boot menu - a menu allowing you to choose from installed operating systems.  It should go without saying that if you don't have any other operating systems installed, the first option is useless, and can be unchecked.  If you do have other operating systems, then select a more appropriate time delay before the default one is chosen - 5 seconds, instead of 30, for example.

The second option is for the display time of the troubleshooting menu - basically like Safe Mode with prior Windows versions.  Again, it could probably be set to something like 5 seconds instead of 30.

Under the three checked options, you can likely take the checkmark off "Send Administrative Alert" unless you're on a network where the Administrator's actually use that information. 

Under the Memory dump section, set it to none.  I've never known anyone to ever use the information contained in a memory dump file.  Also, if ever something happens that's serious enough to cause a large crash that would warrant this service, the last thing you need is for Windows to load up its debugger and dump tools into an already unstable environment.

Back on the Advanced tab, click on the button on the bottom right called "Error Reporting" and disable it.  The service can also be disabled as well.

*Remote*

Moving on to the System Properties remote table, there's a couple options for remote administration and usage of the system.  I would strongly recommend unchecking both options unless the computer is on a network where IT instructs you do to otherwise.  This is nothing but a huge security and privacy risk.  Also keep if you plan on using it yourself for getting from one PC to another, but put some heavy firewall rules around it.


*System Restore*

Here is one of the most resource intensive service that Windows XP runs.  It attempts to keep a live rollback of most install/config activities on XP so that you can recover from an application mistake.  Unfortunately, this does little to help you when you have a hardware problem or sever system problem, and instead, dramatically reduces the performance of your system.  Turning it off via the System window will deactivate it, but the service will still exist unless you disable it (mentioned up in the service tweaks link).


*Display Properties*

The next thing to get to in the Control Panel is XP's display properties.  Again, there are a lot of extra options, mostly for visual aesthetics, that can be turned off or reduced here to speed things up.

*Themes*

Another one of the large resource hogs of XP is its ability to skin the shell with a dramatically more complex interface, in terms of colours and geometrical shapes.  Though it can dramatically alter and/or improve the look of the shell interface, it can also have an equal negative effect on the system resources.  This panel lets you choose from the various themes.  If you choose the Classic look, it would appear that skinning is deactivated, but again this is not completely true.  To turn the feature completely off, you have to use the Services tweaks.

*Desktop*

Used for picking the background image used on the desktop.  Only bitmaps (BMPs) should be used here, and 8 bit (256 colours) if possible.  Using a Jpeg (JPG) image will activate something called the Active Desktop, which loads another layer to the shell interface.   This layer makes the desktop function more like a HTML page in Internet Explorer, introducing more unneeded overhead on the system.  Bitmaps are supported by the shell itself.   24 bit bitmaps (16 million colour) work, but remember that the shell must redraw and maintain a much larger palette than if it is an 8 bit (256 colour) image. From Windows Vista and up, and just about any other operating system, JPEGs and other images are supported on the desktop without special services coming into play.  For older machines, this can make a big difference in performance, particularly with video content.  Programs like the GIMP and Photoshop have excellent conversion tools to take 24 bit JPGs and convert them to 8 bit BMPs (and actually still have them look pretty good).


*Appearance*

Mainly used for changing the colour schemes used for XP.  This is now partly integrated with the themes service, so if you pick the Classic look here, it will also remove the new skinning from display (though the service is still there unless you shut down the service itself).  


*Appearance > Effects*

These are mostly aesthetics or animation functions for XP.  For the best performance, uncheck all of the options here.  If you REALLY like some of them, leave them on.   One thing I would strongly recommend against though is the use of "font smoothing" and/or "cleartext" by XP (or any other OS).  Font smoothing is when the operating system uses anti-aliasing technology to smooth the appearance of fonts on the screen display.  Since fonts are a vector image instead of a fixed bitmap type display, the anti-aliasing calculations actually consume a good deal of resources for the simple thing that fonts are.  That and I find it just makes them harder to read anyway.


*Folder Options > General*

On to another entry from the Control Panel - Folders.  Here, you can choose between the "Show Common Tasks in Folders" view or the "classic interface" way of things.  In the SCTF view, Windows uses the active desktop routine again to display a small information folder on the left of all the other folders.  Rarely does it have anything useful, and is just wasting time and memory again being on.  Switch to Windows classic view.  


*Folder Options > View*

By default, XP hides a number of files from view - even under administrator class profiles.  Under the hidden files options, select the Show all Files options and remove the checkmarks from the two Hide options (ignore the warnings).  Also remove the option to automatically find and display network printers - only causes unnecessary network blabber.   Check the "Do Not cache thumbnails" option as well - no point in wasting resources to cache little pictures.

Lastly, uncheck the option to "use Simple File Sharing."   This is a new means of creating file shares in XP, and removes a lot of the control a person should have in making them (especially in the way of security controls).

*Defrag your hard drive!*

I CANNOT emphasize this one enough - you must defragment your hard drive on a fairly regular basis in Windows.  The file system used by Windows is NTFS (sometimes it's also the older FAT32).  Neither of these are very good at keeping files in one piece, neatly placed on the drive.

Think of it this way - a hard drive can be like a desk at work, and your files are like the papers, binders and so on on that desk.  The Windows method of placing files on the drive would be like you running past your desk and chucking your arm full of paperwork at the desk as you pass it.  It doesn't take long before your desk is a bloody mess.  Now, you know the files are all there, and that if you search long enough, you can find them, but it takes a lot of time and work.  Defragmenting programs are like a secretary that takes the time to neatly clean up and organize your desk so that you can actually find something (and all of it at once) without having to waste time looking for it all.

XP comes with a built-in defragmenting program under Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter.  This built in one is good at at least taking fragmented files and reassembling them, and putting most of the drive contents to one area of the disk.  There are 3rd party Defragmenters that go a step further by optimizing the placement of the files for faster access, such as IOBit's Smart Defrag.  These help make the system perform even better.  Be careful when installing them though as many come with "Scheduled" and TSR type options that will keep them in memory.  Always click on the settings or options after installing software and make sure it's not set to run in the background.  In the case of Smart DeFrag, for example, you'll want to disable every checked option after install.  

I have found in years of dealing with disk fragmentation that no one program really gets it right.  I get the best results running a couple different types - one that moves the data to one section of the drive, like the built in tool in XP, and then one to optimize that data, like Smart DeFrag.  You should run a Defrag about once a week.  The first time you do it (if you have never done it before) it will take quite a while.

There... I think I've made enough eyes bleed for a start.  I'm sure others will have some other awesome tips too - post away!


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## Rhetorica (Mar 18, 2010)

Wow. It's like a decade of a computer's maintenance log crammed into one post. Capital job!

_In re_ font smoothing: there are two kinds of monitor that ClearType looks like crap on: CRTs and really low-resolution LCDs. ClearType is a kind of sub-pixel shading that acknowledges the fact that monitors use three vertical bars to display graphics for each pixel, and that these bars aren't physically at the same location (they're adjacent to each other). So if a letter only fills the left two thirds of a pixel, then ClearType will leave the third sub-pixel (usually the red or blue one) coloured as though it were part of the background. This is the basic principle. In CRTs, the pixels aren't evenly spaced, and in low-res LCDs, it's obvious that something's going on. Some people with really sharp eyesight are impossible to fool, but on a properly-configured 96 DPI LCD, most people who say they can see the ClearType are lying and just don't like to see the grid disappearing. ClearType also fudges things a little to try and minimise colour distortion (but it still provides better fidelity than greyscale anti-aliasing)

That being said, though, there are a lot of things that can go wrong with ClearType. The subpixel order can be wrong, the contrast can be wrong, and a font can have bad smoothing and hinting information associated with it. Microsoft's Georgia is usually considered the perfect beauty in this category; for a contrary example consider any font you've ever swiped from the net. Windows supports two subpixel orders, and can adjust the contrast, through a PowerToy called ClearType Tuner. Note that this doesn't help if you have a monitor rotated into portrait mode because the subpixels are now in a different physical arrangement (although freetype2 on Linux supports this).

Another disadvantage of ClearType is that it means monitor-dependent display of screenshots, which is a bit of a nasty thought. They also won't print very cleanly, and MS Paint will use ClearType in its font rendering too (== disaster for printing.)

However, for long hours of programming, I've found ClearType to be indispensible. At first it seemed like everything had been badly JPEG-compressed, but if you use it for a long time (and avoid Tahoma when possible!) going back is almost painful on the eyes, so it's probably a good thing on the whole.


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## Runefox (Mar 18, 2010)

This is a list of programs that I personally recommend, free or otherwise (mostly free). I initially created part of this list on another forum for a different purpose, but I'll revise it to separate the heavy-duty technical stuff from the stuff anyone can use. I'll probably be adding more to this as time goes on.

It should be noted that I created this list some time ago; I have made some revisions, but I probably need to look over it in more detail. That said, it should be fairly comprehensive. Recommendations for additions are welcome. I was pondering making this into a separate post a while ago, but I decided against it; This thread seems as good a place as any to slip it in though. Part of tweaking for performance is choosing the right tool for the job, is it not?

*Simple Stuff*

*Antivirus software* (Note: Only *one* of these should be installed at a time, including paid-for antivirus programs.)
*Avast! Home Edition* is a free antivirus product (free registration required) that provides a very complete shield for things like IM, E-mail, and Peer to Peer programs (like Limewire and Bittorrent). It runs very lightly, with only two processes (the service and the tray icon) and very little memory usage. It's also updated frequently, and has a snazzy interface and a very fast scan speed - higher than most anti-virus products on the market. According to AV-Comparatives, Avast! is currently a more advanced anti-virus solution than AVG (below), with an *Advanced+* rating.

*Avira* is another free antivirus product with a very high detection rate with few misses and false-positive rates comparable to AVG and Avast. While system footprint is reportedly noticeable, the scan speed is among the highest scan speeds of any anti-virus product rated on AV-Comparatives - In fact, it holds second place. I personally don't have any experience with Avira, but it comes highly recommended, with AV-Comparatives rating it as *Advanced+*.

*AVG Antivirus Free* is a free antivirus product that has frequent updates and a good, fast scanner. It also protects against spyware and provides scanning against Google search results and other places where viruses might be lurking. Has recently been on a path to greater memory usage and lower performance; Initial 9.0 releases caused a lot of problems, as well. My recommendation for AVG is half-hearted at best. Scanning speed is average, and AV-Comparatives gives AVG an *Advanced* rating.

*Microsoft Security Essentials* is Microsoft's free replacement for their Windows Live OneCare product. While it doesn't have all the features and functions of OneCare, it does have the same detection engine, and it integrates directly with Windows Defender and Security Center to provide good protection against malware. Its scanning speed is poor, and I personally wouldn't class it anywhere close Avast, but AV-Comparatives gives it an *Advanced* rating, the same as AVG.

*ClamWin* is a Windows antivirus app based on the open source ClamAV project, providing a non-realtime virus scanner. Decently useful for file servers or a second opinion, it doesn't provide realtime shields and works mainly in the same manner as many anti-malware removal suites do. Its detection rate has traditionally fallen below that of most other anti-virus packages, but its run-when-needed nature makes it very useful for on-demand scanning where a virus shield would be unnecessary or unwanted.
*Anti-spyware software*
*Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware*, a free antispyware/adware tool that can pull some pretty nasty infections out from the root. No automated tool is 100% effective, but this is a good place to start.

*Spybot - Search & Destroy* is another free antispyware program, with some built-in startup management tools and integration with the Windows Security Center. It's an old favourite for antispyware, but it may not be as effective as a scanner as Malwarebytes is. Best used in conjunction with other scanners.

*Autoruns*, a free Microsoft TechNet/SysInternals tool designed as a sort of cross between MSCONFIG and HijackThis. It allows you to drill down to extremely deep levels of system startup entries (including drivers and network stack), including the ability to zoom in on non-Microsoft entries. An incredibly powerful tool in the right hands, but also a powerful startup manager.

*Combofix*, a free tool designed to run in normal mode with anti-rootkit ability. This is usually indispensable for heavy spyware infections, but must be used with care, since it does modify a number of system settings. Don't do anything while it's scanning.

*IceSword* is a very powerful free program that sometimes fails to run. When it does, however, it will allow you to terminate any process (and I do mean ANY process), and drill down through many parts of Windows that I've honestly never touched.

*GMER* is an anti-rootkit program that looks very deeply at Windows' core. It has a fairly decent detection rate for rootkits, though its interface is ungodly confusing. Generally, if something shows up in red, you want to remove it. Follow the instructions very carefully.
*Firewalls* (Note: Only *one* of these should be installed at a time, including paid-for firewalls. *If you have a router, you probably don't need one of these at all*)
*Comodo Internet Security* is an extremely powerful firewall that can be used to block specific programs from accessing the internet in addition to preventing unauthorized access from outside. This is important because it can help you identify a virus as it happens. It's very sensitive, and is extremely recommended for people who need firewalls. However, most people shouldn't, since routers have become very common - Which already blocks incoming access. A curious addition to it is Defense+ - In addition to providing network security, it also provides security against processes that aren't trusted by the system, in effect turning it into a potent anti-malware shield as well. However, this can become confusing, and managing new software in this way can be difficult.

*GhostWall* is a free, no-frills firewall designed to perform only the functions a firewall traditionally performs - Policing traffic coming and going from the computer. It has no need for worrying about viruses or applications or anything of that nature, and expects that it is a part of a larger security strategy rather than being that strategy on its own. It offers a very light memory footprint (the download will fit on a floppy diskette twice), and it has virtually no impact on network performance, unlike most other modern firewall software. It offers a very functional replacement for Windows Firewall, and won't bug you about allowing applications through. By default, it allows all outgoing connections and denies all incoming (much like a router would), but can be set up to be more or less restrictive.
*Web browsers*
*Mozilla Firefox* is a free, open source browser that happens to be the most popular alternative browser currently on the internet. It also happens to be the recommended browser for this forum, and can be extended to do pretty much anything via plugins and extensions, and made to look however you want it to look via themes.
[*]*SeaMonkey* is a more or less direct continuation of the original Mozilla project (when Firefox didn't exist), complete with browser, mail client, WYSIWYG HTML editor and more. Its design is necessarily a throwback to the "communicator" paradigm that Netscape began during the heyday of the original Browser Wars, where most of what you're doing online should be possible to do within your browser. Its memory footprint is surprisingly light considering the feature set, and in addition, it supports many of the same add-ons as Firefox does.

*Google Chrome* is my current default browser. It's very fast and has a clean, user-friendly interface, but tends to eat a lot of memory - So if you don't have a whole lot of RAM to spare, it might be better to pass on it. It uses the same general core as Safari.

*Opera* is an extremely light, free browser that has a number of nifty features. It enjoys a good following on computers with low resouces, and it's generally very compatible.

*Safari* is Apple's default browser for its computers, and is available for both Windows and Mac OS. I personally don't like it very much because it tends to be quite different in terms of how it looks and runs than you might expect on a Windows-based computer.
*Performance Software* (stuff you can use to speed up your computer)
*CCleaner* is a free utility that can run through your hard drive and remove things like files left over after installations, temporary internet files for both Internet Explorer and Firefox, and offers registry scanning and cleaning, as well. Quite useful.

*Auslogics* makes a number of programs designed to help speed up your computer, including two free programs called Auslogics Disk Defrag and Auslogics Registry Defrag. These programs are designed to ensure that the files on your hard drive are in order and placed in locations where your computer can more quickly access them (note: this does NOT mean it moves files around in folders or anything like that; all that will be the same). The Registry Defrag program offers a similar service for the Registry, making sure that it's compacted and easy for Windows to access, sometimes speeding things up significantly.

*Vopt* is a commercial defragment utility. While it may have a fairly high cost for what it is, the program itself is very lightweight and has an incredibly intelligent defragmentation system that not only defragments files, but also can lay them out in tightly-packed clusters to prevent fragmentation (or, if you're using a business edition of Windows with Shadow Copy, lay them out sparsely-packed so that the shadow copy has room to grow without fragmenting) as well as having the ability to defragment the page file. It works in a very rapid manner, and is generally quite a good program, and has been since the Windows 95/98 versions.

*Cacheman* is a rather decent program for managing Windows cache sizes and so on, with a mode that allows it to dynamically adjust them depending on the rquirements at any given time, always favouring programs over Windows. It's fairly easy to use, but it's also fairly intimidating. It's semi-free.
*CD/DVD Burning*
*InfraRecorder* is a free, open source burning program that allows you to burn and rip CD's and DVD's. Its interface is similar to that of Windows explorer, so it's relatively easy to pick up.

*CDBurnerXP* is a free CD/DVD burning program that's been around for a while. It's free of malware, and has capabilities similar to that of Nero 6, including CD image making/burning.

*ImgBurn* is a free, lightweight CD/DVD burning program with heavy emphasis on image burning - And with the ability to compile and burn images based on files and folders on the computer, meaning that it isn't limited solely to burning copies of discs. It's also capable of reading disc images from CD's/DVD's, making it an effective cloning tool as well.
*Instant Messenger Clients*
*Pidgin* is a free, open source multi-protocol IM client (computerese for "connects to multiple networks") that supports MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Facebook, MySpace, Jabber, and more both out of the box and through use of plugins. Its plugins offer extra functions and its log feature is one of the best I've used.

*Trillian* is, like Pidgin, a multi-protocol IM client supporting many protocols out of the box. It comes in two flavours; Free and Pro, with the latter being able to use plugins and skins, along with webcam and voice support. The latest released version of Trillian is rather old, but there is a beta for the new Trillian Astra, which provides a nicer interface and the ability to connect to your Trillian via a web browser from anywhere.

*X-Chat* is an open source IRC client that bizarrely is a paid-for program for Windows, but is free under Linux. It provides a good IRC client, and a powerful logging feature along with a customizable interface.

*mIRC* is another IRC client, but is not free to use beyond 30 days. It's designed for Windows only, and has many powerful features, while its logging function is rather lackluster. Still, it's quite lightweight and fairly easy to use.
*Audio/Music Programs*
*Winamp* is one of the oldest media players still available for download now, and is still updated frequently. It supports virtually every audio format out of the box, and can be expanded to support even more through plugins. Its media library function puts it closer to modern players like iTunes, while its sheer compatibility make it one of the best players out there, period.

*Foobar2000* is a minimalist media library-based player with good format support and a very lightweight footprint. For a long time, it's been used alongside and compared with Winamp as "the" light music player, and  rightfully so. However, while its interface is fairly easy to use, it's also fairly large; Not a problem for people who are used to Windows Media Player and iTunes, but Winamp users may find it obtrusive.

*XMPlay* is a lightweight (<5MB!) portable multi-format audio player that has a skinnable interface and an incredibly low memory footprint (between <5MB and <15MB playing depending on the format). It's fast to start, supports Winamp input and DSP plugins as well as its own, supports ASIO and WASAPI output, and supports playing files from within archives. Overall, it's a great, lightweight replacement for Winamp.

*iTunes* is one of the only games in town when it comes to decent media libraries, and especially when it comes to owning an iPod. I caution you on iTunes, however; It is a memory hog, and tends to install all sorts of services that you likely will never use.

*Audacity* isn't a player, but rather a free audio editor, very similar in capability to Adobe Audition. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but the number of filters and effects available should enable you to create high-quality audio for zero dollars.
*Video/Movie Programs*
*VLC Media Player* is a free, open source, extremely lightweight and compatible video player that will play virtually anything you feed it, from DVD's to anime in Matroska or any other format. Highly recommended

*Media Player Classic - Home Cinema* is an extension/continuation of the Media Player Classic project, modelled after the old Windows Media Player 6.4 interface. It supports a very wide variety of formats, and supports modern video acceleration (DXVA), making it a good choice as a video player.

*The KMPlayer* is a free media player with similar format compatibility to VLC. It offers excellent and very detailed options for the display of things like subtitles, and allows you to set up defaults quite clearly. It also has a host of post-processing plugins, and the ability to automatically redirect the display toa  secondary monitor and sound output. I use this myself for watching movies and so on with my (tiny) HDTV with audio via a secondary sound card (onboard, actually). *The KMPlayer has been placed on the FFMPEG "hall of shame" for alleged unauthorized use of FFMPEG project code.*

*XBMC Media Center* started its life most famously as an excellent media centre application for the original (modded) X-Box. It became so successful that versions for Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Apple TV, and even stand-alone bootable copies were made. It features an incredibly well-designed, polished and customizable interface mainly meant for remote controls, but the mouse works just as well. Its library is intelligently organized, and it can automatically pull album/movie/episode information from popular databases (IMDB, TVDB, etc); In addition, it features a filesystem browser mode, which allows you not only to look through other files and folders aside from the library, but easily individually add files and folders to the library. An awesome media centre app. Here is a small tour of one of the interface styles available, and here is an in-depth look at it along with several derivatives.
*Graphics Programs*
*The GIMP* is a free, open source Photoshop-alike program with a strange interface. While it might take some getting used to, you can do pretty much anything with it that you can in other programs.

*Inkscape* is vector graphics editing program specifically designed with digital inking in mind. Vector graphics consist of mathematical calculations to create a series of lines, shapes and curves; So with that in mind, line work done in Inkscape can be scaled to any resolution you like, without losing any quality. It's available for Mac, Linux and windows, but it is a little buggy still, so remember to save often.

*XnView* is an image viewer and converter with obscenely large format support (claimed to be over 400) and support for every major platform, even going back as far as Windows 3.1. The application is incredibly tiny for what it does - The full install weighs in at only 3MB.

*IrfanView* is an extremely compatible graphics viewer that also has some rudimentary editing tools such as crop, resize, rotate, and so on. You can load up pretty much any image with it. Versions exist going back as far as Windows 3.1, but format support and general availability is lower than XnView.
*Tech Stuff*


*Hiren's BootCD* (no download link available; legal gray area) is an incredibly useful collection of tools to help troubleshoot hardware and operating system problems, ranging from RAM testing, hard drive utilities, DOS prompts with NTFS support, partition managers, and even a mini Windows XP environment. In order to possess one of these, you legally need to own copies of each of the programs on the disc; There is no official way to directly get the disc, but peer to peer sites (obviously) have it if you do own these programs.


*Memtest86+*, a free tool for testing RAM for defects; Can be burned to a CD or booted from a floppy (also found on many Linux LiveCD's and the Hiren's BootCD).


*Acronis* TrueImage and Disk Director are my current favourites for making hard disk backup images and managing partitions. They aren't free, but they're definitely very useful. At the shop where I used to work, these programs got excessive use when doing format/reinstalls.


*EASEUS Disk Copy* is a *free* disk clone utility similar in spirit to Acronis TrueImage, which coupled with the also-free Todo Backup software can provide a fairly robust backup solution for home users on a budget. I haven't personally tested this, but it's worth taking a look.


*Orca/InstEd* are free programs capable of editing MSI installer files. This can be important, since there are many cases where one might wish to install a 32-bit version of a program that automatically detects the operating system version and installs the according version. One example that I've had to handle was AutoCAD. There exist several add-ons that clients have needed to use which were only designed for the 32-bit version of the program, while the installer refused to install anything but the 64-bit version. By editing the MSI installer, it's possible to force it to install as 32-bit, even if 64-bit Windows is present.


*Ophcrack*, a free password-cracking utility supporting Windows NT/2k/XP and with a separate version for Vista. It literally takes a few minutes to run and retrieve lost passwords, which can be great if a client gives you a system without giving you the password, or if they themselves can't remember it and the Administrator account is also locked.


*Slax* is a portable Linux distribution which can be used to help identify hardware problems and in some cases possibly retrieve information from an inaccessible/flaky device, such as a dying-yet-still-readable hard drive (through use of the dd command). Very useful.


*Everest*. This program can and will save you an immense amount of time; It can identify hardware that Windows doesn't have drivers for so that you have someplace to start looking from (especially useful in notebooks where it may not be possible to visually identify chipsets and part numbers). In addition, it can display information about the processor, motherboard, RAM, and even perform benchmarks.


*Driver Sweeper*. This program can clean out old, obsolete driver files and information like DriverCleaner, but doesn't require registration or any fees. It currently supports ATI and nVidia video drivers, Realtek and Creative audio drivers, and Microsoft mouse drivers.


*UltraVNC SC*, or Single Click, is a free program that wraps UltraVNC into a small executable that you can send to someone so that you can connect to their computer and take control over it, for troubleshooting purposes. I personally make heavy use of this, as does my former workplace, making them the only place in this province who can do remote support.


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## ToeClaws (Mar 18, 2010)

Rhetorica said:


> Wow. It's like a decade of a computer's maintenance log crammed into one post. Capital job!



Heh - almost is.  Part of it is taken from a larger document I wrote on Performance Tweaking XP back in 2002 (which was updated many times over the years).



Rhetorica said:


> ...That being said, though, there are a lot of things that can go wrong with ClearType...



Yes... it was invented.  It's been going wrong ever since.   Though the principle behind it is sound, nothing beats having a bitmap font at exactly the sizes you need.  In Windows, I use the Terminal and Fixedsys fonts for a lot of my command line and terminal display type stuff.

LCD's should be set ONLY to the video mode they are designed for.  Bugs the hell out of me that people try and run them in different modes then wonder why fonts and things look horrible.


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## Liam (Mar 18, 2010)

ToeClaws said:


> LCD's should be set ONLY to the video mode they are designed for.  Bugs the hell out of me that people try and run them in different modes then wonder why fonts and things look horrible.


Every LCD monitor at my High School was like that.  It felt annoying and like a waste of money.  
The one thing about chrome, although it does use a lot of memory, you can delete individual tabs from the task manager.


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## Rhetorica (Mar 18, 2010)

Right, RuneFox missed a few low-steam alternatives worth noting in his application tour:

*SeaMonkey* is Firefox's close cousin, a more direct descendent of the original Netscape code tree. It features integrated mail, IRC, and netnews clients, as well as a WYSIWYG HTML editor that's much cleaner and leaner than its competition. It also has the option to stay resident in memory on startup, eliminating its one real disadvantage (the slower startup time) and actually surpassing Firefox for most usage. When WordPerfect had this feature back in the nineties, it was annoying as fuck, but it makes _way_ more sense for a browser. SeaMonkey also doesn't keep recent pages in RAM as much, and so it appears to leak far less.

*Foobar2000* is about a billion times better than iTunes or Winamp in terms of competent library management, and has long been heralded as the minimalist's best friend when it comes to GUI music players. It also has pretty good iPod support, and the UI is extremely well thought-out for file management, featuring many power-user features that go far beyond the simple mass rename.

More soon. Also, Acronis will usually do more damage than good unless you really need its SYSPREP functionalityâ€”consider *EASEUS Disk Copy* for smaller situations or non-OS disk transfers, which is free and to the point.


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## Runefox (Mar 18, 2010)

Rhetorica said:


> Also, *Acronis will usually do more damage than good* unless you really need its SYSPREP functionalityâ€”consider *EASEUS Disk Copy* for smaller situations or non-OS disk transfers, which is free and to the point.


Regarding Acronis, I disagree; I haven't had a single bad experience with Acronis, particularly for cloning disks (TrueImage) and for partition management (Disk Director), and I've used it pretty extensively for several years while working at a local PC repair shop (and for my own usage). However, EASEUS *is* free to use, so it's definitely worth adding to the list.


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## ToeClaws (Mar 18, 2010)

And I would caution against the Firewall suggestion from RuneFox.  Comodo is a great firewall, but like all modern firewalls it is a major resource hog.  In my original Tweaking document, there was a whole section that went into firewalling that I wasn't going to bring up since that starts getting a bit technical, but maybe I should mention a bit of it.

XP comes with a firewall built in (or rather, has since Service Pack 2).  The Windows Firewall is a bit of an odd creature in that it's somewhere between an Layer3/4 and Layer7 firewall, but is really good at neither.  Most modern firewall applications are fully Layer 7 aware, IE, they know the application.  While there are obvious security merits to this, it comes with a steep price to performance.  

I prefer very old-school Layer3/4 firewalls, that only care about IP, protocol and port numbers.  The one I like and use in Windows is GhostWall - it is very small, very light on resources, and very effective.  It has but two drawbacks: 1) It is not user friendly.  If you don't understand what IPs, protocols and ports are, you're not going to know how to use it. 2) It does not support IP ranges or CIDR masks.  You can use wild cards, or have to do IPs individually.  For personal use, this usually isn't an issue.

Unlike the larger firewalls, this one will never, ever ask you anything.  It silently sits there doing it's job exactly as it is programmed to do.  On and older machine or a machine with 512M or less ram, having a very small and efficient firewall like this is a must.


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## Runefox (Mar 18, 2010)

@ToeClaws: Which is why I say "However, most people shouldn't, since routers have become very common - Which already blocks incoming access" - Which should be far more than enough for a general firewall of the type you mention. Firewalls like Windows Firewall and Comodo, in my opinion, exist mainly for the purpose of protecting connections that don't have local gateways, though Comodo provides extra security by policing interprocess communications, which is why it's fairly useful as an anti-malware tool, as well (and why I set it up on my roommate's PC - After getting a keylogger, I wanted to protect *my* system from his ). It's in blue for a reason - It's totally optional and dependent upon the situation. I'll add an extra note about firewalls in general.

All the same, I'll add Ghostwall; Compared to most other firewalls out there, its footprint is miniscule, and it doesn't do any more than it says on the tin, which is a rarity nowadays.


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## ToeClaws (Mar 18, 2010)

Runefox said:


> ...Compared to most other firewalls out there, its footprint is miniscule, and it doesn't do any more than it says on the tin, which is a rarity nowadays.



Agreed. :/

And sorry - admittedly, I did not read your entire post word for word.


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## Joeyyy (Mar 18, 2010)

any "tiny" OS is beautiful.   

i got tiny xp for my computer


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## Runefox (Mar 18, 2010)

ToeClaws said:


> And sorry - admittedly, I did not read your entire post word for word.



That's fine; It points out that a more visible note regarding that should be present; I've edited it as such.


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## Rhetorica (Mar 19, 2010)

Ooh! Another one. IrfanView is _total crap_. Real quiche-eaters prefer XnView. It is better. In every single way. (Ever.)


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## CyberFoxx (Mar 19, 2010)

Rhetorica said:


> Ooh! Another one. IrfanView is _total crap_. Real quiche-eaters prefer XnView. It is better. In every single way. (Ever.)



Both of them still sadly don't support unicode pathnames... Arg, I love both apps, but when are they going to get unicode support? (Yes, XnView MP is supposed to get it, but it's been in crashy beta for a while now...) Still, yes, I have to agree that XnView is better. Especially if you install the shellex plugin. Thumbnails on the context menu in Explorer and file chooser dialogs is very nice.

Also, another great ISO burning util is ImgBurn. Small, no-nonsense... Why, it's almost like Foobar2000 for burning. ^_^

I would also recommend VLC and Media Player Classic - Home Cinema well over KMPlayer. (There's been evidence that KMPlayer stole GPL code...That's just dirty pool.) MPC-HC with ffdshow and you pretty much have support for almost any codec you'll run into, with a pretty good interface. VLC is great as a backup player, but I've always found it's startup times to be a bit slow...


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## ToeClaws (Mar 21, 2010)

Liam said:


> Every LCD monitor at my High School was like that.  It felt annoying and like a waste of money.



Yar. :/  It's actually scary to see just how few people even understand that LCDs have to be at a certain mode.  Then there's the other side of the coin where a lot of older folks purposely run a beautiful 22" monitor at 1024x768 "because the fonts are big and easy to read" that way.  Oi.



Rhetorica said:


> Ooh! Another one. IrfanView is _total crap_. Real quiche-eaters prefer XnView. It is better. In every single way. (Ever.)



Agreed - that's what I use as well on Windows.



CyberFoxx said:


> Also, another great ISO burning util is ImgBurn. Small, no-nonsense... Why, it's almost like Foobar2000 for burning. ^_^



*nodsnods* Agreed here too - been using that for about 2 years, and it's fantastic.  Very small, very simple and works flawlessly.


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## Rhetorica (Mar 29, 2010)

Indispensable site: *DriverGuide*. It's a little shady, in that it leaves you wondering if they could have clogged it with _more_ sponsorship deals and advertising, but the service is pretty invaluable, and it's probably the most complete collection of drivers out there, no matter how old or archaic. Requires sign-up in theory, but the user "drivers" and the password "all" used to work pretty well. (And there's always BugMeNot if that changes.)


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## ToeClaws (Mar 30, 2010)

Rhetorica said:


> Indispensable site: *DriverGuide*. It's a little shady, in that it leaves you wondering if they could have clogged it with _more_ sponsorship deals and advertising...



Whoa - that still exists!?  Nice - and yeah, I remember it was like that over 10 years ago too.  Which brings us to yet another very useful tip - ad blocking.

There are a couple ways in which you can do this, and though one or the other work well, you can do both if you want.  One method is blocking via the "hosts" file.  The "hosts" file hearkens back to the very earliest days of the Net, before it was the Net.  Back then everything worked buy just IP addresses, but it was getting to the point where people had a few dozen on big networks to remember, and a few hundred worldwide.  So the hosts file was created to link an IP to a name ('cause names were easier to remember).  Eventually, there got to be so many machines that DNS was created as a central naming authority that took over the point of a the hosts file, but the hosts file still exists even to this day, and one very important fact about it makes it useful to us - your system considers the entries in it to be of the highest authority.  That means whatever the hosts file says is the law.

But how does that help, you wonder?  Well, there is a special IP address known as 127.0.0.1 which means "home" or "self".  Regardless of what your actual IP address is, that one will always refer to it.  So in the hosts file, if you take a bad site that hands out ads, like ads.google.com and set it to the IP of 127.0.0.1, any website that tries linking to ads.google.com ends up trying to connect to your own box instead, which doesn't have the ad, so it doesn't show up.  This also can protect you from known sites that have malware.

The perk of this form of block is that it works on ANY operating system, not just Windows.  And it works for all forms of IP connectivity, not just web browsing.  This website has a pre-made hosts file which is updated about twice a month with all known ad, spyware, scam and malware sites.  It has detailed instructions on how to add it to your Windows box, whatever version you might be using.

The one drawback to the "hosts" file method of blocking is that it cannot help you if the site refers directly to the IP instead of using a name.  That's where the second method comes in - blocking the name of the site via the Browser.  

Now, site-blocking in the browser obviously only applies to websites, and only in the browser(s) that have blocking added to them.  There are automated add-ons that can do this, such as Ad-Block Plus for Firefox, and there are also separate programs that can add blocks to both IE and Firefox via a process they call immunization.  Spybot Search and Destroy has such a function.  The add-ons also work in any OS, not just Windows.

Both methods work very well, and if used together, it will be extremely rare to see ads at all.  When I hit DriverGuide.com myself, I see no ads at all. Not only does it make browsing the Net a lot less annoying, it also makes it a lot quicker - some of those ads are large flash files that you're forced to download.


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## Runefox (Mar 30, 2010)

It's worth noting that with DriverGuide, not all drivers are available to free accounts/guests, and last I checked (~1 year ago), there's a limitation on how many drivers can be downloaded in a certain period of time. Not a major sticking point, but something to keep in mind if you're looking for drivers. Best to try to track down the manufacturer first so you can keep your download limit clear for those that really are hard to find.


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## Artificial Ginger (Mar 30, 2010)

Not to be rude, Runefox, but I'd like to point out that Songbird's component for iPod support is no longer developed or supported by the actual dev team. So it's safe to say Songbird's no longer capable of syncing to an iPod, right?


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## Runefox (Mar 30, 2010)

Yeah, my information was not entirely up to date. When I added it, I was under the impression that it did support iPods, but it seems that it no longer does (which is odd; Maybe I misread something? I did install it recently, and I was sure it did mention it). It does still support several other MP3 players, though.

On that note, added XnView, MPC-HC (replacing MPC), and ImgBurn, along with info on the FFMPEG/KMPlayer controversy.


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## Artificial Ginger (Mar 30, 2010)

Runefox said:


> Yeah, my information was not entirely up to date. When I added it, I was under the impression that it did support iPods, but it seems that it no longer does (which is odd; Maybe I misread something? I did install it recently, and I was sure it did mention it). It does still support several other MP3 players, though.


To be fair, the devs are _very_ misleading about it. They still call Songbird an iTunes alternative, for example, and you have to actually either install the program (finding out the hard way) or search for the iPod plugin to find out.



> On that note, added XnView, MPC-HC (replacing MPC), and ImgBurn, along with info on the FFMPEG/KMPlayer controversy.


Ahh, gotta love MPC-HC. VLC is crap.

Would any suggestions for torrenting fit here? I love uTorrent, but it makes my machine BSOD now, so I have to find something else =(


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## balancedmind (Apr 13, 2010)

Defraggler - Alternative Disk Defragment tool from Piriform. I switched to this from Auslogics.

http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

Avast Antivirus - I second the recommendation from RuneFox.

http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

Filezilla - Open Source FTP client. Updates often.

http://filezilla-project.org/

Aerofoil - For those of you on laptops, this tool sits in your tray and swaps your power plan and disables Aero Glass while you're on battery. Saves you some juice whilst unplugged. All configurable, of course.

http://silentdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/10/aerofoil-150-released.html

Revo Uninstaller - Uninstallation manager that, after uninstalling a program, searches your hard drive and registry for anything the uninstaller might have left. Freeware version works great, paid version has a bunch of useless bells and whistles.

http://www.revouninstaller.com/index.html

No Winamp love?  Though I'm happy to see Process Explorer love, and happy to see that someone else out there thinks AVG is trash...


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## Artificial Ginger (Apr 13, 2010)

Well, since everybody else is doing it, I figure I'll give a couple of my picks too. I think I'll use Runefox's color-coding scheme, too, if that's okay with everyone =3

*Miranda IM* - As the name implies, it's an instant-messaging program. Like Pidgin, it supports many protocols and is plugin-extensible--but unlike Pidgin, almost everything is implemented -by a plugin (including the buddy list and conversation windows), making it far more customizable. In addition, it uses a lot less in the way of resources. The only downside is that it takes a bit more time to configure if you choose to take advantage of all the customizations. It also has much better MSN support than Pidgin traditionally has, though its AIM support isn't quite as reliable as Pidgin's, in my experience.

*Microsoft Security Essentials* - This is sort of an all-in-one anti-spyware/virus/malware program and replacement for Windows Defender. Unlike the third-party anti-malware programs, you don't have to set separate network exceptions for programs in it--as far as I can tell, it uses the same list as Windows Firewall. It's also pretty light on resource use, and some tests have shown it's very capable. I'm sorry my explanation sucks, but the guys at LifeHacker trust it, and I figure they know more about anti-virus software than I do.

*Rainmeter* - This is something else they rave about at LifeHacker. (I'm not kidding--it has its own tag there.) It's sort of like Windows Sidebar, except customizable, lightweight, and a lot more aesthetically pleasing. It's also far more useful, since--depending on the skin and configuration you use--it can be used to launch programs, keep up with RSS feeds, and monitor pretty much every aspect of your system that can be monitored. (It's also similar to Samurize, from what I've heard, except Vista-compatible.) You'll need some skins to make use of it, but it comes with a few good ones out-of-the-box, and plenty more can be found on LifeHacker and deviantART.

*bbLean* - This is a shell replacement for Windows. Basically, it contains programs that replace the taskbar, desktop, and the frames of most program windows. The idea is that it's less resource-intensive than explorer.exe, and thus improves performance. Beyond that, bbLean offers features explorer.exe doesn't provide, such as multiple workspaces, "rolling up" a window instead of minimizing it, and the ability to keep certain windows on top of regular ones. (It's also easier to put Quick Launch and other toolbars on a separate panel from the taskbar.) It's not nearly as pretty as AeroGlass, of course, and changing your wallpaper is somewhat of a pain compared to doing so with the default shell. Configuration can be slightly annoying too. I only suggest using this one if you're still using Vista or XP (or below...?), because the usefulness of Windows 7's taskbar pretty much makes up for any performance increase this shell provides, especially after disabling DWM and AeroGlass.

*PowerMenu* - This program loads a .dll into memory that adds "Always On Top", "Minimize to Tray", and options for adjusting a window's transparency and the program's priority to the window menu, right between "Maximize" and "Close". It only seems to work with 32-bit programs--but that's what most Windows apps still are. And since it was made in 1998, the fact that it still works almost perfectly is somewhat miraculous. I recommend running this at startup if you're not willing to go the shell-replacement route, or if you run Windows 7.

*ClamWin* - Free and open-source anti-virus program for Windows. It's lightweight and updates its definitions daily. It doesn't have real-time scanning, though, meaning you have to either run it manually or on a schedule for it to actually do anything. On the plus side, it's got a portable version and doesn't seem to have much in the way of false alarms. I don't have much to say about it, though--as previously mentioned, anti-virus programs aren't really my strong suit.

*JkDefrag* - This is a disk defragmenter (O RLY?) that also claims to optimize the data on your disks, by moving it toward the beginning and optionally sorting it on the way there. By default, it just moves everything toward the beginning after defragmenting, but if you run it from the command line, you can also have it sort by name, size, last access, last change, or creation time. It has a successor called MyDefrag, but I don't use that one, because it has a scripting language and I'm not really a fan of scripts =V

----

Since this thread's so comprehensive, I missed something before...

@ToeClaws: Sorry if it's been pointed out here, but apparently System Restore is only useless and performance-killing in XP. In Vista and Windows 7, it only kicks in when the system is idle. At least, that's what this one says.

I know you specifically said XP when you mentioned it, but I don't think you said "only" =P



balancedmind said:


> No Winamp love?



...Winamp was #1 on Rune's list of audio programs, dude =/


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## Slyck (Apr 15, 2010)

I presume installing Ubuntu don't count, right?

Other than that, if you have a CPU with unlocked core(s) (like my Phenom II x3 @ 2.8 that I forced into being a Phenom II x4 @ 3.2) than try *not* using the unlocked cored when booting. If you don't know how to enable/disable them or why less can be moar here than you shouldn't be fudging with the B.I.O.S..


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## Artificial Ginger (Apr 15, 2010)

Has CleanMem already been suggested? It's supposed to run every thirty minutes and tell Windows programs to free up RAM they aren't using, except for the ones on the exception list. Apparently it does this without filling all available RAM first.

Also! If you run Vista and your computer came with this, try uninstalling the IDT codec thing that runs in the system tray. It does nothing useful, but it makes the audiodg service consume more and more RAM the longer you keep your computer on. Besides that, Windows' drivers are perfectly adequate for most sound cards using that chip.



Slyck said:


> I presume installing Ubuntu don't count, right?


My god. That wouldn't even have been funny if you'd suggested a _real_ distro D=



> Other than that, if you have a CPU with unlocked core(s) (like my Phenom II x3 @ 2.8 that I forced into being a Phenom II x4 @ 3.2) than try *not* using the unlocked cored when booting. If you don't know how to enable/disable them or why less can be moar here than you shouldn't be fudging with the B.I.O.S..


I'm sure you didn't notice, but this is not the thread for BIOS tweaks >.>


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## Runefox (May 9, 2010)

Here's two utilities that I've been using for a while that haven't been mentioned yet that are pretty good (I'll add them to the list later):

*KatMouse* is a small app that allows you to scroll through windows that aren't currently in focus (much like *NIX). Not all programs are compatible with it, but it comes with the ability to define a list of programs with custom settings, including number of lines to scroll and whether or not to scroll the window at all (leaving that program to scroll as normal for Windows). It also offers some extra functions with the middle button, but I don't recommend using those unless they interest you. It can easily be toggled on and off by clicking its tray icon.

*AltDrag* is another small utility designed to allow the window to be moved by holding the Alt key and clicking anywhere within the window (again, much like *NIX behaviour). It also allows you to hold the Shift key while dragging to enable the window to snap to other windows or screen edges. Like KatMouse, it can be toggled on and off by clicking its tray icon (useful in art programs where Alt-clicking would normally enable a colour dropper).


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## Runefox (May 10, 2010)

Doublepost to keep the other post clean:



> if you have a CPU with unlocked core(s) (like my Phenom II x3 @ 2.8 that I forced into being a Phenom II x4 @ 3.2) than try *not* using the unlocked cored when booting


If your unlocked core causes problems with booting, then your unlocked core happens to be defective and will serve only to cause you headaches. These unlocked core motherboards are fairly specific and generally rare, particularly insofar as name-brand PC's go (the majority of the bunch), so I think that it would go without saying that if someone who has one is dabbling with it, they probably already know the potential side effects of running them. Along the same vein, one could say that overclocking the CPU could also cause the system to fail to boot - Not many people are going to be doing that (though far more in practice than unlock CPU cores).



> Has CleanMem already been suggested?


"Memory optimizers" and their ilk rarely have anything useful to add to a Windows environment and can even cause problems. More often than not, "freeing" RAM forcibly flushes caches and generally causes more slowdown than anything as a result, especially if you consider that "freeing" RAM on Windows 7 would cause SuperFetch to flush all its cached data. Windows is set up by default to drop any cached memory as soon as the memory is needed, so there really is never a good reason to do this. Perhaps back in the Win9x days you'd have a point - Major memory leaks there. But not today.



> IDT codec


This is a hardware-specific driver that would have come with your computer. Analogues are Realtek HD Audio Control Panel and so on; Usually, these are benign, but in IDT's case I suppose they aren't entirely that good at writing drivers. They're perfectly safe to disable, but know that doing so may disable certain features of your sound card (such as auto-sensing jacks, equalizers and so on - Not life-threatening for most people).


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## Lobar (May 10, 2010)

DAEMON-Tools is a handy disk image-emulating tool.  Basically, if you have the image file (.ISO, .CUE/.BIN, .MDS/.MDF, etc.) of a disk you want to run, this saves you from having to burn a copy to disk just to use it once - you can mount the image to a virtual drive it creates and run it as if it were a real disk directly from the hard drive.  An absolute must for netbook owners - you'll never miss having a physical optical drive again.

The pay versions have some other bonus features, but there's nothing wrong with the free Lite edition.  Well, okay, there is _one_ thing wrong with it - its creators have resorted to adware to generate revenue, so make sure to uncheck "DAEMON Tools Search Toolbar" when installing to keep your system evil-free.  I would hope everyone already knows to never agree to install toolbars though.  It will also want to change your homepage, which you can also decline.  After installation it never nags you again.


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## Slyck (May 10, 2010)

Artificial Ginger said:


> I'm sure you didn't notice, but this is not the thread for BIOS tweaks >.>



Didn't suggest a B.I.O.S. tweak. Disabling cores during bootup is a windows tweak.


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## Runefox (May 10, 2010)

Slyck said:


> Disabling cores during bootup is a windows tweak.



It also disables them for the duration of that Windows session, therefore rendering moot any advantage that unlocked core might have given you. Unless there's some kind of tweak utility that comes with those boards specifically for that purpose (I wouldn't be especially surprised, but I do kind of doubt it).


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## Runefox (May 18, 2010)

I've added Microsoft Security Essentials and Avira Antivirus to the list; On that note, I've hit the character limit on that single post.


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## Takoda (Jul 11, 2010)

I didn't see it on this thread but magicdisk/magiciso are very light cd/dvd drive emulators much like daemon tools.  They also install without needing your computer to be reset.  not sure if daemon still does this.

On a side note, does an SSD (Solid State Drive) need defraging?


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## Runefox (Jul 11, 2010)

SSD's shouldn't need defragging; In fact, doing so could be potentially harmful to the SSD's life span since it has a limited number of write cycles per sector. The major advantage of an SSD is its lack of perceived seek time due to being entirely solid state, which is the major reason why fragmentation is a problem on traditional hard drives (file segments spread across the disk mean that the head needs to seek to multiple locations to read a single file); Fragmentation shouldn't cause any noticeable difference on an SSD.


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## ToeClaws (Jul 12, 2010)

Runefox said:


> SSD's shouldn't need defragging; In fact, doing so could be potentially harmful to the SSD's life span since it has a limited number of write cycles per sector. The major advantage of an SSD is its lack of perceived seek time due to being entirely solid state, which is the major reason why fragmentation is a problem on traditional hard drives (file segments spread across the disk mean that the head needs to seek to multiple locations to read a single file); Fragmentation shouldn't cause any noticeable difference on an SSD.



Agreed - and to further explain, SSDs have a limited lifespan, IE, you can only write to them a finite number of times before they become unreliable.  Now... before you go "OMGWTF!?  Why would I ever get one then!?" remember that regular drives have a limited service life as well - it just so happens that this service life tends to be a lot longer than the time we use them before upgrading or replacing them.  Anyway, with SSDs, the on-board electronics are designed to spread read/writes evenly to all areas of the memory over the lifetime of the unit to maximize it's service life.  As RuneFox said, the near 0ms seek time eliminates the need for defragmentation.


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## Southpaw (Jul 23, 2010)

I found a really cool screensaver, it basicly lights your computer on FIRE!!! Theres a great settings window and you can change the sound effects and intensity or whatever.

http://download.cnet.com/Free-Fire-Screensaver/3000-2257_4-10627791.html


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## Runefox (Jul 23, 2010)

I'm not terribly sure that screensaver isn't loaded with malware, and it's probably less of a screensaver and more of a toy.


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## Southpaw (Jul 23, 2010)

Runefox said:


> I'm not terribly sure that screensaver isn't loaded with malware, and it's probably less of a screensaver and more of a toy.


 
to be honest, i lost the link, so i googled it again, so that version is probably crammed with malware, :0.
if i find the real one ill post it, its pretty cool!


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## Runefox (Jul 24, 2010)

I'd like to add a few thoughts after reading some bad advice on another forum with trying to get a game to work. In this case, it's about disabling things that are more beneficial than anything else - These are things that, in your pursuit of Windows tweaks, you should be wary of.

*Don't disable SuperFetch* (Vista/7) - SuperFetch has caused a lot of controversy and confusion among people who misunderstand what it does. When you open up Task Manager and take a peek under Performance, you'd be shocked to find out that your brand new 64-bit PC with 8GB of RAM has well under 1GB free - Perhaps none free at all! The culprit, after a cursory search, is SuperFetch, which pre-loads commonly-used applications for faster access. So, turning it off should speed things up, right? *Wrong!* SuperFetch immediately releases any memory it's using when it's needed, and there's very little delay in doing it. In fact, the only thing SuperFetch might make any bit slower is when you boot up. When looking at how much memory you have free in Task Manager, take a look instead at the "Available" number.

*Don't disable Task Scheduler* (2k/XP+) - I fell for this one a long time ago when I was doing some aggressive service tweaking. Why not disable Task Scheduler? Well, for one, you won't be able to schedule any tasks, which may or not be a big problem for you, but more importantly, Task Scheduler manages the prefetcher in XP, and the built-in defragmentation utility, among many other filesystem and general system housekeeping tasks. It can eventually cause such problems with performance in the long run that you might be pulling your hair out trying to figure out why.

*Never disable Remote Procedure Call* (2k/XP+) - I don't think there's ever been anyone who recommended this, but in case you were thinking about trying it, you might want to leave it alone. There's a very good reason why you're not allowed to stop it. Other services you shouldn't disable include *COM+*, *DCOM*, *Event Log*, *Plug and Play* (unless you REALLY know what you're doing), *Security Accounts*, and *Windows Management Instrumentation*. Not that there aren't any others you shouldn't touch, but these are pretty necessary.

*Black Viper's website* has a lot of info about services and recommendations for which to keep and which to nuke. If you're unsure, check there!


EDIT: I replaced Songbird with XMPlay in the audio programs list on the first page. Songbird doesn't seem to be quite so useful overall by comparison, and XMPlay is entirely portable and also miniscule - Less than 400KB without plugins! With plugins (including Winamp input plugins and a skin), my XMPlay folder doesn't breech 5MB. It starts in pretty much an instant, and it has a lot of advantages as an alternative player versus an iTunes clone, especially considering you can cart it around on a thumbdrive or something ludicrously easily. Its handling of MIDI files with Soundfonts is also astounding, without requiring massive amounts of memory like the Creative SoundFont Manager does, and without taking forever to load the banks like Synthfont does.


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## Lapdog (Sep 27, 2010)

(This only really applies to people with Processors with multiple cores)

This must be the most obvious tweak with windows (Although i'm not really sure that XP- supports it) is that if you go into msconfig, and go into the "boot" section, & click advanced options, you can actually select how many cores (Or processors) to use during boot up. Im only using dual-core, so I set it to two, and now windows 7 loads in under 8 seconds (To the login screen).


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## ToeClaws (Sep 27, 2010)

Lapdog said:


> (This only really applies to people with Processors with multiple cores)
> 
> This must be the most obvious tweak with windows (Although i'm not really sure that XP- supports it) is that if you go into msconfig, and go into the "boot" section, & click advanced options, you can actually select how many cores (Or processors) to use during boot up. Im only using dual-core, so I set it to two, and now windows 7 loads in under 8 seconds (To the login screen).


 
It does actually exist in XP as well, though XP's understanding of multiple processors is somewhat limited.  By the way it was designed, it sees hyper-threading as two CPUs, and a patch that came around the SP3 era helped to it to understand how to use both the hyper-threading and dual cores of a dual-core CPU, but when it comes to anymore than 2 cores, XP is kinda lost.  Only set the processor number option for XP based on actual cores, and only set it to a maximum of 2.


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## Lapdog (Sep 27, 2010)

ToeClaws said:


> It does actually exist in XP as well, though XP's understanding of multiple processors is somewhat limited.  By the way it was designed, it sees hyper-threading as two CPUs, and a patch that came around the SP3 era helped to it to understand how to use both the hyper-threading and dual cores of a dual-core CPU, but when it comes to anymore than 2 cores, XP is kinda lost.  Only set the processor number option for XP based on actual cores, and only set it to a maximum of 2.


 
I guess that makes sense. With XP being released quite some time ago when if you wanted multiple processors, you actually had to have two physical ones, so I can see why the limit was set too two. Also, I doubt they'll release an update/patch that will allow it to use more than two processors & cores. Although I don't understand how it sees hyper-threading as another core...


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## ToeClaws (Sep 27, 2010)

Lapdog said:


> I guess that makes sense. With XP being released quite some time ago when if you wanted multiple processors, you actually had to have two physical ones, so I can see why the limit was set too two. Also, I doubt they'll release an update/patch that will allow it to use more than two processors & cores. Although I don't understand how it sees hyper-threading as another core...


 
Yeah - when XP was being released to OEMs (a decade ago), the only time you'd have a workstation with more than one CPU was a really fancy professional workstation.  Only extremely expensive servers had more than 2 CPUs, so XP (as a desktop OS) was never really designed to support more than that.  

As for why XP sees hyper-threading as two CPUs, I think that has to do with how it interpreted CPUs.  Hyper-threading, simply put, provided a sort of double-input pipe into the CPU, but XP assumed that it if saw two such paths to the CPU that there then must be two CPUs, so in the process manager, you see two CPUs.  But any code that queries the CPU for what it is shows the actual CPU type and actual number of cores.  

As you said - XP is just getting old, and it's limitations are starting to get the better of it.


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## Lapdog (Sep 27, 2010)

ToeClaws said:


> Yeah - when XP was being released to OEMs (a decade ago), the only time you'd have a workstation with more than one CPU was a really fancy professional workstation.  Only extremely expensive servers had more than 2 CPUs, so XP (as a desktop OS) was never really designed to support more than that.
> 
> As for why XP sees hyper-threading as two CPUs, I think that has to do with how it interpreted CPUs.  Hyper-threading, simply put, provided a sort of double-input pipe into the CPU, but XP assumed that it if saw two such paths to the CPU that there then must be two CPUs, so in the process manager, you see two CPUs.  But any code that queries the CPU for what it is shows the actual CPU type and actual number of cores.
> 
> As you said - XP is just getting old, and it's limitations are starting to get the better of it.


 
I guess that makes alot of sense. It must determine by how many inputs it had to play with for processing; hence the dual-core appearance when using hyper-threading.


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## darkdoomer (Apr 14, 2011)

#1 disable useless services (desktop sharing, portable serial number, wifi if you connect through ethernet, server crap and themes. d/l wb4 if you really want nice themes)
#2 don't install shit drivers or softwares. keep your hklm/hkcu and startup folder clean
#3 use commonsense and avoid internet explorer or msn live, alternatives (firefox, opera, chromium, amsn and pidgin) are far superior.
#4 install updates manually. also, if your pc works; don't fuck with it reinstalling a new version of your driver that's "supposed to bring something new"

>mfw my laptop boots xp in less than 20"


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## b6391212 (Feb 6, 2012)

This thread helped me fix my life.


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## Ikrit (May 5, 2012)

Lapdog said:


> (This only really applies to people with Processors with multiple cores)
> 
> This must be the most obvious tweak with windows (Although i'm not really sure that XP- supports it) is that if you go into msconfig, and go into the "boot" section, & click advanced options, you can actually select how many cores (Or processors) to use during boot up. Im only using dual-core, so I set it to two, and now windows 7 loads in under 8 seconds (To the login screen).



this might have fixed my booting problem

i love you...even though i know you don't post anymore


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## AshleyAshes (May 5, 2012)

Ikrit said:


> this might have fixed my booting problem
> 
> i love you...even though i know you don't post anymore



It doesn't actually do anything.  If it's disabled, Windows automatically sets itself to use the maximum number of available cores.  It's only useful for ordering Windows to use LESS cores, for diagnostic purposes.

Also, if you're dual core is HYPERTHREADED, then the CPU presents FOUR logical cores, even if there are only two physical cores, and you've set it to two, you've lost the advantage of hyperthreading.


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## Ikrit (May 5, 2012)

AshleyAshes said:


> It doesn't actually do anything.  If it's disabled, Windows automatically sets itself to use the maximum number of available cores.  It's only useful for ordering Windows to use LESS cores, for diagnostic purposes.
> 
> Also, if you're dual core is HYPERTHREADED, then the CPU presents FOUR logical cores, even if there are only two physical cores, and you've set it to two, you've lost the advantage of hyperthreading.



but!
when i went to the thing and truned it on, it said one!

man fuck this...

why does my PC have problems booting? i switch the intro screen so it would give information as it boots, and so far the only problem i see is it's taking forever to read storage data


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-snip-


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