Tech Tips

Windows XP : Performance Monitoring and Optimization

Tune Windows XP to speed up boot and shutdown times

Shorten the time it takes for your desktop to appear when you turn on your PC, and make XP shut down faster as well. No matter how fast your PC boots, it's not fast enough. Here are several hacks to get you right to your desktop as quickly as possible...

How to: Force Disk Cleanup to delete all temporary files

If you've ever run the Microsoft Windows XP's Disk Cleanup utility, you probably discovered that your temporary files occupy a significant amount of space. You might select the Temporary Files check box in order to allow the Disk Cleanup utility to delete the files in the Temp folder, but the...

Performance Options can slow down Windows XP

Windows XP includes many functional improvements and visual features that do not directly add to or improve the functionality of the product. Examples of these features include the shadow behind the mouse cursor and menus, animated windows, and others....

Run optimizations manually

Windows XP actively monitors every application startup and logs the files that are used. The same logging is enabled when the operating system loads. Memory pages are logged in the %windir%\prefetch folder. In fact, each application you run will have a special file in this folder....

Learn the (non) value of disabling QoS

Numerous Internet sites feature tips and tricks on the optimization of Windows XP, and most of them promise huge performance gains. However, a lot of optimization tricks actually do very little to improve performance....

Get the inside details of a crash report

When a program crashes, Windows XP gathers information about the program, its code, and the actual crash. This data is then compiled into a special report. A dialog window appears, which prompts you to send the crash report to Microsoft....

Decipher the name behind the process

Windows XP runs numerous processes. To view them, open Task Manager and go to the Process tab. While several of these processes are self-explanatory, the majority of them are not....

Cool off with the System Idle Process

If you take a look at the Task Manager—press [Ctrl][Shift][Esc]—and click the Processes tab, you'll see all the programs and system processes that are currently running....

Conserve energy with these power states

Standby and Hibernation are two power states in which computers use less electricity. When the computer enters Standby mode, the machine shuts off the monitor and hard disks and uses minimal power to keep other devices running, such as the motherboard and memory....

Changes to Task Manager in Windows XP

Microsoft made minor improvements to the Task Manager in Windows XP. When you run it (the simplest way is to press [Ctrl][Shift][Esc]), you'll see five tabs....