How to Maintain the Speed of a Freshly Installed Windows OS

Tweak 1

1. Normally, people ask 'Antivirus soft wares are supposed to be in-built for an OS if they promise security, right? So why is it that I can't find it in my OS?'
2. Well the answer is, improved security is one of the promises offered by any OS from its previous versions. As in Windows, there are two things which can be obviously seen. One is the Windows Firewall, the other is Windows Defender. Both took a giant leap from XP to Vista. But there is a silent warrior performing security measures in Windows apart from the above two. Anyway, I am talking about the Data Execution Prevention(DEP for short) module in Windows systems. By default, it is started up both in XP and Vista when the system boots up, their capabilities are widespread, but in a nutshell what they do, is they monitor every file in your OS, when they are MODIFIED, even in the most slightest way. Although DEP is a really great thing, it does the most to slow down your system. Initially in a freshly installed OS, you won't even notice DEP's influence, but as you install and add more files for your OS to monitor, that's when all hell breaks loose. Consider copying a file about the size of 500MB or more, when the OS is fresh, this should be nearly a piece of cake, but when your hard drive is filled up, you can take two cups of coffee before the process gets done, Phew! that's what happened when I had DEP enabled in Vista sometime ago. You can't really blame DEP, it's doing good to you at the cost of speed, so I think I gave you enough info on this, let's get to the point of disabling them, oh and don't PANIC!! It's no big deal. Here is what you need to do.

For XP Users

1. 
   Make sure you're a user with administrative rights.
2. 
   Go on to Control Panel -> System -> Advanced Tab, and under Startup and Recovery click Settings.
3. 
   A new window pops up, in which you must click the 'Edit' button.
4. 
   You should see a text file opening up. This is your system's bootloader settings, don't touch anything in their which you don't know about.
5. 
   In the last line you should see something like this '/NoExecute=OptIn'. Bingo!! You found the roots of DEP, all you have to do is change the value 'OptIn' to ' AlwaysOff ' (without quotes, 'A' and 'O' should be in capitals).
6. 
   Now save the file and close it, for those who want to know where the actual DEP is, under Advanced Tab click on Settings which is under Performance, you should find DEP in the popped up window.
7. 
   Now restart the system, and feel the first speed boost to your XP system.

For Vista Users

1. Since Vista doesn't allow you to directly edit the bootloader settings, here is how you do it in Vista.
2. 
   Be sure to be a user with administrative rights.
3. 
   Click Start -> Run and then type in 'command.com' without quotes and then you should have the command prompt.
4. 
   In there, just type in the following and it doesn't matter which directory you're in.
5. 
   ' bcdedit.exe /set {currentuser} nx AlwaysOff ' (without quotes)
6. 
   If you did it correctly, it will say 'The Command Completed Successfully'. Now restart the system.
7. 
   For Vista users who do not own Vista Service Pack 1, I would recommend you order it, and get it installed in your system as soon as you can. Personally I felt a great speed boost in Vista SP1 compared to the normal Vista installation. I would recommend you to disable DEP after you install Vista SP1 if you really have the need for speed .
8. 
   If DEP is disabled, doesn't that make my system more vulnerable to attacks though it improves my speed?'

   1. 3rd party Antivirus softwares will rescue you from that trouble, That's what they were built for! I wrote this post, because, DEP is somewhat old school to hackers and viruses. They learned to get past them, so DEP is just slowing things down for you, if you think keeping them enabled will save you from malicious codes. As for antivirus softies unlike DEP, they are not embedded to your OS, you can always turn them off with a simple click later, so they don't pick on your operating system's speed while your working.

Tweak 2

1. 
   The next possible speed breaker is the hibernate function, which keeps track of all your sessions, and puts the computer in less power while you are away. Those who don't need this function, can disable it, so you can save up some disk space and memory space. Here is how you do it, for both Vista and XP.
2. 
   Open the command prompt and make sure your user account is with administrative rights.
3. 
   Now type in ' powercfg -H off ' (without quotes)
4. 
   You can always turn it back on, by replacing the ' off ' with ' on ' in the above command.

Tweak 3

1. This is another tweak, which has a great effect over multimedia applications if you do it correctly. We are only going to mess with some and this article is going to tell you what they are for and whether you need them or not. (This is for both XP and Vista Users.)
2. 
   Click on Start -> Run.
3. 
   Type in 'services.msc' (without quotes)
4. 
   You should see the service manager then.
5. 
   To disable a service, just double click on it.
6. 
   You should see another window under startup type.
7. 
   You can select disabled.
8. 
   Windows Image Acquisition(WIA) service is the one which acts as the boss for the scanners and cams connected to your system (it does not include webcams). So if you don't have a scanner or a cam, shut this one off.
9. 
   Windows Error Reporting Service can really get on your nerves. If you are in no need of online help from Microsoft, it's better to just turn it off.
10. 
    Volume Shadow Copy Service is the one which keeps track of your System Restore feature, you can either disable system restore under control panel -> System, or you can disable this service.
11. 
    Virtual Disk Service is the one which favors the RAID feature of your hard disk. If you are not using this feature, you can disable this too.
12. 
    Tablet PC Input Service should only be enabled when your using either a light pen or a tablet pen. Otherwise, disable this service.
13. 
    Program Compatibility Assistant Service helps you run applications built for older Windows versions from within your current Windows Installation. If you're not going to use this future, you might want to disable this too.
14. 
    Print Spooler Service, helps to queue jobs for the printer attached to your computer, if you don't have a printer connected, then you should definitely get this one disabled.

Tweak 4

1. Virtual Memory is very important if your running applications which require large memory space to run. It acts as a standby to load memory-hungry applications until actual physical memory becomes available. It works on the concept of swapping. You're going to use a predefined hard-disk space which is going to emulate the actual physical memory. So let's see how to access your Virtual Memory settings from Windows and modify it to favor speed.
2. 
   Go to the Control panel -> System.(In case of Vista, look at the left hand side for Advanced System Settings. Click on it).
3. 
   Under the Advanced Tab, there is a settings button under the Performance caption.
4. 
   Clicking on it will bring you to where you were with DEP. There is another Advanced tab there. Click on it.
5. 
   Under it, there is the Virtual Memory caption. Click on the 'Change' button.
6. 
   Uncheck the box which says 'Automatically manage page file sizes for all drives'.
7. 
   Select any of the partitions in which you have abundant space. Now click on custom size, and set the initial and maximum size to be the same value. This is very important because, when you set both the sizes to the same value, it helps to assure Windows that, at any given time, this specified space will be readily available for it to use, if done otherwise, causes some delay for Windows to move from initial value to the mark in the maximum value.
8. 
   Click OK, and restart the system.
9. 
   If you're having some trouble in picking a virtual memory size for a partition, consider your physical memory space to help.

   1. For example, if you have 512MB physical memory in your computer, it's wiser to set the initial and maximum value to the double of 512 in other words set it to 1024MB. Whatever your memory size be, just double it and set it for the virtual memory.

Tweak 5

1. This tweak is more effective to Vista users compared to XP. If you're not a big fan of Windows Searching capabilities like in the start menu or when you open a window, you might want to disable the Indexing capabilities of Windows as well. If you disable it, you will still be able to search for files using the search option from the start menu, only the search will be a bit slower, but if it's not a big deal to you, then keep reading. (The following steps is for both XP and Vista.)
2. 
   Open My Computer.
3. 
   Right click on your main Windows Partition.(Mostly C:) and select Properties.
4. 
   Under the "General" Tab near the bottom, you will find a check box with the identifier 'Index this drive for faster searching'.
5. 
   Uncheck it and click Apply.

   1. If it warns you or if any other files try to restrict this process, just click ' Ignore All ' and continue.
6. 
   Uncheck indexing for all your drives.
7. 
   There is another tweak you can do in XP to avoid unwanted network folder searching when you open a New Window every time. When you're done with the above steps, follow these steps in XP.

   1. Open the Control Panel from the Start Menu.
   2. Look for Folder Options and double click it.
   3. Click the "View" tab, under which you should find several check boxes.
8. 
   There should be a first check box which says 'Automatically search for Network Folders' (this check box won't be available in Windows Vista!)
9. 
   Just uncheck it, if any restriction arises, just ignore all and click Apply.

Tweak 6

1. The following tweak requires you to edit your Windows Registry, so be careful of what you change, and make sure you start off by backing up your registry. To edit your registry you need to enter into your registry editor, which can be done as follows.
2. 
   Click on Start -> Run
3. 
   Type in ' regedit ' without quotes.
4. 
   In here you will find 5 folders at the left hand side, the one for this tweak is under the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
5. 
   Now double click your way through the given path correctly 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER ->Control Panel->Desktop'
6. 
   Now on the right frame, you should see a large list of keys.

   1. Look for the one which says 'MenuShowDelay'. Double-click it.
   2. Set the default value from 400 to 200.