[PaJaMa]

Well, i know there are alot of guides floating around on the net, but still wanted to make my own guide, i will tell you here how to tweak xp and also how to keep it fast!

Let's Go!
first, lets start with removing programs we dont use, they take up hard drive space and might slow down your system by just sitting there!
go to the control panel, then software, let it load up, could take a while if you dont have a very fast pc like me!
http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/doc_images/107419412.gif
there click the sort menu, and select sort last time used, then i suggest to remove progs you havent used for a few weeks, when you are finished reboot your pc!

Spyware
after rebooting the pc i suggest to start cleaning out spyware, spyware is made by ppl that have no friends, so they want to do something, they are allways bored, its basicly software that puts add's all around your system, and sends out information about how you ue your computer.
a more explained text:

Quote

Some people mistake spyware for a computer virus. A computer virus is a piece of code designed to replicate itself as many times as possible, spreading from one host computer to any other computers connected to it. It usually has a payload that may damage your personal files or even your operating system.

Spyware, on the other hand, is generally not designed to damage your computer. Spyware is broadly defined as any program that gets into your computer without permission and hides in the background while it makes unwanted changes to your user experience. The damage it does is more a by-product of its main mission, which is to serve you targeted advertisements or make your browser display certain sites or search results.

At present, most spyware targets only the Windows operating system. Some of the more notorious spyware companies include Gator, Bonzi Buddy, 180 Solutions, DirectRevenue, Cydoor, CoolWebSearch, Xupiter, XXXDial and Euniverse.

A few ap's to clean spyware
Microsoft Antispyware
you can download it from Here
http://www.jeroenmulder.com/images/misc/microsoft_antispyware_beta1.png

Ad-Aware
Download here
http://images.webattack.com/screenfiles/adaware.gif

Spybot
Download
http://www.sfsu.edu/~helpdesk/pics/spybot/spybot-window.jpg


And some apps to even prevent it!
Spywareblaster
Download
http://www.sfsu.edu/~helpdesk/os/winos/SpywareBlaster/images/sypwar1.jpg

Quote

Spyware, adware, browser hijackers, and dialers are some of the fastest-growing threats on the Internet today.
By simply browsing to a web page, you could find your computer to be the brand-new host of one of these unwanted fiends!

The most important step you can take is to secure your system. And SpywareBlaster is the most powerful protection program available.

# Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted software.
# Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox.
# Restrict the actions of potentially unwanted sites in Internet Explorer.

Trash Files
Now its time to remove some temp files that are on your system, they take place and arent usefull for anything!
a nice app i recommend is CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/img/screen_301.png
as you can see it removes cookies, history and all that other **** that can be cleaned up!

Defrag
Now lets defrag our system, defragging means putting all files togheter on the filesystem in the right place, its kinda complicated to explain how it really works, but lets just do it
Windows has a built in defragger but it sucks, lets install better software, i recommend o&o defrag
it works great and fast, defrag your pc weekly!
Download free trial to give it a try

Clean the registry
Now lets clean the registry, the registry is something that contains all setting sand stuff of your pc, its one of the most important things to run xp!
a good reg cleaner is tune up utillities
Free Trial

Protection
Another few things that can slow down your computer are virusses or other malicieus software, its allways recommend to have a antivirus an a firewall running to prevent anything bad to get on your computer, here are some anti virus progs i recommend:
kaspersky
Download
http://www.softpedia.com/screenshots/Kaspersky-AntiVirus-Personal-Pro_1.png

Avast Home edition
Download
http://www.spywarefri.dk/avast.12.jpg

Nod32

and a firewall thats very good is Outpost
a firewall protects you from hackers that get on your system and put malicieus software on your computer!

Windows Update
Very important is too keep windows up to date! it helps keep your computer safe!
load up internet explorer and go to windowsupdate.com, let it install the software it needs to run windows update and install all updates and service packs, if it asks you to reboot, reboot and then check back at windows update till there are no further updates! The reason i put this last is because you should only install updates if your pc is clean and free of virusses!
http://travelinlibrarian.info/writing/sp2/winupdatev5.gif

Alternative browser!
I'm not saying ie is a bad browser, but its currently the most used browser around, and hackers focus on it, so it aint that safe anymore
a good browser i recommend is firefox!, firefox is made by mozilla company and i a very fast and safe browser
Download
http://br.mozdev.org/firefox/firefox-tabs.png

or another nice browser is opera!
yeah, we all hate the opera, but its just the browsers name, and its one of the best browsers availeble, shame it aint as popular as firefox
Download the opera 8 beta, its awesome, and dont start ****ting its beta! its really good and i didnt come acros a bug yet!

Netscape
yeah its back lol, give it a try


Still working on this tutorial! so if you have suggestions or links feel free to post!!!!!!

This post has been edited by PaJaMa: 16 January 2006 - 08:37 PM

[Lee]

Saw a post linking to this on Neowin.
Very nice, there's some good points in that guide :)

This post has been edited by Lee: 15 January 2006 - 11:19 AM

[Quactaur]

Excellent post for users old and new. :clap:

[madTaMsKi]

Nice work ;)

[dkreifus]

Very similiar to the latest article in PC Magazine...

[PaJaMa]

dkreifus, on Jan 15 2006, 16:04, said:

Very similiar to the latest article in PC Magazine...

i posted on old version of this guide on neowin like a year ago, its still there in hte guides forum posted by medievil, but i was banned, so i now decided to update the guide

so if pc mag has a guide that looks like this, they would have copied some things of my guide
as my guide is online to everyone on the net, but i live in belguim so i dont even know pc magazine, i read xp tweaks as only mag about pc and thats a while ago B)

[The Bressman]

excellent tutorial PaJaMa, i downloaded some of the stuff u posted there and my computer runs even faster than before :D
Thanks !

[TheWahbinator]

Thanks for the tutorial, you forgot to mention "Uninstall all Norton products as they slow down your system." :)

[Heart_Attack]

Yet another nice tut PaJaMa. It has some great info in there. A few things I'd suggest though, are:

1: Description of each software - I know what a lot of that software is, and have used some, but some I don't know, so a description of the product would be nice.

2: Under antivirus products, I can personally recomend AVG free edition. I know there are lots of AV products, and not all can be included, but I think that one is noteworthy along with the others.

Good luck on finishing this tut, it'll be very usefull for a lot of people :)

[XP_2600]

Gooooooooood work its really a good work, we just have to add more tools, well personally i tried ewido its really so powerful and its detected and moved some spyware which other apps didnt detect, also how about some powerful recovery tools like stelath or on track easy recovery.

[Hastin]

Um, CCleaner has a registry cleaner built into it.

[XP_2600]

Here it is some useful applications

Cron. can replace scheduled tasks so you can disable its service.

Acronis true image server can replace NTbackup and its can do a good work in backup and restore system on the fly (Warning: it have some problems with second repair option in Windows XP and its not free)
XPLite can move any unneeded component from Windows XP its do a good job in decreasing the size of the Windows Directory and in the performance ( you can always use sc command to disable or remove any unneeded services from Windows.
Also if you are worry alot about your system so fault tolerance is something vital for you so i think its worth to get another harddrive and make a mirrored system here it is a Guide from Tom's Hardware giving a work around to make XP even do RAID5 which nativly just available in servers systems, i think there tools can make your system stable enough and working for soo long times with ALLAH well :)

[PaJaMa]

thx ppl!
well weekend so i have time to work on it again, hope it helps some ppl :)

[zapjb]

I noticed some spyware in your add/remove. America Online.

[PaJaMa]

zapjb, on Jan 20 2006, 21:33, said:

I noticed some spyware in your add/remove. America Online.

it are internet images as my pc is dutch :lick: