Really Effective XP tweaks for boosting its performance !!

Well, I am quite sure that whatever operating system you might be using, you always want it to see performing at its best !! isn't it??

I am also quite sure that many of you have our own very nice Windows XP Professional!So after spending some time playing with various features, applications & games Of course you see that there is huge decrease in the performance level of the OS than it was before it was new?? So whats next now ?

Switching over to conventional system cleaning techniques which includes some common steps like :

1. Disk Clean UP!
2. start up Clean up !
3. De fragmentation.. & may be 1 or 2 more...

Yes, this are some good methods to use provided with the OS by Microsoft. These Tools really help to regain the computer performance back to some extent but as we know ... We always want something More ,isn't it??

Now I am going to share some really Wonderful TWEAKS which are certainly going to make a big difference to the performance of your XP Operating System..

NOTE/WARNING: ALL THESE TWEAKS ARE BASED ON OPERATIONS PERFORMED WITH REGISTRY. IF NOT GOOD WITH REGISTRY , BACK IT UP & THEN TRY TO USE THESE TWEAKS!


PART 1: STARTUP TWEAKS TO IMPROVE THE START UP PERFORMANCE(BOOTING SPEED)

TWEAK 1 : WINDOWS PREFETCHER:
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters]

Under this key there is a setting called EnablePrefetcher, the default setting of which is 3. Increasing this number to 5 gives the prefetcher system more system resources to prefetch application data for faster load times. Depending on the number of boot processes you run on your computer, you may get benefits from settings up to 9. However, I do not have any substantive research data on settings above 5 so I cannot verify the benefits of a higher setting. This setting also may effect the loading times of your most frequently launched applications. This setting will not take effect until after you reboot your system.


TWEAK 2 : OPTIMIZING BOOT FILES:
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Dfrg \ BootOptimizeFunction]

Under this key is a text value named Enable. A value of Y for this setting enables the boot files defragmenter. This setting defragments the boot files and may move the boot files to the beginning (fastest) part of the partition, but that last statement is unverified. Reboot after applying this tweak.


TWEAK 3: OPTIMIZING STARTUP PROGRAMS USING MSCONFIG
*******************************************************

MSConfig, similar to the application included in Win9x of the same name, allows the user to fine tune the applications that are launched at startup without forcing the user to delve deep into the registry. To disable some of the applications launched, load msconfig.exe from the run command line, and go to the Startup tab. From there, un-ticking the checkbox next to a startup item will stop it from launching. There are a few application that you will never want to disable (ctfmon comes to mind), but for the most part the best settings vary greatly from system to system.

As a good rule of thumb, though, it is unlikely that you will want to disable anything in the Windows directory (unless it's a third-party program that was incorrectly installed into the Windows directory), nor will you want to disable anything directly relating to your system hardware. The only exception to this is when you are dealing with software, which does not give you any added benefits (some OEM(ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS) dealers load your system up with software you do not need). The nice part of msconfig is that it does not delete any of the settings, it simply disables them, and so you can go back and restart a startup application if you find that you need it. This optimization won't take effect until after a reboot.



PART 2: GENERAL PERFORMANCE TWEAKS:

TWEAK 1: QOS TWEAK
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QoS (Quality of Service) is a networking subsystem which is supposed to insure that the network runs properly. The problem with the system is that it eats up 20% of the total bandwidth of any networking service on the computer (including your internet connection). If you are running XP Professional, you can disable the bandwidth quota reserved for the system using the Group Policy Editor [gpedit.msc].

You can run the group policy editor from the Run command line. To find the setting, expand "Local Computer Policy" and go to "Administrative Templates" under "Computer Configuration." Then find the "Network" branch and select "QoS Packet Scheduler." In the right hand box, double click on the "Limit Reservable Bandwidth." From within the Settings tab, enable the setting and then go into the "Bandwidth Limit %" and set it to 0%. The reason for this is that if you disable this setting, the computer defaults to 20%. This is true even when you aren't using QoS.


TWEAK 2: FREE IDLE TASKS TWEAK
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This tweak will free up processing time from any idle processes and allow it to be used by the foreground application. It is useful particularly if you are running a game or other 3D application. Create a new shortcut to "Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks" and place it on your desktop. Double-click on it anytime you need all of your processing power, before opening the application.

Windows Indexing Services
Windows Indexing Services creates a searchable database that makes system searches for words and files progress much faster – however, it takes an enormous amount of hard drive space as well as a significant amount of extra CPU cycles to maintain the system. Most users will want to disable this service to release the resources for use by the system. To turn off indexing, open My Computer and right click on the drive on which you wish to disable the Indexing Service. Enter the drive's properties and under the general tab, uncheck the box for "Allow the Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching."


TWEAK 3: OFFLOAD NETWORK TASK PROCESSING ONTO THE NETWORK CARD
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Tcpip \ Parameters]

Many newer network cards have the ability of taking some of the network processing load off of the processor and performing it right on the card (much like Hardware T&L on most new video cards). This can significantly lower the CPU processes needed to maintain a network connection, freeing up that processor time for other tasks. This does not work on all cards, and it can cause network connectivity problems on systems where the service is enabled but unsupported, so please check with your NIC manufacturer prior to enabling this tweak. Find the DWORD "DisableTaskOffload" and set the value to 0 (the default value is 1). If the key is not already available, create it.

TWEAK 4: DISABLE USER TRACKING
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[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer]
"NoInstrumentation"=dword:00000001

The user tracking system built into Windows XP is useless to 99% of users (there are very few uses for the information collected other than for a very nosy system admin), and it uses up precious resources to boot, so it makes sense to disable this "feature" of Windows XP. To do so, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer and find the DWORD "NoInstrumentation". You may need to create this key if it is not there. The default setting is 0, but setting it to 1 will disable most of the user tracking features of the system.


TWEAK 5: THUMBNAIL CACHE
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[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced]
"DisableThumbnailCache"=dword:00000001

Windows XP has a neat feature for graphic and video files that creates a "thumbnail" of the image or first frame of the video and makes it into an oversized icon for the file. There are two ways that Explorer can do this, it can create them fresh each time you access the folder or it can load them from a thumbnail cache. The thumbnail caches on systems with a large number of image and video files can become staggeringly large. To disable the Thumbnail Cache, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced and find the DWORD "DisableThumbnailCache". You may need to create this key. A setting of 1 is recommended for systems where the number of graphic and video files is large, and a setting of 0 is recommended for systems not concerned about hard drive space, as loading the files from the cache is significantly quicker than creating them from scratch each time a folder is accessed.


NOTE : I AM SAYING AGAIN, PLEASE BE CAREFUL WHILE PERFORMING THESE TWEAKS AS IT INCLUDES PLAYING WITH REGISTRY & ANY WRONG MODIFICATION WILL SCREW UP THINGS. BACK IT UP & THEN APPLY THESE TWEAKS.

Hope you all will see a significant performance improvement after applying these tweaks on your windows XP Operating System.

Comments will be appreciated.

Thank you & all of you have a gr8 time!

mobile money services powered by nokia

Got to read a new thing yesterday so just want to share it & I think if you the newspapers carefully then some of you might have heard of it & probably even used it.

This is something interesting about sending money, getting money from someone & paying shopping bills & so on.

Not only this you can do mobile recharges, paying your utility bills & so many interesting things. All this is really very easy, very safe & is a matter of only few seconds!!!

DETAILS:
Nokia, in partnership with YES BANK (I heard its name for the first time) has started this really amazing service. This is something new to me as well so for more information you can visit the selected NOKIA OUTLET'S in PUNE or at any YES BANK branches which are at Bhandarkar road, Hinjewadi & Kondhawa Khurd area!!

For more information on this, you can refer the following contact information

Toll free helpline number : 1800-3000-1122

or

visit there website at www.mobilemoneyservices.co.in

enjoy it !

blue skies & good health to all..

calculating EMI using Microsofts Excel

how many of you have planned to take a new home? or you have just taken a new one ??

I am quite sure all people of this category know the world EMI very well.Well I am going to

help you calculate your EMI using Microsoft's Windows Excel . very easy & useful isn't it ??

so lets see how you can..

To calculate EMI we have an inbuilt function in Excel called "PMT"

STEPS:

STEP 1:
1. In any empty cell in excel, write =pmt. As soon as you do this the formulae for the PMT
function will be displayed as follows..
=================================================================
=pmt(rate, nper, pv, [fv], [type])
=================================================================

All the components necessary to calculate EMI are displayed in the formula.There description
is as follows:
1. Rate: this is the rate of interest per month

2. Nper : no of periods(total tenure of Loan. In our case it is the no of months)

3. Pv : Total Loan Amount(principle value)

4. [fv] & [type] this payment is not
so now enter all the values in the PMT function & hit enter & you will get the monthly EMI
in that Cell.


LETS SEE AN EXAMPLE ..
=pmt(12% 12, 10*12, 200000)
=PMT (Rate, nper, [fv], [type]) This is an example showing how to put values to calculate EMI.


NOTE:

I don't think a person have a computer with hm/her & every time, so what I would suggest
is to save the formula given below in a mobile note so that you can use it any time , anywhere!

the Formula is : EMI=[(p*r)(1+r)^n]/[(1+r)^n-1]
where p= principal (amount of loan)
r=Rate of interest per month(annual rate/12)
n=no of installments in the tenure.

hope this will prove useful to all who read....

Blue skies & good health to all...

Ashirwad Joshi

Not able to Write from a Copywrited CD? here's how!!

Hi guys, hope you all are doing well. Well, just wondering have u ever got a CD from a friend & you see that you need to have a Copy of that CD with you as its happens with me as well. So, what most of us do is to open Nero, & select Copy CD ! Till this point everything looks good but voila ! a message has just arrived.. " the CD is Write Protected/copy protected" & the operation is canceled..
What to do now, no matter how many times you try you will not be able to Copy it to hard disk or directly to CD!!..
Well, here's one of the easiest & simplest way to get out of this problem. I just got this software called Clone CD which is one of its Own Kind!! (screen shots attached)
Description : Clone CD is the perfect tool to make backup copies of your music and data CD's, regardless of copy protection. CloneCD's award-winning user interface allows you to copy almost any CD in just a few mouse clicks.

Since the release of 5.0, CloneCD is not only able to copy CDs but also most DVD formats, such as DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R Dual Layer and DVD-RAM. The movies are copied 1:1 and therefore not modified (compressed). Note that to copy movie DVDs you also require AnyDVD.

CloneCD also works with other formats such as ISO and UDF files and copies CDs/DVDs with the new SafeDisc 3 Copy Protection System. CloneCD allows you to create perfect 1:1 copies of your valuable original compact discs. Should your copy-protected music CD not play in your car audio, the backup created by CloneCD will.

I am posting the Link for a 21 day trial of this program . Please use it & enjoy it !! Will let u all know the Crack Once I get it or otherwise post the link for registered software !

Please download at: http://www.filehippo.com/download_clonecd/

Blue Skies & good health to all! Enjoy..

Ashirwad Joshi