Speed up web browsing...Optimize..PC... series contd

HELPPCONLINE KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Speed up web browsing with OpenDNS

When you type in a domain name such as HelpPcOnline.com in your browser the computer resolves the friendly name into an IP address of the server to download the web page and all other supporting files. By default, Windows uses your Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) DNS server.  Depending on your ISP, the performance of their DNS resolving server varies.  Some large national providers are known to provide unreliable and slow DNS servers.  

The performance of the DNS server you are using is one component that affects the speed of your internet browsing.  Since each domain name you type in must be resolved into an IP address, the amount of time that takes will delay the loading of any web page.  Some users with overloaded ISP DNS servers can see delays in multiple seconds before web pages start to load.

OpenDNS provides free alternative DNS servers that anyone can use with any internet provider.  Unlike many national internet providers, OpenDNS’s DNS servers are very fast and reliable. Using OpenDNS servers instead of your ISP servers will help you speed up your internet browsing by cutting down on the delay between resolving a domain name and getting the IP address, so your browser can start loading the web page.

Configuring your computer to use OpenDNS servers instead of your ISP’s is a simple change that works in both Windows XP and Windows Vista:

1. Click on the Start Button and type in ncpa.cpl and hit Enter.  In Windows XP Click on the Start Button, click Run and then type in ncpa.cpl
2. Right click on your active network connection that you use to connect to the Internet and select Properties.
3. On the Networking / General tab, select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) (version 4 onWindows Vista & 7) and hit Properties.
4. On the properties screen, select Use the following DNS server addresses and then type in 208.67.222.222 in the preferred and 208.67.220.220 in the alternate boxes.      
5. Hit OK twice and you are finished.

Visit OpenDNS.com to learn more about some of the advanced features of OpenDNS on top of the speed benefits.

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DMA Mode on IDE Devices...Optimize..PC... series contd

HELPPCONLINE KNOWLEDGE SHARING

DMA Mode on IDE Devices

Just like Windows 2000, Windows XP still fails to set the DMA mode correctly for the

IDE device designated as the slaves on the primary IDE and secondary IDE channels. Most CD-ROMS are capable of supporting DMA mode, but the default in XP is still PIO. Setting it to DMA won't make your CD-ROM faster, but it will consume less CPU cycles. Here's how:

·   Open the Device Manager.

·   One way to do that is to right-click on "My Computer",

·   select the Hardware tab, and select Device Manager.

·   Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and double-click on "Primary IDE Channel".

·   Under the "Advanced Settings" tab, check the "Device 1" setting. More than likely,

·   your current transfer mode is set to PIO.

·   Set it to "DMA if available".

·   Repeat the step for the "Secondary IDE Channel" if you have devices attached to it.

·   Reboot.

Load Internet Explorer the Fastest Way Possible

Edit your link to start Internet Explorer to have -nohome after it. For Example:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -nohome

This will load internet explorer very fast because it does not load a web page while

it is loading. If you want to go to your homepage after it is loaded, just click on the

home button.

Auto Login

·         Go to Start/Run, and type 'control userpasswords2'.

·         From Users Tab, Uncheck "Users must enter ...."

·         A dialog will allow setting a user and password to be used automatically.

Turn Off Autoplay for Program CDs

How can you stop Windows XP from launching program CDs?

·   Click Start, click Run, type GPEDIT.MSC to open Group Policy in the Microsoft

·         Management Console.

o   Double-click Computer Configuration, double-click Administrative templates,

·         double-click System, and then click Turn off autoplay.

o   The instructions on your screen describe how to configure this setting. Click

·         Properties to display the setting dialog.

o   Click Enabled, and choose CD-ROM drives, then click OK, to stop CD autoplay.

·         This setting does not prevent Autoplay for music CDs.

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Turn Off Indexing...Optimize..PC... series contd

HELPPCONLINE KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Turn Off Indexing to Speed Up XP

Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the

hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this and because the computer has to

index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do

not do a whole lot of searches on your hard drive then you may want to turn this feature

off:

·         Open My Computer.

·         Right-click your hard drive icon and select Properties.

·         At the bottom of the window you'll see "Allow indexing service to index this disk

o for faster searches," uncheck this and click ok.

·         A new window will pop up and select Apply to all folders and subfolders.

·   It will take a minute or two for the changes to take affect but then you should enjoy slightly faster performance.

Clean Your Prefetch to Improve Performance

This is a unique technique for WinXP. We know that it is necessary to scrub registry and TEMP files for Win9X/ME/2000 periodically. Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP some time, the prefetch directory canget full of junk and obsolete links in the Prefetch catalog, which can slow down your computer noticeably.

·         Open C(system drive):/windows/prefetch, delete those junk and obsolete files,

reboot. It is recommended that you do this every month.

Remove Hibernation File

If you do not use hibernation, make sure you do not have it enabled, which reserves

disk space equal to your RAM. If you have a hidden file on the root directory of your

·         C-drive called hiberfil.sys, hibernation is enabled. To remove that file:

·         Go to Control Panel, select Performance and Maintenance in Power Options, Hibernate tab, and uncheck the Enable hibernation box.

Performance Increase through My Computer

Easy enough tweak to usually find out about it on your own, but still, some of us

still don't find it right away. So here it is:

·   Start > right-click on My Computer and select Properties.

·   Click on the "Advanced" tab.

·   See the "Performance" section? Click "Settings".

·   Disable the following:

§  Fade or slide menus into view

§  Fade or slide ToolTips into view

§  Fade out menu items after clicking

§  Show Shadows under menus

§  Slide open combo boxes

§  Slide taskbar buttons

§  Use a background image for each folder type

§  Use common tasks in folders

There, now Windows will still look nice and perform faster.

Reduce 10 Second Scandisk Wait Time

o Start MS Dos Prompt (Start run CMD), and type: CHKNTFS /T:4

where 4 is the amount of wait time.

CHKNTFS /?  for more info.

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Slow Start-up...Optimize..PC... series contd.

HELPPCONLINE KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Slow Start-up When Using Norton Internet Security 2002

If you are using Norton Internet Security 2002, and are experiencing slow start-up of

XP, (i.e. you can see the desktop with icons etc. but it takes 30-60sec before you can

start using the computer), this fix might help:

·   Click on Start button.

·   Select Control Panel.

·   Open "Network Connections".

·         Under "LAN and High-Speed Internet", right-click on your "Local Area Connection" and select "Properties".

·         Under "General" tab, select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and select "Properties".

·         Select "Use the following IP address:".

·         Under "IP address" enter following : 192.168.0.1

·         Under "Subnet Mask:" enter following : 255.255.255.0

·         Click "Ok".

Correcting System Hang at Startup

If your system hangs about 2 or 3 minutes at startup, where you can't access the Start

button or the Taskbar, it may be due to one specific service (Background Intelligent Transfer) running in the background. Microsoft put out a patch for this but it didn't work for me. Here's what you do:

.  Click on Start/Run, type 'msconfig', then click 'OK'.

 . Go to the 'Services' tab, find the 'Background Intelligent Transfer' service.

  .Disable it, apply the changes & reboot.

Disable XP Boot Logo

It is possible to disable the XP splash screen, which will slightly speed up the overall boot process. Be aware that removing the splash screen will also cause you not to see any boot-up messages that might come up (chkdsk, convert ... ), but if your system runs without any problems then it should not matter.

·   Edit boot.ini.

·   Add " /noguiboot" right after "/fastdetect".

·   Upon restarting, the splash screen will be gone. It can be re-enabled by removing the new switch.

Slow Network Access Not Always Due to Scheduled Tasks Check

If you have very slow access to your network computers through "My Network Places" and have already deleted the Registry entry calling for a check of Scheduled Tasks on the other network computers (documented elsewhere on this site) AND you have multiple network adaptors (i.e. a cable or DSL connection through one NIC and an internal network using a second NIC) check the following:

·   Right-click on "My Network Places", go to Properties.

·   Right-click on the NIC that your cable/DSL connects to, and choose Properties.

·   Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and click on Properties.

·   Click on "Advanced", go to "WINS" tab, and chose Disable NetBios over TCP/IP.

·   When you are back at your Network Connections page, right-click on the Broadband selection.

.Choose "Properties", click on the Networking tab.

. Again, choose TCP/IP, Properties, Advanced, WINS, and select "disable NetBios over

·   TCP/IP".

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Optimize your computer ..... series contd.

HELPPCONLINE KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Easily Disable any Messenger

·  Go to Tools and then Options.

·  One of the option you need to uncheck is "Start when computer/ Windows Start".

Now it should not use your processor unnecessarily

Very Slow Boot When Networking

On some XP Pro installations, when connected to a network (peer-peer in this case), the computer boot time is over 1:40. The system seems to freeze after logging in and the desktop may not appear or will freeze for a minute. As timed with the utility, Bootvis.exe, the problem was with the driver mrxsmb.dll, adding over 67 seconds to the

boot time. Turning off and restoring file and printer sharing eliminated 65 seconds from

the boot time.

·         Alt-click (or right-click) on Network Places > Properties.

·         Alt-click on Ethernet Adapter connection > Properties.

·         Un-check "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" > OK.

·         Reboot.

·         If you need file or printer sharing, repeat the above, re-check the box and re-boot again.

Easy Way to Adjust Large System Cache

Normally, go into

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management and change the value to either O or 1 to the adjustment the LargeSystemCache. However, in Windows XP, all you have to do is:

·  Right-click My Computer.

·  Select Properties.

·  Click Advanced.

·  Choose Performance.

·  Click Advanced again.

·  Select either Programs or System Cache under Memory Usage.

Programs = 0 for the registry tweak equivalent

System Cache = 1 for the registry tweak equivalent

·  On NT Server (in this case XP), the Large System Cache option is enabled, but

disabled on Workstation. The two different settings effect how the cache manager

allocates free memory. If the Large Cache option is on, the manager marks all the free

memory, which isn't being used by the system and/or applications, as freely available for disk caching.

·  On the flip-side (with a small cache), the manager instead only sets aside 4MB of

Memory for disk caching in an attempt to accelerate the launch of applications, Or in a

more technical approach, if enabled the system will favor system-cache working sets over process working sets (with a working set basically being the memory used by components of a process).

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