2:18 AM
More Speedup Tips and Tricks for Windows XP Startup:
Manjunath Patil
Manual IP Addressing on Small Office/Home Networks:
Windows XP is configured to help you take care of networking. It uses the TCP/IP protocol for networking in workgroups, or what you might call small office or home networks that do not use a dedicated server The problem is that automatic IP addressing can be slow. When your computer boots, it has to query the network to see what IP addresses are already in use and then assign itself one. If you want to speed up the boot time a bit, consider manually assigning IP addresses to all computers on the network. This way, the network computers do not have to worry about locating an automatic IP address. Because one is manually configured, the operating system doesn't have to spend time solving this problem.
This isn't a networking book, however, so I won't delve into the implications of using a manual IP address, but if you are using a computer that functions as a host computer to the Internet (using Internet Connection Sharing [ICS]), you can get into connectivity problems if you change the configuration of the IP address However, you can still work around this problem by starting with the ICS host computer.
Select Start/Connect To/Show All Connections Right-click your network adapter card and click Properties. On the General tab, select TCP/IP in the list of services and click the Properties button.
In the TCP/IP properties, you can see if you use an automatic or manual IP address In the example, I have configured a manual IP address of 900.0.1 and a default subnet mask. The other computers on my office network each use a different IP address in the same class, such as 90.0.0.2, 90.0.0.3, 90.0.0.4, and so on. This way, each computer has a permanent IP address, which helps increase boot time. Note that if you change the IP addresses of your computers, they must all use the same subnet mask. A default subject mask of 255.255.255.0 will keep you in good shape.
Make sure you understand the implications of changing IP addresses on your network। If you have no networking experience at all, you may be wiser to leave the automatic IP addressing as is and try to gain some speed using the additional suggestions in this chapter.
Disabling Recent Documents History:
Windows XP includes a feature that keeps track of all recent documents you have opened or used। The idea is that you can select Start/Recent Documents History and quickly reopen any document you have recently used. I use many documents each day and never use the feature myself. In my opinion, I can keep up with what I want to use without Windows XP doing it for me.The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that Windows XP has to calculate what should be put there each time you boot Windows, which can slow things down. So, if you never use the Recent Documents History, it's a good idea to disable it. Here's how:
1 Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK)
2 Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mcft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
3Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it once it is created.
4 Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction
5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the change to take effect.
Disabling the Boot Logo:
You can remove the boot logo that appears when you start Windows XP। This little tweak probably shaves only a few seconds off your boot time but seconds count if you are serious about trying to get Windows XP up and running as quickly as possible. The only negative is that if you remove the boot logo, you will also not see any boot messages, such as check disk. (But if you are not having problems with your computer, this isn't such a big deal.)
To remove the boot logo, follow these steps:
1। Select Start/Run, type msconfig, and click OK.
2। In the System Configuration Utility, click the BOOT.INI tab.
3। On the BOOT.INI tab, click the NOGUIBOOT check box option. Click OK.
Speeding Up the Dual-Boot Timeout:
If you dual-boot your computer with Windows XP and another operating system, you see an operating system selection menu on startup। If you typically boot into Windows XP and not the other operating system, you can speed up the dual-boot timeout value so that you do not wait so long for the boot process to select your default operating system and continue with the boot process. The default timeout value is 30 seconds but you can change this setting to 10. This gives you enough time to select the alternate operating system if you want but also speeds up the boot process. You can skip this section if you do not use a dual-boot configuration.
Follow these steps:
1। Locate the boot.ini file on your computer. It is a hidden file by default; mine is located in C:\boot.ini.
2। Open the file with Notepad (which is what opens it by default).
3। Change the Timeout value to 10.
4। Select File/Save and close Notepad.
Windows XP is configured to help you take care of networking. It uses the TCP/IP protocol for networking in workgroups, or what you might call small office or home networks that do not use a dedicated server The problem is that automatic IP addressing can be slow. When your computer boots, it has to query the network to see what IP addresses are already in use and then assign itself one. If you want to speed up the boot time a bit, consider manually assigning IP addresses to all computers on the network. This way, the network computers do not have to worry about locating an automatic IP address. Because one is manually configured, the operating system doesn't have to spend time solving this problem.
This isn't a networking book, however, so I won't delve into the implications of using a manual IP address, but if you are using a computer that functions as a host computer to the Internet (using Internet Connection Sharing [ICS]), you can get into connectivity problems if you change the configuration of the IP address However, you can still work around this problem by starting with the ICS host computer.
Select Start/Connect To/Show All Connections Right-click your network adapter card and click Properties. On the General tab, select TCP/IP in the list of services and click the Properties button.
In the TCP/IP properties, you can see if you use an automatic or manual IP address In the example, I have configured a manual IP address of 900.0.1 and a default subnet mask. The other computers on my office network each use a different IP address in the same class, such as 90.0.0.2, 90.0.0.3, 90.0.0.4, and so on. This way, each computer has a permanent IP address, which helps increase boot time. Note that if you change the IP addresses of your computers, they must all use the same subnet mask. A default subject mask of 255.255.255.0 will keep you in good shape.
Make sure you understand the implications of changing IP addresses on your network। If you have no networking experience at all, you may be wiser to leave the automatic IP addressing as is and try to gain some speed using the additional suggestions in this chapter.
Disabling Recent Documents History:
Windows XP includes a feature that keeps track of all recent documents you have opened or used। The idea is that you can select Start/Recent Documents History and quickly reopen any document you have recently used. I use many documents each day and never use the feature myself. In my opinion, I can keep up with what I want to use without Windows XP doing it for me.The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that Windows XP has to calculate what should be put there each time you boot Windows, which can slow things down. So, if you never use the Recent Documents History, it's a good idea to disable it. Here's how:
1 Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK)
2 Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mcft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
3Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it once it is created.
4 Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction
5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the change to take effect.
Disabling the Boot Logo:
You can remove the boot logo that appears when you start Windows XP। This little tweak probably shaves only a few seconds off your boot time but seconds count if you are serious about trying to get Windows XP up and running as quickly as possible. The only negative is that if you remove the boot logo, you will also not see any boot messages, such as check disk. (But if you are not having problems with your computer, this isn't such a big deal.)
To remove the boot logo, follow these steps:
1। Select Start/Run, type msconfig, and click OK.
2। In the System Configuration Utility, click the BOOT.INI tab.
3। On the BOOT.INI tab, click the NOGUIBOOT check box option. Click OK.
Speeding Up the Dual-Boot Timeout:
If you dual-boot your computer with Windows XP and another operating system, you see an operating system selection menu on startup। If you typically boot into Windows XP and not the other operating system, you can speed up the dual-boot timeout value so that you do not wait so long for the boot process to select your default operating system and continue with the boot process. The default timeout value is 30 seconds but you can change this setting to 10. This gives you enough time to select the alternate operating system if you want but also speeds up the boot process. You can skip this section if you do not use a dual-boot configuration.
Follow these steps:
1। Locate the boot.ini file on your computer. It is a hidden file by default; mine is located in C:\boot.ini.
2। Open the file with Notepad (which is what opens it by default).
3। Change the Timeout value to 10.
4। Select File/Save and close Notepad.