Improve the performance of a 98 system

[computerwizkid]

These are my top tips on to improve the performance of a 98 system:

   1.Get 98Lite.Either download the Free Version or buy the Professional Edition.I recommend buying 98Lite Professional because it has more bang for your buck.You can remove webview,IE,and more with Professional Edition.

2.Go into msconfig and uncheck everything is startup besides LoadPowerProfile.You DON'T have to use systray.It just gives you the Generic Windows Icons.

3.Make sure the role of computer is a network server.

4.Uncheck Search for floppy disks every startup in System Properties box.

5.In display properties,make sure to select High Color.

6.Remove EVERYTHING YOU DON'T USE in Add/Remove Properties.

7. Put Virtual Memory at 2 times your installed ram.

8.Do not install rp if you don't want eye candy.

That's about it!!!

[galahs]

Make sure your hard disk is defragged... as well as your swap file (make sure its a single file with a decent minimum size)

Don't have a background image (uses up valuab;e resources) and have less icons/files on your desktop

Turn Off scheduled tasks, turn off automatic screen savers and power management

MAKE SURE active desktop is off. (surely no one uses it?)

Turn DMA on for your Hard Disks and CD/DVD drives if supported

Autoexec.bat and config.sys can usually be blanked out (there but contains nothing within. Use Run -> sysedit to delete all lines)

[RJARRRPCGP]

7. Put Virtual Memory at 2 times your installed ram.

Sorry, Windows 9x has a bug that if the swap file is bigger than 768 MB, the Windows 98 loader will display "Insufficient memory to initialize Windows" and make you stay in DOS!

[BenoitRen]

Autoexec.bat and config.sys can usually be blanked out

If you don't use anything DOS, yes. If you type in a DOS virtual machine and are familiar with the Azerty keyboard lay-out, you'll need at least the code tabels and the country.sys initialisation.

[Chozo4]

If it helps any - I found this old thread which pretty much covers the exact same thing this thread is after...

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...1486&st=-10

[herbalist]

Instead of emptying the autoexec.bat, make it work for you. I added 2 lines that call other batch files. The first deletes the contents of several temp folders and index.dat files. It does add a few seconds to the bootup time but makes up for it by keeping the temp files, browser cache. etc. cleaned up, which helps performance during usage.

The 2nd replaces the registry, several core system files, and the user startup folders with clean copies. This one adds over a minute to the bootup on my box (replacing a lot of files) but solves and helps prevent several other problems, including:

• Eliminates registry stored MRUs and the bloat they cause.
  
• Prevents malware from adding autostart entries.
  
• Keeps registry from becoming fragmented.
  
• Prevents changes in user startup folders.
  
• Protects your core system files from unwanted modification.
  
• Protects against unauthorized users changing settings.
  

The only performance cost is in boot time. Once Windows is running, it helps keep your system at peak performance, which is the performance that counts. It also helps protect against malware without the need of extra running processes. IMO, it's well worth a little extra boot time.

Rick

[galahs]

herbalist, can you share your autoexec.bat and batch files contents with us?

That's another registry tip I remember...

1. Restart the computer in MSDOS (Command Prompt Only)

2. At the command prompt, type scanreg /fix and then press ENTER.

3. After the Registry Checker tool finishes repairing the registry, press ENTER.

4. At the command prompt, type scanreg /opt and then press ENTER.

NOTE: The /opt command-line switch causes the Registry Checker tool to optimize the registry by removing unused space.

5. Restart the computer.

[herbalist]

The first batch file is nothing more than a series of delete commands.

@echo off
deltree /y C:\WINDOWS\COOKIES\INDEX.DAT
deltree /y C:\WINDOWS\PROFILES\RICK\COOKIES\INDEX.DAT
deltree /y C:\WINDOWS\PROFILES\RICK\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5\INDEX.DAT
deltree /y C:\WINDOWS\PROFILES\RICK\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5\INDEX.DAT
deltree /y C:\WINDOWS\PROFILES\CONNIE\COOKIES\INDEX.DAT
deltree /y C:\WINDOWS\PROFILES\CONNIE\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5\INDEX.DAT deltree /y C:\WINDOWS\PROFILES\CONNIE\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5\MSHIST~1\INDEX.DAT
exit

I put together a page a while back that describes 2nd batch file in detail. There's 2 batch files involved, one for making the backups and one for restoring them. Both are covered at http://www.freewebs.com/herbalists/index.htm.

As long as you add the appropriate entries to both the backup and restore batch files, you can use it to replace or restore any file with 8 characters or less in its name and a 3 character or less file extension. Just be very careful with the syntax. A mistake will be costly.

In both cases, I added a call line to autoexec.bat

call C:\cleanup.bat

call C:\restore.bat

Rick

[computerwizkid]

7. Put Virtual Memory at 2 times your installed ram.

Sorry, Windows 9x has a bug that if the swap file is bigger than 768 MB, the Windows 98 loader will display "Insufficient memory to initialize Windows" and make you stay in DOS!

I mean't that if you have low ram this is the proper thing to do(32-100).300+ mb don't have to follow this step.

I HAVE ONLY 63 MBs of RAM.

[Daniel-J]

Why must one keep LoadPowerProfile checked in msconfig? I've disabled it and have done so for a very long time without problems. I'm just curious what exactly it does.

I always check my system resources at system startup (for one, to make sure the resources free are the same from day to day, considering I have not done anything new to the computer. If my system resources go down considerably (a few percentage points even) I suspect something).

My system starts up with 95% free resources. That's sweet! But now with RP7 installed, I saw a drop to 92% free. Still good, though! I use an IBM 300PL (PII - 355 MHz) with 192 MB RAM.

Edited November 14, 2007 by Daniel-J

[patchworks]

Try these tweaking tools (in this order):

1. 98lite

2. TweakNow PowerPack (unfortunally last version don't support 98 anymore)

3. WinBoost

[Chozo4]

Why must one keep LoadPowerProfile checked in msconfig? I've disabled it and have done so for a very long time without problems. I'm just curious what exactly it does.

Turning off LoadPowerProfile will prevent windows from loading the user-selected and/or defines power savings profile under 'Power options' in the control panel. Meaning removing that from loading will disable turning off the monitor or drives for instance after a certain amount of idle time.

It can be turned back on by going into your power options, making your changes, and selecting OK but you'd have to do that everytime unless you enable LoadPowerProfile.

[Daniel-J]

Why must one keep LoadPowerProfile checked in msconfig? I've disabled it and have done so for a very long time without problems. I'm just curious what exactly it does.

Turning off LoadPowerProfile will prevent windows from loading the user-selected and/or defines power savings profile under 'Power options' in the control panel. Meaning removing that from loading will disable turning off the monitor or drives for instance after a certain amount of idle time.

It can be turned back on by going into your power options, making your changes, and selecting OK but you'd have to do that everytime unless you enable LoadPowerProfile.

At first that's what I thought, but it doesn't work that way for me. I have 2 load power profiles in msconfig (even after a fresh install) and I deselect both of them. Then I setup my power management profiles and save it under a different name and it works each and every time I start Windows...automatically. And in case you're wondering, LoadPowerProfile does not re-add itself to my msconfig startup menu. So, it seems LoadPowerProfile does nothing!

[Ambassador]

Using Tweak UI, turn off

Smooth scrolling

Menu animation

Combo box animation

List box animation

Mouse hot tracking effects

Active Desktop enabled

Allow changes to Active Desktop

Window Animation

Then in an explorer window, turn off standard buttons and address bar.

The result? A noticeable speed increase when opening folders. The only "downside" is that you have to give up the web browser interface, but who really cares?

Also, CCleaner is useful for cleaning up garbage and such easily without the need for a batch file.

Edited November 14, 2007 by Ambassador

[alexanrs]

Instead of emptying the autoexec.bat, make it work for you. I added 2 lines that call other batch files. The first deletes the contents of several temp folders and index.dat files. It does add a few seconds to the bootup time but makes up for it by keeping the temp files, browser cache. etc. cleaned up, which helps performance during usage.

Actually I use AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS to reduce boot time and increase the free conventional memory for DOS-based games and programs under Windows instead of disk cleaning. I like using XDMA (from FreeDOS) to speed-up disk access in the DOS part of the booting process (until Windows' disk drivers and cache kick in). It enables UDMA under DOS and, therefore, greatly increases (in most computers) the disk access speed. Here is a generic AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS (whith comments, notice that anything after, and including, '//' should not be copied). Bear in mind that some stuff there are more useful if you like DOS-based programs or DOS-mode, but do not affect performance, so they can be copied either way

CONFIG.SYS

DOS = HIGH, UMB

BUFFERS=10,0

FCBS=1,0

STACKS=0,0

FILES=40

LASTDRIVE=Z

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS // Extended memory. It is loaded automatically, but this config needs extended memory before AUTOEXEC.BAT

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM // Provides expanded memory, also provided by Windows as long EMM386 is not loaded with the NOEMS option, and UMBs, that help increase free conventional memory

DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\XDMA.SYS // Or whatever path you copied it to

DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\display.sys con=(ega,,1)

Country=055,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\country.sys // Country specific (Brasil), not really necessary

AUTOEXEC.BAT

@echo off // Prevents command echoing (lines being printed before executed), reduces useless text

SET PROMPT=[MS-DOS] $P$G

SET WINPMT=[WINDOWS] $P$G // Not really necessary. Makes the prompt to display [MS-DOS] or [WINDOWS] accordingly

SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP

SET TMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP

SET DIRCMD=/4 /OGN

mode con codepage prepare=((850) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi)

mode con codepage select=850

lh keyb br,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\keyboard.sys // Keyboard layout used in DOS-based programs, mine is br (non ABNT brazilian = US international)

// You can append cleaning instructions here, like cache-purging, temp file-removing and etc.