how to get the best performance on windows xp?

[legacyfan]

im planning on continuing to use windows xp for as long as i can and im looking for any good tools to make it run even faster to make it really usable if any one knows of any thing like this it would be really appriciated-legacyfan

Edited May 27, 2021 by legacyfan

[cEd]

54 minutes ago, legacyfan said:

im planning on continuing to use windows xp for as long as i can and im looking for any good tools to make run even faster to make it really usable if any one knows of any tools like this please tell me it would be really appriciated-legacyfan

all im gonna say is, dont expect much

[Dixel]

He is right , not much to gain . I usually remove all unneeded with nLite before the installation .

These are the services I remove (completely) . You may just copy/paste into your nLite preset Last Session.ini.

;# Services #

Alerter

Automatic Updates

Error Reporting

Messenger

QoS RSVP

Quality of Service (QoS)

Remote Registry

Telnet

Text Services Framework

WebClient

 

P.S.

I'm not sure if you use "Automatic Updates", but I think they don't work regardless.

 

 

Edited May 26, 2021 by Dixel
a typo

[Dixel]

And this is my section for privacy tweaks.

[Tweaks]

Boot and Shutdown-Auto-End tasks immediately

Boot and Shutdown-Auto-Kill hung applications immediately

Boot and Shutdown-Auto-Kill hung services immediately

Boot and Shutdown-Ctrl-Alt-Del at logon-Disabled

Boot and Shutdown-Disable Shutdown Tracker

Boot and Shutdown-Numlock-Off

Boot and Shutdown-Setup Prefetch-Cache-Disabled

Boot and Shutdown-Status Messages-Default

Explorer-Add 'Command Prompt' to folder context menu

Explorer-Change Windows Explorer folder view-Details

Explorer-Disable Autorun

Explorer-Disable Beep on errors

Explorer-Disable Prefix: Shortcut to

Explorer-Disable Web Files and Folders connection

Explorer-Display the contents of system folders

Explorer-Launch folder windows in a separate process

Explorer-Preset Places Bar to-My Computer, Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos

Explorer-Remove Send To on context menu

Explorer-Show extensions of known file-types

Explorer-Show hidden files and folders

Explorer-Show the full path in the Address Bar

Explorer-Show the full path in the Title Bar

My Computer-Remove Manage from Context Menu

My Computer-Remove Shared Documents

Network-Disable administrative shares

Network-Disable automatic search for network folders and printers

Network-Disable LM HOSTS lookup

Network-Disable Microsoft-DS (close port 445 TCP/UDP)

Network-Disable restoring mapped network drives on logon

Network-Disable Simple File Sharing

Network-Hide PC in Workgroups/Domains

Network-Remote Desktop-Disable

Network-Remove remote-computer NameSpace

Performance-Disable Info Tips on Files and Folders

Performance-Disable Optimize harddisk when idle

Performance-Disable Tracking of Broken Shortcut Links

Performance-Disable Warn on low disk space

Performance-Disable WBEM logging

Performance-Processor scheduling-Programs

Privacy-Disable Driver Update Internet prompt

Privacy-Disable File MRU-List

Privacy-Disable Tracking of most used programs

Privacy-Remove Alexa

Security-Always show Updates under Software

Security-Disable DCOM

Security-Disable Web Open With prompt

Start Menu-Add Administrative Tools menu

Start Menu-Control Panel-Display as a link

Start Menu-Disable Highlight newly installed programs

Start Menu-My Computer-Display as a link

Start Menu-My Documents-Display as a link

Start Menu-My Music-Display as a link

Start Menu-My Network Places-Don't display this item

Start Menu-My Pictures-Display as a link

Start Menu-Network Connections-Don't display this item

Start Menu-Number of programs on Start menu-30

Start Menu-Printers and Faxes-Display as a link

Start Menu-Remove Manage Your Server

Start Menu-Remove Search the Internet from Search

Start Menu-Remove Set Program Access and Defaults

Taskbar-Disable Balloon Tips

Taskbar-Disable Group similar Taskbar buttons

Taskbar-Disable Hide inactive icons

Taskbar-Lock the Taskbar-No

[Dixel]

Tweaking services section (this section is just for tweaking , not for removing , it goes to "Services2"):

[Services2]

MSDTC,4

TermService,4

RDSessMgr,4

ShellHWDetection,4

BITS,4

WZCSVC,4

helpsvc,4

ImapiService,3

Spooler,3

DNSCACHE,4

ClipSrv,4

CryptSvc,4

SamSs,4

SharedAccess,4

SysmonLog,4

TapiSrv,4

LanmanWorkstation,4

RasAuto,4

RasMan,4

Browser,4

NetLogon,4

Edited May 26, 2021 by Dixel
explanations

[Dixel]

Also , may remove all keyboards and languages you don't need to save space on your HDD/SSD. I usually remove all Asian (like chinese and the such) and cyrillic (like rusian) because they take a lot of space and we don't need them , obviously. Do not delete Dutch , German and Swedish keyboards , who knows what future may bring . 

[legacyfan]

im on a pre installed windows xp (just so you know)

Edited May 26, 2021 by legacyfan

[Dixel]

Well , then just disable the aforementioned services manually and remove dr. Watson. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfaohidTEKs

[legacyfan]

i just used what you just showed me and i can already tell its faster thanks!

Edited May 26, 2021 by legacyfan

[Dixel]

You're most welcome ! I would also suggest to disable everything regarding remote access to your XP computer and

block ports 23, 89, 107 , 81, 82 , 135 and 445 with your firewall . These are the most used for attacks.

 

https://www.lifewire.com/disable-remote-access-in-windows-xp-2487711

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/disable-remote-desktop

https://www.technlg.net/windows/remote-desktop-terminal-services-how-to/

[Gansangriff]

Oh, there are plenty of things to improve on a Windows XP system. Disable 80 % of all Windows services under msconfig (which you can start by clicking on the Start button, then "Run" (I think that how the menu, where programs can be started, was called in english...). But you have to be aware of your own needs, which can differ from other users. So go through everything, that is listed there, and use your serach engine of choice to understand, what each service does. Then ask yourself: Do I need that? Automatic network configuration? Designs? That depends on you.

Speaking of designs, go to the Control Panel and click on "System", where all the system information is displayed, computer name, processor, stats... there are a lot of things to be set. Do you need a system recovery, or do you do this by yourself? Consider this can take a lot of hard disk space, if you let your Windows clone your drive settings for you. Remote Desktop? There are external programs for that, if you need a remote service. Anyways, there is a category probably called "Extended"? There you can set many graphical options. Your desktop might not look as soft, it might lack animations, but it will perform quicker.

 

[jaclaz]

Look for Blackviper's site, he has a list of all services wiith details on what can be disabled, what shouldn't, etc. for NT based systems starting from XP.

jaclaz

[Nokiamies]

8 hours ago, Dixel said:

You're most welcome ! I would also suggest to disable everything regarding remote access to your XP computer and

block ports 23, 89, 107 , 81, 82 , 135 and 445 with your firewall . These are the most used for attacks.

also blocking UPNP on network helps. Otherwise even javascript can open port from firewall even if blocked it manually. You do not need UPNP to 95% of things.

[Guest]

I too, like Jaclaz, would recommend following BlackViper's list.
I personally have disabled many more services than they recommend without any problems.
It also eliminates any AV in real time, and any third-party FW.

[UCyborg]

I used to disable services many years ago on old PC that ran XP, but I wasn't impressed. Was much happier with results from overclocked CPU and GPU.

XP appears inherently slow in some areas. Not long ago I was decompressing files from external USB HDD to internal HDD, some FreeArc packed stuff. The overall impact on computer responsiveness was great. Note that the destination disk wasn't even the one containing the OS.

Was browsing the internet (at the slower pace, page loads being delayed by few seconds there and there) and when I wanted to restore minimized KeePass to look something up in my KeePass database, watched its window sloooooowly repaint (cca. 7 seconds). It should have been instant.

Then there's Direct3D. Anything D3D that runs in a window will slow down as soon as a single pixel intersects with another screen that is not the one it was bound to. Maybe the D3D problem still exists on Vista/7 with XPDM graphics drivers? Don't know about that case.

XP being XP I guess.

Edited May 26, 2021 by UCyborg