Jon Carico

1. Remove Unused Windows XP Programs

Start by opening Control Panel and clicking on the “Add/Remove Windows Components” button, located on the left side of the window. After you click, a new window will appear with “Windows Components Wizard” as the title. There are several check boxes, including: Accessories and Utilities, Fax Services, Indexing Service, Internet Explorer, Internet Information Services, Management and Monitoring Tools, Message Queuing, MSN Explorer, Networking Services, Other Network File and Print Services, Outlook Express, Update Root Certificates, Windows Media Player, and Windows Messenger.

Depending on the setup of your machine, and what features you need, you can remove the programs that you do not need, but come installed by default.

A. Accessories and Utilities.

By selecting “Accessories and Utilities,” and choosing the “Details…” button, you open a new window with two options: Accessories, and Games. Choosing the “Accessories” option, and selecting the “Details…” button once again, you get a window allowing you to remove some programs that Windows XP comes pre-installed with. If you do not use the calculator feature, unchecking the box next to “Calculator” will remove it once you finish with this process.

Note: When you select an item there is a few lines of text that appear under the selection box. This describes what each feature does, so you know that you aren’t uninstalling something that you may use or may need later.

 

B. Fax Services

On my personal machine, I do not have a fax machine installed, so I leave this featured uninstalled.

C. Indexing Service

I have this featured turned off as well. The Indexing Service in Windows XP runs in the background, and makes searching for files faster. If you do not search for MP3’s in your library very often, or even use the search feature at all, you can turn the service off here.

D. Internet Explorer

For those of us who use more secure browsers to surf the Internet, I recommend uninstalling Internet Explorer, if you do not use it.

E. Internet Information Services

Most of us do not run a web server from our local machines. I have this uninstalled by default. No need to waste valuable resources.

F. Management and Monitoring Tools

If you are the administrator of a business or small office network, and need to check network computers and troubleshoot, you can leave this intact. Otherwise, uninstall.

G. Message Queuing

This also deals with networks. If you are not running a home network, then all the network features can be uninstalled, and this saves you a lot of space on your HDD.

H. MSN Explorer

Seeing as most people use another services for email, browsing, and chat, why waste 20MB of space for something you never use? I have this feature disabled.

I. Networking Services

I have a small network setup in my room to share files between multiple computers. Also, this is enabled by default if you have DSL, or some other form of high-speed Internet.

J. Outlook Express

The majority of people today use web email, such as Hotmail, or Gmail. Some businesses, however, do use Outlook to mange email accounts, and some users prefer Outlook to help them manage multiple email addresses. If you have never used it, and aren’t going to, you can uninstall this feature.

K. Update Root Certificates

This is a security feature that downloads certificates from Microsoft that will let you know if something is safe or not. It monitors browsing, email, and software to make sure that it will not harm your computer. This is a personal preference, and I just leave this uninstalled to save room.

L. Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player is a very popular media program. Some people use it, others use players that have a wider range of videos they can play, such as VideoLAN’s VNC Media Player. Leave this installed if you use it.

M. Windows Messenger

Most use MSN Live Messenger for chat, instead of this old version of Messenger. If you use another IM client, such as Pidgin, or MSN Live, then you can remove this program.

 

2. Turn Off Hibernation

You can access the Hibernation option by either opening the “Display” program in the Control Panel, the “Power Options” icon in the Control Panel, or by right-clicking on your desktop, and choosing, “Properties.” Once you have opened the Display Options, you click on the “Screen Saver” tab, and choose the “Power…” button.

Once you have opened the new window with the title, “Power Options Properties,” you can choose the Hibernate tab and deselect the checkbox beside, “Enable Hibernation.” This will save you several hundred MB’s of HDD space.

 

3. Folder Options

By changing some basic folder options, you can cause Windows Explorer to respond much, much faster. In Control Panel, choose the “Folder Option” icon to open the window. Going to the View tab on the top of the new window, you should see this:

If your computer is not a networked machine, you can disable the first option, “Automatically search for network folders and printers.” Ever hover over an icon to see how large the file is? Nope? Then you can disable “Display file size information in folder tips” as well. Lastly, I disable “Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended)” because I do not use it. Only enable it if you are on a network and use it.

 

4. Disable Indexing Service

Most users do not use the Search feature that comes pre-installed with Windows XP to find their files, at least not very often. The Indexing Service, as explained in tip #1, basically “Pre-Searches” your computer for files, in case you ever want to find one quickly. Turning this off saves a lot of resources, and speeds up startup time. To disable Indexing, open My Computer, and right-click on your “Local Disk.” My Local Disk is “C:”.

You should get a dialogue box that looks similar to the image above. Towards the bottom, above the OK and Cancel buttons, you can uncheck the box, “Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching.” This will keep the Index Service from using up so much memory.

You also need to disable the Index Service from automatically starting with Windows XP, which you can do by opening a program called MSCONFIG. Just go to your Start Menu, and click the “Run…” button. Type in “MSCONFIG.EXE” as you see below, and press OK.

Choose the Services tab at the top of the window, and under the “Service Name” title, look for “Indexing Service.” Once you find it, uncheck the box beside it, and click OK. A new window will appear asking if you prefer to Restart or apply changes the next time you shutdown your computer. After you restart your computer, and log in again, a popup box will notify you that changes were made to your startup, just check the box saying you do not wish to be notified, and close the window.

 

5. Using Third-Party Applications to Edit Settings

Windows XP does not come installed with some programs that let you remove excess files and programs that you don’t need, so we have to download applications from other companies to help us make some changes.

A. CCleaner

CCleaner is a program that lets you remove temporary, installation, cookies, and other files that aren’t needed in your system, to free up disk space and make it run more smoothly. It also will scan your registry for errors, and lets you backup your system in case there is an error. CCleaner also lets you uninstall programs, and delete startup programs that you do not want to run. If you decide to download and install CCleaner, you can read how to use the program on their website, at their Help and Support section.

B. TweakUI

TweakUI is a program that is made by Microsoft, but is not included with Windows XP. You have to download the program from their PowerToys section of their website. Once installed, you can edit many, many options for Explorer, Desktop, Taskbar, Mouse, and other settings.

6. Defragmentation

Last but not least is the process of defragmenting your HDD. You can do this with a program that comes installed with Windows XP. Defragmenting your hard drive is basically a fancy term for rearranging your files so they are access quicker, and in order. Wikipedia has a good article that explains how the Windows Disk Defragmenter works, if you would like to know more.

To defragment your disk, just open your Start Menu, and click on the All Programs menu. If you scroll up to the Accessories menu, you should see another menu titled, “System Tools.” After opening that menu, you can choose the program Disk Defragmenter from the list.

Once the program opens, choose your local disk from the list of available drives, and click on the Defragment button.

 

Now that you have made all these changes to your system, restart your computer to apply all of the changes made. If you have any problems, or cannot figure out where to find something or how to make it work, just reply to this post and we will help you figure out how to do it.