Pc tweaking guide.

[Double Bass Jim]

Alright guys i've always enjoyed P.C games more then any other platform of all. So in saying that im going to write up a fast guide to get your machine and games up to speed.

#1. Get a 3rd party defraging program, I personaly use VoptXP http://www.vopt.com/, the reason I say get 3rd party is for one reason, the internal windows XP defrag program dosent move system files, this 3rd party program does and that effects performance quite a bit.

#2. Find a registry cleaner/defragger. This is a big one, you'll notice a big leap in speed when you clean out old reg keys and rearrange them and compress them. I've used this one and it works great http://www.elcor.net/download/rdefrag-7.0.4.1.exe
Also a great cleaner/reg cleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/

#3. Disable all unneeded services in XP, alot of services that are running in the background arent nessesacry and take up resources. Right now i've got my machine down to running only 8 services and let me tell you the speed is much better! Be carefull when turning them off some experimentation is needed.

#4. Disable start-up programs that load when windows starts, this is another resource saver alot of people neglect, you can always start them manualy so turn them all off to conserve memory.

#5. Adjust XP for best performance, I know alot of people like all the fancy colors and what have you but that hogs memory and speed. Anyone looking for an extra boost will disable all the eye candy to give them a little edge in resources, try it yourself to see the difference.

Im sure I left some things out, if you know any other tweaks feel free to add them!

[Strum]

1 & 2 look very interesting, I'll dl them on my home computer tonight (or at some stage)

Speed hasn't really been a problem since I got an 80gig hard drive the other day, but I'll give those a go anyway.

[Liberi Fatali]

Thanks Jim.

I've already done 3 4 and 5 before, but I'll give 1 & 2 a go. :)

[huh-whu]

I'm not a big fan of programs that clean your registry for you, but the following is a great program that lets you see clusters of registry entries and startup entries and such, it's very nice.

http://www.worldstart.com/weekly-download/archives/reg-cleaner4.3.htm


I've been using it for about a year with no issues and highly reccomend it. :thumb:

[Double Bass Jim]

Thanks Jim.

I've already done 3 4 and 5 before, but I'll give 1 & 2 a go. :)
Good deal, there 3-day trials but have the full features. Worked great for me. Ccleaner is 100% free and is the best of all.

[Lionheart1827]

#3. Disable all unneeded services in XP, alot of services that are running in the background arent nessesacry and take up resources. Right now i've got my machine down to running only 8 services and let me tell you the speed is much better! Be carefull when turning them off some experimentation is needed.

To add to this point, theres a site called Black Viper's site. It has all of the XP services and what they do and if they are important or a waste.

Actually, here is the site:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

[Double Bass Jim]

Cool thanks for the addition.

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

To add to this point, theres a site called Black Viper's site. It has all of the XP services and what they do and if they are important or a waste.

Actually, here is the site:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Excellent. I was just about to ask for a list of what I can/can't turn off. :)

Great thread Jim. Hopefully if I take care of these issues, I'll be able to run Half-Life 2 without it lagging too much until my new video card shows up.

[Double Bass Jim]

I would just wait, you'll be able to enjoy the earlier parts of the game 100x's more with a decent card.

[Lionheart1827]

I would just wait, you'll be able to enjoy the earlier parts of the game 100x's more with a decent card.

not to spoil anything, but, ill just say the word - hoverboat. :thumb:

[Rats]

Also, make sure you have at least 10GB or 20% of free hard drive space (whichever is less is OK). This way, Windows has more room to move its temporary files around, so less fragmentation occurs.

[ToRidTheDisease]

Nice stuff there Jim. :thumb:

[Double Bass Jim]

Also, make sure you have at least 10GB or 20% of free hard drive space (whichever is less is OK). This way, Windows has more room to move its temporary files around, so less fragmentation occurs.
Yea thats a good one, never overfill an HD you can run into some serious problems.

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

I would just wait, you'll be able to enjoy the earlier parts of the game 100x's more with a decent card.

Sounds like a plan.

Thanks to this thread, I've gone from having 35% free space on my C drive, to 50% and I'm still compressing some files. :cool:

[super admin guy]

#3. Disable all unneeded services in XP, alot of services that are running in the background arent nessesacry and take up resources. Right now i've got my machine down to running only 8 services and let me tell you the speed is much better! Be carefull when turning them off some experimentation is needed.

#4. Disable start-up programs that load when windows starts, this is another resource saver alot of people neglect, you can always start them manualy so turn them all off to conserve memory.

#5. Adjust XP for best performance, I know alot of people like all the fancy colors and what have you but that hogs memory and speed. Anyone looking for an extra boost will disable all the eye candy to give them a little edge in resources, try it yourself to see the difference.

A few related links.

http://www.blackviper.com

http://www.theeldergeek.com/

[Gnarmageddon]

Sorry, this will probably sound stupid because I'm not great with computers.

How do I disable the services in #3?

Edit: Whoa, I downloaded CCleaner, and it's great. Thanks, Jim. :cool:

[Rats]

If you have Windows 2000/XP: Start, run, services.msc

Double click on the service you want to disable, set the startup type to disabled and press stop.

[Gnarmageddon]

Alright, thanks.

[Phalanx]

looks good, i think it would be an idea to have a PC Hardware and Software section :o