tweaking windows

[Adolph]

I was trying to download autopatcher, but it was having a trouble. It gives me an errors at about 90% done. Is there other application that will help me get windows updates and tweaking my windows settings the way autopatcher does?

[Solomon]

I have never heard any program for it or never used any. The size of the program on the site seemed large for which its designed.
I use windows update service and working good.
What you use windows xp or vista or some other os ?

[Adolph]

I use Windos XP. It's big because it includes all the windows updates in it But you don't have to downlaod them through the windows website one at a time. which is a pain when you reinstall windows.

Actualy i'm more interested in the tweaking windows than the actual updates.

[Solomon]

For me the update pain -really not a savings as you still need to shut down and restart im sure as it loads them -i think all its really will do is send one big download to your computer and then install .In case of downloading them in lots of files at diffrent times. May i could mistaken.

[Adolph]

YES ! I believe that's the whole point. i'm not sure if you'll have to continuously reboot, but it supposedly makes it easier than doing them from the mocrisoft website individually.

[Solomon]

Download the Service Packs for XP from Microsoft and put them on a CD which you can use to fairly quickly install them. I did that the last time. Must be not having everything but through SP3 will cover a many thing in it.

[Solomon]

Tweaking Windows XP for better Performance


Change Menu Show Delay

Windows delays menus before they are displayed.
For most users this delay can be too much, we can change the delay time or remove it altogether.
First Open the Registry Editor by following the steps below:

-- Click Start --> Run --> Type Regedit

After Opening it find the path listed below:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / Desktop

After that find MenuShowDelay and set it's value to equal the delay you would like before the menus are shown.
Value Data: 0-999 (milliseconds)

400 Default
200 Works for most people
0 No Delay
Changes will take effect on reboot.

Shutdown Speed

By altering a few registry settings, you can decrease the amount of time it takes Windows to shut down.
Open the Registry Editor

After open find the path listed below:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / Desktop

After there, find HungAppTimeout and make sure its value is set to 5000 (default)
In the same folder, find WaitToKillAppTimeout. Set this to 4000 (default is 20000)


Windows XP Prefetcher Settings

Prefetcher monitors which programs initialize when Windows boots, then in future, fetches them quickly.
Prefetcher is enabled by default, but we can improve its performance.
Again Run Registry Editor (if it isn't already open)

Find the path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control / Session Manager / Memory Management / PrefetchParameters

Find the value EnablePrefetcher. Default, it will be set to 3. We recommended setting the prefetcher to 5. Feel free to play around with it and find out what works best for you.

Disable Windows error reporting

One feature that most can do without is error reporting. Every time a program crashes it tries to send a report to Microsoft. Read below to find out how to disable this feature.

* Open control panel
* Click on performance and maintenance
* Click on system
* Then click on the advanced tab
* Click on the error reporting button on the bottom of the windows
* Select disable error reporting
* Click ok