![Cobalt Zin[cave]](https://skins15.wincustomize.com/0/1/1354/20/5/preview-20-5-100x75.jpg?d=991713824.453)
Tips & Tricks for running Windows XP reliably
Tuesday, October 29, 2002 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Windows XP is the most stable version of Windows yet. But many users, particularly those coming from Windows 98 and ME aren't aware of many of the built in features that allow users to recover from almost any problem.
Here is a short sample:
Any time something hangs, you can hit Ctrl-Shift-Esc to bring up the task list. Often times, what is hung won't report itself as being hung. Here are common process names you can kill to get your desktop back to normal:
IEXPLORE.EXE (IE)
explorer.exe (Explorer)
msimn.exe (Outlook Express)
Pretty much these 3 are the ones that tend to cause problems.
Then there's the overall performance. Make sure nothing is eating up your CPU. If you're at 100% CPU (click on the performance tab) then find out what is doing that. Back at the processes tab you can sort by CPU usage by clickin gon the "CPU" header. Find out what's eating all your CPU and kill it.
Next comes general stability. There are 3 things that can cause Windows XP to get flakey:
1) Too much memory used will make the system sluggish
2) Too many GDI objects will eventually make the system very slow and cause buttons and such not to show up
3) Too many handles will do the same thing as #2.
But how to find this out? On the processes page go to the view menu item an choose "select columns". Look for GDI objects and handles. Then start sorting by them. Anything using more htan 1000 of these things is probably bad news. You may want to add user objects while you're at it and see if anything is sucking them up.
Look also at how much VM size things are using. For instance, as I type this Explorer is using 95 MEGABYTES of VM. Now if I wasn't using the Task manager I wouldn't think anything of it other than my system be slower than it should (in fairness, I run my system for weeks at a time so things build up). So I'll be killing explorer to refresh it back. Incidentally it was also using over 3000 GDI objects and 2500 user objects and 2000 handles. So it was definitely a drain on my system.
You can reload explorer by going to file New task and type in "explorer" and it will restart it. Now it's only using 11 megs of VM and 228 GDI objects and my system is fast again.
The key though is to use Ctrl-Shift-Esc rather than Ctrl-Alt-Del to get to the task list where you can perform recovery techniques to avoid having to logoff or reboot.
Feel free to add more tips here.
Here is a short sample:
Any time something hangs, you can hit Ctrl-Shift-Esc to bring up the task list. Often times, what is hung won't report itself as being hung. Here are common process names you can kill to get your desktop back to normal:
IEXPLORE.EXE (IE)
explorer.exe (Explorer)
msimn.exe (Outlook Express)
Pretty much these 3 are the ones that tend to cause problems.
Then there's the overall performance. Make sure nothing is eating up your CPU. If you're at 100% CPU (click on the performance tab) then find out what is doing that. Back at the processes tab you can sort by CPU usage by clickin gon the "CPU" header. Find out what's eating all your CPU and kill it.
Next comes general stability. There are 3 things that can cause Windows XP to get flakey:
1) Too much memory used will make the system sluggish
2) Too many GDI objects will eventually make the system very slow and cause buttons and such not to show up
3) Too many handles will do the same thing as #2.
But how to find this out? On the processes page go to the view menu item an choose "select columns". Look for GDI objects and handles. Then start sorting by them. Anything using more htan 1000 of these things is probably bad news. You may want to add user objects while you're at it and see if anything is sucking them up.
Look also at how much VM size things are using. For instance, as I type this Explorer is using 95 MEGABYTES of VM. Now if I wasn't using the Task manager I wouldn't think anything of it other than my system be slower than it should (in fairness, I run my system for weeks at a time so things build up). So I'll be killing explorer to refresh it back. Incidentally it was also using over 3000 GDI objects and 2500 user objects and 2000 handles. So it was definitely a drain on my system.
You can reload explorer by going to file New task and type in "explorer" and it will restart it. Now it's only using 11 megs of VM and 228 GDI objects and my system is fast again.
The key though is to use Ctrl-Shift-Esc rather than Ctrl-Alt-Del to get to the task list where you can perform recovery techniques to avoid having to logoff or reboot.
Feel free to add more tips here.
 |
|
Page 2 of 3 | |
|
|---|
Fuzzy Logic
Reply #22 Saturday, November 2, 2002 6:28 AM
Reply #22 Saturday, November 2, 2002 6:28 AM
Good tip for improved games performance:-
1) Put a W98 boot floppy into A:
2) When A:> appears type 'format C:'
3) When that's finished put W98 CD in, at the A:> type 'setup'
4) When that has finished install all your drivers and games, done! - easy!
1) Put a W98 boot floppy into A:
2) When A:> appears type 'format C:'
3) When that's finished put W98 CD in, at the A:> type 'setup'
4) When that has finished install all your drivers and games, done! - easy!
Koasati
Reply #23 Saturday, November 2, 2002 10:52 AM
Reply #23 Saturday, November 2, 2002 10:52 AM
I can't think or any game good enough to justify going back to the BSOD_OS. 
KrYaXx
Reply #24 Sunday, November 3, 2002 1:18 PM
Reply #24 Sunday, November 3, 2002 1:18 PM
How can I make my Taskbar, and other toolbars, Transparent? 
kith
Reply #25 Sunday, November 3, 2002 1:21 PM
Reply #25 Sunday, November 3, 2002 1:21 PM
WindowsFX:
https://www.stardock.com/products/windowfx/
all kinds of nice transparency and other goodies!
https://www.stardock.com/products/windowfx/
all kinds of nice transparency and other goodies!
Koasati
Reply #26 Monday, November 4, 2002 5:17 PM
Reply #26 Monday, November 4, 2002 5:17 PM
Seems like a good place to ask an XP specific question. 
Does anyone have a clue as to why I can't enable Fast User Switching? I'm not on a domain, it's a stand alone computer.
I hope somebody can help me fix this.
Does anyone have a clue as to why I can't enable Fast User Switching? I'm not on a domain, it's a stand alone computer.
I hope somebody can help me fix this.
Tarkus
Reply #27 Monday, November 4, 2002 6:35 PM
Reply #27 Monday, November 4, 2002 6:35 PM
Are you using the Classic logon? I think you have to use the new XP logon.
Tarkus
Reply #29 Monday, November 4, 2002 11:39 PM
Reply #29 Monday, November 4, 2002 11:39 PM
Do you have Offline Files enabled (Folder Options)?
Koasati
Reply #30 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 1:38 PM
Reply #30 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 1:38 PM
I really appreciate your help Tarkus.
Folder Options.... Offline Files tab
Fast User Switching is enabled on this computer.
But when I look in User Accounts settings, Fast User Switching is not checked, and seems determined to remain so.
Even a few 'choice' words have no effect..
If I try to log off using FUS, nothing happens.
If I am editing a Logon in LogonStudio, and click save and apply, I get the computer locked screen.
Maybe I should use some advice Hippy once gave me, and "hit it with a stick"
Folder Options.... Offline Files tab
Fast User Switching is enabled on this computer.
But when I look in User Accounts settings, Fast User Switching is not checked, and seems determined to remain so.
Even a few 'choice' words have no effect..
If I try to log off using FUS, nothing happens.
If I am editing a Logon in LogonStudio, and click save and apply, I get the computer locked screen.
Maybe I should use some advice Hippy once gave me, and "hit it with a stick"
Tarkus
Reply #31 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 2:51 PM
Reply #31 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 2:51 PM
What happens when you hit Windows-L?
I've pretty much ran out of ideas, but I think there's a good chance that someone in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general would be able to help you.
I've pretty much ran out of ideas, but I think there's a good chance that someone in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general would be able to help you.
c242
Reply #32 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 4:01 PM
Reply #32 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 4:01 PM
I can't believe some people want to have Win 98 back. You for example really want Your RAM managed so bad ? 
I love my XP and it's realibility (for me...).
You for example really want Your RAM managed so bad ? 
I love my XP and it's realibility (for me...).
Fuzzy Logic
Reply #33 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 8:17 PM
Reply #33 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 8:17 PM
Yeah, why have Windows 98 when Windows 3.1 worked just fine...
Tarkus
Reply #34 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 10:33 PM
Reply #34 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 10:33 PM
Why have Windows 3.1, when Atari 800 worked just fine.
Griffinme
Reply #35 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 10:48 PM
Reply #35 Tuesday, November 5, 2002 10:48 PM
Something to try if your motherboard supports it and your ram can handle it..... In the bios set the CAS timing to 2. It might effect your stability if your ram is not decent quality. If your ram can handle it it will provide a significant speed boost. It effects how often your ram tells the CPU that it is busy. Your millage may vary.
I tried moving my page file to a second drive. Even though it is a much slower drive the computer does seem much faster. I think that it helps that it is on a differant channel then the C: drive.
I tried moving my page file to a second drive. Even though it is a much slower drive the computer does seem much faster. I think that it helps that it is on a differant channel then the C: drive.
SkinneRyan
Reply #36 Wednesday, November 6, 2002 6:58 AM
Reply #36 Wednesday, November 6, 2002 6:58 AM
Why have an Atari 800 when you can always just use an Abacus?
Kinrik
Reply #37 Wednesday, November 6, 2002 10:17 AM
Reply #37 Wednesday, November 6, 2002 10:17 AM
Why use an abacus when you got fingers and toes?
Kinrik
Reply #38 Wednesday, November 6, 2002 10:18 AM
Reply #38 Wednesday, November 6, 2002 10:18 AM
Why use anything other than your brain? The computer can't keep up with it right now anyways. When was the last time they claimed "Faster than the speed of thought..."?
werewolf
Reply #39 Wednesday, November 6, 2002 10:52 AM
Reply #39 Wednesday, November 6, 2002 10:52 AM
has anyone heard of 'chisembop' (not sure of spelling). It's a way of doing math with your fingers. You can count to 99 with both hands. I saw some kid on johnny carson do some pretty amazing math using that method.
Zertoc
Reply #40 Thursday, November 7, 2002 9:04 PM
Reply #40 Thursday, November 7, 2002 9:04 PM
everytime I hit ctrl-shift-esc it stays there just long enough to get my curser up there and poof its gone. What up? >
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!
|
|
Page 2 of 3 | |
|
|---|
Reply #21 Friday, November 1, 2002 4:22 PM
#1. Relocating the PAGEFILE.
This one is only useful if you have a second PHYSICAL harddrive. Doing this with a second partition on the same harddrive may actually decrease performance.
The page file is used as memory when you have no more physical memory. This is what "virtual memory" is. It pretends a part of your harddrive is memory.
This can greatly slow down your system when your system is trying to both read profgram files from C: and write virtual memory to C:. In this senario, your harddrive is reading and writing to multiple locations on your harddrive, obviously slowing it down.
To move your page file:
Control Panel --> System --> Advanced Tab --> Peformance Button --> Advanced Tab --> Change Button
Here you will see a list of harddrives and the size of the page file on that drive. I recommend adding a pagefiles to the second drive, and then rebooting beofre you remove the original one, because if something went wrong and your system boots without a page file, adverse behavoir can occur.
#2. Temporary Internet files.
TIF is a monstrocity of harddrive use. It caches all the web pages and graphic files you view in IE. These files are usually very small, about the 1k to 50k range. Now considering IE usually sets the TIF to be several hundred megabytes....imagine how many tiny files are thrown onto your harddrive. (once again on the same drive your system is trying to read Program Files and Pagefile from).
This can be done easily from IE:
Tools --> Internet Options --> Settings --> Move folder
This tweak will help if you move it to either a seperate partition or harddrive.
#3 Other apps that write small or temporary files.
Programs like News Readers also cache a large amount of data in the form of very small files. Most good applications will allow you to set the location it stores these temporary files.
CD Burning utilities is another good one to check, as it writes out temporary files every time it burns a CD.