Speed Tweaks For XP

Despite the fact Windows Vista works well with most modern computers, once you finished tuning it, I still consider Windows XP the best choice for a lot of PC users that still want to remain by Microsoft's side. I am not talking about things I've heard on the street, because I am a Windows user having to choose between XP and Vista each time I boot up my computer(not too often, I should say that, since sometimes I get Windows uptime of 1-2 or even 3 weeks or more), and Windows XP wins in over 90% of the cases. Anyway, since having an older OS on a modern computer can sometimes cause problems, let's see a few speed tweaks for XP, shall we?

Obviously, there are hundreds of registry tweaks, as well as software Windows optimizers, but I don't want to talk about those now. Why? Well, in the last 6-7 years, these have always been hot topics on the Web, while others are still hanging in the balance.

For example, let's take the optimum swap file size. According to Microsoft, this should be 2.5 times the amount of memory your computer has. While this is efficient with computers having less than 1GB of memory, and can be further improved by creating a partition only for the swap file, there's something you don't hear too often - disable the swap file!

Yes, I know, this can lead to various problems, but it depends a lot on the programs you're using. Anyway, the advantage is that, as long as you have at least 2GB of memory, it should be enough to keep Windows XP away from writing data to disc when it shouldn't. For example, now I have a bunch of programs up and running, over 1GB of free memory, but also 1GB of swap user. Got the idea? While disabling the swap file will surely limit multitasking capabilities, your computer will be much faster with only a few programs open. Give it a try! After all, you can always get back and restore default settings...

I know some may say this is not really a speed tweak for Windows XP, but it may be the best choice in the right place and the right time. As an example, I was just about to sell my old computer, but after giving away the video card, hard drive and memory, I decided it would be better to keep it and turn it into a Linux box. I found a 40GB hard drive lying around that I considered dead, performed a low level format, and now that one is as good as new, I got an old GeForce 4 MX440 video card that was also lying around, but I only managed to find 256MB of memory. Considering this, and after a lot of research, I got to a point where the only conclusion was that Xubuntu is the best OS for my oldie, and this is the pure truth - compared to those days when I was running Windows XP using only 256MB of memory, Xubuntu is going as fast as a shark!

One last thing - if you are looking for speed tweaks for XP, it may be possible that your solution is one of the two unconventional ones I just described. I know this may sound strange, but the straight line between two points is not always the shortest path...