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Tweaks & Tips Part III and hopefully the endSep 01 '00 (Updated Oct 03 '00) Write an essay on this topic.This is the third part of my tweaks and tips so please read part one and two if you haven't done so. Tips & Tweaks Part I http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-1F5A-395A4C8-39AEDD85-prod1 Tips & Tweaks Part II http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-3CB6-3FFCA07-39AFED41-prod1 I am first to say that I'm no computer expert but I've found a few tips from the web that will help improve the performance of your computer. Some of them will require a bit of technical knowledge of the computer's registry so before you make any changes to it, please make sure you back it up and also make sure you have a start up disk handy in case you can't start up your computer. I will not take any responsibility for any problems that result of the tips I've given. Some of them are taken from other information on the web, and some are mine. As I am no computer expert, I can't help you with any problems that you may have. So be careful. And, please ensure that you have at least a startup disk or ERU disk or registry backup or any backup in case anything happens so that you can get your computer to boot. If you don't know how to do it, please read my part one on Tweaks. Thanks. In the following tips, I will be talking about various downloads that are for specific versions of Windows 95. Here is a breakdown of the versions and the official MS version numbers: Win 95-Original Windows 95 retail (version 4.00.950) Win 95 A-Windows 95 Service Pack 1 update (version 4.00.950 A) Win 95 B-OSR 2.0 and 2.1 (version 4.00.950 B) Win 95 C-OSR 2.5 (version 4.00.950 C) Win 98-retail (version 4.10.1998) Win 98-Second edition (version 4.10.2222A) To find out which version you have, just right click on My Computer and select Properties. It will be displayed at the top under "System". 11-Change the role of computer from Desktop to Network. Right click on My Computer. Select Properties, File System, Hard Disk. Select Network server from the drop down menu Slide the read ahead optimization arrow to full. If you have the original Windows 95 version, you'll need to do extra tweaking for it to take effect due to a flaw in the original version. Open Explorer. Go to c:\windows. Double click on regedit.exe. Open HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\FS Templates. Click on Server. Right click on NameCache. Select Modify. Enter the following value: a9 0a 00 00 Right click on PathCache. Select Modify. Enter 40 00 00 00 0 is zero. Basically, the values are switched for NameCache and PathCache. MS screwed up the values in versions earlier than Windows 95 OSR2. While you're there already, select the Floppy Drive tab and uncheck the "search for new floppy drives...". You'll shave a few seconds off the boot up process. 12-Turn off Windows Animation. When you minimize and maximize the windows, there is a bit of a jerk when you do so. To disable it, you'll need to change the registry settings. Open Explorer. Double click regedit.exe in the c:\windows directory. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ desktop \ WindowMetrics. Right click and select New, String Value, enter MinAnimate. Double click on MinAnimate and assign a value of 0 (to disable, 1 to enable). Ok. Close regedit.exe and restart windows. On Windows 98, you can right click any empty space on the desktop, select Properties, select the Effects tab, uncheck the animate windows, menus and lists. This and a lot of other tweaks can also be done much more easily if you download and install Windows 95 powertoy. Please note that the following link is only for Windows 95 OSR 2 (Windows 95b version) and not for earlier Win 95 versions. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows95/downloads/contents/WUToys/W95PwrToysSet/Default.asp If you have Windows 98, you can install the powertoy from your CDROM disk. Go to your cd rom directory\tools\reskit\powertoy Right click on tweakui.inf and select install. When the install is done, go to Start, Settings, Control Panel and double click TweakUI. 13-Free up memory in DOS Windows. Open Explorer. Go to c:\windows\ Double click system.ini. In the [386Enh] section, add the following line: LocalLoadHigh=1 14-Decrease the size of your Recycle Bin. Recover some more disk space by reducing the size of your Recycle Bin. Most people don't empty their recycle bin too often and usually let the "deleted" files sit there until the bin becomes full. Unless you've deleted a lot of big files, Windows won't warn you about the bin being full for quite a while. Windows be default, sets the recycle bin to hold 10% of the computer's hard drive. Most people's computer have at least 6GB so that translates to a whopping 600 MB of wasted space! To change that, right click on Recycle Bin, select Properties, click Global tab, select configure drives independently, then click the C tab. Move the slider to your desired percentage. Personally, I choose 1% because I find that's enough. 15-Make the Start Menu pop up faster. Open explorer. Go to c:\windows\regedit.exe. Double click regedit.exe. Go to HKEY_Current_User\Control Panel. Right click on Desktop. Select New, String Value. Type in MenuShowDelay. Enter a value of 10 or less. This is the time in milliseconds the popup will wait before it shows up. Close regedit.exe. Restart windows. 16-Do not install software programs that promise to boost your RAM by utilizing them more efficiently, etc. because they DON'T work! I have tried a few of them like Rambooster, Helix's Hurricane, Softram, etc. and the majority of them actually cause my computer to crash! Why? Because you're loading up another program, which takes up more precious memory that the computer needs to run programs. So, if you want to free up precious RAM, don't install those RAM boosting programs because they don't work. And, of course, reduce the amount of programs that do run when you start Windows. The really best way to increase performance of your computer is to buy more RAM. They're so cheap nowadays that it doesn't make sense not to. There is really no such thing as having too much RAM. If you don't know how to install it, pay someone some money to get it done, although it's quite easy to do, just pop the card in the right slot and you're done. Okay. Hopefully, this is the end of the tweaks and tips. If I find more tips, I will post another review. Thanks for taking the time to read my reviews and for your patience.  |
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by texas-swede
