Showing posts with label tweak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tweak. Show all posts

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Speed up Firefox with these tweaks

clipped from: www.tonyspencer.com

Does Firefox seem way slower than Internet Explorer to you? Well it certainly is out of the box. I’m not sure why they don’t make the following settings default but check these out. They may change your opinion of the browser.


firefox_icon.jpg

Type “about:config” in your firefox address bar.


Search for the following settings:


1. network.http.pipelining
Set to true
2. network.http.pipelining.firstrequest
Set to true
3. network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Set to 32
4. network.http.proxy.pipelining
Set to true
5. nglayout.initialpaint.delay
Set to 0


Its very likely that you won’t have an entry for network.http.pipelining.firstrequest. Thats ok. Just add one.


Right-click on the preferences list, select ‘New’ then select ‘Boolean’


On the first prompt, type:
network.http.pipelining.firstrequest


On the second prompt, set it to ‘true’


Its also likely that you won’t have an entry for nglayout.initialpaint.delay


Right-click on the preferences list, select ‘New’ then select ‘Integer’


On the first prompt, type:
nglayout.initialpaint.delay


On the second prompt, set it to ‘0′


Enabling the pipelining features allows the browser to make multiple requests to the server at the same time. The “maxrequests” is the maximum number of requests it will send at once. I’ve heard that 8 is the most it will send at once, but setting it higher won’t hurt, just in case. The initialpaint.delay is the length of time (in milliseconds) after the server response before the browser begins to paint the page.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Speed Up Your Windows PC: The basics



To start off, the single most important thing you can do to increase your computer’s speed is to add RAM--random access memory. It’s also the one thing in this course that will cost you money (but it’s worth it).


The challenge, however, is getting the correct memory module for your PC. Just about every computer is different. Some are already equipped with plenty of memory, while others have very little. And there are a lot of different types of memory, so you need to be sure to get the exact right module for your system.


A good reference on this topic can be found at CNET Labs’ guide to buying RAM. This guide explains what RAM is and how to install it. There’s also an online tool called a


Configurator" target="_blank">memory configurator that tells you exactly what kind of memory your computer make and model uses.


Cut the graphics


Here’s how:


  • Go to Control Panel and choose Display (you may have to click Appearance and Themes first).

  • On the Themes tab, change your current theme to Windows Classic, which uses fewer resources than the new look does. You can then click the Appearance tab and change that look to suit yourself.

  • Go into Control Panel and choose System (you may have to click Performance and Maintenance first).

  • Click the Advanced tab.

  • In the Performance box, click Settings.

  • You can now select Adjust for best performance, or you can choose Custom and play around with the settings. The more you uncheck, the less work your computer will have to do.

  • Browse files faster


    So let’s tell Windows not to search for them unless you ask it to. Here’s how:


  • Open My Computer.

  • Click the Tools menu.

  • Choose Folder Options.

  • Click the View tab.

  • Uncheck “Automatically search for network folders and printers.”

  • Click OK.
  • 104 Performance Tips for Windows XP.

    clipped from: www.pcstats.com
    Beginners Guides: 99 Performance Tips for Windows XP

    From faster boot times, to speeding up your current hardware, PCstats has 99 Tips to make your computer run quicker, better, and more efficiently. - Version 1.0.0

    Preparing Your System (1-8)

    BIOS tweaks and Insight (9-13)

    Overclocking your processor and memory (14-16)

    WindowsXP Software and Registry Performance Tweaks (17-46)

    Graphics Performance Tweaks (47-55)

    Network and Internet Performance Tweaks (56-66)

    WindowsXP User Interface Shortcuts and Hints (67-78)

    Improving Windows XP boot speed (79-94)

    Increasing XP shutdown speed (95-99)

    Why windows takes so long to start up

    clipped from: www.intelliadmin.com
    Most of us have had a brand new computer at one time. It's a great feeling. You boot up windows and within 30 seconds you are surfing the net, checking your email, or playing your favorite game. 10 months down the road things aren't so nice anymore. You power up your computer and it seems to take forever to load.

    1. The prefetch cache

    Here is how it works: Yesterday you used MS Word, and Duke Nukem 3D. Today you boot your system to check e-mail. It sees parts of these two programs in the prefetch folder and loads them into memory before windows completes the boot process. The benefit is faster application launch times. If you really wanted to use MS Word, it would pop up really quick when you double clicked on it.

    What can be done about it? Well there are a few things we can do to tweak the prefetch cache. One method is to disable it partially, and this can be done quite easily.

    Simply browse to the windows folder (Ex: C:\Windows) and under there you should see the prefetch folder. Go into the prefetch folder and delete all the files (Careful! It should look like this c:\windows\prefetch) And here is a screenshot of one if you still have questions


    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

    2 - Boot : The prefetch only caches boot system files.

    2. Hard drive fragmentation

    3. Disconnected network drives

    4. Spyware & Adware

    5. File and Printer Sharing

    One other item that can significantly impact is the "File and Printer Sharing" feature within windows. Obviously, if you are sharing your printer, or folders you don't want to disable this - so this tip is not for you. If you never use it, then why waste your time waiting for it to load?

    Here is how to turn it off:

    Go into the control panel. Click on "Network Connections"


    Now right click on "Local Area Connection" and click on properties

    Uncheck the "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks"

    Click OK, and reboot.