In Windows XP Professional, you have two remote networking features called Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Sharing. These remote networking features are very helpful in a variety of situations but if you don't use them, it is good idea to disable them to save boot time. You can always enable them later if you want to use them.
- Open the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and choose Properties.
- Click the Remote Tab.
- Clear both check boxes to disable Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop.
Speeding Up the Dual-Boot Timeout
If you dual-boot your computer with Windows XP and another operating system, you see an operating system selection menu on startup. If you typically boot into Windows XP and not the other operating system, you can speed up the dual-boot timeout value so that you do not wait so long for the boot process to select your default operating system and continue with the boot process. The default timeout value is 30 seconds but you can change this setting to 10. This gives you enough time to select the alternate operating system if you want but also speeds up the boot process. You can skip this section if you do not use a dual-boot configuration.
Follow these steps:
- Locate the boot.ini file on your computer. It is a hidden file by default; mine is located in C:\boot.ini.
- Open the file with Notepad (which is what opens it by default).
- Change the Timeout value to 10 (see Figure 4-11).
- Select File/Save and close Notepad.
Speeding Up Your PPPoE Connection
If you use a Point-to-Point Protocol connection over Ethernet (PPPoE), you may notice a delay in using the PPPoE connection after startup. By default, there is a 120 second delay but you can stop this behavior by manually configuring an IP address for the network adapter card. If you do not use a PPPoE connection, you can skip this section.
- Select Start/Connect to/Show All Connections.
- Open the TCP/IP properties for your LAN network interface card.
- Manually set the IP address on the TCP/IP properties to an appropriate IP address and subnet mask for your network.
Reducing the Wait Time
When you start to shut down Windows XP, it has to quit, or "kill," any live applications or processes that are currently running. So close all applications first. However, some applications and processes are always running in the background. You can reduce the amount of time that Windows XP waits for those applications and processes to close before Windows XP kills them. Edit three different Registry settings to change this:
- Open the Registry Editor.
- Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Select WaitToKillAppTimeout and set the value to 1000.
- Select the HungAppTimeout value and set it to 1000 as well.
- Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. Set the WaitToKillAppTimeout and set the value to 1000. Select the HungAppTimeout \newline value and set it to 1000 as well.
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l. Select the WaitToKillServiceTimeout value and set it to 1000.
- Close the Registry Editor.
Automatically Killing Tasks on Shutdown
You know the drill. You start to shut down the computer, you wait a few moments, and then you see a dialog box asking if you want to kill an application or service that is running. Instead of prompting you, you can make Windows XP take care of the kill task automatically. Here's how:
- Open the Registry Editor.
- Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.
- Highlight the value AutoEndTasks and change the value to 1.
- Close the Registry Editor.
Well thats about it... when you done all the steps you machine most run faster...without ANY errors !!.