19. Disable automatic sensing on network cards

This tweak may help your performance by reducing occasional 'slowdown' periods of heavy CPU access for no apparent reason. By default, Windows XP automatically assesses the speed of your network card(s) and sets them accordingly. Apparently this process occurs at regular intervals, which can cause your system to slow occasionally. To remedy this, you can manually set the 'media type' of your network card to the correct value.

Right click on 'my computer' and select the 'hardware' tab.

Open 'device manager.'

Find and highlight your network card(s). Right click it and Hit 'properties.'

Go to the 'advanced' tab and highlight 'media type.' In the 'value' drop down box, select the correct speed for your network card. Press 'ok.'

20. Use the prefetch switch to load applications faster

Windows XP's media player has a little extra command included in its shortcut, the '/prefetch:1' switch. This helps the application load slightly faster. You can try out this possible performance boost on other programs by editing the shortcuts to the program in question.

To see an example, right click on windows media player shortcut and select Properties.

It should look like this: "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" /prefetch:1

Right click the shortcut and hit 'properties.'

In the 'target' box, put '/prefetch:1' at the end of the line.

Press 'ok.'

Note that this may cause loading errors in some programs. If it does not work, simply remove the /prefetch:1 entry from the shortcut.

21. Set DMA mode for all drives.

When Windows XP is installed, hard disks and CD drives may occasionally be set to the PIO mode for transferring data, which is slower than the default DMA (Direct Memory Access) mode used by all modern drives. A quick check of your drive settings can find and correct this error, allowing your drives to perform at their maximum.

To check and correct your hard drive and CD drive transfer settings right click 'my computer' and select properties, then the 'hardware tab' then the 'device manager' button.

Expand 'IDE ATA\ATAPI controllers' highlight 'primary IDE channel' and hit the 'properties' button.

Go to the 'advanced settings' tab, and ensure that the transfer mode is set to 'DMA if available.'

Repeat the above steps for the secondary IDE channel.

22. Do a Windows repair install

If you have serious problems with XP performance, or you get errors, some system files can be damaged.

A repair installation re-writes all essential Windows XP system files and re-detects all hardware without affecting the registry, current desktop settings or user data stored on the hard drive. This is the only way short of a full installation that can recover from errors caused by installing a different motherboard in an XP system, for example.

To perform a repair installation:

Boot the system from your XP CD.

Choose the 'press enter to set up Windows XP now' option.

Press F8 to skip through the EULA (though if you haven't read it before, you should now. See our legal article for details as to why.

Now press R to begin a repair installation.

Your system will go through the entire XP install process, but will not attempt to replace any of your existing data. It will simply reinstall the vital system files, fixing any that are corrupted or missing.

23. Stop hard disks spinning down

By default, windows xp spins down the hard drive after 20 minutes of inactivity to save power. This case cause serious delays if you want to use computer after this amount of time.

To disable hard disks spinning go to 'start/control panel/performance and maintenance/power options.'

Set the 'turn off hard disks' drop down box to 'never.' Click 'ok.'

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