De, Lots of things you can do to speed up XP. First - make sure you are only loading the basic stuff you need when your comp starts - stuff like MS Messenger, Graphics programs and stuff you don't use all the time just slow down the boot time and also afterwards sit there and use up resources that would otherwise be free for other stuff. Second - weekly defrag - must do. Third - clean out the registry once in a while - also compact it - the less defragged that is, the faster it loads upon booting [the registry is quite huge] Fourth - if your comp has two HD - move the swap file to your second HD Fifth - use a good defrag tool and make sure your swap file is one contiguous file and not defragged. I'm not going to count - so here are some more pointers Get rid of unused services [stop them manually and set them to manual start - be careful with this as some services are dependant upon others] Clean out temp files once a week Get rid of all the fancy graphic stuff that slows down XP a lot Use a program such as Prefetch Cleaner to clean out the prefetch files - the first boot after that will be slower but after will speed up again Get more RAM Scott mentioned Direct X 9 - only usable under the top level video/graphics cards at the moment and very few programs [mainly the latest games] even use the instructions contained within DirectX 9, so that is not quite necessary yet - but on that note - make sure you do have the latest drivers for all your hardware - newer versions of drivers are for the most part faster and better. Disable cataloging if you want. Disable system restore if you want Make sure your IE cache is no bigger than about 100-150 MB Change the properties of your Recycle bin to a smaller size - you don't need 10% of a 40GB hard disk for that - a couple hundred MB is way enough for most people. There is lots and lots that can be done - just search around the web and you'll find it all. Tweaking a comp system is something that never really ends. Further questions always welcome ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TTFN - Vic "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _____ From: pcductape-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pcductape-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of DGrell7446@xxxxxxx Sent: Friday, 10 October, 2003 19:44 To: pcductape@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [pcductape] Win XP home ed. Hey group I do not run XP, however I have a chance to learn it now. I am tweaking a new computer with a clean install of XP home and was looking for any tweaking suggestions. Upon the first boot up I was very disappointed, it took forever to boot and then it asked a ton of questions, didn't mind the questions tho. The next time I booted it, it was much faster, however, I put the new machine up against an old machine with win98 in it and the new machine still should be faster. (Both machines arrived at the log on screen at just about the same time) Ok here are the stats of the new machine 1.2 AMD processor with 128mg ram, 40gig HD, generic CD player and modem. on board, video, sound and network Did a google search and came up with alot of pages for XP, I have learned alot from those pages. What are some of the tips, tricks, and tweaks, that you folks have used to make your machine scream right along? Appreciate the input TIA De