control your startup programs

Most quality software give you the option to allow or prevent the program to run at the startup,

but if you can't find the option there:

click Start---> Run ---->type: MSCONFIG.

Go to the Startup tab, and uncheck the unwanted programs.

some times if the program's own option is activated, the program will re-create the autorun entry.

or you can use an external software, there are some free wares:

http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/system/fwstartup.html

Unload Unnecessary DLLS

When you close a program, any associated DLL it has been using will also be terminated
- but in some cases windows doesn't close all running dlls.
To make sure that DLLs are always unloaded from memory open regedit (registry editor)
Find: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
in the registry and create a new DWORD value and name it (AlwaysUnloadDLL) .
and give it a value of 1.

Repair your XP installation

When your Windows XP became slow and generate random crashes, it isn't necessary to reinstall your windows. You can solve all your problems by doing a repair installation.

To do this, you need to restart your computer with the Windows XP installation CD (bootable), press F8 to accept the license agreement and then press R. The windows xp setup will continue in the normal way, and any of your files that have become corrupt will be automatically replaced.

Configure your virtual memory settings manually

You can configure virtual memory settings manually:

right-click My Computer, select Properties and go to the Advanced tab. Click Settings.

- Go to the Advanced tab and click Change.

- Select the Custom Size option and set the Initial Size and Maximum Size to twice the amount of RAM you have installed. Click Set, then OK.

Change the location of my documents folder

Many virus use my documents folder lacated in (windows driver:\documents and settings\(username)\my documents) and i think that changing it location is a good idea.
You can do it like this:
- right click the 'my documents' icon on the desktop or the start menu, and select 'properties.'
- than click Move as shown in the picture below.
- choose a location and click ok.

Speed Up your XP Menus

The default speed of any Menu in windows xp is a little slow, and you can fix that by editing a Registry Key. Open the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ MenuShowDelay
By default, the value is 400. Change this to a smaller value, such as 0, to speed it up.
If this doesn't work for some reason, then you might try the following: Navigate to Display Properties then Appearance then Effects and turn off the option titled Show menu shadow. You will get much better overall performance.

Protect and Maintain Your Computer with Windows Live OneCare

Windows Live OneCare is a comprehensive PC care service for all of your Windows computer needs. Windows Live OneCare protects and maintains your computer with three important feature areas. Protection Plus provides antivirus, antispyware, and two-way firewall protection. Performance Plus removes unnecessary files that might clog your computer. Performance Plus also defragments your hard disk on a regular schedule and makes sure that you have the latest security updates from Microsoft installed. And Windows Live OneCare backs up and restores your files.

Read the rest of the article Here

Automatically optimize your hard drive:

One of the keys to system performance is an optimized hard drive. Typically, you optimize your hard drive using Windows' Defrag utility. But there's a great registry hack that will force Win XP to automatically optimize the location of files when your PC is idle. Here's how it works.
1. Open RegEdit and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OptimalLayout
2. Find the string called EnableAutoLayout, and change its data value to 1. (If this string doesn't exist, create it and set the value to 1.)

Source: www.techweb.com

How to delete an undeletable file

-Open a Command Prompt window and leave it open.
-Close all open programs.
-Press Ctrl+alt+del to open the task manager.
-Go to the Processes tab and End Process on Explorer.exe.
-Leave Task Manager open.
-Go back to the Command Prompt window and go to the directory where the undeletable file is located in.
-At the command prompt type DEL where is the file you wish to delete
-Go back to Task Manager, click File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the GUI shell.
-Close Task Manager

Source:http://www.dougknox.com

Disable the Windows XP Splash Screen

1-Right click My Computer--> Properties--> Advanced--> Startup and Recovery Settings

2-Press Edit button.

Edit BOOT.INI. Add "/SOS" right after "/fastdetect" with a space between.

It will look like this:

You can enable the splash screen by removing "/SOS"

Convert FAT to NTFS

To convert a FAT partition to NTFS, perform the following steps.
In windows Me or 98 Click Start, click Programs, and then click Command Prompt.
In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type cmd and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS.
Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.
Note:
don't forget to back up the data in the drive that you want to convert.

losing visual effect to increase xp performance

Windows XP use a lot of visual effects.By disabling them you will optimize your windows xp performance,and your system will work much better than before.
1- open system properties by a right click on my computer icon or you can find it in the control panel.

2- click advanced than the first settings button as shown in the picture.

3- if you want to disable all visual effects choose adjust for best performance

for custom choice choose custom.

-your system will run much better now .

NTFS vs. FAT

The Advantages of NTFS:

The NTFS file system is generally not compatible with other operating systems installed on the same computer, nor is it available when you've booted a computer from a floppy disk. For this reason, many system administrators, myself included, used to recommend that users format at least a small partition at the beginning of their main hard disk as FAT. This partition provided a place to store emergency recovery tools or special drivers needed for reinstallation, and was a mechanism for digging yourself out of the hole you'd just dug into. But with the enhanced recovery abilities built into Windows XP (more on that in a future column), I don't think it's necessary or desirable to create that initial FAT partition.

When to Use FAT or FAT32:

If you're running more than one operating system on a single computer, you will definitely need to format some of your volumes as FAT. Any programs or data that need to be accessed by more than one operating system on that computer should be stored on a FAT16 or possibly FAT32 volume. But keep in mind that you have no security for data on a FAT16 or FAT32 volume—any one with access to the computer can read, change, or even delete any file that is stored on a FAT16 or FAT32 partition. In many cases, this is even possible over a network. So do not store sensitive files on drives or partitions formatted with FAT file systems.

By Charlie Russel, Microsoft MVP for Windows Server and Tablet PC

How to get ready before upgrading to vista

If you plan to upgrade to Microsoft Windows Vista, there are some things you need to consider first.:

1-which version of Vista is right for you.

2-data backup and how to transfer files from Windows XP.

Take a look at the Microsoft Web site and read about the features and details of each version of Vista will to a good idea of which is version best-suited to your needs, but you also need to make sure the version you want is also suited to your computer system. To help you determine which Vista is right for you, Microsoft offers an Upgrade Advisor
Download Upgrade Advisor

Upgrade Advisor:

The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor will help you to determine if your Windows XP-based PC can run Windows Vista. You can also use the Upgrade Advisor to determine if your Windows Vista-based PC is ready for an upgrade to a more powerful edition of Windows Vista.
Upgrade Advisor will scan your computer and create an easy-to-understand report of all known system, device, and program compatibility issues, and recommend ways to resolve them.
And this is how the report looks like:

Clean

After using the Upgrade Advisor and taking care of the problems and the incompatibilities, The next step is: purge your hard drive of any software and applications that you don't use and deleting any other files on your system that you don't really use. After cleaning the unwanted files and software off the drive, you should then run a disk cleaner and disk Defrag utility before backing up your data and installing Vista.
If you choose to do a full version install of any Vista operating system,the best way is formatting and defragging you hard drive.

Back Up

Back Up Once the drive is purged, cleaned and defragged, now you can backup your data by using any method that you know.

Windows Easy Transfer

Windows Easy Transfer is a wizard that helps you transfer the data that is important to you, including:
-User accounts
-Files and folders
-Program data files and settings
-E-mail messages, settings, and contacts
-Photos, music, and videos
-Windows settings
-Internet settings
-Programs (applications) are not transferred.

Download Windows Easy Transfer

And this is how this great tool work:

and finally don’t forget to disable your virus scanner before installing