Squiffys PC Tuning (Part One)

squiffythewombat · 08-02-2006

Hi Guys, Please bear with my horrid grammer and spelling!

"Users of this information please note, this information is a suggestion and should be used as such, Scale models in anyway will not accept responsibility to loss of information or disruption in operation of your pc after carrying out these 'adjustments'.

If in doubt do not make any changes to anything you are unsure of."

"Reasons behind what we are about to do...."

So, youve just bought your new pc and its loaded with XP...

XP ships in what i like to call "tellytuby" mode, the menus, taskbar and other items are all graphically enhanced. Just look at a window in XP and compair it to the same window in 95/98/ME. You will instantly see the difference. EG: the edges of the box are rounded.

Whilst this may look pretty its one more process that your computer has to go through before it can show you any information on screen. Processing the colours, pixels and shading all takes time which obviously slows down the computer.

Also the navigation system is altered, so, for exmaple when going to the control pannel or start menu you are confronted with reams of pics, menus and sub-menus rather than the old fassion icons. IF you like this new system then keep it, but if, like the majority of us you find it to be a pain in the preverbal we can set it back to "normal mode". This will also speed up your pc (but unless your a poweruser your unlikelly to see the difference)

**Changing XP to Classic Style**

Press the windows key and E at the same time. This will launch a new "Explorer" window. (the windows key is in between Ctrl and Alt on the left hand side of the keyboard)
Where it says "My Computer" Right-click
Goto Properties, this will bring up a new menu.
Click the Remote tab, make sure all boxes are blank, remove all ticks. This is a secuirty measure.
Now click the advanced tab, it will now show three boxs saying settings.
Left-click the top setting button, under performance. This will launch a new menu.
Select "adjust for best performane"
Left-click apply, windows will now change the look of your setup.
Once this is done, left-click the advanced tab, you will should see four checkboxes and a button marked change.
Left-click the button saying change, and a new menu will appear. In this menu "custom size" should be selected. There are two boxes to the right with numbers in and under those a button marked "set".
Replace the first number with 768
Replace the second number with 1024
Left-click the set button
Left-Click ok, you will be returned to the previous menu
Left-click ok again so you have returned to the system properties menu.
Under the advanced tab still click "error reporting", its the button near the bottom on the right.
Now make sure Disable, but notify me when errors occur button is highlighted
Left-Click ok so you have returned to your "explorer" window.
Now close the explorer window so your back to your desktop.

Start Menu:

Right-click the start menu (a grey boxed menu will appear)
Left-Click Properties (a new box will popup)
Untick the top check box and check the bottom so that the "classic start menu" box has a tick in it.
Click Apply
Click Ok

**NOW RESTART YOUR COMPUTER!**

"But what if I hate it!!"
If you are now mortified at how horrid windows looks and want to change back dont worry, simply follow the steps in reserve order, unclicking the boxes you clicked.

Notes
You may not notice a sudden improvement but combine this with parts two, three and four you will begin to see the changes hopefully.
Any questions, or if your stuck fire away!

Squiffy

**Bunkerbarge** · 09-02-2006

OK Squiffy,

Part one completed and, as you say, no major difference noted yet.

I look forward to the other tutorials and see how they all combine.

Thanks for you help

Richard

**John** · 09-02-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bunkerbarge

Part one completed and, as you say, no major difference noted yet.

While it's good info unfortunatly you won't see a massive difference, this would mainly apply to older PC's people with 256MB ram or less, with todays monsters 1GB+ ram, 2500+ chip etc they will take day to day running in their stride

The virtual memory settings depends on how much memory you have, the optimal memory setting for users with 128 MB+ is approximately 1.5-2 times the RAM size, users with 64 MB should use a 2 times, also placing it on the non-boot drive, can help increase performance.

squiffythewombat · 09-02-2006

John, yeah your right, but richard said he had problems navigating the XP system and 90% of people prefer it in classic mode hence the change.

Vitural memory settings are dependant on your ram, correct, but oftern the swapfiles get huge when the hdd is thrashing and this will then hinder progress. If your running XP on a system with lower than 128mb then alll credit to you, but most systems will need a specified virt mem setting or the hdd with thrash the larger textures and stuff when playing games!!!!!!!!!

Phoenix · 09-02-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by squiffythewombat

John, yeah your right, but richard said he had problems navigating the XP system and 90% of people prefer it in classic mode hence the change.

Vitural memory settings are dependant on your ram, correct, but oftern the swapfiles get huge when the hdd is thrashing and this will then hinder progress. If your running XP on a system with lower than 128mb then alll credit to you, but most systems will need a specified virt mem setting or the hdd with thrash the larger textures and stuff when playing games!!!!!!!!!

i dont think you would be playing games with alot of good textures if you only had 128 of ram

haha

squiffythewombat · 09-02-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phoenix

i dont think you would be playing games with alot of good textures if you only had 128 of ram

haha

LOL, you would be surprised how many posts we get on the bf forums...

"will my 486 be able to play this game..."