Several ways to make the XP system run more efficiently

The launch of the Windows XP operating system impressed a large number of computer users with a beautiful interactive interface, coupled with excellent overall performance (including significantly shortening the start time and continue to use, and the Rapid Response of applications), so many users have to upgrade their operating systems to Windows XP, a good experience. However, in the process of use, people found that the interface is indeed a lot of beautiful, but the performance seems not so satisfactory. Why?
In fact, Microsoft has declared before Windows XP release that Windows XP does not require the most advanced processor, but it should have at least 300 MHz, A Pentium II-level or higher processor can achieve better performance. In terms of memory, 64 MB is the minimum memory requirement for running Windows XP, and MB is the minimum operating environment recommended by Windows XP. Of course, if there is more than 128 MB of memory, it is certainly a good thing, but in contrast, increase the memory from 64 MB to M, and then add the memory on the basis of MB, what we can see is that the performance gap is relatively small, and it depends on the workload to a large extent-this is like looking for "inflection point of the curve ", the benefits of increasing additional memory capacity after the inflection point will be relatively reduced-for most workloads, the inflection point is between 64 MB and MB. (Editor's note: Tests in the personal computer lab show that for most commercial applications, upgrading the memory from MB to MB will also significantly improve the performance of Windows XP, but after MB, unless image processing or other operations are performed, the performance improvement will not be obvious .) Therefore, before upgrading the operating system to Windows XP, you should first know whether the hardware conditions meet the above requirements. Do not blindly start the operation; otherwise, the expected results will not be achieved.

When the hardware meets the basic conditions, you can also improve the operating efficiency of Windows XP from the following aspects.

New Installation preferred

New installation of Windows XP usually provides better performance than upgrading the installation, because this installation can control the location of files and file metadata on the disk to a greater extent. That is to say, during Windows XP installation, You can dynamically determine the code and data required for startup based on the computer configuration, and optimize the storage location of these files on the disk. When a computer is started, Windows XP can send a large number of I/O requests that can be effectively processed at a high throughput, and find the best time to send these requests, these requests are also intertwined in the device detection and initialization phases. This can be done without increasing the entire startup time, thus greatly shortening the time required for system startup. During the installation process, it usually takes three times to complete the observation and optimization of this fast start.

Increase system partition capacity and switch to high-speed hard disk

According to Microsoft, the hard disk space occupied by Windows XP is 1.5 GB, plus the capacity of Office and other application software, the total capacity of the system partition should be 4 GB to 8 GB (depending on the number of applications ). Windows XP and the previous versions of Windows use the virtual memory technology, which means that when a computer is working, a space should be allocated on the system partition for memory expansion, to make up for the lack of physical memory. This space usually ranges from dozens to hundreds of megabytes. You can also change the virtual memory file to another partition by setting it (but it is recommended that you use the system partition) or adjust the disk space it occupies, but in any case it occupies part of the hard disk storage space, especially when large applications are used and the physical memory capacity is relatively small, the capacity of the virtual memory file is larger. Therefore, you should leave sufficient space for the system partition, that is, you must increase the capacity of the system partition when upgrading the operating system to Windows XP.

Although Microsoft has improved "Start Loader" in Windows XP ", the pre-extraction technology is used in the computer startup process to enable the code to be executed and the data to be read during disk initialization, thus accelerating the computer startup speed. However, a large amount of data must be read from the hard disk. In addition, the hard disk is a very slow device relative to the CPU and memory, and the hard disk has frequent I/O access, therefore, switching to a high-speed hard disk can significantly speed up data transmission and shorten the startup time of the operating system and applications.

Configure hardware

This includes the BIOS settings that are commonly mentioned. For example, let the HDD-0 as the first boot device, open the DMA mode, allow memory fast self-check, boot does not detect the soft drive and so on, these settings can speed up the computer to varying degrees of START and run, there are many related articles, which are not described here. This is especially important for computers that use two data transmission lines to connect the hard drive and the optical drive. The popular hard drive and motherboard IDE interfaces support the DMA100 transmission mode at the same time. Therefore, the hard drive is usually connected to the motherboard's Primary IDE interface using the 80-line data transmission line. Most optical drives only support the DMA33 or PIO transmission mode. Therefore, the optical drive usually uses a 40-wire data transmission line to connect to the Secondary IDE interface of the motherboard. When the optical drive is released, the default jumper is Slave, so it occupies the Secondary Slave interface, which makes the Secondary Master no device, in this way, it takes a long time for the computer to perform self-check and start the operating system to detect the Secondary Master device without response, which wastes a lot of time. Therefore, we should change the jumper of the optical drive to the Master to occupy the Secondary Master interface, and leave the Secondary Slave interface empty, which can effectively shorten the system startup time by 10 ~ 15 seconds. This method works in all the operating systems of Microsoft.

Rational use of anti-virus software

There is a risk of virus infection on the Internet at any time. To prevent virus infection, many users install anti-virus software and enable real-time virus monitoring programs, any data processed by the computer must be filtered out by anti-virus software, which seriously affects the system performance. Therefore, when you do not connect to the Internet or exchange data with a mobile disk, you should disable the Real-time Monitoring Program.

The last thing to attach is that after the computer has been running for a long time or a lot of new software has been installed, it is best to perform disk fragmentation on the system disk. During the fragment process, the fragment program can reorganize and optimize the storage location of startup files on the disk, and store fragmented files and folders on the disk continuously, it can effectively speed up disk startup and reading, and improve system operation efficiency.

Set Software

Windows XP contains many automatic service functions in the operating system for the convenience of users. However, these functions may affect the running speed of other software when the computer speed is limited, in terms of performance, the computer will feel very slow. These automatic service functions include System Restoration, automatic update, time synchronization, and desktop cleanup.

● System Restoration

System Restoration is an automatic service function that has the greatest impact on system running efficiency. It was born from Windows Me. It monitors data changes in each partition on the disk and records the changes throughout the computer's operation, so that the disk can be restored to its previous state in the future, by default, the disk status should be recorded by taking up 12% of the space on each partition. If this function is enabled, it will take up to 5% of the space on each partition even if the option is adjusted. Therefore, if the system backs up data using other methods (such as using Ghost), you can disable this function to speed up system operation.

● Automatic update

When a network connection is available, the operating system automatically downloads patches and updates from the Microsoft website, which occupies part of the Internet connection bandwidth.

● Time Synchronization

Time Synchronization is a function used to synchronize network connections with time servers on the Internet. It runs every week.