[prashant]

No doubt you are surprised at how fast Windows XP boots up compared with other Microsoft operating systems. I certainly am, every time I start up the PC. This bootup time is something that everyone is becoming more concerned about as the need for PC speed becomes increasingly more important. Despite the relatively fast speed of Windows XP bootup time, this section will guide you through the steps of making the system boot up even faster. The changes discussed here should help you realize your bootup speed dreams. Your friends will then no doubt be impressed by your PC’s superfast operation. Windows XP has a lot of great features and visual enhancements that make it the most attractive OS from Microsoft to date. However, with all of the new features and attractive effects, the operating system has a higher system overhead, which means your hardware has to work even harder. If you are do not always have the fastest hardware, this section will help you to get the most out of your current hardware by reducing the heavy workload put on it during the bootup process.

Working with BIOS

Every personal computer has a system basic input/output system, or BIOS, which is what takes control of your computer the moment you turn it on. The screen that you first see when you turn on your computer is called the power on self-test screen, better known as the POST screen. If you purchased your computer from one of the major computer manufacturers, this screen is often hidden by the manufacturer’s logo. To get rid of this logo from the screen, just press the ESC button on your keyboard; you’ll then see what is going on in the background. At this stage in the system boot, the BIOS are probing the hardware to test the system memory and other device connections. Once the POST is completed, the BIOS proceeds to look for a device to boot from. Once it finds your hard drive, it will begin to load Windows. The BIOS also acts as a main system component control panel, where low-level settings for all of your hardware devices are made. The device boot order, port addresses, and feature settings such as plug and play are all found in the BIOS setup screens. For example, if you want to change the order of the drives that your computer checks to boot from, then you will want to modify the device boot order. I have to modify this setting almost every time I install Windows because I want my computer to boot off of the CD-ROM to launch the Windows XP setup application instead of booting off of the operating system on my hard drive.

BIOS on each and every PC may be made by different companies or accessed in different ways. Nevertheless, the most common way to access the setup screen is to press F2 or the Delete key when the POST screen is displayed. Some computers even tell you which key to push to enter setup, as my computer does. If your PC doesn’t allow you to access the setup screen in this way, consult your computer documentation or contact your computer manufacturer for instructions.

While you are making changes in the BIOS, make sure you do not accidentally change any other settings. If you accidentally change a value of a setting and do not know what to change it back to, simply exit the BIOS setup screen as the on-screen directions indicate and select Do NOT Save Changes. Then just reboot and re-enter the setup screen and continue hacking away at your system.

Changing the boot order of your drives

Most computers are set up so that when you first turn on your computer, it will check to see if you want to boot from other drives besides your hard drive. It will automatically check to see if you have a bootable CD in your CD drive. If your computer has a floppy drive, it will check to see if you have a boot disk in the floppy drive. Then, once it has checked all possible locations for a boot disk, the system will default to your hard drive and start booting Windows.

What are the benefits of changing the boot order of your system devices? If you modify the order of the boot devices so that the hard disk is placed at the top of the list, the system does not have to waste time checking other devices for boot records. Just by changing the order of the devices, you can cut off anywhere from one to several seconds off of your boot time, depending on the speed of your hardware.

To change the boot order (or sequence, as some call it), you will have to enter the BIOS setup screen that was mentioned earlier.

1. Press F2 or Delete, or the Correct key for your specific system on the POST screen (or the screen that displays the computer manufacturer’s logo) to enter the BIOS setup screen.

Working in the BIOS setup screens will allow you to change many critical values that could affect the performance and the stability of your computer. Be careful which settings you decide to change because they may cause device resource conflicts as well as render your hardware unusable. However, there are very few settings in the BIOS that, if set incorrectly, will lead to physical hardware damage. The only feature that my BIOS has that can do that is the CPU overclocking functions. If I set those values too high, my CPU could burn up. Changing basic feature settings such as the boot order will only result in a minor inconvenience if it was set incorrectly. To fix a problem, you will just have to go back into the BIOS and set the right value and everything will be back to normal.

2. Look for where it says Boot and enter the sub menu.

3. Select Boot Sequence, and press Enter. Figure 8-1 shows an example of the boot sequence screen.

4. If your screen looks similar to that shown in Figure 8-1, then you are in the right place. Next, navigate to where it states “first device” and cycle through the list to where it states “Hard Disk Drive” or “IDE0” (assuming that your hard drive is connected to IDE0). If your setup screen does not specifically state “first device” but rather just lists all of the devices, then all you have to do is select the hard disk and move it to the top of the list. That can be done by using the change values keys, which for my BIOS (made by Phoenix) is the spacebar to move an item up and the minus symbol key to move an item down. The specific keys are different on almost every system but the basic concepts are the same. You want to get your hard disk to the top of the list or listed as the first device from which to try to boot.

5. Once you have made the changes, exit the BIOS by pressing the Esc key and making sure that you select to save your changes upon exit. Once you reboot, the new settings will be in effect.

What are the consequences of changing the boot order? Changing the boot order will not hurt your system in any way if you do it correctly. If, by accident, you remove your hard drive from the list and save the BIOS settings, you will get a pleasant surprise when your computer reboots––a statement that the computer cannot find any operating system. If you happen to get that message, then just reboot by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete and go back into the BIOS settings and make sure that you select your hard drive as a boot device. Once you have done that, your system will be back to normal.

Another possible issue that you may encounter is simply a matter of inconvenience. Once you change the boot order of the system devices so that the hard drive is listed first, you will no longer be able to use system restore CDs or floppy boot disks. If something has happened to your computer and you need to boot off of those drives to restore your system or run diagnostics, just go back to the BIOS and lower or remove the hard disk from the first boot device.



FIGURE 8-1: The boot sequence setup screen.


Using the quick boot feature of the BIOS

All systems initialize in more or less the same way. During the power on self-test mentioned earlier, the BIOS checks the hardware devices and counts the system memory. Out of all of the different types of system memory, the random access memory, better known as RAM, takes the longest to be counted. Counting the RAM takes time, and on a machine that has large amounts of RAM, this calculation can take several seconds. For example, a machine that has 512MB of RAM may take up to 3 seconds just to count the memory. On top of the RAM counting, a few other tests need to be done because your computer wants to make sure that all of the hardware in your computer is working properly.

All of these system tests are not needed every time you boot, and can be turned off to save time. Most BIOS’s offer a feature called quick boot. This feature will allow the user to turn off these tests. Other BIOS only allow you to turn off the memory check, which will still cut down on a lot of time.

To turn on the quick boot feature or turn off the memory check, just do the following:

1. Enter the BIOS again by pressing F2 or the correct system setup Enter key upon the POST screen.

2. Once you are in the BIOS setup, locate where it states Quick Boot or Memory Check, as shown in Figure 8-2. Navigate with the arrow keys until the option is highlighted.

3. Use the Change Value keys to cycle through the options and select enable for the quick boot feature or disable if your BIOS have the memory check feature.

4. Once you have made the changes to the setting, exit the BIOS by pressing the Esc key and make sure to save the changes upon exit.

Use of the quick boot feature or the disabling of the memory check will not harm your system. In fact, there are even some computer manufacturers that ship their computers with these settings alread1y optimized for performance. The only downside to disabling the tests is the rare situation in which your RAM self-destructs; the BIOS will not catch it and you may receive errors from the operating system or your system could become unstable. If you notice that your system becomes unstable and crashes frequently or will not even boot, try going back into the BIOS and re-enable the tests to find out if your system’s memory is causing the problems.



FIGURE 8-2: BIOS setup screen displaying the quick boot feature.

Modifying the Operating System Boot

Other hacking methods are still available that will cut off a few more seconds off the boot time. For example, you can cut timeout values and slim down the system to get rid of all of the extra features and services that you do not use or need. Check out the following ways to do so.

Lowering OS timeout values

If you have more than one operating system installed on your computer, you’ll have to deal with the OS Selector that the Microsoft installer configures during installation of another operating system. By default, the OS Selector gives you 30 seconds to select an operating system before it reverts to the default operating system. The only way not to wait 30 seconds is to select the operating system you want to use right away. If you use one operating system most of the time, you would definitely save time if you set that operating system as the default and lowered the timeout value to 1 or 2 seconds. That way, you would not have to select an operating system every time you turned on your system or wait 30 seconds before doing so.

With Windows XP, both Professional and Home, changing the timeout value is simple if the operating system that you use primarily is already the default. If it is, just follow these directions:

1. From the Start Menu, select Run and type MSCONFIG and press OK. This will load the System Configuration utility.

2. Once the System Configuration utility has loaded, click the tab labeled BOOT.INI, as Figure 8-3 shows.

3. Locate the Timeout text box and replace 30 seconds with 1 or 2 seconds or any number that gives you enough time to select the other operating systems on your system. The amount of time that you select to be your timeout value is not the amount of time you have to select the operating system. Rather, it is the amount of time you have to click any key and then select the operating system. So don’t be afraid of setting this timeout value too low.

4. Once you have made the change, click the OK button, and you are finished.



FIGURE 8-3: Microsoft System Configuration Utility boot settings.


If, after testing out your change, you feel that you gave yourself too much or too little time to select the other operating system, repeat the directions above to fine-tune your timeout time. If you don’t have your primary operating system as your default timeout operating system and you want to do so, load Notepad from the Accessories menu in the All Programs section of the Start Menu. Once Notepad is loaded, do the following to set the default:

1. Select File from the menu bar and select Open, and navigate to your root system drive. Type Boot.ini in the File Name text box and click the Open button.

2. Under the [operating systems] heading, you will see your operating systems listed. You will notice some disk and partition information that has an equal sign after it that then has the title of the operating system in quotes. Copy all of the disk and partition information to the left of the equal sign (such as “multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS”) to the clipboard by highlighting the text with the mouse and then pressing Ctrl C.

3. Then locate where it states default in the boot configuration file. Paste the new disk and partition information over the old information to the right of the equal sign by highlighting the old information and then pressing Ctrl+V.

4. Save the file and close Notepad. That’s it!

You can also change the default timeout value editing the boot.ini file in Notepad. But using the System Configuration Tool is much easier for doing so. The System Configuration Tool has a lot of other useful features also.

Disabling the system boot screen

So, are you enjoying the fun blue bars moving across your screen when your system starts up? Not? Are you finding that you can live without the daily reminder that you are running Windows XP? If so, then you might want to consider removing the boot screen. One added advantage to doing so: You will be getting a boost of performance in return.

Disabling the boot screen might only save you a fraction of a second off your boot time. But keep in mind, every fraction of a second counts. And when you apply all of the performance hacks listed in this part of the book, you will see a definite performance increase. This performance improvement works on a very simple principle. It takes time for the computer to do anything. Taking away some work that it has to do, such as loading the boot screen, will free time that it can spend loading your system files instead.

The process for disabling the system boot screen is similar to the process for modifying the default operating system in the boot file. If you do not have any other operating systems installed on your system, then you will have to create your own boot.ini file to place in your drive root (that is, the c:\ drive). I am going to show how to create a file first, and will then show how to modify the boot.ini file if you already have one in your drive root or have multiple operating systems installed.

Creating the boot.ini file

This section will show you how to create a boot.ini file for your computer if you have just one operating system installed and you do not already have a boot.ini file in your drive root. To get started, let’s go over what the boot.ini file looks like. The boot.ini file that disables the boot screen looks like the following:
[boot loader]
timeout 0
default multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
"Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noguiboot

The above boot.ini file is pretty standard except for the addition of the /noguiboot to the last line of the file. That is the parameter that tells Windows to start up without using the graphical user interface boot screen. To get started, open up a copy of Notepad, found in the Accessories menu of the All Programs entry, in the Start Menu and follow these steps:

1. On the first line of the file, type in [boot loader].

2. On line 2 of the file, key in timeout 0 so Windows does not show the boot selection
screen at all. You don’t want this anyways because you only have one operating system installed on your computer.

3. On line 3 of the file, type in default multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (1)\WINDOWS so that Windows knows where to look on your hard drive to start the operating system.

4. On line 4, type in [operating systems].

5. On line 5, type in multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (1)\WINDOWS “Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect /noguiboot to start up Windows with the /noguiboot parameter to disable the boot screen.

If you upgraded your computer from Windows 2000 or any other NT-based product and your root Windows directory is not Windows, then you will have to make one change to the boot.ini file to correct where the path of the Windows files are located. On Lines 3 and 5, replace all references to \WINDOWS to \WINNT or the name of the directory to which you installed Windows. This will set your system to boot from the right folder.

6. Click the File menu bar item and select Save As.

7. Type Boot.ini in the File name box and change the Save as type to All Files.

8. Then, change the Save in directory to your drive root, which is usually Local Disk (C).

9. Click the Save button and you are now finished.

You can now close Notepad. The next time you reboot your computer, you will not see the boot screen.

Modifying an existing boot.ini file

If you have a multi-boot system or already have a boot.ini file, then all you have to do is open up your boot.ini file in Notepad and follow these steps:

You should make a backup copy of your existing boot.ini file just in case you make a mistake while editing the file. To make a backup, just open up My Computer to your root drive where the boot.ini file is located, then right-click it and select Copy. Next, right-click the white back ground of the folder and select Paste. This is an easy way to make a backup copy of the file that will be automatically named copy of boot.ini.

1. Locate the Windows XP line in your boot.ini file that will look similar to “multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS “Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect”.

2. Type /noguiboot at the end of the line one space after /fastdetect.

2. Click File and select Save.

These instructions will remove your boot screen. But should you change your mind after you made the change, it is very easy to get the boot screen back. Simply remove the /noguiboot from the boot.ini file. If you are working from the file that you created yourself or copied from the CD-ROM, just delete it.

Disabling unneeded hardware devices

Every time you turn on your computer, it has to load and initialize all of your computer hardware. Keep in mind: Your computer has a lot of devices that you do not always use. These extra devices are loaded and initialized during every boot. When it does so, your computer’s performance is slowed down.

Windows XP is now a lot more efficient and smarter during the boot-up cycle. In previous versions of Windows, the system would load one hardware device driver and then load another device driver in a series. The only problem with loading the hardware this way was that it could slow down the boot dramatically if one hardware device was taking a long time to initialize. One well-known culprit of this is the network card which pauses to wait to get an IP from a DHCP server.

Windows XP has a new way of initializing the hardware devices when the system boots up. Instead of loading the hardware device drivers in series, it now loads some of them in parallel. This allows the boot to be much faster. Although the hardware devices are loaded in parallel instead of series, the addition of more devices that the system has to load drivers for will probably still slow down the boot.

To disable hardware devices, you will want to use the Device Manager. Figure 8-4 shows the Device Manager and all of the different categories of devices. To get to the Device Manager, do the following:

1. Go to the Control Panel using the shortcut on the Start panel or menu if you are using the classic Windows interface.

2. Once you are in Control Panel, locate the System icon and run it. If you cannot find the System icon, most likely you are using the Control Panel Category View. If you are using the Category View, click the Performance and Maintenance icon and then you will see the System icon under the “or pick a Control Panel icon” heading.

3. Once the System Properties window has loaded click the Hardware tab. Under the Device Manager section, click the button that says Device Manager.

4. Now that you are inside of the Device Manager, you can browse through your devices that are connected and currently running or disabled by browsing through the device type sections. To disable a device, right-click the device name, and then select Disable.

5. To re-enable a device, right-click the device name, and select Disable. This will remove the check from the menu and will re-enable the device.



FIGURE 8-4: Windows Hardware Device Manager displaying one device that is disabled (COM1) and one device that has a problem (LPT1).


To quickly determine the status of a device, check out the icon next to its name. All devices that are disabled have a red X over the icon. All devices that have a question mark or an explanation point on them are not set up correctly or are having problems. All devices with none of the above additions to the icon are running and doing so without any problems.

What hardware devices should I disable? Each user uses (or doesn’t use) devices differently, depending on the system setup. Nonetheless, some classes of devices are more commonly disabled than others. Knowing which ones will help you make a decision as to what devices you should disable. The following classes of devices are frequently disabled:

Network Adapters: Especially on Notebook computers, there is often more than one network device. Disabling the network devices that you do not use will definitely save you some booting time.

Fire wire: If you have 1394 connections, otherwise known as fire wire, you might consider disabling them. Unless you are using your fire wire port to connect your digital video recorder to your computer, or have other external fire wire devices, you have no need to have this device enabled.

Modems: Do you have a broadband connection? If so, then consider disabling your modem. If you rarely use it, disable it. If you ever need to use it again, just re-enable it.

Multimedia devices: Your computer has lots of multimedia devices. Take a look at the “Sound, video, and game controllers” section in Device Manager. You will find a lot of device drivers that are loaded during your boot. Some are used by all users, but others will find a few that they do not use. For example, I do not use my game port or my MIDI device, so I disabled both of those.

PCMCIA: If you are a laptop user, consider disabling your PCMCIA card controller, located under “PCMCIA adapters.” The PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slot is a special expansion slot that is rarely used today on laptops except for wireless and wired network cards and card reader attachments for compact flash and other solid state memory cards. Most laptops now have built-in network adapters and some even have built-in wireless adapters. If you do not use your PCMCIA adapter, it is yet another device that can be safely disabled.

Do not disable any hardware devices that are located under the Disk Drives, Computer, Display Adapters, IDE Disk Controllers, and the System sections (except for the system speaker) because these hardware devices are critical to the operation of your computer.

Removing extra fonts for speed

Windows XP has over 250 different font variations that it loads for use when the system boots up. Of these 250 variations, only a handful is used on a regular basis. Most likely, you really only use the core Windows fonts, such as Tahoma, Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet, and MS Sans Serif. All of the other fonts can be removed form the font’s folder. As you can imagine, loading over 250 fonts is something that will take the system more time to do. Users who have installed a fonts CD, which usually has hundreds of fonts, on their systems are increasing the amount of work their computer has to do during startup. Simply put, loading a lot of fonts will take more time, because the system has to load and index each font. Thankfully, there is a very simple answer to this: Just remove the fonts that you do not use from your font directory.

You can go about removing the unneeded fonts from your font directory in a number of different ways. The best way is to move the unused fonts to a separate folder on your system so that if you ever want to use one of those extra fonts again, you just have to copy it back to the font’s folder.

When you remove fonts from your computer, you will no longer be able to use them in any software application, including Microsoft Word and Excel.

Before you start removing fonts from your font’s folder, take at look at Table 8-1. These fonts are commonly used, for reasons that the table explains. Be careful not to remove any fonts on which the system normally depends.

Now that you know which fonts you should not remove, you also need to be aware of one more thing before starting your adventure in the font’s folder. Inside the font’s folder, there are several fonts with similar names. The fonts are broken up not only by font name but also by type style. For example, there is an Arial Bold, Arial Bold Italic, Arial Italic, etc. When sorting through the fonts to delete, you also can choose to delete only specific types of fonts. Deleting fonts is fairly easy. But removing the fonts is a little trickier because the font’s folder is not like a normal folder. In order to remove the fonts, you need to start off by creating a folder to put the old fonts in.

Table 8-1 Recommended Fonts to Keep

Font Name

Verdana : - Often used on Web pages and applications

Arial : - Often used within applications such as Outlook

Trebuchet : - Used in the Windows interface on the Title Bar

Tahoma : - Used in the Windows interface on the Menu Bar as well as
in many applications and Web pages

Times New Roman : - The default font for Web pages as well as applications such
as Word

MS Sans Serif : - Used in some applications and Web pages


1. Open up My Computer through the icon in your Start panel or from the icon on your Desktop. Navigate to the C: drive or whatever drives on which you have Windows installed.

2. Next, navigate to the Windows folder (or WINNT folder for some). If along the way you are prompted with a screen telling you that “this folder contains a file that keeps your system working properly; you should not modify its contents,” ignore this message and click the text that says “show the contents of this folder.”

3. Now that you are inside the Windows root folder, create a folder to store the fonts that you are going to remove from the font’s folder. Right-click the white space that lists the folder and files and selects New and then select Folder. Call your folder Fonts Backup or something similar so that you will be able to identify that this is the place that your old fonts are.

4. Once you have created the new folder, open it.

5. Next, go back to the My Computer icon in your Start panel or Desktop and open another window. Navigate to the drive you have Windows installed on and then navigate to the Windows folder. Once you are inside the Windows folder, navigate to the Fonts folder.

6. Now that you have both the Fonts folder open and your backup folder open, arrange the two windows on your screen so that they look like the two windows in Figure 8-5.



FIGURE 8-5: The Windows Fonts folder and a backup folder are arranged side by side on the screen.


7. Now that the two font folders are side by side, to remove a font from the system, all you have to do is click the icon in the Fonts folder that you do not want installed any more, and drag the icon over to the backup folder. This will automatically uninstall the font and will copy it to your backup folder.

In the event that you want to reinstall a font, all you have to do is drag the font file from the backup folder back to the Fonts folder. You will see an installation dialog box that will flash just for a second as it adds the font back to the library. Once you drag the file back to the Font’s folder, the file will still remain in the backup directory because it just copies it there. After you have confirmed that it was actually installed again, feel free to delete the font file from the backup folder.

Disabling unneeded services

A service is a software application that runs continuously in the background while your computer is on. The Windows operating system has numerous services that run in the background that provide basic functions to the system. Network connectivity, visual support, and external device connectivity such as printer services are all examples of the types of services that the Windows services provide. Each of the services running in the background takes up system resources, such as memory and CPU time. Also, during the booting of the operating system, the service has to be loaded. On most computers, there are nearly 20 services that are loaded upon startup. Of these 20 services, only a handful is system-critical services. All of the others can be disabled. In order to disable a service, first you will need to know more about what the most common services do. Table 8-2 will help you understand what the most common services are, what they do, and if they can be disabled.

Table 8-2 Common Windows Services in Use

Service Name Service Use
Automatic Updates : - Used to download and then install updates
automatically without the user going to
Windows Update manually. This service is
not system Critical and can be disabled, but
unless you check for updates regularly, it is
not recommended to disable this service.


Background Intelligent Transfer Service : - A service that transfers data in the
background when the connection is not in
use. One use of this service is to download
updates automatically in the background.
This service is not system-critical but can
impair other services, such as automatic
updates, if it is disabled.

Com Event System : - Basically controls the notification of certain system events, such as log on and log off.
The system event notification is dependent on
this service. This service is system-critical.

Computer Browser : - Keeps track of the other computers on your network running the Microsoft Client for
networking. This is what provides the list of
computers when you are browsing your
workgroup computer in My Network Places.
This service is not system-critical and can be
disabled if you do not need the network
browsing function.

Cryptographic Services : - Basically manages system security
certificates as well as provides a database of
signatures of key Windows files. This service
is not system-critical but it is required to
install many Microsoft programs that want to
check system file signatures. It is not
recommended to disable this service because
doing so would not allow Windows Update to
run and install new updates.

DCOM Server Process Launcher : - Basically is in charge of starting various
other services. This service is required for RPC, which is required for over 39 other
services to run. Because of that, it is not a
good idea to disable this one.


DHCP Client : - Provides support for dynamic network
configuration. This service is not system-
critical but is needed for those that do not set
their IP address manually.


Distributed Link Tracking Client : - Keeps track of links to files on a NTFS
volume on your computer or across a
network. This service is not system-critical
and can be disabled.

DNS Client : - Resolves domain names into IP addresses, as
well as caches lookup results. This service is
not system-critical but you will not be able to
browse the Internet without it started.


Error Reporting Service : - Allows users to report failures of applications
directly to Microsoft so that Microsoft may
fix bugs in its software if it is the culprit. This
service is not system-critical and can be
safely disabled.

Event Log : - Allows event messages to be recorded to be
viewed in Event Viewer. This service is
system-critical and cannot be disabled.


Fast User Switching Compatibility : - Allows users to switch to other users on the
same system without logging off. This service
is not system-critical and can be safely
disabled.

Help and Support : - Used for the Help and support center. This
service is not system-critical and can be safely disabled.

HTTP SSL : - Allows the personal Web server built into
Windows XP (IIS 6.0) to provide secure data
transfers over HTTP. This service is rarely
used because most people never even set up
the personal Web server on Windows XP.
This service is not system-critical and can be safely disabled.

Indexing Service : - Creates a searchable database of, the items on
your hard drive. This service is not system-
critical and can be disabled if you do not
search your drive often or can wait a few
extra minutes to find a file.

IPSEC Services : - Provides IP security for certain secure
connections over IP. This service is not
system-critical and can be safely disabled.

Logical Disk Manager : - Detects and monitors new hard disk drives.
This service is not system-critical but it is
used when you are upgrading your hardware
and installing additional storage devices or
using USB storage devices. If you do not plan
on using any of the items above, the service
may be safely disabled.

Machine Debug Manager : - Provides support for program and script
debugging. This service is not system-critical
and can be safely disabled for most users.

Messenger : - Allows users to send text popup messages to
computers on the network. This service is
abused by spammers to send you
advertisements. It is highly recommended that
you disable this service.

Network Connections : - Provides, support for network connectivity.
This service is not system-critical but it is
recommended that it is not disabled.

Network Location Awareness (NLA) : - Provides services to computers that share
your Internet connection. If you do not use
the Internet connection feature, then, you may
safely disable this service because it is not a
system-critical service.

Plug and Play : - Allows your computer to detect hardware.
This service is system-critical and cannot be
Disabled.

Portable Media Serial Number Service : - Detects the serial number of an external
media device. This service is not system-
critical and can be safely disabled.

Print Spooler : - Provides services to print. This service is not
system-critical but it is necessary to print
from your computer.

Protected Storage : - Provides basic security over certain system
files. This service is system-critical and
should not be disabled.


Remote Procedure Call (RPC) : - Provides services for other services. This
service is system-critical and cannot be
disabled.


Remote Registry : - Allows the System Registry to be connected
(Not included in XP Home) to remotely. This service is not system-
critical and it is recommended that it be
disabled.


Secondary Logon : - Allows programs, to be started under
different accounts. This service is system- critical.

Security Accounts Manager : - A database of local account information. This
service is system-critical and should not be
disabled.

Security Center : - Monitors your system security settings to
notify you if your settings are insecure. You
should keep this service running unless you
are confident about your computer’s security.
No other services depend on this service and
it can be safely disabled given you have a
good handle on your security.


Server : - Provides the ability to share files and your
printer over your network. This service is not
system-critical and can be safely disabled if
you do not share files over a network.

Shell Hardware Detection : - Used to detect external storage devices
automatically. If you do not use any external
storage devices, such as external hard drives
or memory cards, this service can be safely
disabled.

SSDP Discovery Service : - Looks for Universal Plug and Play drives on
your network. This service is not system-
critical and can be safely Disabled.

System Event Notification : - Tracks more system events. This service is
system-critical and should not be disabled.

System Restore Service : - Keeps track of changes made to your system
to make restore points. This service is not
system-critical but it is recommended that it
is not disabled.

Task Scheduler : - Allows users, to schedule and configure
tasks. This service is not system-critical and
can be disabled if you do not need to schedule
any tasks to run.

TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper : - Allows the NetBIOS network protocol to run
over the TCP/IP Protocol. This service is not
system-critical and can be disabled if you
have no use for the NetBIOS protocol.

Terminal Services : - Allows users to connect to the computer with
a remote desktop. This service is not system-
critical but is used by the remote assistance
Help feature. It can be safely disabled if you
do not need the remote assistance feature.

Themes : - This is the service that gives Windows the
new look. It allows visual styles to be applied
over the normal gray Windows 2000 style
windows. This service is not system-critical
and can be disabled.

WebClient : - This service adds support for Web-based file
management for technologies such as
WebDav. Most users will never need to use
this service. It is not system-critical and can
be safely disabled.

Windows Audio : - Provides audio support for the operating
system. This service is not system-critical and
can be safely disabled if you would like to
give up your sound.

Windows Firewall / Internet : - Protects your computer from intruders and
Malicious Connection Sharing (ICS) programs attacking your computer via your
Internet connection. It also provides the
ability to share your Internet connection
among other computers on your local
network. This service is not system-critical
but I do not recommend that you disable it
unless you have another personal firewall
application installed on your computer.

Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) : - Used to acquire data from optical devices
such as a scanner or a camera. This service is
not system-critical and it can be safely
disabled if you have no use for it.

Windows Management : - Provides system information to applications.
This service is Instrumentation system-critical
and should not be disabled.

Windows Time : - This service is in charge of synchronizing the
Windows time. If you do not need to have
your time synchronized, this service can be
safely disabled.

Wireless Zero Configuration : - Configures wireless 802.11 devices. If you do
not have any wireless hardware installed, you
may safely disable this service.

Workstation : - Allows your computer to make connections
to other computers and servers. This service
is not system-critical but it is needed for any
basic networking.

Now that you know which services can be disabled and which services are important to your system, you can safely speed up your boot by disabling the extra services using the services management tool.

Before you begin changing your service setup, set a System Restore Point to easily restore your system to an earlier configuration. However, be careful when you restore from restore points. Any applications or files that were created after the system restore point will be deleted when reverting to an earlier restore point.

The Services utility is included in all versions of Windows XP and is hidden away. Do the following to disable a service using the Services utility:

1. Click the Start Menu and select Run. In the text box, type services.msc and click OK. This will start the Services utility, as shown in Figure 8-6.

2. Now that you are in the Services utility, you will see a list of a lot of services on your computer. First, you will need to stop the service that you want to disable. Right-click the service name and select Stop on the pop-up menu.

3. When the service is stopped, right-click the service again and select Properties. Located on the General tab, look for the Startup Type drop-down box. Click the arrow on the drop down box and select Disabled.

3. Click the OK button and from now on, the system will not start the service any more during boot, speeding up your system start.



FIGURE 8-6: The Windows XP Services utility.


Bare-bones system service setup

To get the maximum amount of performance out of your system, you have the option of disabling all of the services on your computer that are not critical to the system. This would take away a lot of the nice features and conveniences of Windows, but you would have a much faster machine. The following is a list of system-critical services that should not be disabled. Feel free to disable all other services.

Bare Minimum Services:

Com Event System
Cryptographic Services
DCOM Server Process Launcher
DHCP Client
DNS Client
Event Log
IPSEC Services
Workstation
Shell Hardware Detection
System Event Notification
Protected Storage
Network Connections
Plug Play
Print Spooler
Remote Procedure Call
Secondary Logon
Security Accounts Manager


Recommended service setup

The bare-bones system service setup is a good setup for optimal performance. However, don’t you want to have some of the conveniences of Windows XP? Check out the recommended services to disable shown in the following list. If you follow these recommendations, you will cut down on your boot time but you will also have the nice features and conveniences of Windows XP.

Disable the following services:

Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Error Reporting Service
Fast User Switching Compatibility
Help and Support
Indexing Service
Messenger
Machine Debug Manager
Network Location Awareness (NLA)
Portable Media Serial Number Service
Remote Registry (Only included with Windows XP Pro)
SSDP Discovery Service
Terminal Services
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
Wireless Zero Configuration (If you have a wireless network card, do not disable
this one)
Windows Time
WebClient
Task Scheduler


Optimizing the location of the boot files

The speed at which your files are read depends on where the files are located on your hard drive. Also, when a file is fragmented (which is when one file is scattered all over the disk), it takes more time to access that file than if all of the pieces of the files were side by side. Using tools that are available in Windows and other third-party utilities, you can defragment and place the Windows boot files on the disk where they will be accessed faster.

Windows XP has a new feature called the Prefetcher, which determines what files on the hard drive are used during the boot process and where they should be placed on the disk for optimal speed. Although this is not the only benefit that the Prefetcher provides, it makes optimizing the location of the boot files easy.

Using disk defragmenter

Windows XP includes a boot defragmenter, but it is a little tricky to get it to run. By default, it is run only in the background and cannot be started directly by a user. After your computer has been idle for some time, between 5 and 30 minutes, the system will read the Prefetcher’s boot data and start the defrag. The system defrag is run in the background and is invisible to the user. Eventually, if you leave your computer on long enough, it will defragment the boot files.

Microsoft has a very talented team working for them and they even took into consideration that often your system boot changes. For example, you might install an updated device driver or add new hardware. To solve this problem, the system will re-defragment the boot files every three days.

Windows keeps track of the last time it optimized the boot file so it can calculate how often it should run the boot defrag. If you are interested in finding out when the last time the boot defrag was run, open up regedit and navigate to: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\C urrentVersion\Prefetcher” and then look for the key named “LastDisk LayoutTimeString”.

An operating system that takes care of itself? Yes, Windows is getting smarter and smarter. However, there is still one problem: There is no possible way to directly initiate a boot defrag. The only way is to leave your computer on for a little while without using it at all. If you are impatient and do not want to wait, then I have a solution for you.

As I mentioned earlier, the system will only initiate the boot defrag when the system is idle. Typing in a command that will start the boot is not possible. However, you can tell your computer, even when it is not idle, to process the idle tasks. This will indirectly start the boot defrag. Although because the boot defrag is most likely not the only idle task waiting to be run, there will be other processes run as well, which can cause your computer to appear to be doing a lot of hard work as it completes all tasks. During this time, your computer should not be used for any intensive activities, such as playing games. If you try to use your computer while the idle tasks are being processed, you will notice slow performance until the tasks are completed.

Do the following to tell the system to start to process all idle tasks:

1. Click the Start Menu and select Run.

2. Type Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll, ProcessIdleTasks in the text box and select OK.

4. Your computer will now begin working on the tasks.

Performing these steps will allow your system to defrag the boot files. However, because the boot defrag is done every three days, processing the idle tasks more frequently than three-day periods will do nothing to help you boot because the boot defrag will not be on your idle tasks lists all the time.

Using other shareware boot defrag programs

The built-in boot defragmenter is pretty darn good. However, there are a few things that other, third-party programs, feel they do better. And in fact, there actually are a few applications, such as Diskeeper and O&O Defrag that actually do more in their boot defragmentation process.

During the boot-up process, there are a lot of different things going on at once. Among others, drivers are loaded, system files are loaded, and settings are read from the system registry, the built-in boot defragmenter starts to lack in support when talking about the registry files, the file table records, and other system files. Just like any other system data files, the registry files can become fragmented with their daily use. In order to cut down on hard drive seek time for the registry and other system files, which can become quite large over time and more prone to fragmentation, it needs to be defragmented. This is where the third-party applications come in.

Boot time system defrag with Diskeeper

In order to defragment system files, and other files that are normally in use, the defragmentation must be done during the early stages of the system boot. This will allow the defrag program to have full access to all files so that it can place them together on the disk. One of the programs that allow this to be done is called Diskeeper, which is developed by Executive Software. A shareware copy of Diskeeper can be found on Executive Software’s Web site, located at www.executive.com/downloads/menu.asp. If you have not already installed Diskeeper, please do so now before proceeding any further. Do the following to run a boot time defrag:

1. Before you can run a boot time defrag, there needs to be continuous free space on your drive. To accomplish this, simply run a normal online defrag through the Diskeeper utility.

2. After you have completed the online defrag, click the Action menu bar item, expand Change Your Settings and select Boot-Time Defragmentation.

3. Once a new windows pops up, you will have the option to select the drive, as well as several other defrag options. Make sure that you check: Put all folders together on volume, Run the system CHKDSK utility, Defragment the paging file, and Defragment the MFT(Master File Table), as shown in Figure 8-7.

5. Once you have set the correct options and made sure that you selected On Next Manual Reboot, reboot your computer when you are ready for the defrag.

Boot time defrag with O&O Defrag

Just as with Diskeeper, with O&O Defrag there is a boot-time defragmentation option. This allows the system files that are in use to be defragmented, as well as other special files such as the master file table. O&O Defrag is developed by O&O Software and uses different defragmentation algorithms than the Diskeeper program. I have included a section on this program to give you a chance to try both programs and find the program that works better for your system. A shareware copy of O&O Defrag can be found on O&O Software’s Web site, located at O&O Software - Downloads.

Do the following to start a boot-time defrag in O&O Defrag:

1. Launch the O&O defrag application and select Add Job from the Jobs menu bar item.

2. Once you are in the Edit Job window, click the Volumes tab.

3. Next, click the drive letter of the drive you wish to defragment and the drive that your boot files are located on. Most likely this is your C: drive.



FIGURE 8-7: Diskeeper Boot-Time Defragmentation configuration window.

4. Select the Defragmentation Method for the Selected Volume you want to defragment. It is recommended that you select COMPLETE/Access for this defragmentation.

5. Once you have selected the method, make sure to check the box for Activate BootTime Defragmentation and then click the Set button.

6. Next, click the Time Plan tab and select when you would like the job to be run. You can also set up the job to be run on a weekly schedule by selecting Weekly in the Frequency drop-down box.

7. Click the OK button and you will see the job appear under the job list window. You are now finished setting up O&O defrags and your system will be defragmented at the time you scheduled the program to execute.