Microsoft Windows Performance Boost (Vol. 1)
Increase your computer’s performance the easy way!
Learn the secrets computer professionals don’t want you to know.
For Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and 98
By James Peterson, Courtesy of WindowsRepairTool.com © Copyright 2009 all rights reserved.
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Is my System Past its Prime?? When your computer was brand new it was running at its peek performance. There was no waiting when you clicked on an icon or visited a web page. There were no pop ups or mysterious errors slowing you down. Now those days are gone and you may be thinking your computer is past its prime, out of date or just plain broken. I have been working on computers for 20 years and I will tell you rarely is hardware ever the problem. In fact I will put a well maintained older system against a newer poorly maintained system any day of the week. What does this mean? Repairing your version of Windows and learning simple maintenance steps will save you from spending hundreds of dollars on a new computer. I find most people would rather give up and buy a new computer then learn how to repair and maintain the one they already own. Hey I understand lazy we all get that way when it comes to learning new things. That’s why I have tried by best to make this book as simple and easy to follow as possible.
In this volume I will teach you how to repair and maintain your Windows Registry. As you will learn the registry is the most important factor in the performance equation. When you are done reading download my Registry Repair Tool it has the ability to perform system maintenance, optimization tasks as well as registry repairs automatically with just a few mouse clicks. I hope you enjoy reading!!!
What is the Windows Registry?
It is the reason your computer is running slow. As a computer technician I find that 90% of Windows related performance issues as well as system crashes are due to errors in the Windows Registry. The Windows Registry is the place where all your configuration settings are stored. The Windows Registry is huge because it stores every setting from the background of your desktop all the way to what programs load when your computer starts. The registry accounts for it all. Every time you install a new program it makes changes to your Windows registry. Even settings for your hardware are stored in the registry. The longer you have your computer the more errors seem to find their way into your registry, along with useless information and unnecessary configuration settings that tend to bog your system down. These things can wreak havoc on your system. Learning the ins and outs of the Windows registry will give you the power to fix almost any problem affecting your computer.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1:Creating a Restore Point and Exporting Your Registry
Chapter 2:How to eliminate start up items
Chapter 3:How to delete unneeded Registry keys and settings old programs leave behind
Chapter 4:Registry Repair Tools-Maintaining your Windows Registry has never beeneasier
Chapter 5:Registry Hacks- Tips and tricks to customize your Registry
Chapter 1
Creating a Restore Point and Exporting Your Registry
Learning how to create a restore point will give you a very powerful tool in helping you maintain your Windows installation. Example….Let’s say you install a program and after it is set up you notice it is causing your system to crash, you uninstall it reboot but nothing changes. Now you’re stuck. This is where learning how to create a system restore point can save your neck. Always create a restore point when making any changes to your operating system and you will always be able to recover in the event you damage your installation. This is absolutely imperative when working on your Windows registry. Never edit your registry without completing the tasks in this chapter first.
Step 1:Creating a Restore Point Windows Vista Users
Right Click on My Computer
Select Properties
Click on System Protection on the tasks menu.
Click on theCreate Button
You should get a screen similar to the one on the next page
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Step 2:Exporting your Windows Registry
Click your Start button
In the Search/Run box type in Regedit
Select file and then export
Name and Save your file
Creating a Restore Point Windows XP Users
Find Help and Support in your Start Menu
Type: System Restore Wizard
Find and run the System Restore Wizard under run tasks
Now you have a system restore point as well as a copy of your registry file.
Now any changes you make to your Windows Registry can be reversed
Chapter 2
Removing Start-up items from your Windows Registry
Over all my years as a computer tech I have found that the most common factor affecting Windows performance has been too many items loading at start up. There are a surprising amount of programs that set themselves to load at startup when they are originally installed. There more programs you are running the potential ly slower your computer will operate. With that said I can just about guarantee you that after completing this Chapter you will notice (after a reboot) an instant boost in your performance.
Don’t forget to create a system restore point and export a copy of your registry if you haven’t yet. See chapter 1 for help.
A Quick note on the Registry-Now don’t let yourself get intimidated here. The registry is a huge directory so it can be easy to get lost but at the same time it’s well organized. On the Left is the directory structure which in most cases is broken up into 5 folders called hive keys. There are some folders that could be open so if this is the case scroll up to the top and close the open folder.
Click Start thenRun (search in Vista) then type in Regedit
Your screen should look like this
Open Hkey_Local_Machine
You should see several folders drop down.
We are looking for the Software Key. Locate the software key and open it.
Open the Microsoft folder and find Windows.
In the Windows Folder find Current Version.
After opening Current Version find and highlight Run. You screen should look like this.
It’s very important to make sure you are in the right key because at this point we are going to start making some changes. Look at the contents in the right pane. It shows a column for Name, Type, and Data. If you need to expand the name column click on the divider and hold while pulling it to the right. From here just highlight the entry and simple press delete. You may want to keep programs such as Virus protections, firewall, and other vital software running so choose carefully. As you can see there is quite a bit of junk you don’t need in here so cleaning this key out most always significantly boosts performance. Check the Run Once key as well.
Don’t close the registry editor
Removing Start up Items from Hkey_Current_User
Set your path to: Hkey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run
Remove any start up programs you feel are unnecessary
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Removing Items from Context Menu
Set your path to: hkey_Classes_Root\Folder\Shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
Delete the folders of the programs your rarely use
Depending on how many you delete you may experience a performance boost
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Chapter 3
How to delete unneeded Registry key and settings old programs leave behind
Not all programs are responsible and clean up after themselves when you uninstall them.
They can leave behind corruption with in your registry keys, classes as well as bad settings.
Some examples are incorrect program shortcuts, incorrect program shortcuts can cause applications to take longer to launch or even stop them from working at all. Invalid DLL (Dynamic Link Library) entries, these are often the cause of application failures. Empty keys, empty keys increase the size of your registry hence slowing down your computer. These are very hard to find let alone eliminate with out a registry repair tool but we can work with the unnecessary programs already installed on your computer.
Go to Add Remove Programs in your control panel (Programs and Features in Vista) and uninstall any programs you don’t use. Make a list of every application you uninstall. After you’re done reboot your computer and use the search function to find and eliminate left over entries using the application list you created. The goal here is to reduce the size of your registry so Windows will run quicker.
Always create a system restore point and export your registry before making any changes
Using the Registry Editor’s Search Function
You can use the search function to find and delete these unnecessary registry entries.
So let’s do a test run. Run regedit
Make sure you are highlightingComputer otherwise your search will be confined to the key you have selected. Now click onEdit then Find and type in Microsoft as your search term. You will be directed to the first Microsoft entry in the registry. Press F3 to continue searching. This is a good exercise in learning how to find all entries related to a specific program and deleting them in the most efficient way. So grab your list and start searching away. If you would like a quicker way download my registry repair tool
Chapter 4
Registry Repair Tools
Repairing and maintaining your Windows Registry has never been easier.
Being a computer technician I find a Registry Repair tool invaluable. For the most part they are
quick, thorough and eliminate the possibility of human error. Editing the registry is a tedious task
that I would gladly hand over to the right tool. So with that said let me shed a little light on how I approach Registry repair and system optimization as a professional. First off by the time I get a computer it is in bad shape mainly because the repair shop is always the last ditch effort before the system goes into the garbage. So I usually have my work cut out for me. After I have eliminated any viruses or spy-ware I like to use my registry repair tool to clean the registry.
This eliminates all invalid keys and registry errors for me. It also cleans the registry in other ways that are impossible to do by hand such as removing incorrect shortcuts which causes applications to load slower then they should, removing non working class keys and invalid class keys further reducing the size of your registry and eliminating invalid dll entries which are notorious for causing programs to crash. It even gives me an easy way to organize start up items. 9 times out of 10 I am able to save the Windows installation by simply running my registry repair tool. This is why I strongly recommend investing in a registry cleaner product. If you would like to get a copy of my registry repair tool Click Here
Run it at least one a month to keep your computer running smooth
……A Word on System Maintenance
Think of system maintenance along the same lines as giving your car a tune up or changing the oil. A poorly maintained computer will eventual break down just like your vehicle will if you don’t keep up on its maintenance. The problem is that most of us don’t know where to start. In my monthly newsletter I discuss topics relating to basic system maintenance, the latest important updates as well as spyware and virus warnings and the steps you need to take to recover your system if infected. I also include information on internet scams and malicious websites to avoid. Sign up for my free newsletter.
……A closing thought
The Windows registry editor is a very powerful tool to customize your registry. But more importantly the registry editor gives you a tool to keep your system running great for a long time.
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Chapter 5
Registry Hacks
Tips and tricks to customize your Registry
Not it’s time to have a little fun. I going to throw in some cool little hacks for Windows XP and Vista
Hacks For XP and Vista-not all may work on Vista
Please back up your registry before attempting these
(1)Renaming you’re my computer icon
Hkey_classes_root\cslid\20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309
Rename localizedstring value localizedstring.old
Right click and choose create expandable string value
Value data= %Your Windows USERNAME% on %The NAME you want%
Effective after reboot
(2)Listing Your Favorites in Alphabetical order
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Favorites
Delete the favorites key and reboot
(3) Force Internet Explorer to run full screen (this is a 2 step process)
Step 1:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console
Find value full screen and change it to a 1 instead of 0
Step 2:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\Main
create a string value and name it full screen
Type is Yes in the Value date
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(4) Settling down Windows Vista’s User Control
This is one of my favorites. This disables alerts for administrators. This keeps the UAC from popping up every time you run a program but at the same time keeps the important protection measures intact.
Some programs might not like this but that’s ok because you can always change it back
Pull up this key
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin
Change this value to 0 (you can re-enable it with a 2)
Hacks for Faster Performance-Careful with this one!!
Find the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
There are several entries in here you can tweak
ForegroundLockTimeout:
This is the time, the system keeps applications from moving into the background after you are done with them.To speed this up change value to: 00000000
MenuShowDelay
This will speed up the start menu
Try 300 to 400
WaitToKillAppTimeout
This one effects shutdown. This is how long the system waits for user processes to end before logging off.
Try 4000 -5000
Hungapptimeout
This one relates to selecting end task on a process. It controls the time it takes for the program to shutdown.
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