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Eke the max out of your OS
IS YOUR Windows 98/ME-based system too slow for you? Are you craving for speed and performance? If so, then read on.
In this article, I will discuss most of the performance variables that do not require any third-party software. Not only will the included tips tweak up your system for optimal performance, they will decrease loading time and also augment the performance and stability of heavy-duty applications giving you a turbo-charged PC in no time.
First and foremost, ensure that you have the latest drivers for all peripherals (the latest service packs for your version of Windows). Then, check whether your hard drive and CDR/CDRW both support UDMA and DMA transfers, respectively. To check that, right-click on “My Computer” and select “Properties.” Open “Disk Drives”, then your particular drive. Select “Settings” and see whether DMA is enabled or not.
To enable some of these settings, you’ll have to know how to use the registry editor. To open it, simply type “regedit” in the “Run” box. Before proceeding, it is recommended that you make fresh backups of your entire system (registry and system files). In Win98, make a startup disk. Also, copy the following files to a new location, so that when a related problem arises, you can easily restore them. Even if Windows refuses to start (in a worst-case scenario), you can use Safe Mode or restore them from dos by using these files: (C:\msdos.sys, C:\config.sys, C:\autoexec.bat, C:\windows\win .ini, C:\windows\ system.ini).
In WinME, this process is much simpler. Open System Restore, and simply create a restore point with a description of your choice. That way, you can undo most undesirable changes.
Many say WinXP is all about the ultimate digital experience, as compared to the insipid Win98/ME. While it is true, you can still manage to tweak with settins of old Windows and really enhance your digital experience.
Files preview
If you are using Win98/ME and have Web View enabled, you can preview Web related files in the folder window. But not all file types are viewable or playable. So in order to make multimedia clips play in Win98, change the settings by going to C:\Windows\Web and choosing View\Customize this folder and ensure that “Create or edit an HTML document” is selected. Once the file opens in Notepad, choose “Search/Find”. Type “wantmedia” and click “Find Next”. This will locate a line that reads: “var wantMedia = false”. Here change “false” to “true” and save and exit. The process is a bit different in WinME. After selecting “Choose or edit an HTML template for this folder,” select “standard” and place a tick next to “I want to edit this template.” Once folder.htt opens in notepad, locate “function IsMovieFile(ext)”; beneath it you’ll see the following text: return false; change the “false” to “true” for previewing movie clips. Next, pick a movie clip (.avi, .mpg, .mov, .wmv, etc.) or a sound file (.au, .wav, etc.) and then click the play button that appears in the preview area.
The following settings will help you get the most out of Windows, ensuring that your system runs blazingly fast like never before. Open your “system.ini” file located in C:\windows and add all the entries under [386Enh]. Make sure you copy the entries exactly as shown in table 1 maintaining case sensitivity. After you have made the changes and saved the file, add the lines as shown in table 2 to your msdos.sys file under [options] (remove the read-only attribute first, otherwise you won’t be able to save changes). Once done save the file and exit.
Applets in the startup list can slow down startup. To speed up booting, type msconfig from the “Run” menu. The system configuration utility lets you disable such applets so you can see what’s necessary. Select “startup” and disable any non-essential applets that you may have loading every time at StartUp. Also, make sure that Windows isn’t starting any processes twice. Restart after saving to see your launch time improve. The start menu too can be tweaked to your liking. To make the cascading menus appear more quickly in Win98/ME, open “Regedit” and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\ Desktop. Open “MenuShow Delay” by double clicking it. Change the default value to 0 (milliseconds). Restart your system to see a faster, more responsive Start menu.
Now that Windows is faster than ever, it’s time to optimize some of the caches that are present in a typical Windows environment. A cache is a memory that is external to main memory and is used to hold the most previous data processed. It helps by speeding up frequently accessed data. Lets start with the disk cache:
Disk cache: The Disk Cache serves as an intermediate buffer by storing the most recently accessed data in RAM. Since PCs can access data from RAM much faster than from hard drives, disk caching can dramatically improve performance. However, Win98/ME can often set aside more than 75 per cent RAM for the disk cache if left on their own. As a result, the system uses the swap file frequently, thereby decreasing performance significantly.
Generally, the maximum disk cache should not be lower than ¼ of RAM, whereas the minimum disk cache should not be more than ¼ of it. Compute ¼ of your RAM (kilobytes) for the maximum. For instance, 32768KB for 128MB) and 1/8 of it for the minimum. For instance, 16384KB for 128MB. In system.ini, find the [vcache] section and add underneath:
MinFileCache=16384
MaxFileCache=32768.
Reboot.
Unlike Win98/ME, WinXP/2000 offer excellent disk cache handling, virtually eliminating such problems from arising.
CDFS cache: When Windows retrieves data from a CD, the CDFS cache on the hard drive decreases access time considerably as it is faster to read from the hard drive as compared to a typical CDROM drive. Although the CDROM drive continues working at its normal speed, more current data is now accessed from the faster cache than from the slower CD.
The default maximum size in Windows is 1238KB with an optimize access pattern of 4X. However, this can be increased to 4638KB with the latter at 72X, thus eradicating problems such as choppy/slow video playback. The high access pattern ensures that the CDR is reading files in the most efficient manner. Unlike the CDFS cache, DVDs use the UDF for their file systems. This means that these settings are not applicable for DVD drives and may only be used for CDRW and CD drives. To set these values, open “Regedit” and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\CurrentControlSet\ Control\FileSystem\CDFS. Next, double-click “CacheSize” and input “0F 09 00 00”
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\CDFS
Next, double-click “Prefetch” and input “88 07 00 00”. Save, exit and reboot.
Icon cache: The Icon cache eliminates the need to constantly retrieve icons from executables and icon libraries. If it is sufficiently large, system performance can dramatically increase, specially when accessing network drives. The default setting is 500. To increase it to 2000 icons, open “Regedit” and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer. Next, double-click “Max Cached Icons” and input “2000”. Save, exit and reboot.
Disk fragmentation
This utility can bring even a very powerful system down to its knees. It occurs over long time periods, as programs read and write to the hard disk. Eventually, the most frequently accessed files “break up” spanning across non-sequential clusters. Fragmentation doesn’t affect the validity of the information, but it takes much longer for the system to read and write fragmented files. By default, the file system first tries to allocate space in the first contiguous 512KB to prevent extreme fragmentation. Increasing this value can result in even less fragmentation and improved performance. It should preferably be increased to larger values, such as 4096KB, although 1536KB, 2048KB and 3072KB are other alternates. To set any of these values, open Registry editor and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem; modify the “ContigFileAlloc Size” key and click the decimal button. Next input “4096”, close and restart.
Read-ahead buffer
The Read-Ahead Buffer improves read performance by anticipating the next read when an application accesses data in sequence within Windows. This works in many cases, unfortunately performance decreases drastically if several programs access the hard drive simultaneously.
Right-click “My Computer” and select “Properties.” Next, File System\Hard Disk. There, set the typical role to “Network Server,” no matter what your system actually is. To speed up copy operations (high read-ahead), the recommended setting is 256KB. The default setting is 64KB. To do so, open “Regedit” and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem; next, double click “ReadAheadThreshold” and input “00 00 04 00”. Save, exit and reboot.
One last setting before ending: set your swap file manually. To do so, right-click “My Computer,” then go to Properties>Performance> Virtual Memory and specify your own settings. If you have more than 128MB RAM, set the size equal to your RAM in both boxes. If you have less, calculate 2.5 times your RAM and enter in both boxes. Restart.
Conclusion
Now that your “old dog” has learnt some new tricks, you can put it to test with a benchmark tool. I recommend using SiSoft’s Sandra, an excellent diagnostic program. It has several benchmarks, including one for memory bandwidth, cache, CD, etc. But perhaps the best test for your disk cache is to load several applications at the same time and work with them simultaneously. If you don’t encounter major slowdowns, then your system really is operating at peak performance. But if you do, then it’s back to the drawing board.
The writer
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