Ways+to+Improve

Ways to Improve

Problem: Windows never seems to start fast enough

Fast Fix 1: Your computer could be loading device drivers for hardware you no longer use. To save on system resources, uninstall those drivers. Since a careless choice can cause your machine to lose an important function, however, create a restore point in System Restore before proceeding. By default, Device Manager doesn't show devices that aren't currently connected to your system. To make them visible, press Windows-R to open the Run box, type cmd, and press Enter. At the command prompt, type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 and press Enter.

Leave the command-prompt window open. Now press Windows-R again, type:- devmgmt.msc, and press Enter. In the Device Manager window, choose:- View, Show Hidden Devices. Click the plus sign (+) next to each of the branches to examine all of the drivers on your system. Devices that are not currently connected appear with a pale version of the icon. If you come across a device that you're sure you no longer use, right-click it and choose Uninstall. Then follow the prompts shown on screen to complete the process. When you're done, close the command-prompt window to re-hide your unconnected devices.

Fast Fix 2: Once you have mapped a network drive to a letter on your computer, Windows will automatically restore that connection by default whenever you log on. Since resuming network connections takes time, you can speed your startups by dropping the connections you aren't using.

Press Windows-E to launch Windows Explorer, and type Alt-T, D to open the Disconnect Network Drives dialog box. Pick the drives to disconnect, and click OK.

In the future, if you connect a drive only for the current session, simply enter its UNC path (This appears in the address bar when you select the drive in Explorer, and in the Run box). Or, if you use the Tools, Map Network Drive command in Explorer, make sure Reconnect at logon is unchecked before you click Finish.

Fast Fix 3: You'll free your system's memory and recover processor cycles by clearing out the clutter that starts each time you log in to Windows - and you may even discover some malware in the process. Check out the free Autoruns program from Microsoft-owned Sysinternals.

How do you distinguish the useful startup programs from the useless ones? You can consult Autoruns' built-in research tools. .

Fast Fix: Set your version of Windows to disable the Autoplay feature for all of your system's drives. The quickest way I know of to accomplish this result is to establish a group policy for your computer. In XP, press Windows-R, type: gpedit.msc, and press Enter.

In the tree pane on the left, navigate to and select Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System. Scroll in the right pane and double-click Turn off Autoplay. In the 'Turn off Autoplay Properties' dialog box, click Enabled and choose All drives from the drop-down list underneath. Click OK.

Fast Fix : With a few quick keystrokes, you can close shop much faster. Here are the fastest ways to exit, restart, and log off from Windows. In XP, press Windows, U, U to shut down; Windows, U, R to restart; and Windows, L, L to log off.  