Win Me tweaks? [Archive] - PC Tools Community Forum

byte

10-26-2000, 12:00 PM

i have a lot of tweaks found from all over the net. there are a lot of them below and also www.speedguide.net has a lot of tweaks for broadband connections under the patches section
Enjoy!

Disable System Restore + Floppy Check:
Open Control Panel -> System -> Performance Tab -> File System -> Troubleshooting area -> Disable System Restore.
While in here, click the Floppy Disk tab -> uncheck the box so the system doesn't check for a NEW floppy drive every time it starts.

Uninstall Pc Health:
Start -> Run -> type:

%windir%\Pchealth\Support\Pchsetup /UNINSTALL

Turn off Automatic Updating:
This will hog your modem for the first 30 minutes every day the first time you go on line if not turned off.
Start -> Settings -> Taskbar -> Advanced -> check Expand Control Panel -> close it -> click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Automatic Updates -> turn OFF Automatic Updating.

Disable these Start menu settings:
Start -> Run -> type:

Msconfig

and press Enter. Click on Startup -> UNCHECK PcHealth, StateMgr, SchedulingAgent and TaskMon. Finally reboot, so all these changes can take effect.

Run Windows Explorer -> click on Tools -> Folder Options -> View -> select "Show hidden files and folders" -> browse the C: drive -> delete the _Restore folder. Hold your Shift key so it doesn't move it to the Recycle bin while you press Del. This folder can have hundreds of megs of Temp files if you have been running WinME for a while with the system Restore and PC Health on. If you get a "Sharing violation" error message or if the _Restore folder reappears again in the future, you haven't successfully turned off Pc Health and Restore.
NOTE: If you update MS IE so you can enjoy the advanced Cookie control, it may (re)create the _Restore folder.

See if anything unnecessary is running all the time:
Press Ctrl + Alt + Del at the same time, after you have first booted up and see what programs are loaded. You may find several programs running that don't need to run all the time. Most of them, if actually needed, can be loaded from the Start -> Programs menu.

Don't let Windows run HTA, SHS and VBS Scripts automatically:
These file associations allow viruses to infect your system.
Open Windows Explorer -> click Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types -> delete HTA, SHS and VBSscript. It is very unlikely a normal PC user would need those file associations turned on.

EVERY week:
Backup all modified files, Defrag the system, Update virus definitions and scan the whole system with Norton AntiVirus AND AntiViral Toolkit Pro. Run Ad-Aware to fight spying that at least 100 programs are known to perform. I do this mainly to save wasted bandwidth for data and ads passing back and forth.
I'm running ZoneAlarm Pro to monitor all programs and report if anything tries to access the internet. I don't like programs "calling home" without my permission. :)

WinME does not use C:\Command.com or %windir%\Win.com.
I have found that deleting these files (which are NECESSARY for Win9x) does not make any difference for WinME. Many trojans and viruses target these 2 programs in order to take control and spread.

New cool feature I found:
When in DOS mode you can recall the past commands you have run from the DOS prompt by pressing the up arrow or page up keys."

Disable System Restore.
Open Control Panel -> System -> Performance Tab -> File System - >
Troubleshooting area -> Disable System Restore
(While you are in this window click on the Floppy Disk tab and uncheck the
box so the system doesn't check for a NEW floppy drive every time it starts.)
~~
2. Uninstall Pc Health.
Start / Run "\windows\pchealth\support\pchsetup /uninstall"
~~
3. Turn off Automatic Updating. (This will hog your modem for 30
mins every day when you first go on line if you don't turn it off.)
Start / Settings / Taskbar / Advanced
then check Expand Control Panel and close and go to
Start / Settings / Control Panel / Automatic Updates and turn OFF Automatic Updating
~~
4. Use ram memory rather than the swap file. (The system needs OVER 64 megs of ram.)
Start / Search / Files type and enter: "system.ini" then click on it
and open it in Notepad and add this line after [386Enh] (without quotes)
"ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1"
~~

6. Disable these settings in the start menu.
Start / Run type and enter: "Msconfig"
then click on Startup and UNCHECK PcHealth, StateMgr, SchedulingAgent
and Taskmon Then allow the system to reboot so all these changes will
take effect.
~~
7. Run Windows Explorer and click on Tools / Folder Options / View and
select "Show hidden files and folders" then browse the c: drive and
delete the _Restore folder. Hold your shift key so it doesn't move it
to the recycle bin while you press del. This folder can have hundreds of
megs of temp files if you have been running ME for a while with the
system Restore and PC Health on. If you get an error message saying
there is a sharing violation you haven't successfully turned off Pc
Health and Restore. The _Restore folder should NOT appears again in the
future (unless you update a key Microsoft program like IE).
~~
8. See if anything unnecessary is running all the time.
Press CTRL + ALT + DEl at the same time, after you have first booted
up and see what programs are loaded. You may find several programs running
that don't need to run all the time. Most of them, if actually needed, can
be loaded from the Start / Programs menu.
~~
9. Don't let windows run HTA, SHS and VBS Script automatically.
Those file associations allow viruses to infect your system. Open
Windows Explorer and click Tools / Folder Options / File Types and
delete HTA, SHS and VBSscript. It is very unlikely a normal PC user
would need those file associations turned on.
~~
10. Disable "Automatic check for Windows Explorer updates"
>From the IE "Tools" menu click on "Internet Options" then go to
"Advanced" and uncheck the 4th box.

But you can further increase these settings BEYOND the Win9x GUI limit, to the next level, otherwise unavailable from the System applet, to have your computer cache up to 3 (THREE) times more files and directories, and speed up hard disk performance substantially.
The only disadvantage is that this way Windows will allocate up to 3 times more physical RAM to the file cache, which is taken from the available memory pool, normally used by applications/games. Therefore I recommend doing this ONLY IF your system has at least 32 MB of installed RAM. This works best on computers with 64 MB and up... and who cares about RAM "shortage" if you happen to have 128 MB or more? :-)
And now let's see the "goodies". :)
Copy & paste the text below in Notepad to create a REG file, and save it for example as MAXCACHE.REG:

-----Begin cut & paste here-----
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\FS Templates]
@="Max Cache"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\FS Templates\Super Cache]
@="Super Cache"
"NameCache"=hex:00,ff,00,00
"PathCache"=hex:ff,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\FS Templates\Max Cache]
@="Max Cache"
"NameCache"=hex:00,18,00,00
"PathCache"=hex:c8,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\FS Templates\Huge Cache]
@="Huge Cache"
"NameCache"=hex:80,13,00,00
"PathCache"=hex:90,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\FS Templates\Large Cache]
@="Large Cache"
"NameCache"=hex:a0,0f,00,00
"PathCache"=hex:80,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\FS Templates\Medium Cache]
@="Medium Cache"
"NameCache"=hex:20,0f,00,00
"PathCache"=hex:50,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\contro l\FileSystem]
"NameCache"=hex:00,18,00,00
"PathCache"=hex:c8,00,00,00
------End cut & paste here------
CREDITS:

"Super Cache" settings appear courtesy of Thomas B. Tompkins (thomast@ns.sympatico.ca: ICQ# 3001681), and THESE ARE THE MAXimum values accepted by Windows 95/98!
"Large Cache" settings appear courtesy of Dave (kavaston@csolve.net).
Now all you have to do is (double)-click on MAXCACHE.REG in Explorer or File Manager to merge this information into your Registry, and then restart Windows so the changes can take effect.
From now on you can select among 5 (FIVE) new options ("Max Cache" setting is used here), besides the 3 "classic" Win9x choices: "Network Server", "Desktop Computer" and "Mobile or Docking System", when you decide the "Typical role of this computer", as explained at the top of this article: [... life in the fast lane, baby! :)]

REG File Above "NameCache" "PathCache" Memory (RAM) Used
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW Setting Cached Files Cached Directories KiloBytes [KB]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Super Cache 65280 255 2170 KB (2.1 MB)
Max Cache 6144 200 150 KB
Huge Cache 4992 144 108 KB
Large Cache 4000 128 80 KB
Medium Cache 3872 80 64 KB
Meaning ["Max Cache" used as example]: this allocates about 150 KB of RAM to cache the last 200 accessed directory paths and the last 6144 accessed files.
Compare to: [... join the slow moving crowd! :)]
Use the "Super Cache" settings ONLY IF your have at least 128 MB RAM!

Modem Tweaking

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/winme_modem/index.shtml