Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (
More info?)
"la_bruin@nospam.msn.com" wrote:
> Good news!
> There's a free tool that does what you'd like for Windows
> XP Professional called NTREGOPT. It take a few minutes
> but it rebuilds the registry top down and effectively
> compresses the entire database. The end result is a
> registry that is substantially smaller, saves disk space,
> and potentially quickens registry access. Give it a
> try. I think you'll be impressed.
I have used NTREGOPT before. It never caused harm to my system, but whether
it resulted in any transparent (measurable and noticable) improvements in
performance is another matter.
[...]
> If you'd like a tool that defrags the registry (and all
> the other system files) use PAGEDFRG.EXE from
> SysInternals. It's a great tool that helps kick
> performance up a notch if you can't afford Diskeeper 9 by
> defragging the page file, the registry, and other system
> components.
I'm using Diskeeper 9. Right now, it is the only third party tool that I
use that is specifically intended to improve Windows XP performance, and even
then only because it is a more souped up version of the built in defragger.
In particular, I like the Set It and Forget It feature, and I also like the
feature that measures the performance gains that you can expect to achieve by
using Diskeeper. To be sure, I also like PerfectDisk, and if Diskeeper
didn't exist I would probably use PerfectDisk. But as far as
performance-enhancing utilities go, that's it for me.
[...]
> Now, if you'd like a tool that cleans out irrelevant keys
> & values from the registry, there's a slew of tools that
> do the job...
I have used many of them in the past. At best, I've noticed no change in my
overal system performance. At worst, they caused me new problems, sometimes
major problems. Again, none of these programs seems to provide any
transpaent improvement in system performance and stability, nor do they
provide any means of measuring any such performance.
Most of these third party performance tools are snake oil. I have learned
-- through the hard way (trial and error), that if you really want fast,
stable performance in Windows XP, less is almost always more. IMO, here is
what you need to do, and it has worked far better for me than third party
utilities:
1. Keep your disks free from errors (run chkdsk regularly), free of junk
(XP's Disk Clean program is more than adequate for the job), and regularly
defragged.
2. Make sure your machine has enough CPU and memory to do normal computing
tasks without having to use the pagefile. This means either that you need to
buy a new machine (e.g. don't expect XP Professional to run well on an old
computer designed to run Windows 98) or cut down as much as you can on
multitasking.
3. Review Event Viewer regularly and, when it reports an error or warning,
fix the ones that you can fix.
4. Last but not least, keep the crudware -- viruses, spyware, adware, ad
nauseum -- off your machine. This means keeping Windows up to date
(including SP2), keeping your antivirus program up to date, and regularly
checking for spyware and adware (or, better yet, don't download it in the
first place!).
Ken
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