Optimizing Windows 98 for highest level of performance!

C. Virtual Memory Swapping
The last step before exiting out is to speed up the access time on the current swap file. When you allow Windows to handle the swap file automatically it sometimes leads to periods of hard disk activity where your mouse and keyboard become virtually frozen.

1. You should now be back at File Properties
2. Still under the Performance tab
3. Click on the Virtual Memory tab

In the virtual memory dialog box, you should see two options where you see Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings is the default setting.

1. Choose Let me specify my own virtual memory settings

If you have multiple hard drives choose the fastest one to create your swap file on.

The general rule of thumb is to set the minimum and maximum size, 2 ½ to 3 times the size of your physical memory.

So, if you have 64 MB of RAM, you should set both settings to either 160 MB or 192 MB.

This one step will minimize the swapping of drivers and applications between virtual memory and the hard disk, which chew up cycles on your CPU.

D. Cache!
Power gamers and casual users alike usually have more than 16MB’s of RAM. If so, you can improve the performance of the programs you use by changing the allotted amount of RAM Windows provides to Vcache.

Vcache is what Windows uses to hold the hard disk information you’ve accessed most recently. It can grow or shrink dynamically, using as much of your system memory as it needs. In some cases this can be a good thing because it lets your PC reduce the number of times it has to access the disk.

On the other hand the cache can easily take more than half of your system memory, increasing the amount of information that is sent out to the swap file on your hard disk. And reading information from the hard drive is much slower than reading from memory.

To limit the size of the cache, we must edit the System.ini file. To do so:

1. Go to the Start menu and choose RUN
2. Type in SYSEDIT
3. Click on OK and bring up the SYSTEM.INI file.
4. Search down through the file until you find the section called [Vcache].
5. Edit the lines below it or add the following if it does not exist with value equaling a specified number:

MinFileCache=value
MaxFileCache=value

Below is a sample chart you can use to help determine what values to place in your SYSTEM.INI file. The rule of thumb is for the maximum cache size to be about 25 percent of the total memory you have available in your system:

 

Performance improvements will depend on the types of applications you run. If you keep a large amount of applications open but they don’t use the hard drive heavily, It may benefit your performance If you use a lower setting for MaxFileCache value.

Use your best judgment when configuring the setting, since you have a feel for the use of your system.

E. Find Fast? NOT!
If you use Microsoft Office, you’ve probably noticed your PC slowing down every couple of hours while the hard drive thrashes about.

The reason? Probably the Find Fast utility building indexes of all Office documents for searches.

To keep these indexes current, Find Fast will update them every 2 hours by default.

If you work with a large number of documents or have a fast PC, then it may be a ok to keep running it.

If not, you can disable it, change the update interval or update the indexes manually.

To disable it completely, You can use one of the following methods.

1. Choose Start/Settings/Control Panel
2. Double-click the Find Fast icon:

Once in the Find Fast window,

1. Choose Index, and the Delete Index option.
2. From the In and below drop-down list, select an index and click OK.
3. If the list has multiple indexes, repeat until they’ve all been deleted.
4. Next, find and delete the Microsoft Office Find Fast Indexer shortcut by right clicking on the Start button and moving to the StartUp folder to delete it.

1. Another way to get to the same spot is by using Windows' Explorer to look in:

Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp

1. From here, delete the Find Fast Indexer shortcut.
2. If you’re sure you'll never need Find Fast again, you can run Office's setup and have it remove the utility completely.

If you are using Office 97 or higher, you change the interval so it doesn't interrupt you in peak work times.

1. To start, open the Find Fast window from Control Panel as earlier. Choose Index, Update Interval.
2. Type an interval in hours then click OK.

Finally, to update the indexes manually:

1. Open the Find Fast window from Control Panel.
2. Choose Index, Create Index to make a new index for a hard disk or folder.
3. Type the path in the In and below box, and select the file types you want indexed from the "Of type" drop-down list.
4. Be sure that Continue to update automatically is not checked, then click OK.
5. To update existing indexes, choose Index, Update Index.
6. Select an index from the In and below drop-down list, again be sure that Continue to update automatically is not checked, then click OK.

F. Faster Startup
Windows will usually pause a few seconds to allow you to switch into DOS if needed. To shave those extra seconds off the startup time you can edit a protected system file called MSDOS.SYS.

DO NOT CHANGE ANY SETTINGS, YOU ARE NOT FAMILER WITH!

Removing the protection
1. Click Start/Find/Files or Folders
2. In the box labeled NAMED: type MSDOS.SYS
3. If more than one of these files are found, you will need to edit the one located on C:
4. Right-click on the file and choose Properties
5. Remove the checkmark from Read-Only

Now you will need to edit the file.

1. Using the same FIND window, double click on MSDOS.SYS
2. If the Open With windows appears, scroll down the list a choose NOTEPAD and click OK.

DO NOT CLOSE THE FIND WINDOW

3. Scroll down until the [Options] section is located.
4. Add the command BootDelay=0 or BootDelay=1 depending on how much faster you want it to load.

The Boot Delay option tells Windows to boot directly into the graphical user interface without pausing (for the 0 setting) to give users the opportunity to switch into DOS.

1. Back in the FIND window, right-click on the MSDOS.SYS file and choose properties again.
2. Place the checkmark back on the Read-Only option.

For an additional boost of speed you can also add the Dblspace=0 and DrvSpace=0 commands under [Options] Section.

Dblspace=0 disables the loading of the DBLSPACE.BIN driver (Microsoft’s old disk compressor) and DrvSpace=0 disables the loading of the DRVSPACE.BIN (Updated version of disk compressor), so if you don’t use compression go ahead and stop these from loading.

G. Miscellaneous Tweaks
During Startup, Windows loads all the FONTS that you’ve installed which makes startup tedious and takes up memory. You can cut start time by limiting yourself to the number of fonts you depend on.

The easiest way? Create a directory under windows i.e. c:\windows\fontextras and copy all the fonts you won’t use into it. If there is ever a font you need, then copy it from the backup fonts directory, use it then remove it.

Some fonts to consider keeping: Marlett, Arial, Times New Roman, Courier, Wingdings, and Veranda, all of which Windows and Microsoft Office use more often than not.

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