There is Nothing Remaining Now
Go ahead Explore ur N series : Rahul
All Compiled for You
This article is Dedicated to my awesome Friend Akshay ahuja For His Marvelous trust in me and Nokia N72 Phone.. an inspiration to find dis article
Taken From the Symbian Service Center Confidential Manual
05/ dec / 2006
1 : Do u know how to use the edit button (abc or pencil button)?Heres how... in the inbox for example; u wanna delete multiple sms, simply hold the edit button, scroll down, and then, press c to delete the marked sms. The edit button can also b used to copy and past text in sms, simply hold it and scroll across, choose copy. pretty good for placing song names in ngages
Tip 2 : Shit happens, on a smartphone, its inevitable u do something wrong, and tis calls for a format of fone. to format the fone, press *#7370#, then enter the lock code, which is the sec code of the fone. NOTE: batt must b full, else if format is disrupted by low batt, consequences will b disatrous I heard the code *#7780# works too, pretty much the same i tink.for 6600 users, to format the fone, theres an alternative way. Press and hold <3>, <*> and Call (Send) buttons, then power on fone, keep holding on the 3 buttons, till u come to a format screen. this method ONLY works on 6600, and need not enter the sec code. BUT sec code would be reset to default 12345.
Tip 3 : TO NGAGE USERS; Did u know u can install .sis files simply using the cable given? Juz plug it in, place the .sis file anywhere on e: (the mmc), not in any folders, root of e:, disconnect, then look for it in manager.
Tip 4: Save on battery and system memory being used by regulary checking the task manager which can be accessed by holding down the menu button!!
Tip 5: Type *#06# to display your IMEI serial number, very valuable for the unlocking your phone to other sim cards
Tip 6: Type *#0000# to view which firmware version you are running
Tip 4a: Set the screen saver to a short time out period to prolong battery life.Tip 4b: Avoid restarting the phone, or repeatedly turning it on and off. This helps increase battery life.
Tip 7: If you would like to avoid being "blue jacked", keep bluetooth turned off, or set your phone's visibility to hidden.
Tip 8: Don't want to carry a watch and a phone? Set the screen saver to show date and time, then you can ditch the watch.
Tip 9: Save memory when installing apps, by installing over bluetooth. This can be done using the nokia phone suite and a bluetooth serial connection. Only works with .SIS files, so java still has to be sent to the phone, but will save space when using .SIS files
.
Tip 10: Operator logosUse a filemanager like FExplorer or SeleQ to add the folders: "c:/system/Apps/phone/oplogo". Add a .bmp picture to folder "oplogo" and restart your phone! The .bmp picture size needs to be: 97 x 25 pixels
Tip 11: Check if the recepients phone is onDelivery reports
or
Type *0# your message in the message composer window space then write your message, the recipient will not see the star zero hash bit - just the message When they read it it will relay a message back to your fone showing the time they recieved it. (haven't yet tried it myself though)
Tip 12: BlueJacking
First up, you need to know what Bluetooth is. There are lots of types of modern devices that incorporate Bluetooth as one of their many features. PDAs, mobile phones and laptops are a few of these modern devices. Bluetooth means that Bluetooth enabled devices can send things like phonebook/address book contacts, pictures & notes to other Bluetooth enabled devices wirelessly over a range of about 10 metres. So, we've got past the boring part. Now, using a phone with Bluetooth, you can create a phonebook contact and write a message, eg. 'Hello, you've been bluejacked', in the 'Name' field. Then you can search for other phones with Bluetooth and send that phonebook contact to them. On their phone, a message will popup saying "'Hello, you've been bluejacked' has just been received by Bluetooth" or something along those lines. For most 'victims' they will have no idea as to how the message appeared on their phone.
Tip 13: While you are viewing a picture in your phone's gallery, press one of these shortcut keys (definitely works on 6600, not sure about other symbians)1 - turn image anticlockwise3 - turn image clockwise* - toggle on/off of full screen5 - zoom in0 - zoom out
Tip 14 : You can select all files in a folder by selecting THE folder and copy it then paste it somewhere. however u need to make a new directory. fexplorer wun let u copy that folder together. well seleQ can mark files to copy but it really takes time!
Tip 15 :: A soft and Hard resetA Soft-reset - the process of resetting all the settings of the phone to the factory default! No applications are deleted! A Hard-reset is like formatting a drive! It does format the memory. Everything that has been installed after the first use of the phone is deleted! It will recover the memory of the phone to the state you purchased it! It is done by inputing the following code: *#7370# NOTE: The battery must be full or the charger has to be connected to the phone so that it does not run out of power and make the phone unusable.
Tip 16: Formats of images
supported ones: JPG UPF GIF87a/89a WBMB MBM TIFF/F PNG EXIF
How to copy & paste text in your Nokia 3650:Press and hold the pencil key and select your text using the scroll key.Left function key will change to 'Copy'. Press it to copy the selected text to clipboard.You can paste the clipboard contents the same way:press and hold the pencil key and press 'Paste'. Or, press pencil key once and select 'Paste'.
Press and hold the Menu key to open the application switching window, where you can *duh* switch between applications.If a program hangs and you can't shut it down, select the application in theapplication switching window and press 'C' to kill it. It's also a faster way to exit programs.
Turn on/off the "click" sound made by the camera by selecting the 'Silent' profile or by turning warning tones on/off:Menu > Profiles > "select your activated profile" > Personalise > Warning tones > On/Off.(This also effects the sound of Java games and apps).
To change background image go to:Menu > Tools > Settings > Phone > Standby mode > Background image > Yes > "choose an image".The best size for background images is 174x132 pixels.
Only got blue, green and purple in your 3650 colour palette?This free app adds 3 more colours: Palette Extender.
Display an image when someone's calling:Menu > Contacts > "select a contact card" > Options > Edit > Options > Add thumbnail > "choose an image".
Add a personal ringing tone to a contact:Menu > Contacts > "select a contact card" > Options > Open > Options > Ringing tone > "choose a ringing tone".
Delete all messages from your Inbox at once:Menu > Messaging > Inbox > Options > Mark/Unmark > Mark all > Options > Delete.
Send or hide your caller ID: Go to: Menu > Tools > Settings > Call > Send MyCaller ID > 'Yes', 'No' or 'Set By Network' to follow the default settings of your home network.
If you often copy large files to your MultiMedia Card, I recommend a card reader.E.g. With a card reader it takes only 12 seconds to copy a 10 MB file!
Record the sound of a phone call using the (sound) Recorder.Menu > Extra's > Recorder > Options > Record sound clip.Note: short beeps are audible during call registration.But there is a 60 second limitation so if you want unlimited sound recording get this app: Extended Recorder.
While writing text, press "#" to switch between upper and lower case and Dictonary on/off (predictive text input).Press and hold "#" to switch between Alpha mode and Number mode.
Keyboard shortcuts for zooming and rotating images in Images:1 = zoom in, 0 = zoom out, press and hold to return to the normal view.2 = rotate anticlockwise, 9 = rotate clockwise, * = full screen.
In standby mode, press and hold the right soft key to activate voice dialling.To add a voice tag to a phone number, open a contact card and scroll to the phone number and select:Options > Add voice tag.
You can customize both soft keys located below the screen (in standby mode):Menu > Tools > Settings > Phone > Standby mode > Left/Right selection key > "select an application".
In standby mode. press scroll key center (joystick) to go directly to Contacts.
In standby mode, press and hold 0 to launch your wap home page.
In Menu or any subfolder, press numbers 1 - 9 to start the application at that location.123456789
In standby mode,45# + dials the number on your sim in memory slot 45.50# + dials slot 50 and so on.
If you have your keylock activated just press the on/off button to turn on your backlightto look at the time when it's dark without having to unlock the keypad.
Never, ever, in your whole life, install WildSkinz on your Nokia 3650!!! WildSkinz screws upthe whole 3650 system. It was never intended to work on the 3650, only on the 7650.
Why assigning Video Recorder in the right or left soft key does not work?
(Sound Recorder is launched instead of Video Recorder)It's a bug with firmware version 2.50.
How to check your firmware version:
A "Firmware" is the phone's operating system stored in internal Flash memory of the device (disk Z.Manufacturers release new firmware versions containing bug fixes, improvements and - sometimes - offering new functions.Firmware upgrade can only be made in authorized Nokia service centre (point).To check your current firmware version simply type *#0000# on main Phone screen.
?
How to check your IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)?
Type *#06# on main Phone screen.
Start up in Safe Mode so no 'auto start' apps will be running:
To make sure that no memory-resident programs start when you reboot your phone,hold down the pencil key when you turn on the phone and hold it on untill you have to enter your PIN code.(When you have trouble booting up the phone with the MMC in it because it got corrupted for some reason, this trick willalmost always let you boot up the phone so you can remove the latest installed app which might have caused theproblem or if your phone is "unrepairable" you can still back up your important data before you do a format.)
Q: How to totally format your Nokia 3650 and remove all installed applications, user files and restore allsettings to default like it's new out of the box? (OEM apps won't be deleted like Camera and RealOne Player).
A: First Format your MMC: Menu > Extras > Memory > Options > Format mem. card > Yes.Note: It is very important to format your MMC before you format your phone!Then format your phone by typing *#7370# on main Phone screen.Phone will ask: "Restore all original phone settings? Phone will restart." Press 'Yes' and enter your Lock code (default is 12345).Tip: Formatting takes several minutes so you'd better connect your Nokia 3650to a charger to ensure that your battery doesn't get empty in the middle of formatting.Note: All your created acces points and mailboxes will be lost so take a note of them. And all application settings will be reset.E.g. In Camera, image quality is set back to normal and memory in use is set back to phone memory. And also in Messages,memory in use is set back to phone memory, etc. Also backup your contacts with PC Suite or a program like Contacts Manager.
To reset your wallet, should you forget your code,
Type in:*#7370925538#
this will reset the wallet code, the wallet contents will be deleted.
How to free more RAM on your phone
>>> Method 1: Flight mode:
Put your phone in "Flight mode" with Psiloc System Tools. Install System Tools, open it and select "Flight mode". This way you can restart the phone without your SIM card so there will be no running phone tasks in the background. Now you can have up to 3,5 MB of free RAM!
Note: ironically enough, Flight mode doesn't work when Smart Launcher is installed, at least in my case. But i've also heard several reports of people who have both apps running without any problems.
>>> Method 2: Smart Launcher trick:
Install Smart Launcher and open it. Go to Options, Settings and put Launcher ON.Now plug in your charger and switch off your phone. Wait untill the battery meter appears and short press the Menu button (don't hold).The menu should appear and now you can have 3,5 to 4,5 MB free RAM! (Hold Menu button to check RAM).
The trick is that with the charger plugged in, the phone must get a minimum software support for charging, even whenthe phone is switched off. And somehow Smart Launcher has still got it's shortcut running and that's the Menu button. So whenyou press the Menu button, you go directly to the Menu without any other phone tasks running in the background soyou trick the phone and you have more free RAM!Note: when you unplug the charger, the phone will switch off.
>>> Method 3: Menu :
This method I found it by myself, it frees a little about 100~200 KB but I guess it's useful sometime
Close your menu not by selecting the right selection key "exit", or pressing the menu key another time, they only hide the menu app but do not close it, to close it select the left selection key "option" and scroll down and select "exit"
So when you open an app needs more ram reopen menu and close it, it's useful when play low bit rate video in realplayer paradis.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
XP Application Secrets
1.Easter Eggs (Definition) - A hidden message or
feature in an application. This guide covers the
undocumented and hidden features in Windows XP. All
of the following were tested in Windows XP only.
Notes - This is not a performance related guide,
use the Optimize XP Guide to improve system
performance and the Diagnose XP Guide to
troubleshoot a system problem.
a. Defrag
Secret - Hidden Command Line Switch
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Run" and Type defrag
c: -b to defragment the Boot and Application
Prefetch information.
Notes - Windows XP will run this automatically
every three days or so, during system idle periods.
BootVis will evoke this when you run the "Optimize
System" function. There is no need to manually run
this unless you wish to immediately optimize a
newly installed application's load time.
b. Paint
Secret - Image Trails
Instructions - Open an image and hold down Shift
then drag the image around to create an image
trail.
Secret - 10x Zoom
Instructions - Open an image and select the
magnifying glass icon. Left-Click exactly on the
line below the 8x.
2.Game Secrets
a. FreeCell
Secret - Instant Win
Instructions - Hold down Ctrl + Shift + F10 during
game play. Then you will be asked if you want to
Abort, Retry or Ignore. Choose Abort, then move any
card to instantly win.
Secret - Hidden Game Modes
Instructions - In the "Game" menu choose "Select
Game". Enter -1 or -2 to activate the hidden game
modes.
b. Hearts
Secret - Show All Cards
Instructions - Edit this registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curren
tVersion\Applets\Hearts and create a new String
value named ZB with a Data value of 42. Start
Hearts and Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + F12 to show
all the cards.
Background - This secret is a reference to Douglas
Adams' book the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
'ZB' is the initials of the character Zaphod
Beeblebrox, the Galactic President. '42' is the
answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the
Universe and Everything.
c. Minesweeper
Secret - Reveal Mines
Instructions - Minimize or close all running
applications. Launch Minesweeper, then type xyzzy.
Next hold down either shift key for one second. Now
when you move the mouse cursor over a Minesweeper
square you will see a tiny white pixel in the top
left corner of your desktop screen. This pixel will
change to black when your mouse moves over a mine.
You may need to change you desktop background to a
solid color other then white or black to see the
pixel.
Secret - Stop Timer
Instructions - Launch Minesweeper and start a game
so the timer starts counting, then press the
Windows Key + D to show the desktop. Now when you
select minesweeper from the taskbar you can
continue playing with the timer stopped.
d. Pinball
Secret - Extra Balls
Instructions - Type 1max at the start of a new ball
to get extra balls.
Secret - Gravity Well
Instructions - Type gmax at the start of a new game
to activate the Gravity Well.
Secret - Instant Promotion
Instructions - Type rmax at the start of a new game
to go up in ranks.
Secret - Skill Shot
Instructions - Launch the ball partially up the
chute past the third yellow light bar so it falls
back down to get 75,000 points. There are six
yellow light bars that are worth a varying amount
of points:
First: 15,000 points
Second: 30,000 points
Third: 75,000 points
Fourth: 30,000 points
Fifth: 15,000 points
Sixth: 7,500 points
Secret - Test Mode
Instructions - Type hidden test at the start of a
new ball to activate Test Mode. No notification
will be given that this is activated but you can
now left-click the mouse button and drag the ball
around. While in test mode press the following keys
for more secrets:
H - Get a 1,000,000,000 High Score
M - Shows the amount of system memory
R - Increases your rank in game
Y - Shows the Frames/sec rate
Secret - Unlimited Balls
Instructions - Type bmax at the start of a new
ball. No notification will be given that this is
activated but when a ball is lost a new ball will
appear from the yellow wormhole indefinitely. Once
this is activated you will be unable to activate
other secrets without restarting the game.
e. Solitaire
Secret - Instant Win
Instructions - Press Alt + Shift + 2 during game
play to instantly win.
Secret - Draw single cards in a Draw Three game
Instructions - Hold down CTRL + ALT + SHIFT while
drawing a new card. Instead of drawing three cards
you will only draw one.
3. OS Secrets
a. Add/Remove
Secret - Hidden Uninstall Options
Instructions - Warning: Proceed at your own risk!
Browse to C:\Windows\inf\ and make a backup copy of
sysoc.inf. Then open the original file
C:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf in notepad. Go to "Edit"
and select "Replace". In "Find what:" type ,hide
and in "Replace with:" type , then select "Replace
All", save and close the file. Go to the "Control
Panel", "Add/Remove", select "Add/Remove Windows
Components". You will now see many more Windows
components to uninstall. Do not remove anything
with no label or that you do not recognize or fully
understand what it does. Doing so can break certain
functionality in Windows.
b. Control Panel
Secret - Hidden Control Panel Extensions
Instructions - Download and install TweakUI,
launch, go to "Control Panel" and check any item
not selected, then "Apply" and "OK". You will now
see the hidden control panel extensions.
c. Device Manager
Secret - Hidden Devices
Instructions - Go to the "Control Panel", "System"
icon, "Hardware" tab and select "Device Manager".
Select "View" and Show hidden devices.
Secret - Phantom Devices
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Programs",
"Accessories" and select "Command Prompt". At the
command prompt, type "set
devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" and press Enter.
At the command prompt, type "start devmgmt.msc" and
press Enter. Select "View" and Show hidden devices.
You can see devices that are not connected to the
computer. - Source
Notes - When you close the command prompt window,
Windows clears the
"devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" variable that
you set and prevents phantom devices from being
displayed when you select "Show hidden devices".
d. Music
Secret - Music from the Installer
Instructions - Browse to
C:\Windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma and play.
Notes - "OOBE" stands for "Out-of-Box Experience".
e. Shutdown
Secret - Display Hibernate Option on the Shut Down
dialog
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Turn Off
Computer..." and press either Shift key to change
the "Stand By" button to "Hibernate".
f. Support Tools
Secret - Over 100 Windows XP Support Utilities are
on the install CD
Instructions for Pre-SP2 users - If you do not have
SP2 installed, put the original Windows XP CD in
the CD-ROM Drive, run the
D:\Support\Tools\setup.exe file.
Instructions for SP2 users - If you have SP2
installed, Download the Windows XP Service Pack 2
Support Tools and install.
feature in an application. This guide covers the
undocumented and hidden features in Windows XP. All
of the following were tested in Windows XP only.
Notes - This is not a performance related guide,
use the Optimize XP Guide to improve system
performance and the Diagnose XP Guide to
troubleshoot a system problem.
a. Defrag
Secret - Hidden Command Line Switch
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Run" and Type defrag
c: -b to defragment the Boot and Application
Prefetch information.
Notes - Windows XP will run this automatically
every three days or so, during system idle periods.
BootVis will evoke this when you run the "Optimize
System" function. There is no need to manually run
this unless you wish to immediately optimize a
newly installed application's load time.
b. Paint
Secret - Image Trails
Instructions - Open an image and hold down Shift
then drag the image around to create an image
trail.
Secret - 10x Zoom
Instructions - Open an image and select the
magnifying glass icon. Left-Click exactly on the
line below the 8x.
2.Game Secrets
a. FreeCell
Secret - Instant Win
Instructions - Hold down Ctrl + Shift + F10 during
game play. Then you will be asked if you want to
Abort, Retry or Ignore. Choose Abort, then move any
card to instantly win.
Secret - Hidden Game Modes
Instructions - In the "Game" menu choose "Select
Game". Enter -1 or -2 to activate the hidden game
modes.
b. Hearts
Secret - Show All Cards
Instructions - Edit this registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curren
tVersion\Applets\Hearts and create a new String
value named ZB with a Data value of 42. Start
Hearts and Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + F12 to show
all the cards.
Background - This secret is a reference to Douglas
Adams' book the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
'ZB' is the initials of the character Zaphod
Beeblebrox, the Galactic President. '42' is the
answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the
Universe and Everything.
c. Minesweeper
Secret - Reveal Mines
Instructions - Minimize or close all running
applications. Launch Minesweeper, then type xyzzy.
Next hold down either shift key for one second. Now
when you move the mouse cursor over a Minesweeper
square you will see a tiny white pixel in the top
left corner of your desktop screen. This pixel will
change to black when your mouse moves over a mine.
You may need to change you desktop background to a
solid color other then white or black to see the
pixel.
Secret - Stop Timer
Instructions - Launch Minesweeper and start a game
so the timer starts counting, then press the
Windows Key + D to show the desktop. Now when you
select minesweeper from the taskbar you can
continue playing with the timer stopped.
d. Pinball
Secret - Extra Balls
Instructions - Type 1max at the start of a new ball
to get extra balls.
Secret - Gravity Well
Instructions - Type gmax at the start of a new game
to activate the Gravity Well.
Secret - Instant Promotion
Instructions - Type rmax at the start of a new game
to go up in ranks.
Secret - Skill Shot
Instructions - Launch the ball partially up the
chute past the third yellow light bar so it falls
back down to get 75,000 points. There are six
yellow light bars that are worth a varying amount
of points:
First: 15,000 points
Second: 30,000 points
Third: 75,000 points
Fourth: 30,000 points
Fifth: 15,000 points
Sixth: 7,500 points
Secret - Test Mode
Instructions - Type hidden test at the start of a
new ball to activate Test Mode. No notification
will be given that this is activated but you can
now left-click the mouse button and drag the ball
around. While in test mode press the following keys
for more secrets:
H - Get a 1,000,000,000 High Score
M - Shows the amount of system memory
R - Increases your rank in game
Y - Shows the Frames/sec rate
Secret - Unlimited Balls
Instructions - Type bmax at the start of a new
ball. No notification will be given that this is
activated but when a ball is lost a new ball will
appear from the yellow wormhole indefinitely. Once
this is activated you will be unable to activate
other secrets without restarting the game.
e. Solitaire
Secret - Instant Win
Instructions - Press Alt + Shift + 2 during game
play to instantly win.
Secret - Draw single cards in a Draw Three game
Instructions - Hold down CTRL + ALT + SHIFT while
drawing a new card. Instead of drawing three cards
you will only draw one.
3. OS Secrets
a. Add/Remove
Secret - Hidden Uninstall Options
Instructions - Warning: Proceed at your own risk!
Browse to C:\Windows\inf\ and make a backup copy of
sysoc.inf. Then open the original file
C:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf in notepad. Go to "Edit"
and select "Replace". In "Find what:" type ,hide
and in "Replace with:" type , then select "Replace
All", save and close the file. Go to the "Control
Panel", "Add/Remove", select "Add/Remove Windows
Components". You will now see many more Windows
components to uninstall. Do not remove anything
with no label or that you do not recognize or fully
understand what it does. Doing so can break certain
functionality in Windows.
b. Control Panel
Secret - Hidden Control Panel Extensions
Instructions - Download and install TweakUI,
launch, go to "Control Panel" and check any item
not selected, then "Apply" and "OK". You will now
see the hidden control panel extensions.
c. Device Manager
Secret - Hidden Devices
Instructions - Go to the "Control Panel", "System"
icon, "Hardware" tab and select "Device Manager".
Select "View" and Show hidden devices.
Secret - Phantom Devices
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Programs",
"Accessories" and select "Command Prompt". At the
command prompt, type "set
devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" and press Enter.
At the command prompt, type "start devmgmt.msc" and
press Enter. Select "View" and Show hidden devices.
You can see devices that are not connected to the
computer. - Source
Notes - When you close the command prompt window,
Windows clears the
"devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" variable that
you set and prevents phantom devices from being
displayed when you select "Show hidden devices".
d. Music
Secret - Music from the Installer
Instructions - Browse to
C:\Windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma and play.
Notes - "OOBE" stands for "Out-of-Box Experience".
e. Shutdown
Secret - Display Hibernate Option on the Shut Down
dialog
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Turn Off
Computer..." and press either Shift key to change
the "Stand By" button to "Hibernate".
f. Support Tools
Secret - Over 100 Windows XP Support Utilities are
on the install CD
Instructions for Pre-SP2 users - If you do not have
SP2 installed, put the original Windows XP CD in
the CD-ROM Drive, run the
D:\Support\Tools\setup.exe file.
Instructions for SP2 users - If you have SP2
installed, Download the Windows XP Service Pack 2
Support Tools and install.
1. Music
a. Audacity - Download
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows
A free Sound Recorder and Editor. Record live audio convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs, edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files. Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together. Change the speed or pitch of a recording and more.
b. TagScanner - Download
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/TagScanner/981935153/1
A free Powerful MP3 Tag Scanner and Editor. It can edit tags of several progressive audio formats, rename files based on the tag information, generate tag information from filenames. Supports ID3v1, ID3v2, Vorbis comments and APEv2 tags. TagScanner Features:
- Advanced TAG editor with batch functions
- Supports MP3, OGG, Musepack, Monkeys Audio, FLAC, AAC, OptimFROG, SPEEX, Wave Pack files
- Supports ID3 1.0 / 1.1 / 2.2 / 2.3 / 2.4 tags, APE v1 and v2 tags, Vorbis Comments
- Supports for ID3v2 Lyrics and Attached pictures
- Import tag information from an online database (freedb)
- Powerful playlists editor
- Write extended playlists like Winamp or Sonique
- Playlists export to HTML, Excel and CSV (for MySQL)
c. Winamp - Download
http://www.winamp.com/player/free.php
A free Streamlined Music and Video Player that is simple to use. Besides high-quality sound, it sports a smart playlist editor, 10-band graphic equalizer with user-definable presets that can automatically load specific files and a mini-browser for tuning into web radio and TV (be warned: certain channels are for adults only). Its four resizeable sections give you control over how the player looks, while you can customize it further using the thousands of available skins, color schemes and visualization plug-ins.
2.CD/DVD
a. CDBurnerXP Pro - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Nero]
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/download.php
A free CD/DVD-Writer program. The program can write CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs. CDBurnerXP Pro Features:
- Write CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs (as Data, Video and Audio)
- Burn audio-CDs with and without gaps between tracks - Burn on the fly / Burn-proof
- Supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
- Rip Audio-CDs to harddrive, obtain track-information (ID3-tags) from Internet
- Burn and create ISO-files
- Convert WAV to MP3 and vice versa
- Create Bootable Discs and more.
Notes - Double-layer DVD is not currently supported. Burning video-DVDs is limited.
b. VLC Media Player - Download - Nightly Builds - Home Page - [Equivalent = PowerDVD, WinDVD]
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html
A free Multimedia DVD Player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MP3, OGG, ...) as well as VCDs and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. Supports Full Region Free DVD playback with a RPC1 compatible DVD drive.
3.File Utilities
a. FileZilla - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Cute FTP]
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=21558
A free, fast FTP and SFTP Client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. Used to send or retrieve files from an FTP server.
b. Flexible Renamer - Download - Home Page
http://my.vector.co.jp/servlet/System.FileDownload/download/http/0/131133/pack/win95/util/file/name/FlexRena730.zip
A free powerful file/folder renaming utility. It offers a Window Explorer style interface and a variety of renaming options, including options to remove numbers or strings, replace strings, insert numbers, translate letters and much more.
c. IZArc - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = WinZip]
http://www.izarc.org/download.html
A free archive utility that supports many archive formats like: 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BIN, BZ2, BZA, C2D, CAB, CDI, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, IMG, ISO, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MDF, MBF, MIM, NRG, PAK, PDI, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO. With a modern easy-to-use interface, IZArc provides support for most compressed and encoded files, as well as access to many powerful features and tools. It allows you to drag and drop files from and to Windows Explorer, create and extract archives directly in Windows Explorer, create multiple archives spanning disks, creating self-extracting archives, repair damaged zip archives, converting from one archive type to another, view and write comments and many more.
d. Notepad++ - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Notepad, EditPlus]
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/download.php
A free source code editor (and Notepad replacement), which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment.
e. WinMerge - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = ExamDiff]
http://winmerge.org/downloads.php
A free visual text file differencing and merging tool for Win32 platforms. It is highly useful for determining what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions.
4.Games
XP Games - This guide covers the better Freeware games from Independent Developers and Commercial Publishers. The games are free full games, not Demos or Shareware. None have any Adware or Spyware. It is not intended to be an all inclusive Guide but a reference to target the better freeware titles. Get over 100 quality games without having to spend a dimension
5.Graphic
a. Blender - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = 3DS Max]
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
A free fully integrated 3D graphics creation suite allowing modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, real-time interactive 3D, and game creation and playback with cross-platform compatibility.
b. BRL-CAD - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = AutoCAD]
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=105292
A free powerful Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) solid modeling computer-aided design (CAD) system with over 20 years development and production use by the U.S. military. It includes an interactive geometry editor, parallel ray-tracing support for rendering and geometric analysis, path-tracing for realistic image synthesis, network distributed framebuffer support, image-processing and signal-processing tools.
c. GIMP - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Photoshop]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/
A free Image Manipulation Program for Photo Retouching, Image Composition and Image Authoring. It is not a replacement for Adobe Photoshop but currently is the best free alternative.
d. Inkscape - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw]
http://www.inkscape.org/download/?lang=en
A free vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats.
e. IrfanView - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = LView Pro]
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/967963863/1
A free Simple Image Viewer, Editor and Converter that supports all major graphic formats, including BMP, DIB, JPEG, GIF, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, multi-page TIFF, TGA, and more. In addition, it features drag-and-drop support, directory viewing, TWAIN support, slide shows, batch conversion, and modifications such as, resize, color depth, crop, blur, and sharpen. Includes support for Adobe Photoshop Filters. Warning - Do not install Google Desktop Search during setup.
f. Paint.NET - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop]
http://www.getpaint.net/download.html
A free image editing and photo manipulation software. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.
g. Picasa 2 - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = ACDSee]
http://picasa.google.com/download/index.html
A free Picture organizer and editor that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized. Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips.
6.Internet
a. AM-DeadLink - Download - Home Page
http://www.aignes.com/deadlink.htm
A free tool that detects dead links and duplicates in your Browser Bookmarks. If a Bookmark has become unavailable you can verify it in the internal preview and delete it from your Browser. Additionally you can download Favicon for all your Favorites and Bookmarks. AM-Deadlink works with Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Firefox.
Freeware Browsers - This is a freeware graphical web browser guide for Windows. It compares the most popular features between each browser. All of the following web browsers are 100% free, not Shareware. None have any Adware or Spyware. All have been installed and tested for basic compatibility with Windows XP. Most should work with other versions of Windows, just check the requirements. However, Internet Explorer 7 will only work in Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista.
b. Gaim - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Trillian]
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/downloads.php
A free multi-protocol Instant Messaging Client. Users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time. Gaim supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer, away messages, typing notification, and adds tabbed conversations. It is compatible with the following protocols:
- AIM
- ICQ
- MSN Messenger
- Yahoo!
- IRC
- Other (Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger and Zephyr networks)
c. GMail Drive - Download - Home Page
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/GMail_Drive/1097807577/1
A free internet based file storage system. GMail Drive creates a virtual file system on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to. Utilize the 2.5GB+ of GMail storage like an attached drive. A GMail account is required.
Notes - If you are using the ZoneAlarm Security Suite (Not just the Standard or Pro versions of the Firewall), Web Filtering (Parental Control) has to be disabled for Windows Explorer or the drive will not be accessible. There are some limitations since this interacts with Google's GMail system, such as the total filename size must be less than 40 characters and the maximum file size that can be transferred is 10 MB. Changes in the GMail system may break the tool's ability to function. Make sure you are using the latest version, otherwise be patient and wait for a new version to be released. This usually only takes a few days.
d. PuTTY - Download - Home Page
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
A free SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw TCP client.
e. Thunderbird - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Microsoft Outlook]
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
A free e-mail client. Thunderbird makes e-mailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and much more.
f. TightVNC - Download - Home Page - VNC Guide - [Equivalent = Remote Desktop]
http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html
A free remote control software package derived from the popular VNC software. With TightVNC, you can see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer.
Notes - Windows Defender will detect TightVNC as "Remote Control Software". After you install TightVNC, run a Windows Defender scan and when it is finished make sure to select "Review items detected by scanning". Under "Scan Results", "Action", select "Always allow".
7.Office
a. OpenOffice - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Microsoft Office]
http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
A free Office Suite, compatible with all other major Office Suites, including Microsoft Office.
Writer is a powerful word processor. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Word]
Use it for creating professional documents, reports, newsletters, and brochures. You can easily integrate images and charts in documents, create everything from business letters to complete books with professional layouts, as well as create and publish Web content.
Calc is a powerful spreadsheet program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Excel]
It can turn boring numbers into eye-catching information. Calculate, analyze, and visually communicate your data quickly and easily. Use advanced spreadsheet functions and decision-making tools to perform sophisticated data analysis. Use built-in charting tools to generate impressive 2D and 3D charts.
Impress is a powerful presentation graphics program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft PowerPoint]
A truly outstanding tool for creating effective multimedia presentations. Your presentations will truly stand out with special effects, animation and high-impact drawing tools.
Draw is a powerful drawing program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Paint]
Use it to produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations and special effects.
Base is a powerful database program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Access]
Create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, either using your own database or Base's own built-in HSQL database engine.
b. Convert - Download - Home Page
http://joshmadison.com/software/convert/download.php
A free unit conversion program that will convert the most popular units of distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, power, density, pressure, energy and many others, including the ability to create custom conversions.
c. FreeCalc - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Windows Calculator]
http://www.download.com/Moffsoft-FreeCalc/3000-2057_4-10313547.html?tag=lst-0-1
A free replacement for the existing Windows Calculator. Adds a printable/savable transaction tape, sizable display, tray icon, digit groupings, color schemes, double and triple zero keys, visible memory value, and an always-on-top setting.
d. PDF Creator - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Acrobat]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
A free tool to create PDFs easily from nearly any application by simply printing to the PDFCreator printer driver.
e. Power Calculator - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Windows Calculator]
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/PowerCalcPowertoySetup.exe
A free Graphing Calculator that allows you to evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions.
f. jGnash - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Quicken]
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=27240&package_id=18970
A free personal finance application written in Java. The purpose is to make tracking your personal finances easy, but provide the features required by the advanced user. jGnash supports several account types, including investment accounts. jGnash has support for split transactions, nested accounts, scheduled transactions, commodities, and currencies. jGnash can import QIF files, excluding investment accounts and transactions. Data is stored in an XML format so it is easy to manipulate and read the data external to the program. jGnash also has scripting support to add custom reports and functionality.
g. Mozilla Sunbird - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Outlook Calendar]
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/download.html
A free stand alone calendar application that allows you to assign events and tasks.
e. Scribus - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Microsoft Publisher, QuarkXPress]
http://www.scribus.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index
A free desktop publishing (DTP) application. As a DTP tool it supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation. Scribus also has additional features not normally found in a DTP tool such as vector drawing tools with SVG support and it even has support for OpenType Fonts.
f. TypeFaster Typing Tutor - Download - Home Page
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=99968
A free typing tutor that teaches you how to touch-type. Once you can touch-type you will not need to look at the keyboard to find the letters you want to type.
8.Scientific
a. Celestia - Download - Home Page
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/download.html
A free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.
b.Stellarium - Download - Home Page
http://www.stellarium.org/
A free planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.
9.Video
a. GSpot - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = MediaInfo]
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/GSpot/1088774248/1
A free utility that let's you see what codecs a video file is using and can tell you if you have the codec needed to play it. Features include the ability to establish what video codecs (audio and video) are required to play an AVI file, determine whether these codecs are installed on your system, and isolate problems associated with these codecs.
b. Jahshaka - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe After Effects]
http://www.jahshaka.org/component/option,com_docman/Itemid,49/
A free video editing, effects, and compositing suite supporting real-time effects rendering.
c. K-Lite Codec Pack - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Codec Pack All in 1]
http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
A free Collection of Codecs and Related Tools. Codec is short for Compressor-Decompressor. Codecs are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular movie formats and even some rare formats in Windows Media Player. The K-Lite Codec Pack Features:
- It it always very up-to-date with the latest versions of the Codecs
- It is very user-friendly and the installation is fully customizable
- It has been very well tested, so that the package doesn't contain any conflicting Codecs
- It is a very complete package, containing everything you need to play your movies
d. MediaPortal - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Windows Media Center Edition]
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/download.html
A free application ideal for turning your PC / TV into a very advanced Media Center. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch and store your videos and DVDs, view, schedule and record live TV as a digital video recorder and much much more.
e. VirtualDub - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Premiere]
http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/
A free video capture/processing utility. It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video. It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images.
f. Windows Movie Maker - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Premiere]
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx
A free video editor included with Windows XP (Windows Update will include the latest version). It gives you the tools to create, edit, and share home movies. Compile and edit a movie from video clips with drag-and-drop functionality. Add special effects, transitions, title options, music, and narration with ease. Share your movie over the Web or master it to DVD media. You can also save your movie back to the DV tape in your camera.
a. Audacity - Download
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows
A free Sound Recorder and Editor. Record live audio convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs, edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files. Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together. Change the speed or pitch of a recording and more.
b. TagScanner - Download
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/TagScanner/981935153/1
A free Powerful MP3 Tag Scanner and Editor. It can edit tags of several progressive audio formats, rename files based on the tag information, generate tag information from filenames. Supports ID3v1, ID3v2, Vorbis comments and APEv2 tags. TagScanner Features:
- Advanced TAG editor with batch functions
- Supports MP3, OGG, Musepack, Monkeys Audio, FLAC, AAC, OptimFROG, SPEEX, Wave Pack files
- Supports ID3 1.0 / 1.1 / 2.2 / 2.3 / 2.4 tags, APE v1 and v2 tags, Vorbis Comments
- Supports for ID3v2 Lyrics and Attached pictures
- Import tag information from an online database (freedb)
- Powerful playlists editor
- Write extended playlists like Winamp or Sonique
- Playlists export to HTML, Excel and CSV (for MySQL)
c. Winamp - Download
http://www.winamp.com/player/free.php
A free Streamlined Music and Video Player that is simple to use. Besides high-quality sound, it sports a smart playlist editor, 10-band graphic equalizer with user-definable presets that can automatically load specific files and a mini-browser for tuning into web radio and TV (be warned: certain channels are for adults only). Its four resizeable sections give you control over how the player looks, while you can customize it further using the thousands of available skins, color schemes and visualization plug-ins.
2.CD/DVD
a. CDBurnerXP Pro - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Nero]
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/download.php
A free CD/DVD-Writer program. The program can write CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs. CDBurnerXP Pro Features:
- Write CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs (as Data, Video and Audio)
- Burn audio-CDs with and without gaps between tracks - Burn on the fly / Burn-proof
- Supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
- Rip Audio-CDs to harddrive, obtain track-information (ID3-tags) from Internet
- Burn and create ISO-files
- Convert WAV to MP3 and vice versa
- Create Bootable Discs and more.
Notes - Double-layer DVD is not currently supported. Burning video-DVDs is limited.
b. VLC Media Player - Download - Nightly Builds - Home Page - [Equivalent = PowerDVD, WinDVD]
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html
A free Multimedia DVD Player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MP3, OGG, ...) as well as VCDs and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. Supports Full Region Free DVD playback with a RPC1 compatible DVD drive.
3.File Utilities
a. FileZilla - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Cute FTP]
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=21558
A free, fast FTP and SFTP Client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. Used to send or retrieve files from an FTP server.
b. Flexible Renamer - Download - Home Page
http://my.vector.co.jp/servlet/System.FileDownload/download/http/0/131133/pack/win95/util/file/name/FlexRena730.zip
A free powerful file/folder renaming utility. It offers a Window Explorer style interface and a variety of renaming options, including options to remove numbers or strings, replace strings, insert numbers, translate letters and much more.
c. IZArc - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = WinZip]
http://www.izarc.org/download.html
A free archive utility that supports many archive formats like: 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BIN, BZ2, BZA, C2D, CAB, CDI, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, IMG, ISO, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MDF, MBF, MIM, NRG, PAK, PDI, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO. With a modern easy-to-use interface, IZArc provides support for most compressed and encoded files, as well as access to many powerful features and tools. It allows you to drag and drop files from and to Windows Explorer, create and extract archives directly in Windows Explorer, create multiple archives spanning disks, creating self-extracting archives, repair damaged zip archives, converting from one archive type to another, view and write comments and many more.
d. Notepad++ - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Notepad, EditPlus]
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/download.php
A free source code editor (and Notepad replacement), which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment.
e. WinMerge - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = ExamDiff]
http://winmerge.org/downloads.php
A free visual text file differencing and merging tool for Win32 platforms. It is highly useful for determining what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions.
4.Games
XP Games - This guide covers the better Freeware games from Independent Developers and Commercial Publishers. The games are free full games, not Demos or Shareware. None have any Adware or Spyware. It is not intended to be an all inclusive Guide but a reference to target the better freeware titles. Get over 100 quality games without having to spend a dimension
5.Graphic
a. Blender - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = 3DS Max]
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
A free fully integrated 3D graphics creation suite allowing modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, real-time interactive 3D, and game creation and playback with cross-platform compatibility.
b. BRL-CAD - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = AutoCAD]
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=105292
A free powerful Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) solid modeling computer-aided design (CAD) system with over 20 years development and production use by the U.S. military. It includes an interactive geometry editor, parallel ray-tracing support for rendering and geometric analysis, path-tracing for realistic image synthesis, network distributed framebuffer support, image-processing and signal-processing tools.
c. GIMP - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Photoshop]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/
A free Image Manipulation Program for Photo Retouching, Image Composition and Image Authoring. It is not a replacement for Adobe Photoshop but currently is the best free alternative.
d. Inkscape - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw]
http://www.inkscape.org/download/?lang=en
A free vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats.
e. IrfanView - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = LView Pro]
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/967963863/1
A free Simple Image Viewer, Editor and Converter that supports all major graphic formats, including BMP, DIB, JPEG, GIF, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, multi-page TIFF, TGA, and more. In addition, it features drag-and-drop support, directory viewing, TWAIN support, slide shows, batch conversion, and modifications such as, resize, color depth, crop, blur, and sharpen. Includes support for Adobe Photoshop Filters. Warning - Do not install Google Desktop Search during setup.
f. Paint.NET - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop]
http://www.getpaint.net/download.html
A free image editing and photo manipulation software. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.
g. Picasa 2 - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = ACDSee]
http://picasa.google.com/download/index.html
A free Picture organizer and editor that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized. Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips.
6.Internet
a. AM-DeadLink - Download - Home Page
http://www.aignes.com/deadlink.htm
A free tool that detects dead links and duplicates in your Browser Bookmarks. If a Bookmark has become unavailable you can verify it in the internal preview and delete it from your Browser. Additionally you can download Favicon for all your Favorites and Bookmarks. AM-Deadlink works with Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Firefox.
Freeware Browsers - This is a freeware graphical web browser guide for Windows. It compares the most popular features between each browser. All of the following web browsers are 100% free, not Shareware. None have any Adware or Spyware. All have been installed and tested for basic compatibility with Windows XP. Most should work with other versions of Windows, just check the requirements. However, Internet Explorer 7 will only work in Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista.
b. Gaim - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Trillian]
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/downloads.php
A free multi-protocol Instant Messaging Client. Users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time. Gaim supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer, away messages, typing notification, and adds tabbed conversations. It is compatible with the following protocols:
- AIM
- ICQ
- MSN Messenger
- Yahoo!
- IRC
- Other (Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger and Zephyr networks)
c. GMail Drive - Download - Home Page
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/GMail_Drive/1097807577/1
A free internet based file storage system. GMail Drive creates a virtual file system on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to. Utilize the 2.5GB+ of GMail storage like an attached drive. A GMail account is required.
Notes - If you are using the ZoneAlarm Security Suite (Not just the Standard or Pro versions of the Firewall), Web Filtering (Parental Control) has to be disabled for Windows Explorer or the drive will not be accessible. There are some limitations since this interacts with Google's GMail system, such as the total filename size must be less than 40 characters and the maximum file size that can be transferred is 10 MB. Changes in the GMail system may break the tool's ability to function. Make sure you are using the latest version, otherwise be patient and wait for a new version to be released. This usually only takes a few days.
d. PuTTY - Download - Home Page
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
A free SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw TCP client.
e. Thunderbird - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Microsoft Outlook]
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
A free e-mail client. Thunderbird makes e-mailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and much more.
f. TightVNC - Download - Home Page - VNC Guide - [Equivalent = Remote Desktop]
http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html
A free remote control software package derived from the popular VNC software. With TightVNC, you can see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer.
Notes - Windows Defender will detect TightVNC as "Remote Control Software". After you install TightVNC, run a Windows Defender scan and when it is finished make sure to select "Review items detected by scanning". Under "Scan Results", "Action", select "Always allow".
7.Office
a. OpenOffice - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Microsoft Office]
http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
A free Office Suite, compatible with all other major Office Suites, including Microsoft Office.
Writer is a powerful word processor. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Word]
Use it for creating professional documents, reports, newsletters, and brochures. You can easily integrate images and charts in documents, create everything from business letters to complete books with professional layouts, as well as create and publish Web content.
Calc is a powerful spreadsheet program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Excel]
It can turn boring numbers into eye-catching information. Calculate, analyze, and visually communicate your data quickly and easily. Use advanced spreadsheet functions and decision-making tools to perform sophisticated data analysis. Use built-in charting tools to generate impressive 2D and 3D charts.
Impress is a powerful presentation graphics program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft PowerPoint]
A truly outstanding tool for creating effective multimedia presentations. Your presentations will truly stand out with special effects, animation and high-impact drawing tools.
Draw is a powerful drawing program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Paint]
Use it to produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations and special effects.
Base is a powerful database program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Access]
Create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, either using your own database or Base's own built-in HSQL database engine.
b. Convert - Download - Home Page
http://joshmadison.com/software/convert/download.php
A free unit conversion program that will convert the most popular units of distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, power, density, pressure, energy and many others, including the ability to create custom conversions.
c. FreeCalc - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Windows Calculator]
http://www.download.com/Moffsoft-FreeCalc/3000-2057_4-10313547.html?tag=lst-0-1
A free replacement for the existing Windows Calculator. Adds a printable/savable transaction tape, sizable display, tray icon, digit groupings, color schemes, double and triple zero keys, visible memory value, and an always-on-top setting.
d. PDF Creator - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Acrobat]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
A free tool to create PDFs easily from nearly any application by simply printing to the PDFCreator printer driver.
e. Power Calculator - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Windows Calculator]
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/PowerCalcPowertoySetup.exe
A free Graphing Calculator that allows you to evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions.
f. jGnash - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Quicken]
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=27240&package_id=18970
A free personal finance application written in Java. The purpose is to make tracking your personal finances easy, but provide the features required by the advanced user. jGnash supports several account types, including investment accounts. jGnash has support for split transactions, nested accounts, scheduled transactions, commodities, and currencies. jGnash can import QIF files, excluding investment accounts and transactions. Data is stored in an XML format so it is easy to manipulate and read the data external to the program. jGnash also has scripting support to add custom reports and functionality.
g. Mozilla Sunbird - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Outlook Calendar]
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/download.html
A free stand alone calendar application that allows you to assign events and tasks.
e. Scribus - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Microsoft Publisher, QuarkXPress]
http://www.scribus.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index
A free desktop publishing (DTP) application. As a DTP tool it supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation. Scribus also has additional features not normally found in a DTP tool such as vector drawing tools with SVG support and it even has support for OpenType Fonts.
f. TypeFaster Typing Tutor - Download - Home Page
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=99968
A free typing tutor that teaches you how to touch-type. Once you can touch-type you will not need to look at the keyboard to find the letters you want to type.
8.Scientific
a. Celestia - Download - Home Page
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/download.html
A free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.
b.Stellarium - Download - Home Page
http://www.stellarium.org/
A free planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.
9.Video
a. GSpot - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = MediaInfo]
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/GSpot/1088774248/1
A free utility that let's you see what codecs a video file is using and can tell you if you have the codec needed to play it. Features include the ability to establish what video codecs (audio and video) are required to play an AVI file, determine whether these codecs are installed on your system, and isolate problems associated with these codecs.
b. Jahshaka - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe After Effects]
http://www.jahshaka.org/component/option,com_docman/Itemid,49/
A free video editing, effects, and compositing suite supporting real-time effects rendering.
c. K-Lite Codec Pack - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Codec Pack All in 1]
http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
A free Collection of Codecs and Related Tools. Codec is short for Compressor-Decompressor. Codecs are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular movie formats and even some rare formats in Windows Media Player. The K-Lite Codec Pack Features:
- It it always very up-to-date with the latest versions of the Codecs
- It is very user-friendly and the installation is fully customizable
- It has been very well tested, so that the package doesn't contain any conflicting Codecs
- It is a very complete package, containing everything you need to play your movies
d. MediaPortal - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Windows Media Center Edition]
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/download.html
A free application ideal for turning your PC / TV into a very advanced Media Center. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch and store your videos and DVDs, view, schedule and record live TV as a digital video recorder and much much more.
e. VirtualDub - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Premiere]
http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/
A free video capture/processing utility. It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video. It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images.
f. Windows Movie Maker - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Premiere]
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx
A free video editor included with Windows XP (Windows Update will include the latest version). It gives you the tools to create, edit, and share home movies. Compile and edit a movie from video clips with drag-and-drop functionality. Add special effects, transitions, title options, music, and narration with ease. Share your movie over the Web or master it to DVD media. You can also save your movie back to the DV tape in your camera.
Optimization Myths 2
1. Disable System Restore
Myth - "Disabling System Restore improves performance."
Reality - "System Restore does not cause any noticeable performance impact when monitoring your computer. The creation of a Restore point also is a very fast process and usually takes only a few seconds. Scheduled System Checkpoints (every 24 hours by default) are created only at system idle time to avoid interfering with a computer during use." - Source
2. Disk Defragmenter
Myth - "The built-in Disk Defragmenter is good enough."
Reality - "This statement would be true if the built-in defragmenter was fast, automatic, and customizable. Unfortunately, the built-in defragmenter does not have any of these features. The built-in defragmenter takes many minutes to hours to run. It requires that you keep track of fragmentation levels, you determine when performance has gotten so bad you have to do something about it, and then you manually defragment each drive using the built-in defragmentation tool." - Source - Comparison Chart (PDF)
Disk Defragmenter Limitations - "The Disk Defragmenter tool is based on the full retail version of Diskeeper by Executive Software International, Inc. The version that is included with Microsoft Windows 2000 and later provides limited functionality in maintaining disk performance by defragmenting volumes that use the FAT, the FAT32, or the NTFS file system. The XP version has the following limitations." - Source
- It can defragment only local volumes.
- It can defragment only one volume at a time.
- It cannot defragment one volume while scanning another.
- It cannot be easily scheduled without scripts or third party utilities
- It can run only one Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in at a time.
3. Hiberfil.sys
Myth - "It is necessary to delete the Hiberfil.sys before defragmenting."
Reality - "The Hiberfil.sys is a file to which the system's physical memory is written during hibernation. On resuming from hibernation, the BIOS reads Hiberfil.sys to restore the state of the computer to its pre-hibernation state. Because the location of the Hibernate file is determined very early in the startup process, it cannot be moved. It can, however, be defragmented safely at startup using an enterprise-level defragmenter such as Diskeeper or the freeware utility PageDefrag." - Source
4. FAT32 vs. NTFS
Myth - "The FAT32 file system is faster/better than NTFS."
Reality - "NTFS is the better file system with many advantages over FAT32. NTFS features: Built-In Security, Recoverability, Alternate Streams, Custom File Attributes, Compression, Object Permissions, Economical Disk Space Usage using a more Efficient Cluster Size and Fault Tolerance. Windows 2000 and XP come with NTFS version 5 which includes even more advanced features such as: Encryption, Disk Quotas, Sparse Files, Reparse Points, Volume Mount Points. None of which is available with FAT32." - Comparison Chart
Performance
"NTFS is built for speed with impressive disk I/O performance on large volumes (Over 400 MB). NTFS uses a binary tree structure for all disk directories, which reduces the number of times the system has to access the disk to locate files. This system is best for large directories, and NTFS easily outperforms FAT32 in these situations. In addition, NTFS automatically sorts files in a folder on the fly. NTFS gains an edge over FAT32 by using relatively small disk allocation units (cluster sizes) for NTFS volumes. Smaller clusters prevent wasted disk space on volumes, especially those with numerous small files. Because NTFS uses small clusters better and has a more efficient design, its performance doesn't degrade with large volumes, in contrast to FAT's." - Source - Source 2
"NTFS is generally believed to be slower than FAT. However, with a correctly created NTFS volume, NTFS performance optimizations, and improved disk defragmentation, NTFS performance (including the extra "journaling") is equivalent to FAT on small disks and is faster than FAT on large disks. FAT32 performance is further reduced for volumes larger than 32 GB in two areas:
- Boot time with FAT32 is increased because of the time required to read all of the FAT structure. This must be done to calculate the amount of free space when the volume is mounted.
- Read/write performance with FAT32 is affected because the file system must determine the free space on the disk through the small views of the massive FAT structure. This leads to inefficiencies in file allocation." - Source
Gaming Performance
"The numbers show...not much difference. In fact, the only test that doesn't show near-perfect parity is PCMark04, and the difference between the results on the two file systems is less than two percent. HDTach's read and access tests, which respectively measure how fast data can be read from the drive and how quickly the drive can locate data, were nearly identical. More importantly, the gaming tests showed nary a difference in all-important frame rates between the file systems and the cluster sizes. Based on the uniformity we experienced, we highly recommend that users of Windows XP take advantage of the NTFS file system. Its gaming prowess matches that of FAT32 and it boasts a healthy line-up of advantages over its opponent." - Source
Reliability
In addition to its extensive memory and application protection features, NTFS is a reliable file system. When storing data to disk, NTFS records file I/O events to a special transaction log. If the system crashes or encounters an interruption, NTFS can use this log to restore the volume and prevent corruption from an abnormal program termination or system shutdown. NTFS doesn't commit an action to disk until it verifies the successful completion of the action. This precaution helps prevent corruption of an NTFS volume. NTFS also supports hot-fixing disk sectors, where the OS automatically blocks out bad disk sectors and relocates data from these sectors. This housecleaning happens in the background. An application attempting to read or write data on a hot-fixed area will never know the disk had a problem. I only recommend and use NTFS with Windows 2000 and XP." - Source
5. Converting FAT32 to NTFS
Myth - "Converting FAT32 volumes to NTFS instead of formatting them will reduce performance by forcing a 512 byte cluster size."
Reality - "Windows XP CONVERT creates the best possible cluster size according to the existing FAT format. On NTFS volumes, clusters start at sector zero; therefore, every cluster is aligned on the cluster boundary. For example, if the cluster size was 4K and the sector size was 512 bytes, clusters will always start at a sector number that is a multiple of 4096/512 for example, 8. However, FAT file system data clusters are located after the BIOS Parameter Blocks (BPB), reserved sectors, and two FAT structures. FAT formatting cannot guarantee that data clusters are aligned on a cluster boundary. In Windows 2000, CONVERT handled this problem by forcing an NTFS cluster size of 512 bytes, which resulted in reduced performance and increased disk fragmentation. In Windows XP, CONVERT chooses the best cluster size (4K is the ideal)." - Source
Notes - The FAT32 file system does not use a default cluster size smaller than 4 KB. The maximum NTFS default cluster size under Windows XP is 4 KB because NTFS file compression is not possible on drives with a larger allocation size. - Source
6. IO Page Lock Limit
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "IoPageLockLimit"
Myth - "Increasing the IO Page Lock Limit will lock more memory for exclusive access by the kernel, improving performance."
Reality - "Indeed, it does do this but only in an RTM Windows 2000 machine. It does absolutely nothing in Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 and up, and absolutely nothing in Windows XP. This makes it effectively useless, since no one in their right minds would be running RTM Windows 2000. The RTM kernel references IoPageLockLimit. The SP1 kernel does not. Neither do any subsequent editions of the kernel; neither does the XP kernel in any of its incarnations." - Source
7. IRQ Priority
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl] "IRQ8Priority"
Myth - "Adjusting the Priority of IRQs especially IRQ 8 improves system performance."
Reality - "IRQs don't even HAVE a concept of "priority" in the NT family; they do have something called "IRQL" (interrupt request level) associated with them. But the interval timer interrupt is already assigned a higher IRQL than any I/O devices, second only to the inter-processor interrupt used in an MP machine. The NT family of OSes don't even use the real-time clock (IRQ 8) for time keeping in the first place! They use programmable interval timer (8254, on IRQ 0) for driving system time keeping, CPU time accounting, and so on. IRQ 8 is used for profiling, but profiling is almost never turned on except in very rare development environments. Even if it was possible it doesn't even make sense why adjusting the real-time clock priority would boost performance? The real-time clock is associated with time keeping not CPU frequency. I would not be surprised if this originated in an overclocking forum somewhere. This "tweak" can be found in most XP all-in-one tweaking applications. This is a perfect example of why they are not recommended." - Source
8. Launch folder windows in a separate process
Myth - "Enabling Launch folder windows in a separate process improves performance."
Reality - "Use this setting if your computer frequently crashes, and you are trying to minimize problems or troubleshoot. Be aware, however, this process uses more memory and that doing this could slow down the performance of your computer." - Source
Notes - Windows XP is a very stable operating system and should never Lock-up (freeze), display Blue Screen Stop Errors or Randomly Reboot. These are all warning signs something is wrong or misconfigured with your system. Use the Diagnose XP Guide to help troubleshoot the most common causes of system problems.
9. Large System Cache
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "LargeSystemCache"
Myth - "Enabling LargeSystemCache improves desktop/workstation performance."
Reality - "LargeSystemCache determines whether the system maintains a standard size or a large size file system cache, and influences how often the system writes changed pages to disk. Increasing the size of the file system cache generally improves file server performance, but it reduces the physical memory space available to applications and services. Similarly, writing system data less frequently minimizes use of the disk subsystem, but the changed pages occupy memory that might otherwise be used by applications. On workstations this increases paging and causes longer delays whenever you start a new app. Simply put enable this on a file server and disable it on everything else." - Source
"System cache mode is designed for use with Windows server products that act as servers. System cache mode is also designed for limited use with Windows XP, when you use Windows XP as a file server. This mode is not designed for everyday desktop use. When you enable System cache mode on a computer that uses Unified Memory Architecture (UMA)-based video hardware or an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), you may experience a severe and random decrease in performance. For example, this decrease in performance can include very slow system performance, stop errors, an inability to start the computer, devices or applications that do not load, and system instability. The drivers for these components consume a large part of the remaining application memory when they are initialized during startup. Also, in this scenario, the system may have insufficient RAM when the following conditions occur:
- Other drivers and desktop user services request additional resources.
- Desktop users transfer large files.
By default LargeSystemCache is disabled in Microsoft Windows XP." - Source
10. L2 Cache (SecondLevelDataCache)
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "SecondLevelDataCache"
Myth - "Adjusting the SecondLevelDataCache Registry value to match your CPU's L2 Cache size improves performance."
Reality - "SecondLevelDataCache records the size of the processor cache, also known as the secondary or L2 cache. If the value of this entry is 0, the system attempts to retrieve the L2 cache size from the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for the platform. If it fails, it uses a default L2 cache size of 256 KB. If the value of this entry is not 0, it uses this value as the L2 cache size. This entry is designed as a secondary source of cache size information for computers on which the HAL cannot detect the L2 cache. This is not related to the hardware; it is only useful for computers with direct-mapped L2 caches. Pentium II and later processors do not have direct- mapped L2 caches. SecondLevelDataCache can increase performance by approximately 2 percent in certain cases for older computers with ample memory (more than 64 MB) by scattering physical pages better in the address space so there are not so many L2 cache collisions. Setting SecondLevelDataCache to 256 KB rather than 2 MB (when the computer has a 2 MB L2 cache) would probably have about a 0.4% performance penalty." - Source - Source 2
11. NTFS is Fragmentation Free
Myth - "The NTFS File system does not get fragmented and Defragmenters are unnecessary."
Reality - "Even though NTFS is more resistant to fragmentation than FAT, it can and does still fragment. The reason NTFS is less prone to fragmentation is that it makes intelligent choices about where to store file data on the disk. NTFS reserves space for the expansion of the Master File Table, reducing fragmentation of its structures. In contrast to FAT's first-come, first-served method, NTFS's method of writing files minimizes, but does not eliminate, the problem of file fragmentation on NTFS volumes." - Source
12. QoS
Myth - "Disabling QoS will free up the 20% bandwidth reserved by QoS."
Reality - "As in Windows 2000, programs can take advantage of QoS through the QoS APIs in Windows XP. 100% of the network bandwidth is available to be shared by all programs unless a program specifically requests priority bandwidth. This "reserved" bandwidth is still available to other programs unless the requesting program is sending data. By default, programs can reserve up to an aggregate bandwidth of 20% of the underlying link speed on each interface on an end computer. If the program that reserved the bandwidth is not sending sufficient data to use it, the unused part of the reserved bandwidth is available for other data flows on the same host." - Source
13. RAM Optimizers/Defragmenters
Myth - "Increasing the amount of available RAM using RAM Optimizers/Defragmenters improves performance."
Reality - "RAM Optimizers have no effect, and at worst, they seriously degrade performance. Although gaining more available memory might seem beneficial, it isn't. As RAM Optimizers force the available-memory counter up, they force other processes' data and code out of memory. Say that you're running Word, for example. As the optimizer forces the available-memory counter up, the text of open documents and the program code that was part of Word's working set before the optimization (and was therefore present in physical memory) must be reread from disk as you continue to edit your document. The act of allocating, then freeing a large amount of virtual memory might, as a conceivable side effect, lead to blocks of contiguous available memory. However, because virtual memory masks the layout of physical memory from processes, processes can't directly benefit from having virtual memory backed by contiguous physical memory. As processes execute and undergo working-set trimming and growth, their virtual-memory-to-physical-memory mappings will become fragmented despite the availability of contiguous memory." - Source
14. Clearmem
Myth - "Running Clearmem improves performance by freeing up memory."
Reality - "Microsoft's Clearmem, the memory-consuming test tool, is a simulation tool that lets developers measure the minimum working set for a process and to help system administrators isolate cache bottlenecks on servers. Clearmem was originally found on the Windows NT Resource Kit 4.0 CD and can now be found on the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit. It allocates and references all available memory, consuming any inactive pages in the working sets of all processes (including the cache) and effectively clears the cache of all file data. As Clearmem increases its working set the working sets of all other processes are trimmed until they contain only pages currently being used and those most recently accessed. This reduces the performance of all running applications every time you run this by reducing their amount of available memory, forcing them to needlessly page and causing any cached file data to have to be reread from disk." - Source - Source 2
15. RegClean
Myth - "It is safe to use Microsoft's RegClean."
Reality - "The RegClean utility is no longer supported by Microsoft and has been removed from all Microsoft download sites. This was done for legitimate compatibility reasons with certain applications and Operating Systems. The RegClean utility was originally supplied with Microsoft Visual Basic version 4.0 for Windows. The last version of RegClean was 4.1a (build 7364.1) released on March 13, 1998 (RegClean.exe is dated December 30, 1997). During this time the latest Operating Systems were Windows 95 OSR2.1 and Windows NT 4.0. Windows 98 was not released until June 25, 1998. Compatibility with any Operating System besides Windows 95 and NT 4.0 was never substantiated, especially Windows XP. It is very dangerous to run a Registry Cleaner that was never certified to run on your Operating System since removing the wrong Registry Keys can break Applications and the Operating System. RegClean breaks functionality in the following Applications:
- Microsoft Office XP (Setup)
- Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Access 2003
- Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
- Microsoft Office Word 2003
- Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Excel 2003
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
- Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Developer Edition
- Microsoft Access 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
This occurs for any Microsoft Windows Installer product on which the program's installation state is set to Installed on First Use. - Source
16. Registry Cleaners
Myth - "Registry Cleaners improve performance."
Reality - "A few hundred kilobytes of unused keys and values causes no noticeable performance impact on system operation. Even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches." - Source
Notes - "Registry Cleaners can fix problems associated with traces of applications left behind due to incomplete uninstalls. So it seems that Registry junk is a Windows fact of life and that Registry cleaners will continue to have a place in the anal-sysadmin's tool chest, at least until we're all running .NET applications that store their per-user settings in XML files - and then of course we'll need XML cleaners."
17. Set CPU Priority
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl] "Win32PrioritySeparation"
Myth - "Setting this value to 26 gives a boost to the priority of foreground applications."
Reality - "This is one of the most useless tweaks since this is already the default and optimal setting in Windows XP. Thus you are changing nothing. The GUI control for this is built-in to Windows. Go to the Control Panel, System Icon, Advanced Tab, Performance - click Settings, Advanced Tab, Processor Scheduling - Programs is the default setting. Choosing the Programs option (26 Hexadecimal) will result in a smoother, faster response time for your foreground program (default and optimal). If you want a background task, such as a Backup utility, to run faster, choose the Background services option (18 Hexadecimal)." - Source
Myth - "Setting this value to 38 gives a boost to the priority of foreground applications."
Reality - "People are confusing the Hexadecimal and Decimal value settings of this Registry Key. By Default Windows XP already sets this value optimally to 26 Hexadecimal = 0x00000026 which is automatically translated to 38 Decimal = (38). This is shown as 0x00000026 (38) in this registry key. The Windows XP Registry Editor defaults to changing the Hexadecimal Value when you go to modify a Registry Key. The problems is it is commonly recommended to change this value to "38" with no mention of this being the Decimal value and instead the Hexadecimal Value is changed because it is the default. This makes the key show 0x00000038 (56). This is not one of this key's functional values and setting a bit field in Win32PrioritySeparation to values other than those shown in the table will result in the default option being selected (26 Hexadecimal). Thus this does absolutely nothing." - Source
Functional Values:
0x28 (0x29, 0x2A)
0x18 (0x19, 0x1A)
0x24 (0x14)
0x25
0x26 (Default and Optimal)
0x15
0x16
Myth - "Disabling System Restore improves performance."
Reality - "System Restore does not cause any noticeable performance impact when monitoring your computer. The creation of a Restore point also is a very fast process and usually takes only a few seconds. Scheduled System Checkpoints (every 24 hours by default) are created only at system idle time to avoid interfering with a computer during use." - Source
2. Disk Defragmenter
Myth - "The built-in Disk Defragmenter is good enough."
Reality - "This statement would be true if the built-in defragmenter was fast, automatic, and customizable. Unfortunately, the built-in defragmenter does not have any of these features. The built-in defragmenter takes many minutes to hours to run. It requires that you keep track of fragmentation levels, you determine when performance has gotten so bad you have to do something about it, and then you manually defragment each drive using the built-in defragmentation tool." - Source - Comparison Chart (PDF)
Disk Defragmenter Limitations - "The Disk Defragmenter tool is based on the full retail version of Diskeeper by Executive Software International, Inc. The version that is included with Microsoft Windows 2000 and later provides limited functionality in maintaining disk performance by defragmenting volumes that use the FAT, the FAT32, or the NTFS file system. The XP version has the following limitations." - Source
- It can defragment only local volumes.
- It can defragment only one volume at a time.
- It cannot defragment one volume while scanning another.
- It cannot be easily scheduled without scripts or third party utilities
- It can run only one Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in at a time.
3. Hiberfil.sys
Myth - "It is necessary to delete the Hiberfil.sys before defragmenting."
Reality - "The Hiberfil.sys is a file to which the system's physical memory is written during hibernation. On resuming from hibernation, the BIOS reads Hiberfil.sys to restore the state of the computer to its pre-hibernation state. Because the location of the Hibernate file is determined very early in the startup process, it cannot be moved. It can, however, be defragmented safely at startup using an enterprise-level defragmenter such as Diskeeper or the freeware utility PageDefrag." - Source
4. FAT32 vs. NTFS
Myth - "The FAT32 file system is faster/better than NTFS."
Reality - "NTFS is the better file system with many advantages over FAT32. NTFS features: Built-In Security, Recoverability, Alternate Streams, Custom File Attributes, Compression, Object Permissions, Economical Disk Space Usage using a more Efficient Cluster Size and Fault Tolerance. Windows 2000 and XP come with NTFS version 5 which includes even more advanced features such as: Encryption, Disk Quotas, Sparse Files, Reparse Points, Volume Mount Points. None of which is available with FAT32." - Comparison Chart
Performance
"NTFS is built for speed with impressive disk I/O performance on large volumes (Over 400 MB). NTFS uses a binary tree structure for all disk directories, which reduces the number of times the system has to access the disk to locate files. This system is best for large directories, and NTFS easily outperforms FAT32 in these situations. In addition, NTFS automatically sorts files in a folder on the fly. NTFS gains an edge over FAT32 by using relatively small disk allocation units (cluster sizes) for NTFS volumes. Smaller clusters prevent wasted disk space on volumes, especially those with numerous small files. Because NTFS uses small clusters better and has a more efficient design, its performance doesn't degrade with large volumes, in contrast to FAT's." - Source - Source 2
"NTFS is generally believed to be slower than FAT. However, with a correctly created NTFS volume, NTFS performance optimizations, and improved disk defragmentation, NTFS performance (including the extra "journaling") is equivalent to FAT on small disks and is faster than FAT on large disks. FAT32 performance is further reduced for volumes larger than 32 GB in two areas:
- Boot time with FAT32 is increased because of the time required to read all of the FAT structure. This must be done to calculate the amount of free space when the volume is mounted.
- Read/write performance with FAT32 is affected because the file system must determine the free space on the disk through the small views of the massive FAT structure. This leads to inefficiencies in file allocation." - Source
Gaming Performance
"The numbers show...not much difference. In fact, the only test that doesn't show near-perfect parity is PCMark04, and the difference between the results on the two file systems is less than two percent. HDTach's read and access tests, which respectively measure how fast data can be read from the drive and how quickly the drive can locate data, were nearly identical. More importantly, the gaming tests showed nary a difference in all-important frame rates between the file systems and the cluster sizes. Based on the uniformity we experienced, we highly recommend that users of Windows XP take advantage of the NTFS file system. Its gaming prowess matches that of FAT32 and it boasts a healthy line-up of advantages over its opponent." - Source
Reliability
In addition to its extensive memory and application protection features, NTFS is a reliable file system. When storing data to disk, NTFS records file I/O events to a special transaction log. If the system crashes or encounters an interruption, NTFS can use this log to restore the volume and prevent corruption from an abnormal program termination or system shutdown. NTFS doesn't commit an action to disk until it verifies the successful completion of the action. This precaution helps prevent corruption of an NTFS volume. NTFS also supports hot-fixing disk sectors, where the OS automatically blocks out bad disk sectors and relocates data from these sectors. This housecleaning happens in the background. An application attempting to read or write data on a hot-fixed area will never know the disk had a problem. I only recommend and use NTFS with Windows 2000 and XP." - Source
5. Converting FAT32 to NTFS
Myth - "Converting FAT32 volumes to NTFS instead of formatting them will reduce performance by forcing a 512 byte cluster size."
Reality - "Windows XP CONVERT creates the best possible cluster size according to the existing FAT format. On NTFS volumes, clusters start at sector zero; therefore, every cluster is aligned on the cluster boundary. For example, if the cluster size was 4K and the sector size was 512 bytes, clusters will always start at a sector number that is a multiple of 4096/512 for example, 8. However, FAT file system data clusters are located after the BIOS Parameter Blocks (BPB), reserved sectors, and two FAT structures. FAT formatting cannot guarantee that data clusters are aligned on a cluster boundary. In Windows 2000, CONVERT handled this problem by forcing an NTFS cluster size of 512 bytes, which resulted in reduced performance and increased disk fragmentation. In Windows XP, CONVERT chooses the best cluster size (4K is the ideal)." - Source
Notes - The FAT32 file system does not use a default cluster size smaller than 4 KB. The maximum NTFS default cluster size under Windows XP is 4 KB because NTFS file compression is not possible on drives with a larger allocation size. - Source
6. IO Page Lock Limit
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "IoPageLockLimit"
Myth - "Increasing the IO Page Lock Limit will lock more memory for exclusive access by the kernel, improving performance."
Reality - "Indeed, it does do this but only in an RTM Windows 2000 machine. It does absolutely nothing in Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 and up, and absolutely nothing in Windows XP. This makes it effectively useless, since no one in their right minds would be running RTM Windows 2000. The RTM kernel references IoPageLockLimit. The SP1 kernel does not. Neither do any subsequent editions of the kernel; neither does the XP kernel in any of its incarnations." - Source
7. IRQ Priority
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl] "IRQ8Priority"
Myth - "Adjusting the Priority of IRQs especially IRQ 8 improves system performance."
Reality - "IRQs don't even HAVE a concept of "priority" in the NT family; they do have something called "IRQL" (interrupt request level) associated with them. But the interval timer interrupt is already assigned a higher IRQL than any I/O devices, second only to the inter-processor interrupt used in an MP machine. The NT family of OSes don't even use the real-time clock (IRQ 8) for time keeping in the first place! They use programmable interval timer (8254, on IRQ 0) for driving system time keeping, CPU time accounting, and so on. IRQ 8 is used for profiling, but profiling is almost never turned on except in very rare development environments. Even if it was possible it doesn't even make sense why adjusting the real-time clock priority would boost performance? The real-time clock is associated with time keeping not CPU frequency. I would not be surprised if this originated in an overclocking forum somewhere. This "tweak" can be found in most XP all-in-one tweaking applications. This is a perfect example of why they are not recommended." - Source
8. Launch folder windows in a separate process
Myth - "Enabling Launch folder windows in a separate process improves performance."
Reality - "Use this setting if your computer frequently crashes, and you are trying to minimize problems or troubleshoot. Be aware, however, this process uses more memory and that doing this could slow down the performance of your computer." - Source
Notes - Windows XP is a very stable operating system and should never Lock-up (freeze), display Blue Screen Stop Errors or Randomly Reboot. These are all warning signs something is wrong or misconfigured with your system. Use the Diagnose XP Guide to help troubleshoot the most common causes of system problems.
9. Large System Cache
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "LargeSystemCache"
Myth - "Enabling LargeSystemCache improves desktop/workstation performance."
Reality - "LargeSystemCache determines whether the system maintains a standard size or a large size file system cache, and influences how often the system writes changed pages to disk. Increasing the size of the file system cache generally improves file server performance, but it reduces the physical memory space available to applications and services. Similarly, writing system data less frequently minimizes use of the disk subsystem, but the changed pages occupy memory that might otherwise be used by applications. On workstations this increases paging and causes longer delays whenever you start a new app. Simply put enable this on a file server and disable it on everything else." - Source
"System cache mode is designed for use with Windows server products that act as servers. System cache mode is also designed for limited use with Windows XP, when you use Windows XP as a file server. This mode is not designed for everyday desktop use. When you enable System cache mode on a computer that uses Unified Memory Architecture (UMA)-based video hardware or an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), you may experience a severe and random decrease in performance. For example, this decrease in performance can include very slow system performance, stop errors, an inability to start the computer, devices or applications that do not load, and system instability. The drivers for these components consume a large part of the remaining application memory when they are initialized during startup. Also, in this scenario, the system may have insufficient RAM when the following conditions occur:
- Other drivers and desktop user services request additional resources.
- Desktop users transfer large files.
By default LargeSystemCache is disabled in Microsoft Windows XP." - Source
10. L2 Cache (SecondLevelDataCache)
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "SecondLevelDataCache"
Myth - "Adjusting the SecondLevelDataCache Registry value to match your CPU's L2 Cache size improves performance."
Reality - "SecondLevelDataCache records the size of the processor cache, also known as the secondary or L2 cache. If the value of this entry is 0, the system attempts to retrieve the L2 cache size from the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for the platform. If it fails, it uses a default L2 cache size of 256 KB. If the value of this entry is not 0, it uses this value as the L2 cache size. This entry is designed as a secondary source of cache size information for computers on which the HAL cannot detect the L2 cache. This is not related to the hardware; it is only useful for computers with direct-mapped L2 caches. Pentium II and later processors do not have direct- mapped L2 caches. SecondLevelDataCache can increase performance by approximately 2 percent in certain cases for older computers with ample memory (more than 64 MB) by scattering physical pages better in the address space so there are not so many L2 cache collisions. Setting SecondLevelDataCache to 256 KB rather than 2 MB (when the computer has a 2 MB L2 cache) would probably have about a 0.4% performance penalty." - Source - Source 2
11. NTFS is Fragmentation Free
Myth - "The NTFS File system does not get fragmented and Defragmenters are unnecessary."
Reality - "Even though NTFS is more resistant to fragmentation than FAT, it can and does still fragment. The reason NTFS is less prone to fragmentation is that it makes intelligent choices about where to store file data on the disk. NTFS reserves space for the expansion of the Master File Table, reducing fragmentation of its structures. In contrast to FAT's first-come, first-served method, NTFS's method of writing files minimizes, but does not eliminate, the problem of file fragmentation on NTFS volumes." - Source
12. QoS
Myth - "Disabling QoS will free up the 20% bandwidth reserved by QoS."
Reality - "As in Windows 2000, programs can take advantage of QoS through the QoS APIs in Windows XP. 100% of the network bandwidth is available to be shared by all programs unless a program specifically requests priority bandwidth. This "reserved" bandwidth is still available to other programs unless the requesting program is sending data. By default, programs can reserve up to an aggregate bandwidth of 20% of the underlying link speed on each interface on an end computer. If the program that reserved the bandwidth is not sending sufficient data to use it, the unused part of the reserved bandwidth is available for other data flows on the same host." - Source
13. RAM Optimizers/Defragmenters
Myth - "Increasing the amount of available RAM using RAM Optimizers/Defragmenters improves performance."
Reality - "RAM Optimizers have no effect, and at worst, they seriously degrade performance. Although gaining more available memory might seem beneficial, it isn't. As RAM Optimizers force the available-memory counter up, they force other processes' data and code out of memory. Say that you're running Word, for example. As the optimizer forces the available-memory counter up, the text of open documents and the program code that was part of Word's working set before the optimization (and was therefore present in physical memory) must be reread from disk as you continue to edit your document. The act of allocating, then freeing a large amount of virtual memory might, as a conceivable side effect, lead to blocks of contiguous available memory. However, because virtual memory masks the layout of physical memory from processes, processes can't directly benefit from having virtual memory backed by contiguous physical memory. As processes execute and undergo working-set trimming and growth, their virtual-memory-to-physical-memory mappings will become fragmented despite the availability of contiguous memory." - Source
14. Clearmem
Myth - "Running Clearmem improves performance by freeing up memory."
Reality - "Microsoft's Clearmem, the memory-consuming test tool, is a simulation tool that lets developers measure the minimum working set for a process and to help system administrators isolate cache bottlenecks on servers. Clearmem was originally found on the Windows NT Resource Kit 4.0 CD and can now be found on the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit. It allocates and references all available memory, consuming any inactive pages in the working sets of all processes (including the cache) and effectively clears the cache of all file data. As Clearmem increases its working set the working sets of all other processes are trimmed until they contain only pages currently being used and those most recently accessed. This reduces the performance of all running applications every time you run this by reducing their amount of available memory, forcing them to needlessly page and causing any cached file data to have to be reread from disk." - Source - Source 2
15. RegClean
Myth - "It is safe to use Microsoft's RegClean."
Reality - "The RegClean utility is no longer supported by Microsoft and has been removed from all Microsoft download sites. This was done for legitimate compatibility reasons with certain applications and Operating Systems. The RegClean utility was originally supplied with Microsoft Visual Basic version 4.0 for Windows. The last version of RegClean was 4.1a (build 7364.1) released on March 13, 1998 (RegClean.exe is dated December 30, 1997). During this time the latest Operating Systems were Windows 95 OSR2.1 and Windows NT 4.0. Windows 98 was not released until June 25, 1998. Compatibility with any Operating System besides Windows 95 and NT 4.0 was never substantiated, especially Windows XP. It is very dangerous to run a Registry Cleaner that was never certified to run on your Operating System since removing the wrong Registry Keys can break Applications and the Operating System. RegClean breaks functionality in the following Applications:
- Microsoft Office XP (Setup)
- Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Access 2003
- Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
- Microsoft Office Word 2003
- Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Excel 2003
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
- Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Developer Edition
- Microsoft Access 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
This occurs for any Microsoft Windows Installer product on which the program's installation state is set to Installed on First Use. - Source
16. Registry Cleaners
Myth - "Registry Cleaners improve performance."
Reality - "A few hundred kilobytes of unused keys and values causes no noticeable performance impact on system operation. Even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches." - Source
Notes - "Registry Cleaners can fix problems associated with traces of applications left behind due to incomplete uninstalls. So it seems that Registry junk is a Windows fact of life and that Registry cleaners will continue to have a place in the anal-sysadmin's tool chest, at least until we're all running .NET applications that store their per-user settings in XML files - and then of course we'll need XML cleaners."
17. Set CPU Priority
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl] "Win32PrioritySeparation"
Myth - "Setting this value to 26 gives a boost to the priority of foreground applications."
Reality - "This is one of the most useless tweaks since this is already the default and optimal setting in Windows XP. Thus you are changing nothing. The GUI control for this is built-in to Windows. Go to the Control Panel, System Icon, Advanced Tab, Performance - click Settings, Advanced Tab, Processor Scheduling - Programs is the default setting. Choosing the Programs option (26 Hexadecimal) will result in a smoother, faster response time for your foreground program (default and optimal). If you want a background task, such as a Backup utility, to run faster, choose the Background services option (18 Hexadecimal)." - Source
Myth - "Setting this value to 38 gives a boost to the priority of foreground applications."
Reality - "People are confusing the Hexadecimal and Decimal value settings of this Registry Key. By Default Windows XP already sets this value optimally to 26 Hexadecimal = 0x00000026 which is automatically translated to 38 Decimal = (38). This is shown as 0x00000026 (38) in this registry key. The Windows XP Registry Editor defaults to changing the Hexadecimal Value when you go to modify a Registry Key. The problems is it is commonly recommended to change this value to "38" with no mention of this being the Decimal value and instead the Hexadecimal Value is changed because it is the default. This makes the key show 0x00000038 (56). This is not one of this key's functional values and setting a bit field in Win32PrioritySeparation to values other than those shown in the table will result in the default option being selected (26 Hexadecimal). Thus this does absolutely nothing." - Source
Functional Values:
0x28 (0x29, 0x2A)
0x18 (0x19, 0x1A)
0x24 (0x14)
0x25
0x26 (Default and Optimal)
0x15
0x16
Optimization Myths 1
Also known as "Bad Tweaks" these are frequently recommended and included in various tweaking programs claiming to improve performance. In each case they either do absolutely nothing or even worse, actually hurt performance. For Tweaks that work use the Optimize XP guide.
1. Always Unload DLL (Disable DLL Caching)
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer] "AlwaysUnloadDLL"
Myth - "Enabling AlwaysUnloadDLL frees up more memory and improves performance."
Reality - "Adding this Registry Key in Windows 2000 or XP has no effect since this registry key is no longer supported in Microsoft Windows 2000 or later. The Shell automatically unloads a DLL when its usage count is zero, but only after the DLL has not been used for a period of time. This inactive period might be unacceptably long at times, especially when a Shell extension DLL is being debugged. For operating systems prior to Windows 2000, you can shorten the inactive period by adding this registry key."
2. /Prefetch:1 Switch
Myth - "Adding the /Prefetch:1 Switch to the startup path of a program's shortcut will decrease the program's startup time."
Reality - All it does is change your hash number - the OS is doing exactly the same thing it did before, and just saving the prefetch pages to a different file. It does not improve performance in any way. Ryan Myers of Microsoft's Windows Client Performance Team writes: "The /prefetch:# flag is looked at by the OS when we create the process - however, it has one (and only one) purpose. We add the passed number to the hash. Why? WMP is a multipurpose application and may do many different things. The DLLs and code that it touches will be very different when playing a WMV than when playing a DVD, or when ripping a CD, or when listening to a Shoutcast stream, or any of the other things that WMP can do. If we only had one hash for WMP, then the prefetch would only be correct for one such use having incorrect prefetch data would not be a fatal error - it'd just load pages into memory that'd never get used, and then get swapped back out to disk as soon as possible. Still, it's counterproductive. By specifying a /prefetch:# flag with a different number for each "mode" that WMP can do, each mode gets its own separate hash file, and thus we properly prefetch. (This behavior isn't specific to WMP - it does the same for any app.) This flag is looked at when we create the first thread in the process, but it is not removed by CreateProcess from the command line, so any app that chokes on unrecognized command line parameters will not work with it. This is why so many people notice that Kazaa and other apps crash or otherwise refuse to start when it's added. Of course, WMP knows that it may be there, and just silently ignores its existence. I suspect that the "add /prefetch:1 to make rocket go now" urban legend will never die, though."
3. Cleaning the Prefetch Folder
Myth - "Deleting the contents of the Prefetch folder improves performance."
Reality - "Every time you delete an application's Prefetch (.PF) file you will cripple that application's load time the next time you go to launch it. This can temporarily increase load times by as much as 100%. For one thing, XP will just re-create the Prefetch (.PF) trace files anyway; secondly, it trims the files if there's ever more than 128 of them so that it doesn't needlessly consume space. However you do not regain optimal application load times back until after the second time you launch the same application due to the Prefetch (.PF) trace file being re-created. Prefetch (.PF) trace files are not a cache and are not preloaded into memory upon windows startup. They are never even accessed until you launch an application. Only one Prefetch (.PF) trace file per application is created. There is never ANY reason to delete these files. Cleaning the Prefetch folder is actually a temporary self-inflicted unoptimization. Why you would want to deliberately hurt your PC's performance I have no idea." - Source - Source 2 - Source 3 - Source 4
Malware/Viruses - Some people irresponsibly recommend cleaning this folder due to possible Malware/Virus infection. Malware/Viruses can place an infected file(s) in any folder and the Prefetch folder is no different. Do these same people recommend deleting the contents of the Windows folder because it is a popular location to find an infected file(s)? Of course not, you simply clean or delete the infected file(s) not the contents of the folder. This Myth got started due to the indiscriminate nature of the Windows Prefetcher, which will Prefetch any executable file that you load or loads during Windows start up. Thus it is quite common on an infected machine to find a Prefetch (.PF) trace file in the Prefetch folder with the same name as an infected executable. These files are NOT Malware/Viruses. They are there to improve the load time, in this case ironically, of the Malware/Virus but do not contain any infected code. Once the associated infected executable is deleted, these Prefetch (.PF) trace files do nothing and will eventually automatically be cleaned by Windows.
Corrupted Files - Some people claim that Prefetch (.PF) trace files can get randomly "corrupted" and thus they need to be periodically deleted. Files do not get "corrupted" unless something is wrong with your computer. Any file corruption is a warning sign something is wrong with your system. Overclocking, using defective components like Memory and Harddrives and using FAT32 instead of the superior NTFS file system are common causes of file corruption. NTFS is very resilient to file corruption as compared to FAT32. When storing data to disk, NTFS records file I/O events to a special transaction log. If the system crashes or encounters an interruption, NTFS can use this log to restore the volume and prevent corruption from an abnormal program termination or system shutdown. NTFS doesn't commit an action to disk until it verifies the successful completion of the action. This precaution helps prevent corruption of an NTFS volume. NTFS also supports hot-fixing disk sectors, where the OS automatically blocks out bad disk sectors and relocates data from these sectors. This housecleaning happens in the background. An application attempting to read or write data on a hot-fixed area will never know the disk had a problem. Thus the solution is fixing the cause of the file corruption.
CCleaner - Finally the useless, performance slowing cleaning option "Old Prefetch data" was moved to the advanced section and is now not selected by default. Never select this option for cleaning as it will increase application and Windows load times. This option removes Prefetch files that are a few weeks old based on the NTFS last access date. Since Windows XP already cleans this folder at 128 entries, this is a useless option that will only reduce system performance. You should never delete a Prefetch file for any installed application since that would cripple it's load times. Just because a program was not used in a few weeks does not mean you want it to load as slow as possible when you do decide to use it. If you disable the NTFS last access date stamp then this option will delete the whole contents of the Prefetch folder after a few weeks, which will cripple Windows Boot and all application load times. The Prefetch folder is also ridiculously small so cleaning Prefetch files before the 128 limit will reclaim next to no disk space. This option clearly needs a warning to prevent people from unknowingly hurting their system performance. Anyone who claims this should be cleaned for ANY reason does not understand how Windows Prefetching works. - Source
Bad Advice - This bad advice to clean the prefetch folder is posted frequently on the Internet by people who do not understand how the Windows XP Prefetcher works. Their explanations are 100% inaccurate. - Bad Advice 1 - Bad Advice 2 - Bad Advice 3 - Bad Advice 4
4. EnablePrefetcher
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters] "EnablePrefetcher"
Myth - "Setting any value higher then 3 to EnablePrefetcher will improve performance."
Reality - The Prefetcher component in Windows XP is part of the Memory Manager, and helps to shorten the amount of time it takes to start Windows and programs. This is a new feature in Windows XP which improves application load times and Windows boot times automatically. The slower your system and the larger an application, the more Prefetching helps. Even high end systems benefit from prefetching with large, slow loading applications, such as large games. By default Prefetching is enabled in Windows XP and already configured optimally. The following list describes the different possible values for the EnablePrefetcher registry key.
0 = Disabled
1 = Application launch prefetching enabled
2 = Boot prefetching enabled
3 = Applaunch and Boot enabled (Optimal and Default)
By default the Prefetcher is set to a value of 3 in Windows XP. Values such as 4, 5, 6 ect... do not exist and are thus useless. Leave this at the default value of 3 which is already optimal for maximum performance on both Windows XP Boot and initial application launches. - Source
Low Memory Systems - Recommendations to disable Prefetching on low memory systems (128 MB - 512 MB) is based on the fallacy that portions of application code are preloaded into memory before the application load is initiated during Windows startup. This is completely false and is spread by people who do not understand how Windows XP Prefetching works. The slower the system the more it will benefit from Prefetching. 64 MB systems will suffer due to insufficient RAM, reducing but not eliminating Window XP's prefetching benefits. 128 MB is the recommended minimum for optimal prefetching performance.
Boot Performance - Recommendations to set the EnablePrefetcher value to 2 to improve boot performance is based on the fallacy that portions of application code are preloaded into memory before the application load is initiated during Windows XP startup. This is completely false and is spread by people who do not understand how Windows XP Prefetching works. Only the files used during boot will be Prefetched. The Prefetch folder is not a cache. Windows XP will boot in the exact same amount of time with either value 2 or 3, the only difference with 2 is that now all of your initial application launches will not be Prefetched and thus load slower. The default value of 3 in no way negatively affects Windows XP boot times. Leave the value at 3 for optimal Windows XP boot and initial application launch times.
5. Enable Superfetch
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters] "EnableSuperfetch"
Myth - "Adding EnableSuperfetch to the registry improves performance in Windows XP as it does in Windows Vista."
Reality - "This myth was started when the Inquirer irresponsibly ran a bogus letter without doing any fact checking. Windows internals guru Mark Russinovich said this won't work, the "Superfetch" string isn't even in the Windows XP kernel. You can confirm this yourself by checking with the strings.exe utility. This makes it impossible for it to do anything since no "Superfetch" command exists. Windows cannot execute a nonexistent command and will simply ignore it. Anyone who says this works is not only lying but a fool." - Source
6. Conservative Swapfile
Myth - "Adding ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 to the System.ini file improves performance."
Reality - "The System.ini and Win.ini files are provided in Windows XP for backward compatibility with 16-bit applications. They have no effect on the Windows XP paging file settings which are stored in the Registry. This setting only effects Windows 95/98 operating systems. The default setting for ConservativeSwapfileUsage is 1 for Windows 95, and 0 (zero) for Windows 98. On Windows 98 systems you can set ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 under the [386Enh] heading of the System.ini file causing the system to behave as Windows 95 does, at some cost in overall system performance." - Source
7. Deleting Temp Files
Myth - "Deleting Temp Files improves performance."
Reality - Deleting temporary files does not improve application, gaming or system performance. All it does is increase your available disk space. While AntiVirus and AntiSpyware scan times and general disk search times can be reduced, these are not what people associate with improved performance. Deleting the contents of your browser cache actually reduces performance for previously visited webpages since they must be reloaded into the cache.
Notes - Modern disk search engines such a Windows Desktop Search take the location of temporary files into account and does not waste time indexing these files. Versions are available for download for Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and it is included in Vista.
8. Disable Dr. Watson
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug]
Myth - "Disabling Dr. Watson improves performance since it is always running."
Reality - "If a program error occurs, Dr. Watson will start automatically but not before unless you manually start it. Which means disabling Dr. Watson has no effect on system performance. Dr. Watson (Drwtsn32.exe) for Windows is a program error debugger that gathers information about your computer when an error (or user-mode fault) occurs with a program. Technical support groups can use the information that Dr. Watson obtains and logs to diagnose a program error. When an error is detected, Dr. Watson creates a text file (Drwtsn32.log) that can be delivered to support personnel by the method they prefer. You also have the option of creating a crash dump file, which is a binary file that a programmer can load into a debugger. This is valuable information to help troubleshoot a system problem, thus it makes no sense to disable Dr. Watson." - Source - Source 2 - Source 3
Notes - Programs errors should be addressed and not ignored by making sure you are using the latest non-Beta version of the application that crashed and apply all patches that are available from the developer of the application. This can also be a warning sign something is wrong or misconfigured with your system. Use the Diagnose XP Guide to help troubleshoot the most common causes of system problems.
9. Clearing the Paging File
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "ClearPageFileAtShutdown"
Myth - "Clearing the Paging File at Shutdown improves performance."
Reality - "Enabling this will clear the Window's paging file (Pagefile.sys) during the shutdown process, so that no unsecured data is contained in the paging file when the shutdown process is complete. If you enable this feature, the shutdown time will be increased. Some third-party programs can temporarily store unencrypted (plain-text) passwords or other sensitive information in memory. Because of the Windows virtual memory architecture, this information can be present in the paging file. Although clearing the paging file is not a suitable substitute for physical security of a computer, you might want to do this to increase the security of data on a computer while Windows is not running." - Source
10. Disable the Paging File
Myth - "Disabling the Paging File improves performance."
Reality - "You gain no performance improvement by turning off the Paging File. When certain applications start, they allocate a huge amount of memory (hundreds of megabytes typically set aside in virtual memory) even though they might not use it. If no paging file (pagefile.sys) is present, a memory-hogging application can quickly use a large chunk of RAM. Even worse, just a few such programs can bring a machine loaded with memory to a halt. Some applications (e.g., Adobe Photoshop) will display warnings on startup if no paging file is present." - Source
"In modern operating systems, including Windows, application programs and many system processes always reference memory using virtual memory addresses which are automatically translated to real (RAM) addresses by the hardware. Only core parts of the operating system kernel bypass this address translation and use real memory addresses directly. All processes (e.g. application executables) running under 32 bit Windows gets virtual memory addresses (a Virtual Address Space) going from 0 to 4,294,967,295 (2*32-1 = 4 GB), no matter how much RAM is actually installed on the computer. In the default Windows OS configuration, 2 GB of this virtual address space are designated for each process' private use and the other 2 GB are shared between all processes and the operating system. RAM is a limited resource, whereas virtual memory is, for most practical purposes, unlimited. There can be a large number of processes each with its own 2 GB of private virtual address space. When the memory in use by all the existing processes exceeds the amount of RAM available, the operating system will move pages (4 KB pieces) of one or more virtual address spaces to the computer's hard disk, thus freeing that RAM frame for other uses. In Windows systems, these "paged out" pages are stored in one or more files called pagefile.sys in the root of a partition. Virtual Memory is always in use, even when the memory required by all running processes does not exceed the amount of RAM installed on the system." - Source
11. Moving the Paging File
Myth - "Moving the Paging File to a different partition on the same drive improves performance."
Reality - "Moving the Paging File (pagefile.sys) to a different partition on the same physical hard disk drive does not improve performance. Simply using a different partition on the same drive will result in lots more head-seeking activity, as the drive jumps between the Windows and paging file partitions. Even though moving the paging file in this case can have the positive effect of defragmenting it, the loss in I/O performance out weighs any gains. It is better to simply defragment the paging file using PageDefrag and keep maximum I/O performance by leaving the paging file where it is with a single drive setup. - Source
Notes - However you can enhance performance by putting the paging file on a different partition and on a different physical hard disk drive. That way, Windows can handle multiple I/O requests more quickly. When the paging file is on the boot partition, Windows must perform disk reading and writing requests on both the system folder and the paging file. When the paging file is moved to a different partition and a different physical hard disk drive, there is less competition between reading and writing requests."
12. Paging File RAMdisk
Myth - "Putting the Paging File on a RAMdisk improves performance."
Reality - "Putting a Paging File in a RAM drive is a ridiculous idea in theory, and almost always a performance hit when tested under real-world workloads. You can't do this unless you have plenty of RAM and if you have plenty of RAM, you aren't hitting your paging file very often in the first place! Conversely, if you don't have plenty of RAM, dedicating some of it to a RAM drive will only increase your page fault rate. Now you might say "yeah, but those additional page faults will go faster than they otherwise would because they're satisfied in RAM." True, but it is still better to not incur them in the first place. And, you will also be increasing the page faults that have to be resolved to exe's and dll's, and the paging file in RAM won't do diddly to speed those up. But thanks to the paging file in RAM, you'll have more of them. Also: the system is ALREADY caching pages in memory. Pages lost from working sets are not written out to disk immediately (or at all if they weren't modified), and even after being written out to disk, are not assigned to another process immediately. They're kept on the modified and standby page lists, respectively. The memory access behavior of most apps being what it is, you tend to access the same sets of pages over time... so if you access a page you lost from your working set recently, odds are its contents are still in memory, on one of those lists. So you don't have to go to disk for it. Committing RAM to a RAMdisk and putting a paging file on it makes fewer pages available for those lists, making that mechanism much less effective. And even for those page faults resolved to the RAMdisk paging file, you are still having to go through the disk drivers. You don't have to for page faults resolved on the standby or modified lists. Putting a paging file on a RAMdisk is a self-evidently absurd idea in theory, and actual measurement proves it to be a terrible idea in practice. Forget about it." - Source - Source 2
13. Disable Certain Services
Myth - "Disabling these Services improves performance."
Reality - "Disabling these Services actually reduces performance."
DNS Client Service - "The overall performance of the client computer decreases and the network traffic for DNS queries increases if the DNS resolver cache is deactivated. This effectively reduces Internet Performance for sites you have previously visited and puts an unnecessary load on your ISP's DNS server." - Source
Task Scheduler Service - "Disabling the Task Scheduler completely cripples Windows XP's Boot and Application Load times by preventing Prefetch (.PF) trace files and the Layout.ini file from being created or updated." - Source
Notes - Disabling other unnecessary services in general has only one affect on performance and that is reduced Windows XP boot times. - Source
14. Disable Paging Executive Low Memory Systems or High Memory Systems
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management] "DisablePagingExecutive"
Myth - "Setting DisablePagingExecutive to 1 improves performance by preventing the kernel from paging to disk."
Reality - "DisablePagingExecutive applies only to ntoskrnl.exe. It does not apply to win32k.sys (much larger than ntoskrnl.exe!), the pageable portions of other drivers, the paged pool and of course the file system cache. All of which live in kernel address space and are paged to disk. On low memory systems this can force application code to be needlessly paged and reduce performance. If you have more than enough RAM for your workload, yes, this won't hurt, but then again, if you have more than enough RAM for your workload, the system isn't paging very much of that stuff anyway. This setting is useful when debugging drivers and generally recommended for use only on servers running a limited well-known set of applications."
1. Always Unload DLL (Disable DLL Caching)
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer] "AlwaysUnloadDLL"
Myth - "Enabling AlwaysUnloadDLL frees up more memory and improves performance."
Reality - "Adding this Registry Key in Windows 2000 or XP has no effect since this registry key is no longer supported in Microsoft Windows 2000 or later. The Shell automatically unloads a DLL when its usage count is zero, but only after the DLL has not been used for a period of time. This inactive period might be unacceptably long at times, especially when a Shell extension DLL is being debugged. For operating systems prior to Windows 2000, you can shorten the inactive period by adding this registry key."
2. /Prefetch:1 Switch
Myth - "Adding the /Prefetch:1 Switch to the startup path of a program's shortcut will decrease the program's startup time."
Reality - All it does is change your hash number - the OS is doing exactly the same thing it did before, and just saving the prefetch pages to a different file. It does not improve performance in any way. Ryan Myers of Microsoft's Windows Client Performance Team writes: "The /prefetch:# flag is looked at by the OS when we create the process - however, it has one (and only one) purpose. We add the passed number to the hash. Why? WMP is a multipurpose application and may do many different things. The DLLs and code that it touches will be very different when playing a WMV than when playing a DVD, or when ripping a CD, or when listening to a Shoutcast stream, or any of the other things that WMP can do. If we only had one hash for WMP, then the prefetch would only be correct for one such use having incorrect prefetch data would not be a fatal error - it'd just load pages into memory that'd never get used, and then get swapped back out to disk as soon as possible. Still, it's counterproductive. By specifying a /prefetch:# flag with a different number for each "mode" that WMP can do, each mode gets its own separate hash file, and thus we properly prefetch. (This behavior isn't specific to WMP - it does the same for any app.) This flag is looked at when we create the first thread in the process, but it is not removed by CreateProcess from the command line, so any app that chokes on unrecognized command line parameters will not work with it. This is why so many people notice that Kazaa and other apps crash or otherwise refuse to start when it's added. Of course, WMP knows that it may be there, and just silently ignores its existence. I suspect that the "add /prefetch:1 to make rocket go now" urban legend will never die, though."
3. Cleaning the Prefetch Folder
Myth - "Deleting the contents of the Prefetch folder improves performance."
Reality - "Every time you delete an application's Prefetch (.PF) file you will cripple that application's load time the next time you go to launch it. This can temporarily increase load times by as much as 100%. For one thing, XP will just re-create the Prefetch (.PF) trace files anyway; secondly, it trims the files if there's ever more than 128 of them so that it doesn't needlessly consume space. However you do not regain optimal application load times back until after the second time you launch the same application due to the Prefetch (.PF) trace file being re-created. Prefetch (.PF) trace files are not a cache and are not preloaded into memory upon windows startup. They are never even accessed until you launch an application. Only one Prefetch (.PF) trace file per application is created. There is never ANY reason to delete these files. Cleaning the Prefetch folder is actually a temporary self-inflicted unoptimization. Why you would want to deliberately hurt your PC's performance I have no idea." - Source - Source 2 - Source 3 - Source 4
Malware/Viruses - Some people irresponsibly recommend cleaning this folder due to possible Malware/Virus infection. Malware/Viruses can place an infected file(s) in any folder and the Prefetch folder is no different. Do these same people recommend deleting the contents of the Windows folder because it is a popular location to find an infected file(s)? Of course not, you simply clean or delete the infected file(s) not the contents of the folder. This Myth got started due to the indiscriminate nature of the Windows Prefetcher, which will Prefetch any executable file that you load or loads during Windows start up. Thus it is quite common on an infected machine to find a Prefetch (.PF) trace file in the Prefetch folder with the same name as an infected executable. These files are NOT Malware/Viruses. They are there to improve the load time, in this case ironically, of the Malware/Virus but do not contain any infected code. Once the associated infected executable is deleted, these Prefetch (.PF) trace files do nothing and will eventually automatically be cleaned by Windows.
Corrupted Files - Some people claim that Prefetch (.PF) trace files can get randomly "corrupted" and thus they need to be periodically deleted. Files do not get "corrupted" unless something is wrong with your computer. Any file corruption is a warning sign something is wrong with your system. Overclocking, using defective components like Memory and Harddrives and using FAT32 instead of the superior NTFS file system are common causes of file corruption. NTFS is very resilient to file corruption as compared to FAT32. When storing data to disk, NTFS records file I/O events to a special transaction log. If the system crashes or encounters an interruption, NTFS can use this log to restore the volume and prevent corruption from an abnormal program termination or system shutdown. NTFS doesn't commit an action to disk until it verifies the successful completion of the action. This precaution helps prevent corruption of an NTFS volume. NTFS also supports hot-fixing disk sectors, where the OS automatically blocks out bad disk sectors and relocates data from these sectors. This housecleaning happens in the background. An application attempting to read or write data on a hot-fixed area will never know the disk had a problem. Thus the solution is fixing the cause of the file corruption.
CCleaner - Finally the useless, performance slowing cleaning option "Old Prefetch data" was moved to the advanced section and is now not selected by default. Never select this option for cleaning as it will increase application and Windows load times. This option removes Prefetch files that are a few weeks old based on the NTFS last access date. Since Windows XP already cleans this folder at 128 entries, this is a useless option that will only reduce system performance. You should never delete a Prefetch file for any installed application since that would cripple it's load times. Just because a program was not used in a few weeks does not mean you want it to load as slow as possible when you do decide to use it. If you disable the NTFS last access date stamp then this option will delete the whole contents of the Prefetch folder after a few weeks, which will cripple Windows Boot and all application load times. The Prefetch folder is also ridiculously small so cleaning Prefetch files before the 128 limit will reclaim next to no disk space. This option clearly needs a warning to prevent people from unknowingly hurting their system performance. Anyone who claims this should be cleaned for ANY reason does not understand how Windows Prefetching works. - Source
Bad Advice - This bad advice to clean the prefetch folder is posted frequently on the Internet by people who do not understand how the Windows XP Prefetcher works. Their explanations are 100% inaccurate. - Bad Advice 1 - Bad Advice 2 - Bad Advice 3 - Bad Advice 4
4. EnablePrefetcher
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters] "EnablePrefetcher"
Myth - "Setting any value higher then 3 to EnablePrefetcher will improve performance."
Reality - The Prefetcher component in Windows XP is part of the Memory Manager, and helps to shorten the amount of time it takes to start Windows and programs. This is a new feature in Windows XP which improves application load times and Windows boot times automatically. The slower your system and the larger an application, the more Prefetching helps. Even high end systems benefit from prefetching with large, slow loading applications, such as large games. By default Prefetching is enabled in Windows XP and already configured optimally. The following list describes the different possible values for the EnablePrefetcher registry key.
0 = Disabled
1 = Application launch prefetching enabled
2 = Boot prefetching enabled
3 = Applaunch and Boot enabled (Optimal and Default)
By default the Prefetcher is set to a value of 3 in Windows XP. Values such as 4, 5, 6 ect... do not exist and are thus useless. Leave this at the default value of 3 which is already optimal for maximum performance on both Windows XP Boot and initial application launches. - Source
Low Memory Systems - Recommendations to disable Prefetching on low memory systems (128 MB - 512 MB) is based on the fallacy that portions of application code are preloaded into memory before the application load is initiated during Windows startup. This is completely false and is spread by people who do not understand how Windows XP Prefetching works. The slower the system the more it will benefit from Prefetching. 64 MB systems will suffer due to insufficient RAM, reducing but not eliminating Window XP's prefetching benefits. 128 MB is the recommended minimum for optimal prefetching performance.
Boot Performance - Recommendations to set the EnablePrefetcher value to 2 to improve boot performance is based on the fallacy that portions of application code are preloaded into memory before the application load is initiated during Windows XP startup. This is completely false and is spread by people who do not understand how Windows XP Prefetching works. Only the files used during boot will be Prefetched. The Prefetch folder is not a cache. Windows XP will boot in the exact same amount of time with either value 2 or 3, the only difference with 2 is that now all of your initial application launches will not be Prefetched and thus load slower. The default value of 3 in no way negatively affects Windows XP boot times. Leave the value at 3 for optimal Windows XP boot and initial application launch times.
5. Enable Superfetch
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters] "EnableSuperfetch"
Myth - "Adding EnableSuperfetch to the registry improves performance in Windows XP as it does in Windows Vista."
Reality - "This myth was started when the Inquirer irresponsibly ran a bogus letter without doing any fact checking. Windows internals guru Mark Russinovich said this won't work, the "Superfetch" string isn't even in the Windows XP kernel. You can confirm this yourself by checking with the strings.exe utility. This makes it impossible for it to do anything since no "Superfetch" command exists. Windows cannot execute a nonexistent command and will simply ignore it. Anyone who says this works is not only lying but a fool." - Source
6. Conservative Swapfile
Myth - "Adding ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 to the System.ini file improves performance."
Reality - "The System.ini and Win.ini files are provided in Windows XP for backward compatibility with 16-bit applications. They have no effect on the Windows XP paging file settings which are stored in the Registry. This setting only effects Windows 95/98 operating systems. The default setting for ConservativeSwapfileUsage is 1 for Windows 95, and 0 (zero) for Windows 98. On Windows 98 systems you can set ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 under the [386Enh] heading of the System.ini file causing the system to behave as Windows 95 does, at some cost in overall system performance." - Source
7. Deleting Temp Files
Myth - "Deleting Temp Files improves performance."
Reality - Deleting temporary files does not improve application, gaming or system performance. All it does is increase your available disk space. While AntiVirus and AntiSpyware scan times and general disk search times can be reduced, these are not what people associate with improved performance. Deleting the contents of your browser cache actually reduces performance for previously visited webpages since they must be reloaded into the cache.
Notes - Modern disk search engines such a Windows Desktop Search take the location of temporary files into account and does not waste time indexing these files. Versions are available for download for Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and it is included in Vista.
8. Disable Dr. Watson
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug]
Myth - "Disabling Dr. Watson improves performance since it is always running."
Reality - "If a program error occurs, Dr. Watson will start automatically but not before unless you manually start it. Which means disabling Dr. Watson has no effect on system performance. Dr. Watson (Drwtsn32.exe) for Windows is a program error debugger that gathers information about your computer when an error (or user-mode fault) occurs with a program. Technical support groups can use the information that Dr. Watson obtains and logs to diagnose a program error. When an error is detected, Dr. Watson creates a text file (Drwtsn32.log) that can be delivered to support personnel by the method they prefer. You also have the option of creating a crash dump file, which is a binary file that a programmer can load into a debugger. This is valuable information to help troubleshoot a system problem, thus it makes no sense to disable Dr. Watson." - Source - Source 2 - Source 3
Notes - Programs errors should be addressed and not ignored by making sure you are using the latest non-Beta version of the application that crashed and apply all patches that are available from the developer of the application. This can also be a warning sign something is wrong or misconfigured with your system. Use the Diagnose XP Guide to help troubleshoot the most common causes of system problems.
9. Clearing the Paging File
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "ClearPageFileAtShutdown"
Myth - "Clearing the Paging File at Shutdown improves performance."
Reality - "Enabling this will clear the Window's paging file (Pagefile.sys) during the shutdown process, so that no unsecured data is contained in the paging file when the shutdown process is complete. If you enable this feature, the shutdown time will be increased. Some third-party programs can temporarily store unencrypted (plain-text) passwords or other sensitive information in memory. Because of the Windows virtual memory architecture, this information can be present in the paging file. Although clearing the paging file is not a suitable substitute for physical security of a computer, you might want to do this to increase the security of data on a computer while Windows is not running." - Source
10. Disable the Paging File
Myth - "Disabling the Paging File improves performance."
Reality - "You gain no performance improvement by turning off the Paging File. When certain applications start, they allocate a huge amount of memory (hundreds of megabytes typically set aside in virtual memory) even though they might not use it. If no paging file (pagefile.sys) is present, a memory-hogging application can quickly use a large chunk of RAM. Even worse, just a few such programs can bring a machine loaded with memory to a halt. Some applications (e.g., Adobe Photoshop) will display warnings on startup if no paging file is present." - Source
"In modern operating systems, including Windows, application programs and many system processes always reference memory using virtual memory addresses which are automatically translated to real (RAM) addresses by the hardware. Only core parts of the operating system kernel bypass this address translation and use real memory addresses directly. All processes (e.g. application executables) running under 32 bit Windows gets virtual memory addresses (a Virtual Address Space) going from 0 to 4,294,967,295 (2*32-1 = 4 GB), no matter how much RAM is actually installed on the computer. In the default Windows OS configuration, 2 GB of this virtual address space are designated for each process' private use and the other 2 GB are shared between all processes and the operating system. RAM is a limited resource, whereas virtual memory is, for most practical purposes, unlimited. There can be a large number of processes each with its own 2 GB of private virtual address space. When the memory in use by all the existing processes exceeds the amount of RAM available, the operating system will move pages (4 KB pieces) of one or more virtual address spaces to the computer's hard disk, thus freeing that RAM frame for other uses. In Windows systems, these "paged out" pages are stored in one or more files called pagefile.sys in the root of a partition. Virtual Memory is always in use, even when the memory required by all running processes does not exceed the amount of RAM installed on the system." - Source
11. Moving the Paging File
Myth - "Moving the Paging File to a different partition on the same drive improves performance."
Reality - "Moving the Paging File (pagefile.sys) to a different partition on the same physical hard disk drive does not improve performance. Simply using a different partition on the same drive will result in lots more head-seeking activity, as the drive jumps between the Windows and paging file partitions. Even though moving the paging file in this case can have the positive effect of defragmenting it, the loss in I/O performance out weighs any gains. It is better to simply defragment the paging file using PageDefrag and keep maximum I/O performance by leaving the paging file where it is with a single drive setup. - Source
Notes - However you can enhance performance by putting the paging file on a different partition and on a different physical hard disk drive. That way, Windows can handle multiple I/O requests more quickly. When the paging file is on the boot partition, Windows must perform disk reading and writing requests on both the system folder and the paging file. When the paging file is moved to a different partition and a different physical hard disk drive, there is less competition between reading and writing requests."
12. Paging File RAMdisk
Myth - "Putting the Paging File on a RAMdisk improves performance."
Reality - "Putting a Paging File in a RAM drive is a ridiculous idea in theory, and almost always a performance hit when tested under real-world workloads. You can't do this unless you have plenty of RAM and if you have plenty of RAM, you aren't hitting your paging file very often in the first place! Conversely, if you don't have plenty of RAM, dedicating some of it to a RAM drive will only increase your page fault rate. Now you might say "yeah, but those additional page faults will go faster than they otherwise would because they're satisfied in RAM." True, but it is still better to not incur them in the first place. And, you will also be increasing the page faults that have to be resolved to exe's and dll's, and the paging file in RAM won't do diddly to speed those up. But thanks to the paging file in RAM, you'll have more of them. Also: the system is ALREADY caching pages in memory. Pages lost from working sets are not written out to disk immediately (or at all if they weren't modified), and even after being written out to disk, are not assigned to another process immediately. They're kept on the modified and standby page lists, respectively. The memory access behavior of most apps being what it is, you tend to access the same sets of pages over time... so if you access a page you lost from your working set recently, odds are its contents are still in memory, on one of those lists. So you don't have to go to disk for it. Committing RAM to a RAMdisk and putting a paging file on it makes fewer pages available for those lists, making that mechanism much less effective. And even for those page faults resolved to the RAMdisk paging file, you are still having to go through the disk drivers. You don't have to for page faults resolved on the standby or modified lists. Putting a paging file on a RAMdisk is a self-evidently absurd idea in theory, and actual measurement proves it to be a terrible idea in practice. Forget about it." - Source - Source 2
13. Disable Certain Services
Myth - "Disabling these Services improves performance."
Reality - "Disabling these Services actually reduces performance."
DNS Client Service - "The overall performance of the client computer decreases and the network traffic for DNS queries increases if the DNS resolver cache is deactivated. This effectively reduces Internet Performance for sites you have previously visited and puts an unnecessary load on your ISP's DNS server." - Source
Task Scheduler Service - "Disabling the Task Scheduler completely cripples Windows XP's Boot and Application Load times by preventing Prefetch (.PF) trace files and the Layout.ini file from being created or updated." - Source
Notes - Disabling other unnecessary services in general has only one affect on performance and that is reduced Windows XP boot times. - Source
14. Disable Paging Executive Low Memory Systems or High Memory Systems
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management] "DisablePagingExecutive"
Myth - "Setting DisablePagingExecutive to 1 improves performance by preventing the kernel from paging to disk."
Reality - "DisablePagingExecutive applies only to ntoskrnl.exe. It does not apply to win32k.sys (much larger than ntoskrnl.exe!), the pageable portions of other drivers, the paged pool and of course the file system cache. All of which live in kernel address space and are paged to disk. On low memory systems this can force application code to be needlessly paged and reduce performance. If you have more than enough RAM for your workload, yes, this won't hurt, but then again, if you have more than enough RAM for your workload, the system isn't paging very much of that stuff anyway. This setting is useful when debugging drivers and generally recommended for use only on servers running a limited well-known set of applications."
Secret Myths
There are various myths people incorrectly think are hidden Secrets, Easter eggs or bugs in Windows XP.
1. 'CON' Folder
Myth - "Not being able to name a file or folder 'CON' is a bug or a secret"
Reality - "Several special file names are reserved by the system and cannot be used for files or folders: CON, AUX, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, PRN, NUL. This goes back to DOS 1.0 which didn't support subdirectories, lowercase, or filenames longer than 8.3. 'CON' is a reserved word from the old DOS days, simply meaning 'console'. If you wanted to create a new text file in DOS you could type 'copy con newfile.txt' meaning copy from the console to newfile.txt. This would let you type some lines and when you ended the file you would have a file called newfile.txt containing whatever you wrote in the console. Since they are still relied on with things like batch files (redirect to >NUL) they are still reserved today."
2. Notepad Phrases
Myth - "There are Secret phrases like "bush hid the facts" you can type into Notepad"
Reality - "Notepad makes a best guess of which encoding to use when confronted with certain short strings of characters that lack special prefixes. The encodings that do not have special prefixes and which are still supported by Notepad are the traditional ANSI encoding (i.e., "plain ASCII") and the Unicode (little-endian) encoding with no BOM. When faced with a file that lacks a special prefix, Notepad is forced to guess which of those two encodings the file actually uses. The function that does this work is IsTextUnicode, which studies a chunk of bytes and does some statistical analysis to come up with a guess. Sometimes it guesses wrong and displays random characters after you save and open the file. Any combination of characters in the same order will cause the same problem: "this app can break", "hhhh hhh hhh hhhhh", "this isa bug dummy" ect..."
1. 'CON' Folder
Myth - "Not being able to name a file or folder 'CON' is a bug or a secret"
Reality - "Several special file names are reserved by the system and cannot be used for files or folders: CON, AUX, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, PRN, NUL. This goes back to DOS 1.0 which didn't support subdirectories, lowercase, or filenames longer than 8.3. 'CON' is a reserved word from the old DOS days, simply meaning 'console'. If you wanted to create a new text file in DOS you could type 'copy con newfile.txt' meaning copy from the console to newfile.txt. This would let you type some lines and when you ended the file you would have a file called newfile.txt containing whatever you wrote in the console. Since they are still relied on with things like batch files (redirect to >NUL) they are still reserved today."
2. Notepad Phrases
Myth - "There are Secret phrases like "bush hid the facts" you can type into Notepad"
Reality - "Notepad makes a best guess of which encoding to use when confronted with certain short strings of characters that lack special prefixes. The encodings that do not have special prefixes and which are still supported by Notepad are the traditional ANSI encoding (i.e., "plain ASCII") and the Unicode (little-endian) encoding with no BOM. When faced with a file that lacks a special prefix, Notepad is forced to guess which of those two encodings the file actually uses. The function that does this work is IsTextUnicode, which studies a chunk of bytes and does some statistical analysis to come up with a guess. Sometimes it guesses wrong and displays random characters after you save and open the file. Any combination of characters in the same order will cause the same problem: "this app can break", "hhhh hhh hhh hhhhh", "this isa bug dummy" ect..."
Security Myths
1. Cookies
Myth - "Cookies are Spyware."
Reality - "Cookies are not Spyware. It's grossly irresponsible for these Anti-Spyware companies to treat cookies like Spyware. REAL Spyware is malicious, machine-hijacking junk that throw pop-ups on your computer, resets your start page, and all sorts of other ugly tricks. A cookie is a text file that has some non-personal information what banner ads have shown on certain sites. That's it. Go ahead and open the cookie on your computer and you'll see it's harmless. Cookies are not Spyware, no matter how hard these Anti-Spyware companies try to make them out to be."
Notes - "Certain Cookies can still pose some privacy concerns and if you wish to remove them it will do no harm. The point is when you find many of these after running a standard Anti-Spyware scan you should not get excited that you are infected with malicious Spyware."
2. Limited User Accounts
Myth - "Limited User Accounts are a Realistic Security Solution."
Reality - "On a nonmanaged XP machine today, it isn't realistic to run without Administrator privileges. Unlike UNIX and UNIX-like systems such as Linux and Apple Computer's Mac OS X, Windows isn't very useable with a non-Administrator account, largely because so many applications are ignorant of rights and were written to work only with Administrator-level accounts. This is particularly problematic in a home environment, in which XP Home Edition's crippled Limited Account type, designed for children and less-technical users, is virtually useless. In Windows XP, the lame Run As option, virtually hidden under a right-click menu that typical users will never know about, is a poor substitute."
"After you log on to a computer by using a Limited User Account, you may observe one or more of the following behaviors when you try to use a program that is not expressly designed for Windows XP.
- The program does not run.
- The program stops responding (hangs).
- You receive notification of run-time error 7 or run-time error 3446.
- The program does not recognize that a CD-ROM is in the CD-ROM drive.
- The program does not allow you to save files.
- The program does not allow you to open files.
- The program does not allow you to edit files.
- The program displays a blank error message.
- You cannot remove the program.
- You cannot open the Help file.
This behavior can occur because the Limited User Account prevents older programs from performing certain functions. Microsoft lists over 189 applications in this article alone that do not work right on a Limited User Account."
3. Power User Accounts
Myth - "Power User Accounts are a Good Compromise Security Solution."
Reality - "Power User accounts allow the installation of software, including ActiveX controls and can easily be elevated to fully-privileged administrators. The lesson is that as an IT administrator you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking that the Power Users group is a secure compromise on the way to running as limited user."
4. Hosts File
Myth - "Special AntiSpyware Hosts Files are necessary to prevent Spyware infections."
Reality - "Using Special AntiSpyware Hosts Files are a waste of time and leads to a false sense of security. Any Malware/Spyware can easily modify the Hosts File at will, even if it is set to Read-only. It is impossible to "lock-down" a Hosts File unless you are running as a limited user which makes using it in this case irrelevant anyway. Various Malware/Spyware uses the Hosts File to redirect your Web Browser to other sites. They can also redirect Windows to use a Hosts File that has nothing to do with the one you keep updating. The Hosts file is an archaic part of networking setups that was originally meant to be used on a LAN and was the legacy way to look up Domain Names on the ARPANET. It tells a PC the fixed numeric address of the internal server(s) so the PC doesn't have to go looking for them through all possible addresses. It can save time when "discovering" a LAN. I don't consider 1970's ARPANET technology useful against modern Malware/Spyware. When cleaning Malware/Spyware from a PC, it is much easier to check a clean Hosts File then one filled with thousands of lines of addresses. Considering how easily a Hosts File can be exploited, redirected and potentially block good sites, it is strongly recommended NOT to waste time using Special Hosts Files. Especially when proper Malware/Spyware protection can be achieved by simply using these steps, all without ever using a Hosts File."
5. 127.0.0.1
"Special AntiSpyware Hosts Files attempt to associate a known safe, numeric address (127.0.0.1) with the names of sites or IP addresses you want to block. When the user or any process on the PC then tries to access a blocked site, it is instead directed to the safe location. It is simply impossible to update a Hosts file frequently enough since it is cheap and easy to purchase new domain names and move to new IP addresses. You also run into problems in accidentally blocking good sites since many sites share the same IP addresses with other sites using Shared IP Hosting. Also once a malicious site is shutdown, that IP Address then becomes free and can easily be acquired by another non-malicious site."
6. Large Hosts Files
"Large Hosts Files cause Internet related slowdowns due to DNS Client Server Caching. This negatively effects your browsing speed. AntiSpyware Hosts File authors irresponsibly recommend disabling the DNS Client Service to solve this problem. This is not a solution. The overall performance of the client computer decreases and the network traffic for DNS queries increases if the DNS resolver cache is deactivated. This effectively reduces Internet Performance for sites you have previously visited and puts an unnecessary load on your ISP's DNS server."
Notes - There is a much better solution for bad site blocking using SpywareBlaster which more intelligently use's Internet Explorer's built-in Zone Security settings and the registry. Mozilla/Firefox protection is also provided.
7. Spyware, Malware and Virus Security
Myth - "It is impossible or difficult to secure Windows XP from Spyware, Malware or Viruses."
Reality - "It is very easy to secure Windows XP, simply use Secure XP - A Windows XP Security Guide. To put it bluntly I simply do not get infected with anything. Keep in mind nothing can fully protect you from something you manually install." - Source
8. Really Hidden Files
Myth - "There are Really Hidden Files in Windows XP that are impossible to see."
Reality - "Any file can be seen in Windows XP once you change from the default view settings. Go to the Control Panel, Appearance and Themes, Folder Options, select Show hidden files and folders and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). Protected operating system files also known as Super Hidden Files are by default hidden from view. They are critical system files that if deleted can cause various system problems." - Source - Source 2
Notes - It is possible to get infected by malicious programs known as "Rootkits" which can truly hide themselves from being viewed in Windows Explorer. These malicious programs can be detected using special scanners such as RootkitRevealer.
9. Virus Hoaxes
Myth - "All Email Virus warnings are real."
Reality - "With the increase in the growth of viruses and Trojan programs, many computer users have turned to the Internet as a fast and easy tool to warn friends and co-workers of these threats. At the same time, there has also been a growth of virus hoax warnings. These warnings often describe fantastical or impossible virus or Trojan program characteristics, but appear to be real and forwarding these hoax warnings to friends and co-workers only perpetuates the problem. If you receive an Email that you suspect is a hoax, do not forward it to anyone and never open the attachments. Check in the Vmyths Hoax Database to confirm it is a hoax and delete the Email. If the Email originated from someone you know, send them an Email explaining the hoax." - Source
10. Vulnerabilities
Myth - "The Windows Platform has more Security Vulnerabilities than the Linux/Unix Platform."
Reality - "Between January 2005 and December 2005 there were 5198 reported vulnerabilities: 812 Windows operating system vulnerabilities; 2328 Unix/Linux operating vulnerabilities; and 2058 Multiple operating system vulnerabilities" - Source
Notes - Software vulnerabilities are categorized in the appropriate section reflecting the operating system on which the vulnerability was reported; however, this does not mean that the vulnerability only affects the operating system reported since this information is obtained from open-source information.
Reality - "The Linux Kernel v2.6.x has had 231 Vulnerabilities compared to 213 Vulnerabilities for Windows XP." - Source
11. XP Firewall
Myth - "The Windows XP Firewall is not good enough because it lacks outbound filtering."
Reality - "I believe there are a lot of incorrect assumptions and outright myths about outbound filtering. I really like the Firewall in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). It is lightweight, centrally manageable, does the job well, is unobtrusive, and does something very critical: it protects the system at boot. That last one is crucial; we have seen many systems in the past get infected during boot even with a firewall turned on. Any outbound host-based firewall filtering in Windows XP is really just meaningless as a security feature in my opinion. True, it stops some malware, today, but only because current malware has not been written to circumvent it. There simply are not enough environments that implement outbound rules for the mass market malware authors to need to worry about it. In an interactive attack the attacker can circumvent outbound filters at will. To see how, consider this. Circumventing outbound host-based firewall filters can be accomplished in several ways, depending on the scenario of the actual attack. First, the vast majority of Windows XP users run as administrators, and any malware running as an administrator can disable the firewall entirely. Of course, even if the outbound filter requires interaction from the user to open a port, the malware can cause the user to be presented with a sufficiently enticing and comprehensible dialog, that explains that without clicking "Yes" they will not ever get to see the "dancing pigs". See, the problem is that when the user is running as an administrator, or the evil code runs as an administrator, there is a very good chance that either the user or the code will simply disable the protection. Of course, the user does not really see that dialog, because it is utterly meaningless to users. That is problem number one with outbound filtering. Given the choice between security and sufficiently enticing rewards, like "dancing pigs", the "dancing pigs" will win every time. If the malware can either directly or indirectly turn off the protection, it will do so. The second problem is that even if the user, for some inexplicable reason clicked "No. Bug me again" or if the evil code is running in using a low-privileged account, such as Network Service, the malware can easily step right around the firewall other ways. As long as the account the code is running as can open outbound connections on any port the evil code can simply use that port. Ah, but outbound Firewalls can limit outbound traffic on a particular port to specific process. Not a problem, we just piggy back on an existing process that is allowed. Only if the recipient of the traffic filters based on both source and destination port, and extremely few services do that, is this technique for bypassing the firewall meaningful. The key problem is that most people think outbound host-based firewall filtering will keep a compromised asset from attacking other assets. This is impossible. Putting protective measures on a compromised asset and asking it not to compromise any other assets simply does not work. Protection belongs on the asset you are trying to protect, not the one you are trying to protect against! Asking the bad guys not to steal stuff after they have already broken into your house is unlikely to be nearly as effective as keeping them from breaking into the house in the first place." -
Myth - "Cookies are Spyware."
Reality - "Cookies are not Spyware. It's grossly irresponsible for these Anti-Spyware companies to treat cookies like Spyware. REAL Spyware is malicious, machine-hijacking junk that throw pop-ups on your computer, resets your start page, and all sorts of other ugly tricks. A cookie is a text file that has some non-personal information what banner ads have shown on certain sites. That's it. Go ahead and open the cookie on your computer and you'll see it's harmless. Cookies are not Spyware, no matter how hard these Anti-Spyware companies try to make them out to be."
Notes - "Certain Cookies can still pose some privacy concerns and if you wish to remove them it will do no harm. The point is when you find many of these after running a standard Anti-Spyware scan you should not get excited that you are infected with malicious Spyware."
2. Limited User Accounts
Myth - "Limited User Accounts are a Realistic Security Solution."
Reality - "On a nonmanaged XP machine today, it isn't realistic to run without Administrator privileges. Unlike UNIX and UNIX-like systems such as Linux and Apple Computer's Mac OS X, Windows isn't very useable with a non-Administrator account, largely because so many applications are ignorant of rights and were written to work only with Administrator-level accounts. This is particularly problematic in a home environment, in which XP Home Edition's crippled Limited Account type, designed for children and less-technical users, is virtually useless. In Windows XP, the lame Run As option, virtually hidden under a right-click menu that typical users will never know about, is a poor substitute."
"After you log on to a computer by using a Limited User Account, you may observe one or more of the following behaviors when you try to use a program that is not expressly designed for Windows XP.
- The program does not run.
- The program stops responding (hangs).
- You receive notification of run-time error 7 or run-time error 3446.
- The program does not recognize that a CD-ROM is in the CD-ROM drive.
- The program does not allow you to save files.
- The program does not allow you to open files.
- The program does not allow you to edit files.
- The program displays a blank error message.
- You cannot remove the program.
- You cannot open the Help file.
This behavior can occur because the Limited User Account prevents older programs from performing certain functions. Microsoft lists over 189 applications in this article alone that do not work right on a Limited User Account."
3. Power User Accounts
Myth - "Power User Accounts are a Good Compromise Security Solution."
Reality - "Power User accounts allow the installation of software, including ActiveX controls and can easily be elevated to fully-privileged administrators. The lesson is that as an IT administrator you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking that the Power Users group is a secure compromise on the way to running as limited user."
4. Hosts File
Myth - "Special AntiSpyware Hosts Files are necessary to prevent Spyware infections."
Reality - "Using Special AntiSpyware Hosts Files are a waste of time and leads to a false sense of security. Any Malware/Spyware can easily modify the Hosts File at will, even if it is set to Read-only. It is impossible to "lock-down" a Hosts File unless you are running as a limited user which makes using it in this case irrelevant anyway. Various Malware/Spyware uses the Hosts File to redirect your Web Browser to other sites. They can also redirect Windows to use a Hosts File that has nothing to do with the one you keep updating. The Hosts file is an archaic part of networking setups that was originally meant to be used on a LAN and was the legacy way to look up Domain Names on the ARPANET. It tells a PC the fixed numeric address of the internal server(s) so the PC doesn't have to go looking for them through all possible addresses. It can save time when "discovering" a LAN. I don't consider 1970's ARPANET technology useful against modern Malware/Spyware. When cleaning Malware/Spyware from a PC, it is much easier to check a clean Hosts File then one filled with thousands of lines of addresses. Considering how easily a Hosts File can be exploited, redirected and potentially block good sites, it is strongly recommended NOT to waste time using Special Hosts Files. Especially when proper Malware/Spyware protection can be achieved by simply using these steps, all without ever using a Hosts File."
5. 127.0.0.1
"Special AntiSpyware Hosts Files attempt to associate a known safe, numeric address (127.0.0.1) with the names of sites or IP addresses you want to block. When the user or any process on the PC then tries to access a blocked site, it is instead directed to the safe location. It is simply impossible to update a Hosts file frequently enough since it is cheap and easy to purchase new domain names and move to new IP addresses. You also run into problems in accidentally blocking good sites since many sites share the same IP addresses with other sites using Shared IP Hosting. Also once a malicious site is shutdown, that IP Address then becomes free and can easily be acquired by another non-malicious site."
6. Large Hosts Files
"Large Hosts Files cause Internet related slowdowns due to DNS Client Server Caching. This negatively effects your browsing speed. AntiSpyware Hosts File authors irresponsibly recommend disabling the DNS Client Service to solve this problem. This is not a solution. The overall performance of the client computer decreases and the network traffic for DNS queries increases if the DNS resolver cache is deactivated. This effectively reduces Internet Performance for sites you have previously visited and puts an unnecessary load on your ISP's DNS server."
Notes - There is a much better solution for bad site blocking using SpywareBlaster which more intelligently use's Internet Explorer's built-in Zone Security settings and the registry. Mozilla/Firefox protection is also provided.
7. Spyware, Malware and Virus Security
Myth - "It is impossible or difficult to secure Windows XP from Spyware, Malware or Viruses."
Reality - "It is very easy to secure Windows XP, simply use Secure XP - A Windows XP Security Guide. To put it bluntly I simply do not get infected with anything. Keep in mind nothing can fully protect you from something you manually install." - Source
8. Really Hidden Files
Myth - "There are Really Hidden Files in Windows XP that are impossible to see."
Reality - "Any file can be seen in Windows XP once you change from the default view settings. Go to the Control Panel, Appearance and Themes, Folder Options, select Show hidden files and folders and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). Protected operating system files also known as Super Hidden Files are by default hidden from view. They are critical system files that if deleted can cause various system problems." - Source - Source 2
Notes - It is possible to get infected by malicious programs known as "Rootkits" which can truly hide themselves from being viewed in Windows Explorer. These malicious programs can be detected using special scanners such as RootkitRevealer.
9. Virus Hoaxes
Myth - "All Email Virus warnings are real."
Reality - "With the increase in the growth of viruses and Trojan programs, many computer users have turned to the Internet as a fast and easy tool to warn friends and co-workers of these threats. At the same time, there has also been a growth of virus hoax warnings. These warnings often describe fantastical or impossible virus or Trojan program characteristics, but appear to be real and forwarding these hoax warnings to friends and co-workers only perpetuates the problem. If you receive an Email that you suspect is a hoax, do not forward it to anyone and never open the attachments. Check in the Vmyths Hoax Database to confirm it is a hoax and delete the Email. If the Email originated from someone you know, send them an Email explaining the hoax." - Source
10. Vulnerabilities
Myth - "The Windows Platform has more Security Vulnerabilities than the Linux/Unix Platform."
Reality - "Between January 2005 and December 2005 there were 5198 reported vulnerabilities: 812 Windows operating system vulnerabilities; 2328 Unix/Linux operating vulnerabilities; and 2058 Multiple operating system vulnerabilities" - Source
Notes - Software vulnerabilities are categorized in the appropriate section reflecting the operating system on which the vulnerability was reported; however, this does not mean that the vulnerability only affects the operating system reported since this information is obtained from open-source information.
Reality - "The Linux Kernel v2.6.x has had 231 Vulnerabilities compared to 213 Vulnerabilities for Windows XP." - Source
11. XP Firewall
Myth - "The Windows XP Firewall is not good enough because it lacks outbound filtering."
Reality - "I believe there are a lot of incorrect assumptions and outright myths about outbound filtering. I really like the Firewall in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). It is lightweight, centrally manageable, does the job well, is unobtrusive, and does something very critical: it protects the system at boot. That last one is crucial; we have seen many systems in the past get infected during boot even with a firewall turned on. Any outbound host-based firewall filtering in Windows XP is really just meaningless as a security feature in my opinion. True, it stops some malware, today, but only because current malware has not been written to circumvent it. There simply are not enough environments that implement outbound rules for the mass market malware authors to need to worry about it. In an interactive attack the attacker can circumvent outbound filters at will. To see how, consider this. Circumventing outbound host-based firewall filters can be accomplished in several ways, depending on the scenario of the actual attack. First, the vast majority of Windows XP users run as administrators, and any malware running as an administrator can disable the firewall entirely. Of course, even if the outbound filter requires interaction from the user to open a port, the malware can cause the user to be presented with a sufficiently enticing and comprehensible dialog, that explains that without clicking "Yes" they will not ever get to see the "dancing pigs". See, the problem is that when the user is running as an administrator, or the evil code runs as an administrator, there is a very good chance that either the user or the code will simply disable the protection. Of course, the user does not really see that dialog, because it is utterly meaningless to users. That is problem number one with outbound filtering. Given the choice between security and sufficiently enticing rewards, like "dancing pigs", the "dancing pigs" will win every time. If the malware can either directly or indirectly turn off the protection, it will do so. The second problem is that even if the user, for some inexplicable reason clicked "No. Bug me again" or if the evil code is running in using a low-privileged account, such as Network Service, the malware can easily step right around the firewall other ways. As long as the account the code is running as can open outbound connections on any port the evil code can simply use that port. Ah, but outbound Firewalls can limit outbound traffic on a particular port to specific process. Not a problem, we just piggy back on an existing process that is allowed. Only if the recipient of the traffic filters based on both source and destination port, and extremely few services do that, is this technique for bypassing the firewall meaningful. The key problem is that most people think outbound host-based firewall filtering will keep a compromised asset from attacking other assets. This is impossible. Putting protective measures on a compromised asset and asking it not to compromise any other assets simply does not work. Protection belongs on the asset you are trying to protect, not the one you are trying to protect against! Asking the bad guys not to steal stuff after they have already broken into your house is unlikely to be nearly as effective as keeping them from breaking into the house in the first place." -
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