If some of your Windows XP clients run slower than others, it could be
due to some of the default settings located in the Performance Options
dialog box. You can change the options in this dialog box to boost the
performance of a Windows XP client. Let’s examine the settings you can
change to improve Windows XP’s performance
Access the Performance options
The most useful Windows XP performance-tuning options are on the Visual
Effects and Advanced tabs of the Performance Options dialog box
Change Visual Effects settings
The Visual Effects tab is the easiest place to start when
troubleshooting certain performance problems. By default, Windows XP
enables visual effects, such as the Scroll option for the Start menu.
These effects consume system resources. If you’re troubleshooting a
sluggish system, try choosing the Adjust For Best Performance option,
which will disable many of these visual effects settings. Of course,
you’ll lose the cool visual effects, but there’s always a tradeoff for
performance.
Change Processor Scheduling settings
If you’re troubleshooting something more than sluggish screen
redraws, you’ll need to adjust the performance options on the Advanced
tab of the Performance Options dialog box. There are three sections on
this tab: Processor Scheduling, Memory Usage, and Virtual Memory. The
settings in these sections have a major impact on how your system
operates.
The Processor Scheduling section controls how much processor time
Windows XP devotes to a program or process. The processor has a finite
amount of resources to divide among the various applications. Choosing
the Programs option will devote the most processor time to the program
running in the foreground. Choosing Background Services allocates equal
processor time to all running services, which can include print jobs and
other applications running in the background. If your users complain
about slow-running programs, you could try setting the processor
scheduling to Programs.
On the flip side, if users complain that print jobs never print or
are slow to print, or if they run a macro in one application while
working in another, you may want to assign equal time slices (called quanta)
to each process by choosing the Background Services option. If you use
the Windows XP machine as a server, you’re better off choosing the
Background Services option.
Change Memory Usage settings
The Memory Usage section governs how Windows XP uses system RAM. The
first option, Programs, allocates more RAM to running applications. For
desktop systems with very little RAM, this selection gives the best
performance. For a server or a desktop with a lot of RAM, however,
choosing the System Cache setting will yield better performance. When
set to System Cache, the system will use most of the available RAM as a
disk cache, which can result in major performance improvements on
systems that depend on disk I/O.
Change Virtual Memory settings
A number of settings in the Virtual Memory section affect how Windows
XP performs. Virtual memory is an area on the disk that Windows
uses as if it were RAM. Windows requires this type of system in the
event that it runs out of physical RAM. The virtual memory space is used
as a swap space where information residing in RAM is written to the
virtual memory space (also called the page file or swap file) to free up
RAM for other processes. When the system needs the information in the
swap file, Windows puts it back into RAM and writes something else out
to the disk in its place.
Windows XP has a recommended default page file size of 1.5 times the
amount of system RAM. You can let Windows completely manage this file or
have no file at all. I highly recommend that you do not remove the
paging file because you’ll experience a noticeable degradation of system
performance without it.
One way to boost system performance is to place the paging file on a
separate physical hard drive from the operating system. The only caveat
is if the second drive is slower than the primary drive, you’d want to
leave the paging file where it is.
You can also span the paging file across multiple disks to increase
performance. To make changes to the virtual memory, click the Change tab
on the Advanced tab of the Performance Options dialog box, make your
desired changes, and click Set. Any changes you make will take effect
after you reboot the machine
Source : TechRepublic Daily Digest