Your First Choice for Windows 2000, NT 4.
0 & 95/98 Intelligence
SPECIAL END-USER SUPPLEMENT:
Optimize Your Workstation
John Meléndez —
WT&S Managing Editor
Technical Writer
Windows Tips & Secrets’ audience
is mostly comprised of network
administrators and other high-
level networking professionals,
and thus the newsletter’s content
sticks to hardcore network-related
news and tips. However, I’ve
recently gotten some emails from
subscribers who have a high-
maintenance boss they want to
keep happy, or perhaps they have
a frisky user who pesters them
for hot tips on how to make their
machine run better than ever.
Basically, you are asking how to
optimize your favorite end user’s
machine.
Because my own work falls
mostly into the end-user realm,
you are asking for some sugges-
tions on how to optimize a
desktop PC without going hog wild
on cost, and preferably using exist-
ing equipment. Here are a few
tidbits that will yield a beefy,
awesome workstation.
As always, before doing any of
this, be sure to back up crucial
June 2000
Volume 9, No. 7
Inside:
information. On the chance you
don’t like any changes you might
make here, you can easily clone Windows 2000
an image of your current system
using third-party software, such SPECIAL END-USER SUPPLEMENT:
as PowerQuest’s DriveImage or Optimize Your
Norton’s Ghost. Workstation ......................1
Moore Tips & Secrets .......2
Fresh OS Installation
Everyone knows there’s nothing Microsoft Networking
like the smell of a freshly installed
Cold As ICE .......................4
operating system in the morning!
Maybe your favorite user has
decided to brave the dark waters
and upgrade from Windows 9x to Windows 98
NT 4.0 Workstation or Windows CAB File Extraction ...........6
2000 Professional. It’s tempting to
save time and throw that CD into Successful Registry
the tray and do a quick upgrade Copying.............................8
over the existing system. But
don’t do it.
While it is time-consuming, take
the time to rebuild the OS from
scratch. Your user will be starting
off with a clean Registry, and they
get to enjoy the stability and relia-
bility this brings. I offer some
suggestions below for clean instal-
lations of the respective Microsoft
operating systems.
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Special Supplement

Windows 95/98 — Compared to ■ At the DOS command prompt ■ Before installing any production
Microsoft’s other OSs, Windows under C:\WIN98, type SETUP software (like MS Office), I
95/98 works on a relatively sim- and run the install. If you chose suggest you install and run a
ple architecture, and thus is the no-frills install option noted third-party system optimizer
limited in what you can do to above, upon your first start up (I use Symantec’s Norton
optimize it short of hacking into you will notice some of the Utilities) to ensure that system
the Registry: intro graphics and third-party files and the hard disk don’t
■ To start, use your trusty icons are either empty or have any snags that will impair
“Magic Boot Floppy” to load “dead-linked.” Don’t worry performance.
the machine up to DOS. A good about this. You are merely ■ Immediately after doing a
floppy comes loaded with the running a lean, clean version system check with this soft-
basic DOS system files, DEL- of Windows 98 without all ware, defragment the disk in
PART, FDISK, and a generic the extras. order to consolidate the system
CD-ROM driver. To ensure and swap files closely together,
■ Windows 98 comes with its
you’re starting completely from thus reducing the disk’s read
own proprietary file system
scratch, delete all the partitions time when these two file sets
converter, which changes the
you have on the hard drive. communicate with each other.
file system from standard FAT
■ Create new partitions, format to FAT32. I suggest you make ■ Install your various end-user
them, and install Windows 95 the conversion. On the chance applications. Then run another
or 98 onto it. For a faster install, you don’t have this converter, full defrag.
I use DOS commands to copy you can always use a good disk
■ As an option, clone an image
the /WIN9x directory from the management utility, such as
of your pristine install on the
install CD directly onto the PowerQuest’s Partition Magic.
chance the system degrades
hard disk, and then execute the
after several months of heavy-
install from the local drive.
duty use. When the time comes,
you can reinstall your clone,
Note: For a clean, no-frills installation of Windows 9x without all the and in no time flat, you will
third-party ISP deals and tutorial files that usually come with a full have a fresh machine again.
install, try doing the install from the hard disk by copying only the
base /WIN9x directory from the install CD without its subdirectories. To Your machine is now ready for
do this, use the XCOPY command without the subdirectory copy switch heavy-duty action. Defrag the
(/s) when copying from the install CD to the local drive. For example hard disk as often as necessary.
(where E:\ is the CD-ROM drive and C:\ is your local hard disk).
First, create your C:\WIN98 directory: Windows NT 4.0 Workstation —
mkdir C:\WIN98 Optimizing NT 4.0 Workstation
is a little more involved.
Then do the file copy: Nevertheless, it can be done:
xcopy E:\WIN98 C:\WIN98
■ After installing NT
Do not use: Workstation, do a Service Pack
xcopy E:\WIN98 /s C:\WIN98 (SP) update (preferably SP5 or
SP6a) immediately after the

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machine boots for the first time. ■ Defrag the hard disk again. ■ Install and optimize Windows
This makes updates to your 2000 Professional as with NT
system files and will ensure ■ As an option, clone your Workstation above. You may
smooth installations of your machine for a pristine backup. want to visit Microsoft’s web-
end-user apps. site for system updates.
■ Using a third-party utility Windows 2000 Professional — ■ Unless you have a super-fast
designed for NT (I use Executive No doubt there are fundamental machine that flies off your desk
Software’s DiskKeeper), run a differences between Windows NT with loads of RAM, a Xeon
full defrag on the hard disk. 4.0 Workstation and Windows processor, and other fast com-
Some defrags should be run 2000 Professional. But for basic ponents, I suggest you turn off
several times to yield a really optimization purposes, it’s safe to one of those new plug-ins you
good consolidated data cluster. assume both OSs are essentially find in Win2K Pro’s MMC – the
the same. Indexing Service. According to
■ Install your workstation appli-
Microsoft, Indexing Service
cations and apply your favorite
“creates indexes of the contents
system tweaks.
and properties of documents on
your local hard drive and on
Note: Some of my colleagues who install apps themselves shared network drives.”
insist on restarting their machines after each app install, and In other words, Indexing
then also running a Service Pack update (followed each time Service tracks all changes
by another restart). Whether you might be willing to go made on your hard drive,
through this time-consuming process, be sure to run the theoretically for fast and easy
Service Pack after installing everything you need. access. There is a definite
downside to this service: while
it records your changes to the
index file, the service bogs
down lower-end machines to
the point of a standstill. To turn
the service off, go to Start—
Settings—Control Panel—
Administrative Tools—
Computer Management.
Under the Services and
Applications object, right-click
on Indexing Service and select
Stop (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1

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Note: Just to be on the safe
side, you may want to make sure
Indexing Services is turned off
permanently by clicking on the
MMC’s Services object. Then
right-click Indexing Services and
adjust its properties to Manual
or Disable (see Figure 2).
Eliminate Unnecessary
■ Startup Folder Cleanup — Place
Processes
Upon startup, your machine loads
not only the basic OS shell, but also
starts process threads vital to your
machine’s operation. Unfortunately,
your machine also can be loading
unnecessary processes you never
need to use. These useless threads
use up your machine’s processor
time, and can severely degrade
performance. Here are some easy
ways to turn them off:
Task Manager — After fully start-
ing your machine up, invoke the
Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and
End Task anything you really
don’t need. Bear in mind this
method of shutting off unneces-
sary threads is merely temporary,
resuming upon your next
Windows session. Use the follow-
ing two methods for permanent
elimination of unneeded threads.
the cursor over the Start menu
button, right-click the Start button,
and select Open. Navigate through
the Programs folder and open the
Startup folder.
In the Startup folder are shortcut
icons pointing to applications
which automatically load every
time your machine starts.
■ Services Menu Cleanup — In
Determine which processes you
feel are unnecessary. Then cut the
icons from the folder and paste
them onto a safe place (such as
your desktop). Restart your
machine and see whether their
removal has had any detrimental
effect. If you determine some
applications really need to be
loaded upon bootup, copy their
respective icons back into the
Startup folder.
Note: In Windows NT
Workstation and Windows 2000
Professional, be sure to search for
multiple Startup folders on
machines which have multiple
profiles. This would include
profiles bearing names of every
respective user, as well as the
All Users profile).
Windows NT and Win2K, go to
the Services settings window and
shut off any service threads you
know you don’t need.
Be extremely careful which
processes you select for perma-
nent deletion or disabling. The OS
or some of your vital applications
may depend upon the threads you
are turning off.

Hardware Tricks
Nothing beats a fast processor and
all the new hardware designed to go
with it. But when the powers that be
say you cannot buy the very best,
you have to make do with what you
can scavenge.
Case in point: I have a friend whose
company recently bought new
Figure 2

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machines for the “select elite” in his Split Up the Hard Drive Tasks
company, and sadly left him behind, (NT Workstation and Windows
tail between his legs, without new 2000 Professional only) — This
equipment. He fell into a deep is a good one. Assume you are a
depression. I stopped him from busy, productive end user with an
making an appointment with his NT Workstation or Win2K Pro
therapist, and showed machine. You’re
him how to optimize You notice, on occasion, sending email
his machines’ perfor- while working
mance using old that your machine on an Excel
hardware and a few either slows down spreadsheet,
tricks – with notice- writing letters
able results. when switching in Word, play-
between tasks, or it ing around with
Scavenge More your HTML
Memory — A momentarily freezes. editor, running
simple but effective a graphics
technique, there’s nothing like program – all the while listening
adding more RAM and hard disk to a Led Zeppelin CD in the music
space to your machine. You can tray. In short, you’re using a lot of
do what my buddy did, and RAM and doing some serious
upgrade your workstation’s RAM multitasking.
from a 32MB wimp to a snorting
You notice, on occasion, that your
128MB multitasking buffalo. Stuff machine either slows down when
more RAM into those empty switching between tasks, or it
memory slots, and add one or momentarily freezes. You already
two more hard drives. added RAM, which helped a little,
At this point, there are two but this periodic slowing down or
upgradeable RAM hardware freezing still gets in your way.
conventions: DIMM (dual in-line What to do?
memory module) and SIMM Next time this happens, bend an
(single in-line memory module) – ear and listen carefully to your
sometimes both of these types will machine. Open up the CPU box
physically fit into your memory and literally listen to it. Chances
slots. However, motherboards are are you may hear the hard disk
designed for one or the other, and furiously crunching away on some
usually cannot take both. Thus, if unknown task. That crunching
you put more RAM in (do this noise is the disk stylus, reading
only while the machine is turned and writing data to and from your
off!) and suddenly get BIOS errors hard disk. With all these applica-
at startup, chances are you have tions open, that stylus is:
the wrong memory convention.
13
■ Accessing data files
■ Accessing application files
■ Accessing hundreds (if not
thousands) of system files
■ Caching and uncaching
temporary data to/from your
swap file
In reality, these four tasks can
actually amount to thousands of
disk reads within a few moments’
time.
Because your hard disk is one of
the few remaining components of
your machine with actual moving
parts, these activities pose a time-
intensive burden to performance.
With this in mind, it only makes
sense that your machine has
delays and momentary hangs.
How can you get around this
hardware bottleneck? Before you
delve into a solution, you first
have to understand the limitations
inherent to a typical workstation’s
hardware setup…
Most desktop computers have a
motherboard with at least two
EIDE (older machines use IDE)
data cable slots. Typically, the
cables run through your computer
and connect the motherboard to
the machine’s internal compo-
nents – such as the floppy drive,
CD-ROM, and hard disk. Your
system files, swap file, application
files, and data files are all stored
on that one physical disk.
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Typically, one data cable goes to
your hard drive, and the second
cable goes to the other internal
peripherals (see Figure 3).
As such, data flows out of your
motherboard via a cable slot,
through Data Cable #1, goes to
the hard disk, and travels back the
same way. One hundred percent
of your disk’s tasks are processed
through this channel. This much
in-and-out (I/O) traffic heavily
taxes this one data pathway. All
the while, you have another chan-
nel (Data Cable #2) left wide open
with little to no traffic at all.
Why not have the other channel
share the burden? Easy!
Remember your busy page file? It
produces loads of I/O traffic as it
is. Why not just move it over to its
own dedicated hard drive using
your open Data Cable #2. This
will split your data activity across
two cables, and you will have two
hard drives working simultaneously
for you, instead of just one (see
Figure 4).
Assuming you already know how
to change your swap file settings
in Windows NT, here is how to
move the swap file in Windows
2000 Professional:
Figure 3
Turn off, unplug, and open the
machine. Grab an old hard disk
and plug it into the data cable
on Data Cable #2. Boot up the
machine and log on.
14
Note: Your second hard drive can
be an old dinosaur with a 500MB
capacity. If possible, try to use a
more modern disk with fast access
speed and a large read/write buffer.
Is your machine having trouble
seeing the disk? Adjust your
Master/Slave/Cable-Select DIP
settings according to the manufac-
turer’s specs, many of which you
can find at www.pc-disk.de.
Under Windows 2000 Professional’s
Disk Management snap-in, format
the new disk and assign it a drive
letter (for example, D:\).
Right click My Computer, select
Properties—Advanced (tab)—
Performance Options and click
the Change button (see Figures
5 and 6).
In the Virtual Memory window
(Figure 7), apply your current C:\
drive swap file settings to D:\ and
reduce C:\’s
values to an
arbitrary
minimum
(say, 2MB
or slightly
larger). Press
the Apply
button for
each selected
drive to
assign the
settings.
Figure 4
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Figure 5
Press the OK buttons to exit.
Restart the machine.
Return to the Virtual Memory
window to confirm your new
settings.
Defrag your C:\ drive by going to
Start—Programs—Administrative
Tools—Computer Management—
Disk Defragmenter.
Note: Because your page file is
one contiguous file, there is no
need to defragment it.
Now that you’ve reduced your
C:\ drive’s physical tasks by
shunting activity away to a sepa-
rate disk, you should see a
noticeable difference in your
machine’s response time.
Figure 6
Also, try running your data files but hey, who has time to think of all
on the new hard drive. Some this with 500 users asking for help?
colleagues I know (who require Try these out, and...
continuous data access) run their Happy computing!
data files from a third hard drive,
thus reducing their machine’s
response time even more.
What Else?
Actually, there are loads of other
methods to optimization tricks, which
delve into the minutiae of the system
Registry and other obscure places.
Chances are, you have explored
these places yourself already.
The tips you see here are just a few
ways to optimize a machine for your
favorite user without spending any
(or at least not too much) extra cash,
and without ruining an already busy
schedule. Many of these tidbits arise
from the depths of common sense –
Figure 7
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