XPpro gaming installation guide?

I

IInfernogd

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Dec 14, 2007
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** Edit **
To save any one else reading time, its been pretty much established that, beyond a common sense setup theres not much one can do to "Tweak" the OS into anything special. Thanks for the replies for those that have!
** End Edit **

Hey guys, first off apologies if this is like the 1 millionth thread about this, I didn't see it in the FAQ or any stickies. Any how I seem to recall a while ago stumbling across a nice guide that some one had written about doing a fresh install of XP pro with some useful tips on what steps to take to get max performance out of it.

I've already read the page file thread which takes care of one of the areas I recall being important, but I have had little luck with google (a rarity for me since I'm usually pretty good at finding things). So with all my resources exhausted I'm making this thread. :p

Any links or general comments on how to get optimal performance out of it would be appreciated. I'm not exactly a novice but since I'm actually setting up a full blown gaming rig this time around I figured I would ask and see if there were some pointers.
At some point I'll swap to vista but I'm holding back because of the aggravating mandatory software updates that will cost me a small fortune that I can't spend right after getting a new rig.

Thanks for your time!
Happy Holidays!
 
I'd be surprised, honestly, if anything in some "guide" would show any real results. Worry about the hardware in the system, and then use the latest drivers and some common sense. Such as, if gaming performance is all that matters, don't have Outlook, AIM, MSN Messenger, etc open in the background. Messing around with the OS isn't going to yield any noticeable results.
 
Ah ok, it was a shot in the dark hehe. After looking around a bit more on the net most of what I've seen has just talked about disabling a few services (not that big of difference IMO) and tweaking a few registry points that may or may not do much for some folks.

Any how thanks for the reply :p
 
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=914406

The topic of disabling services has been beaten to death over time, but here's the summary. If a service isn't in use, it isn't really steaking resources, so leave them alone.

BlackViper was, at one time, the laughing stock of the internet tweaking community, and was bashed on just about every tech forum I read. He's revised his comments apparently, but the facts still remain. Leave services alone.

If you really think saving a couple of MBs of memory is going to make a difference, it's time to upgrade past 512 MB of system memory, not go mucking around with services.
 
Hehe funny you should mention Black Viper, I was just looking that over earlier today and saw some of the services he was turning off seemed semi-important or related to somewhat important aspects of certain other services. Not to mock him but that was like :eek: for me in terms of seeing the general effects of services becoming corrupt and/or being attacked exploited via spyware/viruses in the past. System stability can go from perfect to zero with the flick of a few ill placed switches and registry edits lol.

I'm savvy enough with the operating system to know my way round most aspects of it, and the more I think about this stuff the only useful thing I remember from skimming the guide a while ago was attempting to keep the page file from being fragmented. Which I've already rehashed on that with the guide in the FAQ section.

With 4 gigs of ram in my new rig I'm pretty sure services are "not" going to squeeze that extra performance out of it. :p
But thanks for the replies guys I do appreciate the fact that people take the time to try and help. =)
 
I don't think there were any services I disabled in XPpro.

In Vista, the new search/index features drives me up the wall with the constant hdd chatter it creates from my Raptor. And it's completely pointless IMHO? I know where I put all my files. Download folder, or stored in intuitively named and structured folders. Can go right to whatever I want. The only time I've ever needed windows search is to find some obscure .dll or ocx file that has vanished, but that's rare, and I don't think indexer scans system folders.

I also disable ready boost, the flash drive RAM thing. Meh.
 
There may not be any appreciable performance difference, but I still find it immensely satisfying stripping all the superfluous crap out of XP with nLite. Minus the bloat, my last XP install CD weighed in at under 90MB, SP2/hotfixes included.
 
LuminaryJanitor said:
There may not be any appreciable performance difference, but I still find it immensely satisfying stripping all the superfluous crap out of XP with nLite. Minus the bloat, my last XP install CD weighed in at under 90MB, SP2/hotfixes included.
Click to expand...


Any benchmarks on systems before and after nLite?
 
NTJedi said:

Any benchmarks on systems before and after nLite?
Click to expand...
nLite isn't really designed to increase performance. It's designed to minimize the install footprint of the OS. I wouldn't touch the software personally, and I've seen far too many threads on these forums and others like it with strange issues after using nLite. With disk space as cheap as it is, I couldn't see a reason to alter the disc just to install the OS, but to each his/her own. It's been very well documented in the past, that these "tweaks" don't do anything performance related, however.
 
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