While
these are likely not all the performance tips, they are the ones that have made
significant differences on my system.I've seen a lot out there that have not
made much difference. These are a few I've seen actually help.
Increasing Memory
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If you have Windows95 with only 16-32 megs of memory, you will
see a significant increase in performance if you go to at least 64 megs.
Prices have gone down dramatically in the past few years. Your computer won't
be swapping to the hard drive nearly as much. The maximum useful memory for
Windows95 is 64 megs. It doesn't do well with memory over that and may
actually reduce your performance. Windows98 has removed that bottleneck.
Currently I have 128 megs and am quite satisfied with how much better it performs.
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Get a Faster Hard Drive
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If you can, there are newer hard drives that spin at 7200 RPMs
rather than the more common 5400 RPMs. This means that you will get to your
data reasonably faster. If you can afford it, I would recommend this as well.
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These
first two might cost you some money.On the other hand they will usually provide
the most noticeable difference
Here
are some things you can do for free
Defrag the Hard Drive
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I do this fairly frequently. Once a month or so. There are a few
things I do first to make sure I don't waste time defragging unnecessary
files.
1. First is to delete the
Internet Explorer Temporary Files and History.
2. Second is to delete
TMP and BAK files.
3. Third is delete any
files and directories in the \TEMP and \WINDOWS\TEMP directories
4. Defragment without the
swapfile. The instructions for this can be found at Defragmenting
the Swap File
5. Windows98 has a
built-in utility called Disk Cleanup. You can run it from either
the Start / Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Disk Cleanup or directly
run CLEANMGR.EXE
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File System Settings
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If you have 64 megs or more of memory you increase the
performance of your system.
1. Go to Control Panel /
System Properties / Performance / File System.
2. Change the typical
role of this computer to Network Server.
If you have Win95 SR1, and you do not see a performance
increase, occasionally the NameCache and PathCache values are written to the
registry incorrectly for the Network Server. To fix the problem:
1. Start Regedit
2. Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\FS
Templates\Server
3. Make sure the
following values are being used:
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No New Floppy Detect
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While you are in that section, click on the Floppy Disk tab and
uncheck Search for new floppy disks...This will speed up your
boot time.
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Increasing Disk Performance
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1. Go to Start \
Settings \ Control Panel \ System \ Performance \ File System \
Troubleshooting
2. Check the box Disable
synchronous buffer commits.
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DMA
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In the Device Manager, go to the settings your Hard Drives and
CD ROMs. If any of them will allow a DMA box to be checked, you can try it.
I've seen it decrease my CPU utilization.
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Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files
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Make sure you don't have any unnecessary device drivers or
programs here. Windows95 has most you will need already built into the OS.
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