Upgrades
The latest driver for your graphics, sound, modem, monitor, printer, scanner,
etc. can make a computer run smoother, if it has problems. A friend's
scanner benefited from a small 'patch' download which stopped the lamp staying
on. Windows XP Service Pack 3 is worth installing and is claimed to give as much as a 10% speed boost. Italso has a better firewall than early versions of XP.
Performance Tweaks
A little settings-tweak can eke out a bit more performance (maybe 5%) by adjusting
the various cache memory settings. Right-click 'My computer' then > Properties
> performance > file system. Look in the 'typical role' list and select
'Network server'. Whilst you are in that section, click on 'floppy disk' and untick
the box which searches for the A: drive on each bootup. 'Cacheman' is a free download
which does the above a little better.
CRT Monitor refresh rates (flicker speed) are seldom adjusted from new, yet can cause headaches or discomfort to the heavy computer user. A properly installed monitor driver allows for some adjustment. Right-click on the screen wallpaper, Properties > settings > advanced > adapter. The limit will probably be set by the monitor and it is important not to exceed its capabilities. Try one or two faster settings, say 72Hz and, if the new screen size is not too small, use it. You will probably need to re-adjust a CRT monitor's height and width. Visit the monitor website to download the latest driver file and do the same for the graphics card. LCD screens don't have a flicker problems.
'Tweakui' is a free Microsoft utility which is downloadable from them or from such as Tweakfiles or Nonags. It allows you to do all sorts of little tweaks, such as removing the arrows on your icons, getting rid of some stuff from your start list, clearing IE history or 'Run' history on bootup, mouse performance tweaks and some others. You can speed up 'startup too and (Win 95/98) allow scandisk to start automatically after a crash reboot. The XP version also allows startup without having to log in every time.
For the more knowledgable (with older computers), make sure that your hard disc drive, CD, DVD or other (E)IDE drive has DMA selected (if they are modern types) and that your modem COM port (usually 3) is set to a higher bits-per-second rate than the 9600 default.
Hardware Ident Tip
If you can't find a manufacturer's name for whatever peripheral, you might be
able to find out from its FCC number. Manufacturers register
with the USA's FCC to be able to sell in that country, roughly equivalent to
'CE' approval on European goods. In fact the FCC is the USA equivalent of our
UK Radiocommunication Agency and relates to radio interference matters.
Here is the FCC ID number search page.
