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File system tweaks

Here is a list of various file system related tweaks for Windows XP tweaks.

Disabling Autorun

Load the Group Policy editor by going to 'Start Menu -> Run...', then type 'gpedit.msc' and press enter.
Navigate to the 'Computer Config -> Administrative Templates -> System' section.
Double click on the 'Turn off Autoplay' option and select 'Enabled'.

Disabling Windows File Protection

WARNING: This tweak allows you to delete vital Windows files.
To totally disable Windows File Protection (the system that prevent users from deleting system and program files).
Load the Registry Editor by going to 'Start Menu -> Run...', then type 'regedit' and press enter.
Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\' and change the value of the key 'SFCDisable' to hold the value 0xFFFFFF9D.
(If you want to re-enable File Protection, just re-set the value to 0.)

Disable ZIP Folders

Windows XP has built-in support for .ZIP files, however it uses a sizeable portion of resources.
To disable it go to 'Start Menu -> Run...', then type 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' and press enter.

Tweak XP Prefetcher

The XP Prefetcher service monitors programs that initialize during startup, then in future fetches them quickly.
Load the Registry Editor by going to 'Start Menu -> Run...', then type 'regedit' and press enter.
Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\' and set the 'EnablePrefetcher' to 5.
You should also visit the "C:\windows\prefetch\" folder and clear out unnecessary entries.

Removing Restore Points For Disk Space

Windows XP has a feature to create 'Restore Points', so that if it crashes, all settings, are not lost.
However, multiple unecessary restore points can take up gigabytes in disk space. To delete all but the most recent restore point.
Go to 'Start Menu -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup' select the drive you wish to clean up, then 'Clean Up...', and finally, click 'Yes'.

Setting DMA Mode on IDE Drives

Windows XP sometimes sets itself to use a PIO transfer mode on IDE channels instead of the DMA mode.
If this happens, you can manually set the IDE channel to DMA mode, which will reduce the amount of CPU cycles being used on that device.
To set this, go to Device Manager by right clicking on 'My Computer' then select 'Properties', then go to the 'Hardware' tab and finally click 'Device Manager'.
Open up the branch labelled 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' and double click on 'Primary IDE Channel', go to the 'Advanced Settings' tab and check the Transfer Mode scroll boxes. Set them all to 'DMA If Available', then click 'OK'.
Continue to do this for each IDE Controller, and you should be alright.

Hibernation

A quick and easy tweak, if you're not going to be using Hibernation (as most people don't), make sure it is disabled, as Windows reserves an amount of Hard Drive space equal to that of your RAM for hibernation.
To disable Hibernation, go to 'Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Power Options -> Hibernate Tab' and uncheck 'Enable hibernation'.

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