Many people only have one computer at home, which is mainly used to surf the Internet and play games, and the configuration is not very high. If Windows XP is installed, your feeling can be described in one word: slow! This is my experience after installing the Windows Experience Edition (the Chinese name of Windows XP). Why is it so slow? In order to give you a new experience, Microsoft has added a lot of new functions to Windows XP, such as: Help Center, Remote Desktop, System Recovery, Automatic Software Update, Internet Time Synchronization... For me, these functions are basically useless and consumes memory. You know, most people's machines are still only 128m (although my machine has 384m of memory, I still hate unnecessary waste)! Next, we mainly talk about the memory optimization of Windows XP.
My Windows XP version is build2600. Since Windows XP is a global unified internal code type product, although its interface is in English, it should be easy to handle Chinese. If your Windows XP is in Chinese version, the steps introduced in this article are also feasible.
First, let's start with the system properties dialog
We will turn off System Recovery, Automatic Updates, and Remote Desktop features respectively.
Although "system recovery" is useful for people who make mistakes frequently, it will keep your hard drive in a highly busy state. You will find that your hard drive is always busy because Windows XP needs to record operations in order to recover in the future. If you have confidence in yourself, don't use it, because it can take up a lot of memory.
Then turn off the "Auto Update" feature. This feature is very suitable for a user who is always online, but considering that most families use dial-up Internet access, there is no reason to keep this feature open. What's more, Microsoft's upgrades are not always available, and it's perfect for us to update them ourselves every once in a while. I suggest you change the default automatic upgrade to confirm the upgrade method so that you can understand what the system is doing.
Next, we will also turn off the "remote desktop" function. This function seems familiar, because Windows 2000 server has a terminal service to do the same thing. We can discover Microsoft's strategy. In the era of Windows 2000, only the server version of Windows 2000 brought this function, and the name is very professional, called terminal service. I am afraid that ordinary users don't know what this function is for. When it comes to Windows XP, this function has also been added to Windows XP home and professional versions, and it has been changed to "Remote Desktop". As the name suggests, this feature allows you to allow others to access your desktop on another machine. It can be said that in a network environment, such as the unit's local area network, this function is very useful. For example, if you have a problem, you can ask your colleague for help. He can directly access your machine through the "remote desktop" to help you solve the problem. But at home, usually there is only one computer, and this function seems redundant, so Microsoft has given it a new feature called "fast user switching", which means that you can use your computer without having to log out of your user and let another person register as another user. I personally doubt its practical value. Most people use computers without the concept of users. If you use computers, just use them, and you can use them. What users are there? So my opinion is to turn it off, otherwise if you don't use it, it's a waste of memory.
Let’s take a look at the Advanced tab in “System Properties”. First, the settings of “Performance”
Under the default situation, Windows XP is configured according to the best visual effects. If you think your system is particularly slow in display, it is recommended that you change it. Here is my configuration:
Next, take a look at the settings of "Startup and Recover":
Although Windows XP is very stable, it also crashes. If your system crashes and you find your hard drive ringing hard, it is because Windows XP is writing dump file. For us, if you don't plan to send this file to Microsoft, then what's the use of it? So my suggestion is to close:
Finally, let’s take a look at the “Error Reporting” function.
This feature can automatically collect some error information when your Windows XP error occurs, and then send it to Microsoft to improve their operating system. This feature is very unsuitable for a dial-up user, because who would spend his money and waste his time sending these huge and useful data only for Microsoft? If this function is useless to you, why bother letting it occupy your memory?
Finally, let’s take a look at what other extra functions are available. Install the service list to enter the system:
If you don't have a printer at home, you can turn off the "printer spooler" service. If you do not perform tasks regularly, turn off the "task scheduler" service. For most people, "remote registry" is also useless and can also be closed. Below is a list of all the optimized services above. I marked the optimized places with red circles:
After optimization, Windows XP takes up about 60m of memory after startup:
In addition, when you see this, I only care about the "vm size" usage of each application, not the "memory usage". The reason is that only "virtual memory" is counted into the "commit charge" data, which is the statistical value you see in the status bar. We can do a small experiment to verify my statement. We start word, record its memory usage and the total memory usage of the system, and then minimize this word. After checking its memory usage and the total memory usage of the system, the result is as follows:
Minimize previous memory records
It is not difficult to find that "memoryusage" becomes smaller with word minimization, while "vm size" does not change, and the total memory usage of the system does not change with word minimization. That's why I only care about "vm size". I hope you can pay attention when viewing the memory, vm size is the accurate number.
Since this article focuses on system optimization under Windows XP, I will waste time on some familiar methods of saving memory, such as not using wallpaper. In addition, you may say that if you turn off all the special features of Windows XP, is it still Windows XP? Actually, I also know this, but you can't have both fish and bear's paw. If your machine configuration is very high-end, if you think you have Windows XP running slow, you can of course use the default configuration of Windows XP. After all, this is the recommended usage method by Microsoft. However, even if you turn off the functions I mentioned, Windows XP still has a lot of new functions waiting for you. For example, the brand new explorer is really unique, so the optimized system is still Windows XP!
My Windows XP version is build2600. Since Windows XP is a global unified internal code type product, although its interface is in English, it should be easy to handle Chinese. If your Windows XP is in Chinese version, the steps introduced in this article are also feasible.
First, let's start with the system properties dialog
We will turn off System Recovery, Automatic Updates, and Remote Desktop features respectively.
Although "system recovery" is useful for people who make mistakes frequently, it will keep your hard drive in a highly busy state. You will find that your hard drive is always busy because Windows XP needs to record operations in order to recover in the future. If you have confidence in yourself, don't use it, because it can take up a lot of memory.
Then turn off the "Auto Update" feature. This feature is very suitable for a user who is always online, but considering that most families use dial-up Internet access, there is no reason to keep this feature open. What's more, Microsoft's upgrades are not always available, and it's perfect for us to update them ourselves every once in a while. I suggest you change the default automatic upgrade to confirm the upgrade method so that you can understand what the system is doing.
Next, we will also turn off the "remote desktop" function. This function seems familiar, because Windows 2000 server has a terminal service to do the same thing. We can discover Microsoft's strategy. In the era of Windows 2000, only the server version of Windows 2000 brought this function, and the name is very professional, called terminal service. I am afraid that ordinary users don't know what this function is for. When it comes to Windows XP, this function has also been added to Windows XP home and professional versions, and it has been changed to "Remote Desktop". As the name suggests, this feature allows you to allow others to access your desktop on another machine. It can be said that in a network environment, such as the unit's local area network, this function is very useful. For example, if you have a problem, you can ask your colleague for help. He can directly access your machine through the "remote desktop" to help you solve the problem. But at home, usually there is only one computer, and this function seems redundant, so Microsoft has given it a new feature called "fast user switching", which means that you can use your computer without having to log out of your user and let another person register as another user. I personally doubt its practical value. Most people use computers without the concept of users. If you use computers, just use them, and you can use them. What users are there? So my opinion is to turn it off, otherwise if you don't use it, it's a waste of memory.
Let’s take a look at the Advanced tab in “System Properties”. First, the settings of “Performance”
Under the default situation, Windows XP is configured according to the best visual effects. If you think your system is particularly slow in display, it is recommended that you change it. Here is my configuration:
Next, take a look at the settings of "Startup and Recover":
Although Windows XP is very stable, it also crashes. If your system crashes and you find your hard drive ringing hard, it is because Windows XP is writing dump file. For us, if you don't plan to send this file to Microsoft, then what's the use of it? So my suggestion is to close:
Finally, let’s take a look at the “Error Reporting” function.
This feature can automatically collect some error information when your Windows XP error occurs, and then send it to Microsoft to improve their operating system. This feature is very unsuitable for a dial-up user, because who would spend his money and waste his time sending these huge and useful data only for Microsoft? If this function is useless to you, why bother letting it occupy your memory?
Finally, let’s take a look at what other extra functions are available. Install the service list to enter the system:
If you don't have a printer at home, you can turn off the "printer spooler" service. If you do not perform tasks regularly, turn off the "task scheduler" service. For most people, "remote registry" is also useless and can also be closed. Below is a list of all the optimized services above. I marked the optimized places with red circles:
After optimization, Windows XP takes up about 60m of memory after startup:
In addition, when you see this, I only care about the "vm size" usage of each application, not the "memory usage". The reason is that only "virtual memory" is counted into the "commit charge" data, which is the statistical value you see in the status bar. We can do a small experiment to verify my statement. We start word, record its memory usage and the total memory usage of the system, and then minimize this word. After checking its memory usage and the total memory usage of the system, the result is as follows:
Minimize previous memory records
It is not difficult to find that "memoryusage" becomes smaller with word minimization, while "vm size" does not change, and the total memory usage of the system does not change with word minimization. That's why I only care about "vm size". I hope you can pay attention when viewing the memory, vm size is the accurate number.
Since this article focuses on system optimization under Windows XP, I will waste time on some familiar methods of saving memory, such as not using wallpaper. In addition, you may say that if you turn off all the special features of Windows XP, is it still Windows XP? Actually, I also know this, but you can't have both fish and bear's paw. If your machine configuration is very high-end, if you think you have Windows XP running slow, you can of course use the default configuration of Windows XP. After all, this is the recommended usage method by Microsoft. However, even if you turn off the functions I mentioned, Windows XP still has a lot of new functions waiting for you. For example, the brand new explorer is really unique, so the optimized system is still Windows XP!