Hi all,
Earlier I had mentioned some tips for improving pc performance here are some which will help you get the best out of your pc.
- Rambooster
https://sci.fi/~borg/rambooster/download.htm
Download and install this software. Here is what it does. If you have a Win95/98/ME PC with 32/64/128 MB Ram, the operating system to startup and load itself takes around, Win95 - 16 to 20 MB, Win98 - 24 MB, Win ME - 32 MB. So if you have a pc with 32, install Rambooster and configure it to clean around 12 MB once your memory usage is 0. Remember Windows is a bad OS in memory management and if you feel your pc is slowing down while continously working on it, it is because the applications you had run has used up entire memory and it is now 0. This is because even though you might have exited/closed applications their data would be still there in the RAM, so either you have to restart the pc or clean the RAM. And Rambooster will help you monitor and clean a certain amount a RAM. If you have 64 MB with Win 98, clean around 32 MB of RAM, cause it is possible you might have a Antivirus running which starts along with Windows, Win98 uses around 24+ 6 for Antivirus or something which loads at startup, So you can get around 32/34 MB getting free with Rambooster. Please dont try to clean entire amount of RAM you have, eg you have 64 MB and you are trying to Clean 64 MB, cause remember your pc might get hanged, remember you OS also gets loaded in the memory.
- Speed your net access if you using a dial up modem. By default all versions of Windows are configured optimized for LAN connection. For eg, to send data to another computer on LAN, windows sends a MTU(Maximum Transfer Unit) of 1500, you can assume its a packet size of 1500. And network cards are capable of taking packet size of 1500. But your modem can and only can accept a packet(MTU) size of 500. So by default Windows keep sending data packets size of 1500 to the modem and the modem has no option but to keep buffering the data and wait for it to get processed, thus never giving you a optimised speed. Download a software like PPP Boost or ModemBoost(Commercial Software) from https://download.com
This software after installation and running it, will pop up with a Window of Settings which you can use to optimize your pc MTU for Cable, Modem etc. Once you change your settings to say Modem, it will change the packet size(MTU) to 500, which means it is now optimized of Modem Connection and this will speed up your net surfing to around 200 times than earlier cause there wouldnt be any buffering by the modem.
- VRAMDir
Search for this software, I dont remember the link. Now this will do wonders to anyone who knows how to use this one.
Let me help you a bit. Say for example, you are using Internet Explorer and surfing a website. Remember before the page is displayed it is stored and saved in the C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files, assuming C: is where you have installed Windows. This means the page is first saved before it is displayed on your screen. Now the technical stuff is that Harddisk(IDE Disks the common ones in PC’s) speeds are typically around 20 ms to 30 ms(millisecond). Read & Write speed of RAM is 50 ns to 60 ns(nanoseconds). This means that RAM read and write is 300 times faster. It means that if somehow the C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files folder is stored into RAM your surfing speed will go up!
VRAM does exactly that. Remember this software is very small around 36 KB. Download it and unzip the files inside the zip file to C:\VRAM or any directory you would want to create. Then double click on install and a screen will pop up for a configuration, ie adding any directories that you want VRAM to load into memory when your system starts. Remove the 2 default directories which are listed there, C:\Windows\Temp and C:\Windows\Spool cause you shouldnt add more directories into VRAM else all of them will be loaded into startup using precious RAM and finally add C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files to it and thats it done. It will prompt you to restart the pc. Restart the system and enjoy faster surfing. Cause VRAM will load this directory in the RAM meaning if you are opening a webpage it will be downloaded to the temporary folder which is now in RAM which is 300 times faster than Harddisks.
Remember VRAM is a demo version for 30 days.
Try it out and tell me whether it works.
You can mail me if you have any problems.
Bye and Take Care.
The Crimson Tide
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Earlier Tips
Some tips to improve System Startup
If you are running Windows 95/98, with IE5 something, then you have a small icon besides your time bar, which is Task Schedular, which you might never use. Right Click on it and click open, once the Scheduled Task Window comes up, click on the Advanced Menu, and Click on Stop Using Task Schedular. This will disable it and it wont start everytime you start Windows.
If you have yahoo & msn messenger installed, it is possible by default they will start everytime you start windows, which in turn will use some amount of RAM. So disable these programs so that they dont start up everytime you start windows. In older versions of yahoo just click Edit -> Preferences and in General Tab, keep the check box off, that says Automatically Start Yahoo Messenger. In newer versions of yahoo you have to first log into the messenger while you are on net and then click on Login Menu, Preferences and follow the same above step. In MSN Messenger, Click Tools -> Options -> Preferences and keep off the option, Run this program when Windows Starts.
If you have MS Office installed on your pc, there would be something known as Find Fast installed along with office bar which starts everytime you start your pc and this small little program is one which is never used, So Click on Programs -> Startup and Delete the 2 Icons of MS Office Program.
To improve performance and if you have new hard disks which support DMA(Direct Memory Access), you can improve read and write performance of your hard disk. To enable it, You can Right Click My Computer icon -> Click properties and then Click on Device Manager and then click the plus sign beside the Disk Drives, Select your Disk type whatever is listed there, except floppy, and then Settings and enable DMA option. After clicking OK it will ask you to restart the computer, please note that after this if your systems doesnt startup or keeps hanging, then restart in safe mode and disable. Cause this doesnt work sometimes but if it does then well and good.
Also in the same System Properties Tab, Click on Performance, File System Tab and Change the typical Role of this Computer from Desktop Computer to Network Server.
Regarding Antivirus, you use whatever antivirus, I bet that there are certain virus which these antivirus programs detect and clean, but still they keep on coming afterwards. Norton is one big culprit of a program which keeps cleaning the viruses and they keep coming back.
The best of all antivirus is a free antivirus, called AVG, available in free versions and commercial versions from https://grisoft.com
Although I would say that the free versions might not be able to clean certain viruses like Funlove etc, but even the paid ones like Norton and McAfee dont clean them, infact they keep poping up after cleaning them. Atleast AVG will detect any virus activity and will not allow to run that virus on your computer at all!
So if you wish you can download AVG and try it for yourself, also updates are free and can be downloaded for specific virus updates or in 1 large files weekly whenever updates are available.