Booting up XP

[lawadm1]

I just installed a new hard drive on my Dell 4550, and installed XP Home on it. I've installed quite a bit of software on it, but it's software that I had on my old hard drive.

Anyway, what's happening is when I boot up, the icons and everything are there, but the system will hang. And if you try to bring up windows explorer it takes about 20 seconds to come up. After that everything is normal and windows explorer will pop up right away.

I bring up task manager and the CPU is low, so I don't see it trying to run anything.

Any ideas??

[jmatt]

Here are some tweaks to try .

Application Slow-Downs in Windows XP
http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/47.htm
Control Panel > Network Connections > Right-click your main network connection , choose
Properties > Double-click "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" > Click Advanced
button > Select WINS tab .

The solution I've seen recommended and posted in various places is to
remove the check mark beside "Enable LMHOSTS lookup" on the WINS tab
and/or "Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP." People report that the
application slow-downs go away .

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Users not interested in fancy windows and colors
http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin...&id=1036282433
Its understood that most users or computer literit users decide they want fancy desktops windows, cool fades and colors. But if youve changed your mind and want better peformance try this!

1. Right click "My Computer" and choose properties.

2. Click on the advanced tab, and then performance settings.

3. You now are now in the visual effects tab, check adjust for best performance, and uncheck every squared box you see starting from "Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing, all the way down.

4. Click OK, OK, and restart computer to see the difference in speed.

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Sacrifice Graphics for Speed
http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin...&id=1036282433
XP is very graphic-intensive which results in a large consumption of RAM. Sometimes to squeeze in the nitty-gritty megs of memory can be, by sacrificing the pretty little bits and colors that are on your screen.

- For starters, reducing the color density and and bit display of your screen will ultimately increase speed to your computer.

1.)On your desktop, right click and go to PROPERTIES.
2.)In properties go to Settings, and set your color quality to the lowest bit-rating (most likely 16 bit). This will reduce color density, and icon quality, but will heavily boast system performance.

- If you really want to increase your system performance, new Windows themes are NOT the way to go, if you are ill-equipped with RAM.

1.) Go into Control Panel and into Performance and Maintenence.
2.) Get into System and click on the Advanced tab.
3.) Now click on Performance
4.) Under your visual effects, select CHOOSE BEST PERFORMANCE.
5.) This will undoubtedly increase your system performance by returning XP into Classic Style and getting rid of the fancy-shmancy fading menus, shadows and whatnot.

Now your graphically challenged computer, has turned into a mean, lean, computing machine.

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Classic Start Menu Mode (Browsing Boost)
http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin...&id=1036282433
WARNING: Keep in mind that this tweak is intended for people using the "Classic Start Menu" mode to browse trough the Start Menu.

If your Start Menu loads right away when you click on it, but goes slow while you browse through it, this will certainly solve your problem. It's quite simple actually, just follow these steps:

1. Right Click on your taskbar and choose "Properties"
2. Choose the "Start Menu" Tab and then click on "Customize"(Classic Start Menu Obviously)
3. Scroll Down the "Advanced Start Menu Options" list and uncheck the "Use Personalized Menus" option, click "OK", then "Apply" and "OK" to finish.

There's no need to reboot, you'll see the difference right away. Another good advice to keep you start menu working smooth is to restrict the number of programs and icons listed as much as possible, keep in mind that it works just like any other regular folder, the less you index, the faster it gets.

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Make icons in windows appear quicker
http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin...&id=1036282433
In Windows XP everytime you open My Computer to browse folders XP automatically searches for network files and printers. This causes a delay in displaying your icons. You probably see the "default" windows icon and as you scroll it changes to the correct icon. This is how to stop that...

1. Open My Computer
2. Click on the Tools menu and select Folder Options...
3. Under Folder Options select the view tab.
4. Uncheck the very first box that reads "Automatically search for network folders and printers".
5. Click "Apply" or "OK"

You should see a dramatic increase in speed when Windows displays your icons.

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Windows XP Icon Cache
http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin...&id=1036282433
Are you experiencing icon lag, while browsing thru all your Start icons and programs? Do you have a smaller menu delay and your icons need ages to load? No need to give up.

Just delete the IconCache.db file from your profile directory (usually /Documents and Settings/Username/Local Settings/Application Data).