Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs Forum

Scott,

What do you think of the NTFS tweaks such as disabling the Last Access Timestamp and preventing the creation of short filenames? The article at the following URL includes these (and other) tweaks: http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/w ... Hacks.html

I have been disabling the last access time stamp updates for security reasons (the less "tracking" of my activity the better), however I have been unable to verify *any* actual performance benefit, so unless you have or know of any valid test data showing improved performance, I believe that may be a performance "myth".

With the exception of turning off the indexing service (a well-known XP tweak) I don't believe many of the other NTFS related "hacks" listed will actually improve performance either, and some may even cause compatibility problems with older software. For example, I do *not* recommend disabling the short filename creation, as I believe there is no performance benefit (at least none that has been demonstrated or verified), not to mention I run a lot of older software. I would be doing a disservice to my clients if I configured their systems in that manner as well, for how am I to know what software they may or may not run in the future. In fact on a related note, I do apply the following related tweak to all systems by default, which *prevents* Windows from automatically changing all-caps filenames to initial caps:



Windows 9x/Me had an option to "Allow all uppercase names", however this was removed from XP and later, requiring the above registry edit instead. Scott.

Interesting, yes I agree on the 8.3 short naming tweak. I leave this enabled but do turn off the last timestamp flagging. I've never heard of that last file naming tweak you mention. That is yet another great tip.

The desire to speed up the computer. As long as this does not effect the other two S's that is understandable (Stability, Security).

There are OS tweaks that WILL noticeably speed up your system. [few and far between, but worth knowing]

And the many tweaks that will speed up your system from the computers perspective, but not yours. The question is can slinging enough of these together -- without either disabling things you find useful or tweak others that combined actually degrade performance -- to add up to a noticeable speed improvement by you?

As Scott has noted elsewhere, a week later after "seeing" an improvement will it feel like it is still there? This is the bane of performance tweakers --- so welcome to the club.

A good starting place for your jump into such tweaking lies in three publications:

Windows XP Speed Solutions by Curt Simmons (Wiley), Ultimate PC Performance Guide by Maximum PC (Que) and Tweakguides. In addition there are several "XP hack" books that cover this area. Enjoy.

When you get done many, many months from now, I think you will agree all the unstable, slow crawling and non-functioning operating systems you mangled were well worth it. You learned the most important central lesson an auto mechanic learns over the years of tweaking his car on the weekends: If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Exactly. Many of the so-called "performance" tweaks and hacks from those (and other) sources don't really improve performance at all, and in many cases changing settings without truly understanding the ramifications results in future compatibilty problems when something that is expected to work has been somehow disabled. That is especially true when disabling services for example. Some of them are little more than myth and misinformation, and may even result in a decrease in performance, such as this example: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=469

Bottom line: Don't apply so-called "performance tweaks" without good reason, and be sure to examine each one carefully for potential ramifications and future problems. For *most* applications, default settings are appropriate. Scott.

Scott,

what tweaks and adjustments would you recommend for an XP system destined for a "regular" (i.e. someone not particularly computer savvy who just uses their PC to write documents, surf the web and email) user. I am going to be clean installing XP Home on their new Dell Laptop that currently has Vista.

Also curious if you think that turning off the NTFS timestamp would affect defrag or windows "self tuning" at all?

Thanks!

Search my posts on this forum for other recommended tweaks, mainly in the Tips and Windows sections. I'll add more as I'm able. Until then, a good rule is when in doubt, leave it alone. <g>

Having a clean and well running system is more about what you install (or better yet, DON'T install) in addition to Windows. I for one am very conservative in what I'll allow on any of my systems. I use a spare system (or Virtual PC) for general software abuse and testing purposes. Scott.

PS: While I've not seen any demonstrable performance benefit, turning off the last access timestamp update doesn't cause any problems I am aware of...

Scott, what do you think is so bad about tracking? It's my understanding that Google Chrome's new ad-blocker (namely Adblock) won't prevent tracking.

For me the less tracking the better. Scott.