Optimizing Windows for Games, Graphics and Multimedia

This book gives you the tips and tricks you'll need to make your system run faster than ever before, and you won't find them in any Windows documentation. Do you really need Internet Explorer? Can you use an alternative shell that will give you a better Windows experience? Maybe you're wondering if you need a hardware upgrade or if you can tweak your existing system to work faster instead and save you a lot of unnecessary expense? Optimizing Windows for Games, Graphics and Multimedia will answer these questions and save you wasted hours of searching and experimenting on your own computer to find the practical solutions you're looking for.

This book covers:

• General concepts of conserving memory and CPU cycles, processor speed, and disk optimization
• Speeding application launch times
• Utilities bundles and which one is right for fine-tuning your system
• Benefits of partitioning your drive and what tools you need to do it
• What to look for in uninstallers and how to use this valuable maintenance tool strategically
• Replacement Windows shells like Program Manager and freeware shells like EVWM and LiteStep
• Optimizing DOS sessions and Dial-up networking
• Clean re-installation of both Windows 95 and Windows 98

You may find other books that teach you how to be more productive with the user interface, but they don't talk much about system optimization. Whether you use your computer in a home or office for business or games, with Optimizing Windows for Games, Graphics and Multimedia you won't need to dig through hundreds of pages to come up with a small handful of tips. This book does that work for you and presents it in an easily referenced format.

If you want to make the most of your time and your computer, this is a book you'll want on your shelf.

Table of contents

Preface

1. System Optimization Theory

What Makes a Computer Fast?

The Ideal Operating System

Working Within Windows' Limitations

Is My Computer Getting Slower?

What You Can Expect to Get from This Book

Requirements for This Book

Measuring the Improvement

2. First Steps

Check Your Free Disk Space

Lose autoexec.bat and config.sys

Make Sure Your System Is Using 32-bit Drivers

Clean Out Your Startup Group

Optimize Your Swap File

Optimize Your Disk Cache (and Get a UPS!)

Tune the Hidden Windows Disk Cache Settings

Tune Your CD-ROM Caching

Turn Off CD-ROM Autoplay

Optimize Your Multimedia Settings

Turn Off Power Management

Take Down Your Wallpaper

Use Hotkeys Instead of Desktop Icons

Lose the Screen Savers

Lose the System Sounds and Desktop Schemes

Turn Off the Windows 98 Animations

Turn Off Windows 98 Tooltips

Find the Fastest Settings for Your Video Card

Enable Your Hard Drive's DMA Setting

Shrink Your Start Menu

A Primer on Regedit and the Registry

Turn Off Windows 95's Window Animation

Turn Off Pause in Menus

Turn Off Click Here to Begin

Tune Windows 9x to Your Modern CD-ROM Drive

Recover That Wasted CD-ROM Cache Memory

Improve the Windows 9x Server Template Even More

Reduce Filesystem Fragmentation

3. Disk Optimization

Directory Optimization

Taking Care of Fragmentation

Working Within the Physical Limitations of the Disk

Living with FAT

Other Disk Performance Tools

How Much Difference Will This Make?

Getting Rid of Disk Compression

4. Speeding Up the Boot Process

The Boot Process Explained

Speeding Up the Boot Process

msdos.sys Options

Wringing That Last Ounce of Speed from msdos.sys

Speeding Up autoexec.bat

Getting By with Less in Your Startup Group

Speeding Up POST

Compacting the Registry

5. Utilities

What Tools You Need and How to Use Them

Should I Upgrade to Windows 98?

The Big Three Utilities Suites

Uninstallation Programs

Anti-Virus Software

Freeware and Shareware Utilities

6. Replacement Windows Shells

Program Manager

EVWM

StarOffice

LiteStep

7. Optimizing DOS

Try It

"Insufficient Memory?" I Have 64 Megs!

When DOS Programs Are Sluggish

Running DOS Programs in DOS Mode

A Pseudo-Dual Boot

Dual-Booting Windows 9x and True DOS

Tweaks You'll Want Even If You Never Run DOS Software

What to Do When DOS Games Run Too Fast

Putting It into Practice

Running DOS Games from a RAM Disk

8. Modems and the Internet

Idealistic General Principles

Finding Your Modem and Optimizing Your Port Speed

Optimizing Your Port

So What's This UART Business?

A Bit of Low-Tech: Your Phone Connection

Download the Newest Drivers for Your Modem

Tune Your Connection via Software

Speed Up DNS Lookups

Lose the Ads Altogether

Preloading and Caching Utilities

Taking Full Control of Your Internet Connection

The Value of Free Software

Which Web Browser Should I Use?

Tune Your Web Browser

9. Home Networking

Requirements

Using Networks to Save Disk Space

Some Networking Tips

10. Clean Windows Installation

First Steps with Windows 95

Hacking Out MSN and the Exchange Client

OSR2.x's Excess Baggage

Installing Windows 98

Installing Windows 98 Without Internet Explorer

Removing Internet Explorer from an Existing

Windows 98 Installation

Installing Device Drivers

Performing the Installation

Post-Installation Magic

Stupid Installation Tricks

Multi-Booting Windows 95 and 98

11. RAM Disks

Advantages of RAM Disks

Special Considerations for Windows 98 and RAM Disks

12. Hardware Upgrades

Prudence in Hardware Upgrades

Realistic Memory Requirements

Video Cards

Modems

Printers

The PCI Bus

Straight Talk on CPU Upgrades

Motherboards

CD-ROM and DVD Drives

External Removable-Media Drives

Scanners

Monitors

Input Devices

Buying New Systems

Scavenging

What Do I Do with This Old 486?

Appendix: Useful Web Resources

Index