Speed up XP/MP performance by tweaking/hardening (1 Viewer)

[Nefius]

Hi guys and girls,

I've been running MP 2.04 pretty stable on an XP SP2 installation for about 3 months now, but because of my system specs (see in my signer), it isn't really fast in my opinion.

So what i would like to know is how i can tweak/harden my XP installation, so it doesn't have any unneccesary services running on the background or other stuff which have a (small) impact on the performance.

I've been looking for such information, but i can't find a detailed thread on this one, so i would like everybody to post things they know, which may speed up things.

Ofcourse disabling your anti-virus wouldn't be an option, so please only usefull things.

Thanks alot!

 

[gxtracker]

It's hard to list a definitive guide because disabling services and applications is specific to your individual needs. For example:

- I've disable the DHCP service on my HTPC, because my HTPC is assigned a static IP address.

- I've turned off the Computer browser service and the Server service because any file transfers I have to do are done through a VNC connection. someone who wants/needs folder shares setup on their machine wont be able to connect to those shares hosted on the the HTPC.

The best advice I can give for streamlining an XP system better, is to start with a fresh install, remove any unnecessary application right after startup (outlook express, MSN explorer, etc...) then install only WHQL drivers from you hardware manuafacturers. From here you should have a great base to start tweaking with services and settings on the machine.

use this cached copy of Black Vipers Services list to determine what services you need running, and what ones are considered expendable.

http://www.codecavalier.com/blackviper/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

(oh, and running AV software on a HTPC? While I can understand the logic in doing so my box is a dedicated HTPC, so the only thing running on it is MP and the odd emulator every once and a while. While I can definitely understand running AV software on your desktop, AV software on a dedicated HTPC box IS going to slow it down, expecially with file I/O operations.)

 

[CHli]

I don't have any AV on my dedicated MP box too !

 

[Nefius]

thanks for the feedback gxtracker, but still, i have internetconnection @ my HTPC, so i do have AV enabled.

Anyhow.. good info, most of them i allready did (plain install), but ill look into that Black Viper thingy tonight!

Any oder suggestions?
And besides a suggestion, it would be nice to explain where such a thing can be found and disabled...

 

[CHli]

I have internet on my HTPC too but since I'm not surfing the web (only svn.team-mediaportal.com, not getting any email and no IM installed the only thing which could bring a virus to it would be a failure in my PAT/Router + a failure in MS firewall or another machine on my home network but they all have an AV installed so this should not be the case.

 

[gxtracker]

And besides a suggestion, it would be nice to explain where such a thing can be found and disabled...

Sure. Under your control panel > administrative Tools > Services

This will list all the services on your machine. From here you'll be able to see if the service is runing or not running, and be able to adjust the startup paramaters:

Automatic - Starts automatically when windows or another service requires it.
Manual - Starts only when another service actively tells it to start, or you start it manually.
Disabled - will not start at all.

I have internet on my HTPC too...

Like CHLi, I'll add a little food for thought,

I dont have any AV, Firewall or Anti-Spyware Software on my HTPC, yet my HTPC is connected to the internet too. I do access the web from it and use the network connection to remote manage the box from my desktop PC - as well as all the internet enabled features built into MP (weather, IMDB, My trailers, My Music Videos, etc...)

My system is fairly close to yours in terms of performance. All those anti-malware applications do two things that I dont want on my HTPC:

1) They add extra processing overhead to an already medeocre system
2) some solutions embed themselves so deep into the OS, that they can sometimes actually cause more harm then good.

When working with a HTPC I found that it's best to have a different mindset for it than you would your desktop computer. In fact, I treat mine more like an embedded system than a PC: everything is very streamlined and specific in it's task, where as your PC would be used more as a general purpose box for office work, gaming, entertainment, surfing, etc... Once you start thinking like this, it becomes very easy to start snipping out the features you wont require. Small things like disabling my onboard NIC, IDE controllers, and firewire in the BIOS since Im using a wireless connection, a SATA hard drive, and no firewire devices. Less devices the OS has to detect and load drivers for, the less chance of having something go wrong.

I use IP filters to block all ports except for Web, torrents, remote desktop, and file transfers.

My browser has Javascript and ActiveX disabled. In fact, I dont even have Java installed on the machine.

The only real active software I have on the machine are Automatic Updates for windows.

Some people have even disabled the Windows Shell and have XP boot right into MediaPortal. That means no start button, no task bar, no system tray. It looks very embedded system like, but if MP ever shuts down or crashes (its still beta software remember) then you are stuck with a full system restart.