Editing Files
To edit most of the files mentioned below you can do either two of the following things:

1.  From the Start button, choose the Run command. In the command line type SYSEDIT.  This will launch the System Configuration Editor which will allow you to edit the following files: PROTOCOL.INI, SYSTEM.INI, WIN.INI, CONFIG.SYS, and AUTOEXEC.BAT

2.  To open an associated file with a different program, hold SHIFT and right-click the file. Click Open With.  Click the program you want to use, and then click OK.

Delete Unwanted Files Every Time You Boot
Add lines like these to AUTOEXEC.BAT

Echo Y|If Exist C:\Windows\Tempor~1\*.* Del \Windows\Tempor~1\*.*
Echo Y|If Exist C:\Windows\Recent\*.* Del C:\Windows\Recent\*.*
Echo Y|If Exist C:\Windows\Temp\*.* Del C:\Windows\Temp\*.*
Echo Y|If Exist C:\Windows\Cookies\*.* Del C:\Windows\Cookies\*.*

Or to delete a whole directory add lines like these:

@defter /Y C:\WINDOWS\Temp
@MD C:\WINDOWS\Temp

Customize the dir Command in DOS
Edit AUTOEXEC.BAT, add SET DIRCMD=/P /O:GNE to use the page break feature automatically at the command prompt. G will list the directories first, N places the files in alphabetical order and E will list files of the same in order by the extension.

Optimize the File System for Running Multimedia Applications
Go to Start, Run..., type in regedit,  go to: Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem then add the following double word value: "ContigFileAllocSize" with a value of "0x000001F4(500)" (Hexadecimal) then reboot.

Make Your Modem Dial Faster
Go to Start, Settings Control Panel, double-click on Modems, click on the properties button.  Open the Connections tab and click on the advanced button.   Enter s11=40 in the extra settings field.  You can experiment with the value 40.

Enhance Memory
Right-click My Computer, select the Performance tab, click on the File System button.   Change the machine role to Network Server.  Instead of rebooting your PC, go to the Start button, Run..., type in REGEDIT then go to to this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\FS Templates\Server\.   Make sure the NameCache and PathCache are set to these binary values: NameCache - a9 0a 00 00 PathCache - 40 00 00 00.  Exit Regedit and reboot.   This will drastically enhance the use of upper memory, especially in machines with more than 32MB of RAM.

Speed Up the Launch of Windows
Edit c:\MSDOS.SYS with a text editor.  Add the following under the [options]:

Logo=0
Bootdelay=0

This makes windows boot without the start up logo and boot without delay.

Keep Windows Running Fast
I have found a reasonable performance gain by separating the swap file from the system drive.  If you only have one hard drive make a partition specifically for the swap file.

Example:
C: = system
D: = swapfile
E: = cd-rom

Right click My Computer, go to Properties, click the Performance tab then click the Virtual Memory... button.  Choose "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings."  Select the drive that you designated for the swap file.  Then put the minimum and maximum values at the same.  Set them to about 80% of the size of that drive.  So if you made the swap file drive 200MB the min and max should be 160MB.  That will prevent windows from reminding you to "clean up" that drive.  Click OK, yes, then restart.  This keeps the swap file from getting resized and fragmented.  If you have more than one hard drive that is even better.   Do the same as above but use a physical drive instead of a partition.  You will notice an even greater increase in performance because your drives will be working in parallel instead of your heads being constantly moved from system/program files to swap/temp files.

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