[tutorial] Optimal gaming settings for Windows XP - part 1: services

How to configure Windows XP services for optimal gaming settings.
part 1: services
A tutorial by Fo®Saken.​

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Ever wondered how to optimize your Windows XP controlled system for optimal performance to play games?
Look no further, because this is all you will need. In a few simple steps I will guide you to getting the fats, streamlined system you need.

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Requirements:
- A Windows XP controlled system.
- Some patience.
- A little experience in changing settings in any Windows version.

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Step 1:
- Right-click on your " my computer" icon and select "properties" .
- Select the "hardware" tab.
- Click on the "hardware profiles" button.

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Step 2:
- Select the "original configuration" and copy it.
- Rename that copy to "gaming configuration". DO NOT RENAME THE ORIGINAL!!!
- Make sure that the "gaming configuration" is set as the "boot" profile.
- Reboot your computer.

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Step 3:
- Click the start button and click the "run" button.
- Type "services.msc" in the box that appeared and click "ok".
- Once the service manager has started you will see a long list of services. If you click on any of them you will se a description of them in the sidebar. You can edit them by right-clicking on them and selecting "properties". Now you have to set all of these services to "manual" in the drop-down list:

(I have nubered them so that it is easy to remember where you were.)

1
Alerter

2
Application Layer Gateway Service** (only if firewll is not used)

3
Application Management

4
Background Intelligent Transfer Service

5
ClipBook

6
COM+ System Application

7
Computer Browser

8
Distributed Link Tracking Client

9
Distributed Transaction Coordinator

10
Error Reporting Service

11
Fast User Switching Compatibility ** (only if fast user shiching is not used or the machine have one user only)

12
Help and Support

13
Indexing Service

14
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service** (only if do you not use the cd-rw xp record suport)

15
IPSEC Services

16
Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service

17
MS Software Shadow Copy Provider

18
Net Logon

19
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing

20
Network DDE

21
Network DDE DSDM

22
Network Location Awareness (NLA)

23
NT LM Security Support Provider

24
Performance Logs and Alerts

25
Portable Media Serial Number

26
QoS RSVP

27
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager

28
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator

29
Remote Registry

30
Removable Storage

31
Routing and Remote Access

32
Server

33
Smart Card

34
Smart Card Helper

35
SSDP Discovery Service

36
System Restore Service

37
Telnet

38
Themes

39
Uninterruptible Power Supply

40
Universal Plug and Play Device Host

41
Volume Shadow Copy

42
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)

43
Windows Installer

44
Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extensions

45
Wireless Zero Configuration

46
WMI Performance Adapter

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Step 4:

- Once you have done this, you do not have to "save" anything. The changes will automatically take effect when you restart your computer. Just close the window.
- You are done now! Your pc should run a lot more smoothly after restarting now, because A LOT of unneeded services that take a lot of system resources have been turned off.

How to revert to the original settings:
- Right-click on your " my computer" icon and select "properties" .
- Select the "hardware" tab.
- Click on the "hardware profiles" button.
- Select the "original configuration" profile.
- Restart your computer.

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What does that exactly do?

 

"- You are done now! Your pc should run a lot more smoothly after restarting now, because A LOT of unneeded services that take a lot of system resources have been turned off."

umm... that?

 

Reading is your friend.

Nice pieces of advice Forsaken but even these can't boost my PC ;D

 

Windows XP automatically runs a lot of processes and services when starting up.
This function's purpose is to increase the speed of certain programs, but a lot of these services are never used most of the time. Things such as "Remote Desktop", which let's you control your pc from another pc and "Smart Card Helper", which is a tool for initializing Smart Card controls and a lot more stuff. These use processor speed, use a lot of RAM memory and cause clutter in your system. Turning them of makes these system recourses available for other tasks, such as gaming.

Yes, that. When you are doing nothing with your pc, your processor usage should be around 5 percent. If you look at the processes part of your task manager, (activated by the al-known ctr+alt+delete command) you can see that the pc then uses about 95 percent of it's power for "inactive system processes". Every time you do something with your pc, it switches between tasks, that uses a lot of system recourses.

Lol, do you have some kind of super-pc kuvasz? These are just the standard services. If you have other programs installed, such as I-tunes, you might notice that those are seriously draining your system.

For example: the services that are installed and activated when you install I-tunes use about 30 megs of RAM and your pc boots about 2 seconds slower with these turned on. If you have more programs / services like these installed / activated, such as the automatic startup of msn, logitech desktop manager etc, then you are just wasting most of the pc's recourses on unneeded things.

 

Thank you so much man! I had this pop up warning that was bugging me for some time and now it's fixed! Some of the entries were already manual or disabled. If they're disabled then I don't need to change them to manual, right?

 

You can choose to set it to manual if you think you might still need it. However, some service settings are done by the programs that use them. You should first chIf it's in the list you can set it to manual if you want.


I am not quite sure how you succeeded in octiposting but please, please don't it again....

 

I meant that comment as in "my pc is soo old that it can't be boosted by anything"

 

I might try this! Will come handy when starcraft 2 comes out. Great guide man!

*and did you just octopost or is it just me?

 

I don't know. I am using my mobile phone to post at the moment, and it works great. But I guess something went wrong this time. Can you remove those posts? It looks weird...

 

*blushes* Im sorry, im not the moderator for this section. You will have to ask someone else. Or, cant you remove them yourself?

 

What is octopost?

 

Well, if doubleposting is posting the same thing 2 times, then octoposting is posting the same thing 8 times! XD

 

LOL Too bad I didn't see that.

 

Hardware Profile Issue

I followed the instructions and gaming performance was slightly improved. The issue I am running across is that the Profile changes impact BOTH configurations, and not just the gaming configuration.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much.

 

- Make sure that the "gaming configuration" is set as the "boot" profile.

How exactly do I do that? I presume I go under properties on the "Gaming Configuration" and select "Always make an option for choice" or whatever. However I'd like to be sure so I don't mess up, help?

I can get a pic if necessary.

 

Pfff... I made this such a long time ago. I'd have to look that up. I was using this on my oldest pc, which was always performing badly in games.