TuneXP Guide

This post is to make a step by step guide and explaination of each function of TuneXP 

TuneXP dosen't come with documentation but i should be able to explain some of them hopefully .

1)FILE menu quite self explanatory

      EXIT

2)MEMORY & FILESYSTEM 

-     ACCELERATE DLL UNLOADING  (NO OBSERVABLE BENEFITS)

Well most programs comes with DLL (Dynamic Library Link) they are loaded into memory     when the program starts this will enable faster unloading of DLL libraries. I don't see much performance benefits so normally i leave this unchecked

-     DISABLE PAGING EXECUTIVE (DEPENDS ON SYSTEM)

Paging Executive uses a portion of your harddisk as RAM (Memory) Because harddisk is the slowest component in a computer this process (SWAPPING) causes your system to slow down.HOWEVER do not enable this if you have low RAM capacity <2gb>3GB  

-    FASTER SHUTDOWN (FOR EVERYONE)

This will force Windows to decrease shutdown timer so you can enable this safely

-    FILE ALLOCATION SIZE TWEAK (FOR EVERYONE)

This will enable changes to the file allocation size although the benefits can hardly be felt

-   OPTIMIZE PREFETCH ( IGNORE)

Does not really help Windows XP prefetcher is optimized by default

-   INCREASE NTFS PERFORMANCE (FOR EVERYONE WITH NTFS on XP)

This tweak removes the "Last Access Stamp" from all files. This improves general disk performance by removing massive bandwidth overhead.

-  IO PAGE LOCK LIMIT (NOT MUCH BENEFITS)

Set to your RAM size if 512MB above set to 512MB

- INTERNET

  DNS CACHE INCREASE (FOR EVERYONE)

More frequently accessed sites will have the DNS cache in your computer which reduces the number of DNS lookup request

IGNORE THE REST

         

HWMonitor

This is what HWMonitor looks like

It shows the temperature taken by the thermal sensors inside your computer

Usually you will have no use for however it can act as a diagnostic tool such as computer slow downs especally graphic cards during intense gaming.Above all else isn't it interesting to know how hot is your internal component running?

The software is from CPUID team at http://www.cpuid.com/

Things to note about this applet

1)Small in size

2)No install required to uninstall just delete it

The software is obtained from their website in 2 versions 32bit and 64 bit

32bit is for all standard Windows XP 32bit and Vista 32bit

64bit is for those 64bit Vista Edition there is also Windows XP 64 bit edition but you rarely come across it.

To know what operating system you are running simply right click "My Computer" and select "Properties"

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

Glossary

ACPI a power management technology implementation built into recent systems

AMD Turion X2 refer to the dual core AMD Processor core#0 and core#1

GPU refer to the graphic card temperature

While HDD refer to the Harddisk temperature obtained from SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology)

Free Windows Themes and TuneXP

Besides LINUX and UNIX system i also happen to know some good Windows Tools that everyone should have in their PCs

Note the following tools only works in Windows XP

1)TuneXP From Driver Heaven Final Version no other updates 3 Mirrors list below

http://www.driverheaven.net/dforce/

http://www.download.com/TuneXP/3000-2086_4-10290929.html

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/TuneXP.shtml

This nifty little tool provides a simple and non intimidating GUI to activate some functions in Xp to speed it up. Although it is possible to activate the tweak from Windows Registry often i find it too tedious to do it manually not mentioning the possibilty of messing up your Registry.

It is small in size, freeware and most tweaks works especially the faster shutdown function. However the usefulness of the ultrafast booting really leave much to be desired. Anyway it is really a useful tool even for non tech savy users.

2)Themes for Windows XP

I know some really good free themes on the net. They are 1)FREE 2)NO SPYWARE/ADWARE/MALWARE I SCANNED them myself 3)LOW ON SYSTEM RESOURCES USAGE 4)UNINSTALLS WITHOUT SCREWING UP YOUR SYSTEM

1) BricoPacks from CrystalXP contains Light Vista looks KDE looks Longhorn Looks

http://www.crystalxp.net/bricopack/

2) FlyKiteOSX from http://osx.portraitofakite.com contains Mac OS X for PC users

http://www.flyakiteosx.com/download/

3) Alienware theme from Alienware (a high performance PC vendor) It is not exactly freeware because it contains WindowsBlind Software which is not free BUT this edition is free intended for Alienware customers. I am not their customers but oh well it is free anyway...

Click on the picture "Click here to download AlienGUIse"

http://www.alienware.com/community/alienguise/theme-manager.aspx

4)Nvidia theme from NVIDIA (a video card maker) Same as above it is a it also contains WindowsBlind Software which is not free BUT this edition is free intended for NVIDIA customers but this time I am their customer both my laptop and PC uses NVIDIA Cards

http://www.nvidia.com/content/areyouready/downloads.html

1)ComCast XP website

Last but not least for this post I know a particular website containing lots of information and freeware pertaining to Windows XP.

It debunks a lot of XP myths and has a Large collection of useful software that are free license

Must check it out

http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html

Know any other good website that have great Windows software that are free?

Feel free to put them up here

Next Posting will be PowerTools for Power Users