Boost your PC performance for OOTP!

[f.montoya]

Posted this about a year ago and thought it might come in handy now as OOTPB 2006 is on the horizon...

Running OOTP requires a lot of your pc resources but there are things you can do to boost your pc's performance, and thus, handle OOTP much more efficiently.

1. Hit CTRL/ALT/DEL and write down the "commit charge" numbers. (i.e. 56380K / 479864K) The bigger the difference between these numbers, the better! To increase this difference follow the next steps:

2. Click START, RUN and then type "msconfig". Hit the STARTUP tab and see what they are. If there are programs you don't need, remove the check from the box and restart your pc. Remember, these are programs that are starting when you start your computer and chances are you don't need them all to start EVERY time you start up. This is NOT uninstalling! You have normal access to all of these programs via START, ALL PROGRAMS.

3. Go to http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html and download Spybot. Then run it and delete anything it finds(as long as it's not something you wanted). Chances are, everything on this list is unnecessary. Restart your pc.

4. Go to START, CONTROL PANEL, ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAMS. Take a look at all the programs that are on you pc. Do you need all of them? Probably not. Uninstall programs you don't need. The fewer programs you have installed, the better! Restart your pc.

5. Go to START, ALL PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, SYSTEM RESTORE. Click SYSTEM RESTORE SETTINGS and put a check mark in TURN OFF SYSTEM RESTORE ON ALL DRIVES. System Restore is a great idea in theory but the reality is that after returning your system to a previous state, it leaves loose ends in Dynamic Link Library, you won't have use of software installed after that date and it EATS major resources. Restart your pc after this.

6. Go to START, CONTROL PANEL, SYSTEM, ADVANCED. click SETTINGS under PERFORMANCE. click custom and remove the check marks from as many as possible. Click APPLY. Then click ADVANCED and under VIRTUAL MEMORY, click CHANGE. Click CUSTOM SIZE and type in the number that is 3X your actual memory on your system (i.e. 512 x 3 = 1536). Restart your pc after this.

7. Go to http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/winxp...es/index.shtml and follow the tweak guide for disabling unnecessary services. Then click START, RUN and type "services.msc" and proceed to disable all unecessary services. They are background processes that take up valuable resources that once shut down will add increased performance. Restart your computer after this step.

8. Go to http://www.raxco.co.uk/ and download Perfect Disk. Pay for it. it's worth every penny. Use it to defrag your hard drives in a more logical, ordering. Restart your computer after this step.

9. Do you have any Norton products? Shut them down or disable thier services before running OOTP. You can always enable them after playing your games. Norton products are MAJOR resource hogs. While they do a world of good for internet security, they just bog down things when gaming. If you are paranoid, disconnect from the internet while gaming.

10. Click CTRL/ALT/DEL, write down what you see under PROCESSES and then go to http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm and see what they are. Shut down any processes that you don't need running while gaming. After gaming and restarting your computer, the processes will return to thier normal running state. These are background processes that are either doing something or waiting to do something that is asked by various software, including your operating system.

11. Click CTRL/ALT/DEL. You should see a significant difference in "Commit Charge" from where you started.

Enjoy!

[Malleus Dei]

Good advice, and Perfect Disk rules!

[sfgiants88]

Great advice Fidel. I learned some things that I'm sure will come in handy for optimizing my system for whatever I run (not necessarily just OOTP!)

However, I must take issue with your recommendation to disable system restore. We have all made fatal mistakes with our computers before, and we just wished we had all of our data back! Granted, computer whizzes like you may not be worried about this, but the rest of us are! I would rather have a computer with lose ends that runs, rather than a computer that (due to a virus or corrupt thingamabob) simply refuses to run

I think the rest of your suggestions are great.

[Ol'Drippy]

Originally Posted by f.montoya

9. Do you have any Norton products? Shut them down or disable thier services before running OOTP. You can always enable them after playing your games. Norton products are MAJOR resource hogs. While they do a world of good for internet security, they just bog down things when gaming. If you are paranoid, disconnect from the internet while gaming.

That would be me. Normally I'm paranoid enough to leave them on and take the slowdown (it's normally not bad for OOTP unless I'm simming years at a time), but any time I turn them off I disconnect completely.

Good list. Defintely a must have in general as well, not just for gaming. Thanks for reposting it.

[f.montoya]

Originally Posted by sfgiants88

Great advice Fidel. I learned some things that I'm sure will come in handy for optimizing my system for whatever I run (not necessarily just OOTP!)

However, I must take issue with your recommendation to disable system restore. We have all made fatal mistakes with our computers before, and we just wished we had all of our data back! Granted, computer whizzes like you may not be worried about this, but the rest of us are! I would rather have a computer with lose ends that runs, rather than a computer that (due to a virus or corrupt thingamabob) simply refuses to run

I think the rest of your suggestions are great.

Yes. about a year ago, there were other proponents of "System Restore". It is a safety net that works. Yet I highly recommend keeping a log of changes you make in settings, added software, removed software and any tweaks you make to your computer. Should you ever run into problems with your pc, you can do a manual restoration by simply reversing items on your list one by one, making it easier to isolate the cause of the problem. System Restore will undo whole chunks of events at a time, sometimes causing further problems down the line that could be impossible to repair.

While it's my preference to disable System Restore, others who have been saved by it, will swear by it, I'm sure.

[f.montoya]

Originally Posted by Ol'Drippy

That would be me. Normally I'm paranoid enough to leave them on and take the slowdown (it's normally not bad for OOTP unless I'm simming years at a time), but any time I turn them off I disconnect completely.

Good list. Defintely a must have in general as well, not just for gaming. Thanks for reposting it.

Disconnecting from the internet altogether, while gaming, should put your mind at ease.

[chippered]

Originally Posted by f.montoya

6. Click CUSTOM SIZE and type in the number that is 3X your actual memory on your system (i.e. 512 x 3 = 1536). Restart your pc after this.

In which space should I put the number, initial or maximum size?

Thanks in advance

[rudel.dietrich]

Goes without saying, but a disk defrag will do a world of good as well.
OOTP leagues are usualy almost always among my most fragmented folders since they get shifted around and overwritten so much.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by chippered

In which space should I put the number, initial or maximum size?

Thanks in advance

you can put the same number in both then the system uses the max space from the start, make sure you have the disk space free you want to use

[RchW]

Originally Posted by f.montoya

Yes. about a year ago, there were other proponents of "System Restore". It is a safety net that works. Yet I highly recommend keeping a log of changes you make in settings, added software, removed software and any tweaks you make to your computer. Should you ever run into problems with your pc, you can do a manual restoration by simply reversing items on your list one by one, making it easier to isolate the cause of the problem. System Restore will undo whole chunks of events at a time, sometimes causing further problems down the line that could be impossible to repair.

While it's my preference to disable System Restore, others who have been saved by it, will swear by it, I'm sure.

No matter what choice is correct, I'd like to thank you (and the others) for educating me on choices. I have been frustrated for some time about the resources used up by stuff I don't clearly need. This tutorial is extremely valuable.

[disposableheros]

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

Goes without saying, but a disk defrag will do a world of good as well.
OOTP leagues are usualy almost always among my most fragmented folders since they get shifted around and overwritten so much.

see #8

[chippered]

Not to sound cheap, but does anybody know of any free disc defrag software that is better than the standard option on most pc's?

I also want to issue some thanks for this thread. Very informative.

[Malleus Dei]

Break down and buy Perfect Disk. It's worth every penny.

[chippered]

When I followed the link above, it wouldnt give me a link to purchase online. Also, whats the price in US dollars?

Sorry, nevermind.

[The Funk]

Great advice, I'm downloading the Perfectisk trial now. I saw some comparisons with O&O mentioned in some reviews, seeming to place them about equal, does anyone know how the two really compare?

[f.montoya]

Originally Posted by The Funk

Great advice, I'm downloading the Perfectisk trial now. I saw some comparisons with O&O mentioned in some reviews, seeming to place them about equal, does anyone know how the two really compare?

Yes, I'd say they do a comparable job with defragmentation. You wouldn't go wrong with either one. O&O has a whole spectrum of "optimization" software that they sell separately, in which case I'd choose "Perfectdisk" and Ashampoo for total system optimization at a lower overall price.

In any case, overkill isn't necessary to get good performance out of your machine so the steps above (with a bit of cash for Perfectdisk) will go a long way.

[targy]

I have been using Diskeeper 10 and it works real well.

[The Funk]

Originally Posted by f.montoya

Yes, I'd say they do a comparable job with defragmentation. You wouldn't go wrong with either one. O&O has a whole spectrum of "optimization" software that they sell separately, in which case I'd choose "Perfectdisk" and Ashampoo for total system optimization at a lower overall price.

In any case, overkill isn't necessary to get good performance out of your machine so the steps above (with a bit of cash for Perfectdisk) will go a long way.

Thanks, I'm using the 30 day Perfectdisk trial. Looks good so far.

[kq76]

Good advice there, Fidel. I can't tell you how many times people have thanked me over the years for getting them to do some of things you've listed above. A lot of the time I think some people end up getting brand new computers just because they think their old computer isn't good enough when all they really have to do is a little cleaning up.

The only thing I disagree with is advising your average user to disable System Restore (it's certainly saved my bacon a few times!), but that's been brought up a few times so I think people get the idea. I'm also not convinced PD is worth the cost over the built-in defragger, but I'm sure it's worth a lot more than some of the crap people buy like Norton.

This should maybe even be stickied somewhere. It's that good, for OOTPers or otherwise.

[f.montoya]

Originally Posted by kq76

... people end up getting brand new computers just because they think their old computer isn't good enough when all they really have to do is a little cleaning up.

Ain't that the truth!