Windows 2000 Tweaks

Windows 2000 Tweaks

ving Log Files To A Secondary Hard Drive

Moving The Paging File To A Secondary Hard Drive

More Paging File Info

Spooler File Location

Windows File Protection

Reset Your MSDTC Log to a Secondary Hard Drive

Set Tracing Log File To Alternate Hard Disk

Set DHCP Log Files to Alternate Disk and Limit Their Size

Set Dr Watson Logs to Alternate Disk

Mouse Speed Up
In Windows 9x, you had to download a copy of PS/2 rate to change the sampling rate of your

PS/2 mouse. However, in Windows 2000, they have made the process much simpler by adding the

property to the mouse's entry in the device manager. To get to the feature, go into the

device manager, right click on the mouse entry, and enter its properties. Click on the

Advanced Settings tab and from there you can change two settings - Sample Rate and Input

Buffer Length. I would recommend setting the Sample rate to 100 Hz (maximum setting - still

inferior to PS/2 Rate but better than nothing) and upping the buffer length to about 375 to

avoid a buffer overrun from the higher sampling speed.

3 Button Mouse
Edit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services

Double click on either BUSMOUSE, SERMOUSE, or i8042PRT (PS/2 style mouse port).

Double click on the PARAMETERS sub-key.

On the right side of this window double-click on NumberOfButtons.(Reg_Dword)

In the command line change the number '2' to '3' and click on OK.

If you have a wheel mouse you can also add EnableWheelDetection(Reg_Dword),

give it a value of 2.

(Value Description)

0 Don't use the wheel.

1 Auto-detect the wheel.

2 Always enable the wheel

Exit and restart NT for these changes take effect. The net effect is to enable the 3rd button plus the wheelup/wheeldown without adding any new software to the system.

Hard drive setup

Turn Diskperformance Counters Off

OS2 & POSIX Removal

Turn off Indexing Service

Disable IDE Port Scanning on empty ports and save bootup time

Turning off Dr Watson log Generation

Creating separate processes for the DeskTop/TaskBar

Disable UserTracking

Disable Link File Tracking

Disable Paging Of Core Files and Speed Up Performance

Disable System Sounds

Stop Windows Animation

Enable Large System Cache

Disable WBEM logging in Win2k

Create A Power User Profile

Enable DMA Mode

Alternate Method To Enable DMA


Reduce Network Delay

Increase Network Performance


These are the only TCPIP Tweaks you need for Win2k, it is very good at regulating network performance

in most areas.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]

"TcpRecvSegmentSize"=dword:000005b0

"KeepAliveTime"=dword:0015f900

"BcastQueryTimeout"=dword:000002ee

"BcastNameQueryCount"=dword:00000001

"CacheTimeout"=dword:0000ea60

"Size/Small/Medium/Large"=dword:00000003

"LargeBufferSize"=dword:00001000

"SackOpts"=dword:00000001

"TcpWindowSize"=dword:0003ebc0

"Tcp1323Opts"=dword:00000003

"DefaultTTL"=dword:00000040

"EnablePMTUBHDetect"=dword:00000000

"EnablePMTUDiscovery"=dword:00000001

"GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize"=dword:0003ebc0



Also add this one manually to the registry. Note: Your Individual Interface numbers may differ.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
{28DCE469-81E3-4E4D-BE67-2453791F1939}]

"MTU"=dword:000005dc

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
{296D28F3-BDAC-4382-9F7E-8088AF7CB75D}]

"MTU"=dword:000005dc

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
{7B97A161-9813-4D59-A068-0457917E5BAF}]

"MTU"=dword:000005dc

Reduce Network Delay
When TCP/IP network activity is light, delays may be encountered with the default request

buffer size (4356 decimal).

The range of this parameter is 512 - 65536 bytes. Testing has shown that, in most standard Ethernet environments, 14596 (decimal) is a better choice, if the memory is available. Edit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

and Add Value name SizReqBuf as a type REG_DWORD. Restart the computer.

Increase Network Performance
If you increase the number of buffers that the redirector reserves for network performance, it may increase your network throughput. Each extra execution thread that you configure will take 1k of additional nonpaged pool memory, but only if your applications actually use them. To configure additional buffers and threads, edit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters

Modify or Add Value of type REG_DWORD for:

MaxCmds The range is 0 - 255 and the default is 15

MaxThreads Set it to the same value as MaxCmds

You may also want to increase the value of MaxCollectionCount. This REG_DWORD is the buffer for character-mode named pipes writes. The default is 16 and the range is 0 - 65535.
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HDD SMART capability

This option enables/disables support for the hard disk's S.M.A.R.T. capability. The S.M.A.R.T. (Self Monitoring Analysis And Reporting) technology is supported by all current hard disks and it allows the early prediction and warning of impending hard disk disasters. You should enable it so that S.M.A.R.T. aware utilities can monitor the hard disk's condition. Enabling it also allows the monitoring of the hard disk's condition over a network. There's no performance advantage in disabling it even if you don't intend to use the S.M.A.R.T. technology.
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AGP aperture size

This option selects the size of the AGP aperture. The aperture is a portion of the PCI memory address range dedicated as graphics memory address space. Host cycles that hit the aperture range are forwarded to the AGP without need for translation. This size also determines the maximum amount of system RAM that can be allocated to the graphics card for texture storage. AGP Aperture size is set by the formula : maximum usable AGP memory size x 2 plus 12MB. That means that usable AGP memory size is less than half of the AGP aperture size. That's because the system needs AGP memory (uncached) plus an equal amount of write combined memory area and an additional 12MB for virtual addressing. This is address space, not physical memory used. The physical memory is allocated and released as needed only when Direct3D makes a "create non-local surface" call.

The size of the aperture does not correspond to performance so increasing it to gargantuan proportions will not improve performance. Many graphics card, however, will require a larger than 8MB AGP aperture size to work properly so you will need to set a minimum of 16MB for the AGP aperture size. Even then, you should set the aperture size at a higher setting so that it will be large enough to accommodate any texture storage requirements that your games/applications may have. At the moment, the rule of the thumb is an AGP aperture size of about 64MB to 128MB. Increasing the AGP aperture size beyond 128MB wouldn't really hurt performance but it would still be best to keep the aperture size to about 64MB-128MB so that the GART table won't be too large. As the amount of onboard RAM increases and texture compression becomes commonplace, there's less of a need for the AGP aperture size to increase beyond 64MB. So, it's recommended that you set the AGP Aperture Size as 64MB or at most, 128MB.
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BIOS tweaks above are at:
http://fox2k.net/2ktweaks/bios_settings.htm#HDD%20SMART%20capability
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======= NOW: http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=1404

Optimize the Pagefile

If you have more than one hard drive, it is a good idea to put your pagefile on the non-windows drives. Also, it is not a bad idea to set the pagefile to a constant size (1 to 2 times the available RAM), so it wont get fragmented.

Right-click on My Computer -> select Properties -> the Advanced tab -> Performance, Settings button -> Advanced tab, Virtual memory, Change button -> choose the drives and size available for pagefile(s).

I usually use a non-windows drive, and same Initial/Maximum size to avoid fragmentation of the pagefile. Another method to avoid fragmentation is to clear the pagefile on shutdown, by changing the following Registry setting:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management"ClearPageFileAtShutdown=1" (1 clears the pagefile at shutdown, 0 is the Windows default).

Related Resources:
MSKB 314834 (Windows XP)
MSKB 182086 (Windows 2000)
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Temporary Administrative Permissions
Many programs require administrative rights to be able to install. Here is an easy way to temporarily assign yourself Administrative permissions while you remain logged in as a normal user:

1. Hold Shift key (? not necessary on Win2k3) and right-click on the program, or the setup file.
2. Click "Run as"
3. Type in a username and password that have Administrative permissions.
Note: This will also work for applications in the Start menu. === ======= = === = =======

Some Sample Services that can safely be turned off in most Home PCs:

Automatic Updates
Computer Browser
Error Reporting Service
Help and Support
Indexing Service
Messenger (pop-up spam vulnerability)
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Performance Logs and Alerts
Protected storage (stores passwords and enables ato-complete)
Remote Registry (remote access to your registry)
Routing and Remote Access (enables dial-in routing to your computer)
Secondary Logon
Task Scheduler
...Notes: To disable services, just stop them, and set them to "Manual". Check the Event Log for errors after rebooting. For additional information on all services, and what they do, check: http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm