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Delete all temporary files for the current user.
Note: By default Local Settings is a hidden folder. To display Hidden files and folders. Click My Computer. Click Tools. Click Folder Options. Click the View Tab. Click Show hidden files and folders.

1. Navigate to the users temporary directory.
2. By default the directory is located at C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp.
3. Press control-A to select all files and folders.
4. Press the delete key.

Reorder the files on your hard disk so that they are contiguous. This will increase the speed in which files are read, written, updated and created
Run a Manual Defragmentation
1. Run Diskeeper.
2. Click the appropriate drive.
3. Click Defragment.

Set up a Boot-Time Defragmentation
1. Click Action. Click Set It and Forget It.
2. Click Boot Time Scheduler Tab. Select all appropriate drives.
3. Click Directory Consolidation, Reduce Paging File Fragments and Defragment the MFT.
4. Click Set. Click Ok.
5. Restart your PC.

Note: Boot-Time defragmentation is an exhaustive process and will take a considerable amount of time to run.
Windows 2000/XP Built in Defrag
1. Right Click My Computer.
2. Click Manage.
3. Click Disk Defragmenter.
4. Click on the appropriate drive.
5. Click on Defragment.

Set the size, location and number of paging files to an constant optimal size.
The paging file is used regardless on how much physical RAM is in the system. This makes this setting extremely important.

Windows 2000/XP supports multiple paging files and can read and write to all of them simultaneously. Below are suggestions to configure the number, size and location of these files.

Size
To estimate how many megabytes your paging file needs. Load all the applications you normally use. Open task manager(press control-alt-delete) click the performance tab and find the peak commit charge. This is the maximum amount of memory your system has used since it was last started. Add 256MB to this number and this is a good setting to start with. The optimal configuration is to set the minimum and maximum to the same size preventing the OS from resizing the file.

For example, if you regularly use five applications simultaneously and your total commit charge is 256MB. A good setting would be to set the total of all paging files for 512MB. If your PC has 256MB of physical memory that would yield a total of 768MB of usable memory.

Additional consideration for Servers
Servers run multiple applications and provide resources to every client on your network. Each network client puts additional strain on memory and resources. If your server ran out of memory this would halt operations for the entire network. It is recommended that you add at least an additional 512MB or more to the size of the paging file.

Location
This is a complicated decision and is limited by the number of drives in your PC. There are numerous ways to configure this with each solution giving you a different amount of performance. Below are some suggestions.

Location Description
Optimal Put a paging file on each hard disk(or multiple hard disks) that does not contain operating system files.
Good Put one paging file on a stripe set with no parity.
Adequate Put one paging file on a stripe set with parity.
Put one paging file on each physical hard disk not containing the Windows system files.
Worst Put the paging file on the same drive as the Windows system files.

1. Right Click my computer. Click Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab. Click the Performance Options.
3. Click Change. Click on the appropriate drive.
4. Enter the Initial and Maximum size and click set.
5. Repeat for all appropriate drives.
6. Reboot the PC for configuration changes to take effect.

Set the Supplemental cache size and Optimize access pattern to optimal values.
1. Right click My Computer.
2. Click Properties.
3. Click Performance.
4. Click File System.
5. Click CD-ROM.
6. Click and drag the Supplemental cache size slider all the way to large.
7. Set the Optimize access pattern for Quad-speed or higher. Click OK.
8. You must restart your computer before the new settings will take effect. Do you want to restart your computer now? Click Yes.

Creating, modifying and deleting files causes fragmentation. When files are fragmented, it takes longer for the computer to read or write those files
1. Close all applications.
2. Disable your screen saver.
3. Disable all the programs on the taskbar if possible.
4. Click Start.
5. Click Program.
6. Click Accessories.
7. Click System Tools.
8. Click Defrag.
9. Select the drive to defrag. You should defrag every hard disk on your system. This process can take a long time.
10. Click Ok.
11. Enable your screen saver.

Set the size of the virtual memory (swap file) to an constant optimal size.
1. Right click My Computer
2. Click Properties
3. The System Properties window lists the amount of RAM in your PC remember this for step#8
4. Click Performance
5. Click Virtual Memory
6. Click Let me specify my own virtual memory settings
7. Click the arrow next to the hard disk.
8. Here are some guidelines to choose the best location for your virtual memory file
a) Select the quickest hard disk.
b) If you have, two hard disks that are similar in performance select the hard disk that does not contain Windows system files.
c) Make sure the drive has free space equal to at least twice the size of the recommended swap file size.
d) If the partition is on the same physical drive, select the partition in alphabetical order. For example, if you have one 2GB hard disk and you partition it into two 1GB partitions drive C & D) You should pick Drive C over Drive D if meets all the guidelines of a, b & c.
9. Set the Minimum/Maximum to: With large hard disks settings a 128mb or 256mb swap file should be sufficient in almost every situation.

Note: The amount of RAM plus the size of the virtual memory file is the maximum amount of RAM you can use at once. Win386.swp is the filename used for the swap file. The file is quite large don’t delete it.

10. Click OK.
11. After setting the size of the virtual memory file windows will display the following message. You have chosen not to let windows manage virtual memory automatically. Click Yes.
11. You must restart your computer before the new settings will take effect. Do you want to restart your computer now? Click Yes
12. Sometimes Windows 95 takes a long time to shut down. During this time, it is doing necessary system maintenance. You must wait while the computer shuts down.

Convert a partition from FAT16 to FAT 32.
Note: The new file system is only included with Windows 95B(Windows 95 OSR2) or later. Other operating system cannot read this format including DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows NT4 and any Windows 95 versions previous to OSR2. They will not be able to access FAT32 formatted partitions. If you use multiple operating systems make sure your boot drive(C:) is FAT16. Otherwise other operating systems will not be able to start.

Note: There are two ways to install FAT32. One way is to run FDISK from a Windows 95B or later boot disk and enable large disk support. FDISK is a low-level format and will erase everything on this partition. This method will require you to reload the operating system and all applications from the original installation disks. The second way is:

1. Run Scandisk.
2. Backup entire hard disk .
3. Uninstall old disk utilities and virus scanners.
4. Make a Windows 95B dos boot disk.
5. Copy the necessary Partition Magic files to the floppy disk.
6. Restart the PC with the new Partition Magic boot disk.
7. Use Partition Magic to resize partition from FAT16 to FAT32.