Tweak #1: Turn Off Windows Messenger For Good

Have you tried to disable messenger, but it still shows in the system tray icon every now and then? If so, this next tweak is for you. To completely turn off Windows Messenger:

1. Go to "Start", the "Run"
2. Type in "RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove" and press enter
3. Restart and you'll never see Windows Messenger again!

Tweak #2: Turn off Indexing to Speed up Response Time

If you don't extensively use the search feature in XP, this next tweak is for you. By extensively, I mean like everyday. Windows XP has this "feature" called "Indexing". It's supposed to speed up searches by keeping all the files on your computer tied to memory. By tying up these files to memory, it can really slow things down. Disabling this service will remove this files from memory, inturn giving your applications and files faster response times. You will still be able to search with the Indexing turned off, but the searching will just take a little log to perform. To turn off Indexing:

1. Open up "My Computer"
2. Right-click on your hard drive (usually "C:") and choose "Properties"
3. Uncheck the box at the bottom that reads "Allow Indexing Service to..."
4. Click OK then the files will be removed from memory. This removal may take a few minutes to complete, but it's worth it.

You will also need to disable the indexing service here too:

1. Go to "Start", then "Run"
2. Type "services.msc" and press enter
3. Scroll-down to "Indexing Service" and double-click it
4. If the service status is "Running", then stop it by pressing the "Stop" button
5. To make sure this service doesn't run again, under "Startup Type:", choose "Disabled"

Tweak #3: Turn off Hibernation

If you don't use the Hibernation feature of XP, it's taking up a lot of unnecessary hard drive space. The space it takes up depends on your RAM. If you have 128 MB RAM, Hibernation takes up 127 MB, if you have 256 MB RAM, Hibernation takes up 254 MB, and so on. "Standby" and "Hibernation" are not they same thing. You will keep the "Standby" feature when you disable Hibernation. To turn off Hibernation:

1. Right-click on the desktop and click "Properties"
2. Hit the "Screen Saver" tab
3. Then click the "Power" button under "Monitor Power"
4. Click the "Hibernation" tab, then uncheck the box next to "Enable Hibernation"
5. Press "OK" and you have just saved a load of hard drive space!

Tweak #4: Remove "Messenger Service" Advertisements from non-Service Pack XP PCs

The "Messenger Service" is not the same as "Windows Messenger". So if you removed "Windows Messenger", you might still be getting "Messenger Service" pop-up advertisments like this one, even if you're offline and have all broswer windows closed:


To remove these nasty ads:

1. Go to "Start", then "Run"
2. Type "services.msc" and press enter
3. Scroll-down to "Messenger" and double-click it
4. If the service status is "Running", then stop it by pressing the "Stop" button
5. To make sure this service doesn't run again, under "Startup Type:", choose "Disabled"
6. Press "OK" and say goodbye to those nasty Messenger ads!

Note: If you already have Windows XP Service Pack 1 or later, this service is already disabled.

The easy tweeks you posted sure were a big help.. Nice post. thanks
Todd hurd

I have a question. After trying your easy XP Tweaks, I unwisely tried a few of my own without really knowing what I was doing. I had to use system restore, because web pages were no longer loading. Not at all sure what I did wrong.
My question is what happens to all the programs that I installed after the system restore point? They must be lurking somewhere.
Thanks again,
Todd Hurd

I'm glad you took the opprotunity to apply those tweaks . Good question, need advice from admin for an answer.

System restore saves any data since the last system restore point, but not applications. They need to be reinstalled. Technical info here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default....stemrestore.asp

thx for the MSN and Hibernation tweaks. Finally I can close msn and get it out of my systems tray.

thanks I will try these tweaks on my Dell

I'll throw in my 2cents worth
Gibson site
Some very handy little freeware apps to handle the above tweaks as well as address some real security issues in any Windows OS.
Nice to see someone sharing knowledge without being a twit about it.
Nice site here I like it.

I kinda like that Gibson site, it's pretty handy.

-=jonnyrotten=-

Thank you for these tweaks, especially the fast search feature removal. What a dramatic improvement in boot up speed and overall performance.

I would also recommend that if the user has more than one internal hard drive to perform the same procedure on all the drives. Having both a C: & D: internal Raptor drives, I only did C: at first. There was a minor improvement. When I did the D: as well, whoa...much better.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Thank you so much for the tips about indexing and hibernation. My pc is running much better than it was. I think it could probably be faster still and towards that end, I downloaded Spybot and took care of a few nasty little spyware problems.

If you have any other suggestions, I'd be more than happy to try them.

Thank you again.

Wow, you are amazing, these tweaks are easy and work very well.
Good Job on them

Andrew