Windows 98 - Tweak Performance

• Apply the DirextX runtime installer after updating drivers

  Update the DirectX runtime after installing new drivers to prevent conflicts.

• Configure IDE ATA hard disk to use DMA transfer

  How to configure Windows 9x to use DMA for IDE ATA hard drives.

• Configure conservative swap file usage

  How to configure the page algorithm, so it will not perform paging when the system is idle.

• Configure monitoring of application startup

  Save resources by disabling the Task Monitor and avoid the logging of every application startup.

• Configure the asynchronous disk access buffer

  How to increase the size of the page buffer to hold more memory pages when doing disk access.

• Configure the cluster size of the hard disk partition

  How to change the cluster size of a partition with description of the different filesystems and their limitations.

• Configure the disk cache to improve disk performance

  How to configure the disk cache for faster file operations.

• Configure the file allocation unit to minimize file fragmentation.

  How to configure the size of continuous space it will look for when performing file allocation.

• Configure the name cache for faster file lookup

  How to change the role of the computer to be "Network Server".

• Configure the page file for best performance

  Finding the the optimal size and location for the Windows swap file.

• Configure the read-ahead cache for cdrom/dvd drives

  How to increase the size of the read ahead cache used for cdrom and dvd drives.

• Configure what fonts to load in memory

  Uninstall unneeded fonts to speed up boot times and free memory.

• Defrag hard disk partitions to speed up file operations

  List of steps to perform before starting a file defragmentation on a hard disk partition.

• Description of the hard disk cache

  The hard disk performance is very dependent on the configuration of the disk cache.

• Diagnose performance issues with IDE ATA hard disk

  Description of different causes and solutions to hard disk performance problems.

• Disable power management features to maximize power usage

  Power Management support is not supported very well by Windows 9x and should be disabled.

• Disable the automatic updating of file access time

  Lower the disk activity by disabling the updating of when a file was last accessed.

• Disable the page file to avoid using the slow HDD

  Disabling the page file to prevent Windows from unloading memory to the hard disk.

• Disable visual effects to make the desktop faster

  Speed up the Windows experience by disabling unneeded visual effects.

• Improve 16 bit DMA transfers by increasing DMA buffer size

  How to configure the size of the pre-allocated DMA buffer for use by 16 bit applications.

• Increase the priority of the foreground application

  How to give the foreground application higher priority, so it will not be disturbed by background processes.

• Manage temporary files to minimize file fragmentation

  How temporary files cause file fragmentation and different RAM disk options.

• Reserve the upper memory block to free conventional memory

  How to reserve the upper memory block and load the dos enviroment in high memory to free conventional memory.

• Stop Setver.exe from loading automatically into memory

  How to block Setver.exe from loading to save conventional memory.

• The infamous VMM32.VXD tweak

  VMM32.VXD is an archive of VXD files, and some have reported improved speed by extracting the VXD files.

• Update Windows to improve security and fix errors

  Description of how Microsoft Windows requires constant updating to get the best performance.

• Update hardware drivers and firmware to improve stability

  Description of how the drivers and firmware for the computer hardware should be updated to get the best performance.

• Using smart drive for faster boot time

  Optimize the boot time of Windows by using the DOS disk cache until the Windows disk cache takes over.