Recipe 18.4. Balancing System Performance and Visual Effects

Problem

You want to speed up your system performance by turning off some of XP's special effects.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties Advanced.

For a quicker way to get to the System Properties dialog box, type sysdm.cpl at the Run box or command line and press Enter. When it opens, click the Advanced tab.

Under the Performance section, click Settings, then select the Visual Effects tab.

To turn off visual effects entirely, choose "Adjust for best performance." To use all visual effects, choose "Adjust for best appearance." To let XP determine which effects to use, select "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer." And to pick and choose individual effects yourself, choose Custom, then check the effects you want to use (and uncheck the ones you don't). You may have to experiment with different choices to see how they affect your system's performance.

When you've made your choice, click OK, and then OK again.

Discussion

Windows XP's visual effects such as fading and sliding menus, background images for folders, and drop shadows for icon labels make it a visually pleasing operating system. But all those effects can take their toll on system performance, especially if you have an older computer.

Turning off some or all of these special effects is a simple way to speed up a sluggish PC. The fewer effects you use, the faster your PC will perform. So experiment turning some on and off, for the best balance between visual effects and system performance.

See Also

For more advice on using the Performance Options dialog box to improve system performance, and for other related performance-related tips, see the CNet article "Give Windows XP a performance tune-up" at http://cma.zdnet.com/texis/cdsamples/winxp_sample.html.