Adjusting Windows XP for Application Performance

Aside from getting applications to work with Windows XP, perhaps one of the greatest program issues you are likely to encounter as an A+ technician is performance. Users may complain that certain applications run slowly on Windows XP, or more generally that all applications run slowly. As a technician, your job then is to take the information you have been given and see whether you can find the problem in Windows XP. The good news is that the potential performance problems are usually easy to spot. However, solving them can be another story because there are only a few actions that you can take.

Check Requirements and Compatibility

At the very core of application performance are hardware requirements. As is the case with most other things in the computing world, you can’t run software on a computer that does not have the required system hardware, or at least you can’t run software effectively. Today, many applications and even games require fast processors and plenty of RAM. This is especially true of the photo and video production applications that have become so popular in the past few years. The simple fact is that the computer should exceed any minimum hardware requirements posted by the software manufacturer. If a computer does not meet the hardware requirements, the application may run, but it may run very slowly. In this scenario, your only option is to upgrade the computer’s hardware.

Another issue concerning performance comes back to compatibility. You may be able to get an incompatible application to run using the Program Compatibility mode, but that application still may not run as fast or perform as well as you would like. This is simply a compatibility problem for which there is no direct workaround, except to upgrade to a compatible application.

Painful Lessons I’ve Learned: Dealing with the Application Junkie

Users often expect that any application should work on Windows XP, but this simply is not true. Have you met an “application junkie” who downloads any and all applications from the Internet and tries to install them? This practice can certainly create problems that usually end up in your lap! For this reason, many networking environments have strict policies about application installation and Internet downloads.

Using Performance Options

Aside from applying basic common sense about using applications, you can try a couple of Windows XP settings to make sure the environment is optimized for applications. The correct settings are actually configured by default, but if you are having a lot of performance problems with programs, you should check these settings. Right-click My Computer, click Properties, then click the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button under Performance, and the Performance Options dialog box appears. Click the Advanced tab, shown in Figure 5-6. The Processor Scheduling and Memory Usage settings should both be set to Programs. If they are not, select the Programs buttons and click OK.

Figure 5-6: Performance options should be set to Programs

Note 

The Background Services options should never be selected unless the Windows XP Professional computer is being used as a file server, print server, or Web server on the network. If users who run applications access the computer, as is normally the case, then you should configure these settings to Programs.

Tech Talk: Video Cards and Performance

One issue with application performance is video cards. Surprised? Depending on the program or application, especially if the program or game is graphics-intensive, the video card may appear to slow down the program. Actually, the video card is unable to keep up with the demands of the program, which makes the system appear to run more slowly. Thus, the video card becomes the system bottleneck, rather than the application itself. So, if the computer meets the hardware requirements for the application, but there still seem to be performance problems, check the video card. Make sure the video card is optimized for the kinds of programs that you need to run, and make sure you are using the latest driver available for that particular video card. Again, when all else fails, you may need a video card upgrade. See Chapter 4 to learn more about hardware drivers and hardware management.