I'm sure there are a lot of people on here who are big fans of overclocking their graphics cards, processors and such to squeeze out that much more performance out of their hardware. If you're one who is into doing that, you might be interested to know that you can gain even more performance out of your system simply by removing software/components you don't need and by making smarter choices on what programs you use. This short guide will discuss using nLite to remove unwanted and unneeded components in WinXP and make suggestions on using alternate software (say, for example, Foxit PDF instead of Adobe Reader) to get a faster computing experience.
Before you start, you need:
1) nLite, which you can get at nliteos.com. nLite requires .Net framework, but there is a package containing all the .Net libraries available at nliteos.com if you don't want to install all of .Net.
2) One copy of Windows XP.
3) VMWare or MS Virtual PC is highly recommended for testing ISO files created by nLite. If you can't get that, then at least use a rewriteable CD because you will make mistakes.
4) All the patches for Windows XP, which can be downloaded at technet and Service Pack 2 if the WinXP CD you are working with doesn't have SP2 integrated already.
There is a guide on nliteos.com that shows you how to use nLite. I won't repeat what it says here, but I will inform you of a few additional points that you should know.
1) Some programs won't work if you remove certain programs. For example, if you remove Internet Explorer core files, then Steam will no longer display web content and you will continuously get security prompts about opening HTML files. You might want to look through the nLite section on the MSFN forums to see which applications have what compatibility issues. Here's a thread on this. It's best to figure this out now because if you remove a component in nLite, putting it back can be quite a pain.
2) Slipstreaming security patches isn't absolutely required, but if you don't then you will have to sit on the Microsoft website for hours waiting for patches to download while your computer remains online and unpatched. I recommend that you take the time to go to technet, download all the post-SP2 patches for Windows XP and slipstream them with nLite.
3) Slipstreaming drivers is a great feature, but if you are using nLite for the first time I recommend that you pass up on that until a later time. Sometimes it can get tricky, particularly with RAID drivers.
4) If you make changes to installation files in nLite and then later want to make additional changes, I highly recommend that you start off with the original WinXP CD, import the session file from your last nLite session and work from there, rather than using the installation files you already edited. This is because the additional changes you make may not be applied correctly. For example: say you created a folder, winxp2lite, put all the install files from the CD onto it, and then used nLite to add/remove/change stuff in the winxp2lite folder. Afterwards you discovered that you removed speech support accidentally and want to put it back, so you use nLite on the same winxp2lite folder and add speech support. Surprise: speech support still isn't in the new ISO. So keep this caveat in mind and always start fresh.
5) You have to disable sfc (system file checker). This is a utility that checks to make sure no files are corrupted/missing in WinXP, but can cause problems when components are removed. nLite will have an option to do this in the "patches" section.
6) You might have issues with Windows Update, depending on what components you remove, but thanks to http://windowsupdate.62nds.com/ and technet, you don't need Windows Update.
The more components that are removed, the smaller the install CD is going to be and the less Windows will load through your day-to-day computer use. This translates to increased performance, depending on what is removed.
Now I'm going to talk about alternative software. If you ever purchased a laptop from Dell or HP then you would know
about the ridiculous amount of tray applications that are basically
useless and add up to a major slowdown on the system. (I hope there
aren't any Neweggers in that position.) To put it bluntly: bulky
programs nullify the expensive hardware you purchased. You might find that exchanging MSN for Pidgin or Yahoo! IM for Trillian will boost performance because, after all, most of us leave it running in the background while playing games. Programs like Realmedia Player, Quicktime, Norton, McAfee, ZoneAlarm and Adobe Reader are somewhat inefficient to system resources when compared to alternatives like Nod32, Outpost, FoxitPDF and Real/Quick Alternative that basically do the same job. Why use Open Office or Office 2007, when Office 2000 and 2003 do all those Word documents and Powerpoints just as well? Because it was made recently, so it must be better? I suppose that applies to Vista too, which takes up a lot more system resources but doesn't offer much in terms of new features. I mean, hey, you have to have that Aero interface, even if it means Prey and Fear will run with five less frames per second.