Gaming Boost your XP gaming with Hardware Profiles

[Lee79]

Boost XP for Gaming: Create a Hardware Profile to free up System Resources.
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Instead of disabling hardware, programs and stopping services to free up resources for gaming, lets create a new "Hardware Profile".

Right click on My Computer - select Properties. Select Hardware Tab, then click Hardware Profiles.
Mark "Profile 1 (current)", then Copy button and then rename to "Game or Gaming" then OK button.

Now you have created a menu that shows up when you boot your computer. You normally would boot with the Original Profile Configuration. Never delete your "Original Configuration" if you boot into your gaming profile.

Now, to tweak the different services for your Gaming hardware profile. Click the "Start" button. Select run from the bottom of the right column. Then type "services.msc" in the box and click ok. Or go to the "Control Panel" Select "Administrative Tools" then "Services"

Once the services window has loaded we are ready to turn off unneeded services when gaming. For instructional purposes we are going to turn off the 'Alerter' service.
Find this service in the list and select it with the mouse.

Right-click 'Alerter', select Properties or a quick way is to double click it, Choose the "Log on" tab. In the lower part of this box select "Disable" or "Enable" dependent on which hardware profile you configure. If you configure for your "Game" profile you choose "Disable" to free up this system resources then apply.

Now this is all the services we are going to disable for our "Game" Profile do the same for each one.

Alerter
Application Layer Gateway Service** (Only if Windows firewall is not used)
Application Management
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
ClipBook
COM+ System Application
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Error Reporting Service
Help and Support
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service** (Only if you do not use the cd-rw xp record suport. If you use Nero or some other burning software disable)
Indexing Service
Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) / Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
IPSEC Services
Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service
MS Software Shadow Copy Provider
Net Logon
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM
Network Location Awareness (NLA)
NT LM Security Support Provider
Performance Logs and Alerts
Portable Media Serial Number
Print Spooler ** (Only if do not have or use a printer on your PC)
Protected Storage
QoS RSVP
Routing and Remote Access
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
Remote Registry
Removable Storage
Secondary Logon
Security Accounts Manager
Server
Smart Card
Smart Card Helper
SSDP Discovery Service
System Restore Service
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Task Scheduler
Telnet
Themes
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Volume Shadow Copy
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
Windows Installer
Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extensions
Wireless Zero Configuration ** (Only if you do not use WIFI for your internet connection)
WMI Performance Adapter
Windows Time

Now reboot and select your Gaming profile and check the internet works for network play. Once you have setup your gaming profile only use it to play games and surf the net. You should use your normal profile to install games and do all other computer related tasks.

DirectX March 08
Make sure you have the latest DirectX March 08 install it from here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en
It is the full 69MB redistributable and doesnt require validation unlike webinstall. However if you have already the latest directx before March, the included webinstall will download only 5.2mb of optional MS SDK.

Defrag your harddrive
Defraging your harddrive speeds up the time a game takes loading new levels. The files will be order and will take less time for the game you are playing to find. I hate using the windows built in defrag program as it takes forever a nice quick free alternative is Auslogics Disk Defrag http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag

Happy boosted gaming

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[arctic_flame]

Nice tutorial. I have a feeling that this might require XP Pro though...

 

[DrKupo]

quite frankly, if your computer is so bad you have to run XP and beyond that, you have to tweak it to play games, you shouldn't be gaming on that PC.

 

[Lee79]

Yeah i use XP Pro not sure about Home as i have never used it.

 

[Urza]

quite frankly, if your computer is so bad you have to run XP and beyond that, you have to tweak it to play games, you shouldn't be gaming on that PC.

 

[fischju]

quite frankly, if your computer is so bad you have to run XP and beyond that, you have to tweak it to play games, you shouldn't be gaming on that PC.

So you both agree that Vista is better than XP? Kupo hates Linux, and you can only install OSX on a PC if the CPU supports SSE2 and you wouldn't have much if any hardware support.

 

[Urza]

quite frankly, if your computer is so bad...you have to tweak it to play games, you shouldn't be gaming on that PC.

 

[fischju]

I agree with that to a point, for low spec PCs running old games, extra services that might be needed for other things (antivirus, firewall, whatever) can use a lot of resources - and I still think Vista needs a little tweaking to perform optimally.

 

[stormwolf18]

quite frankly, if your computer is so bad you have to run XP and beyond that, you have to tweak it to play games, you shouldn't be gaming on that PC.

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LOL...
anyway, try to add more ram instead of stopping services ... and btw, im sure you aint getting more fps by doing all these steps.