The default hardware profile for a Windows XP PC is Profile 1. Profile 1 enables all hardware, enables all necessary drivers, and uses your currently configured settings for sound and video, RAM (virtual memory), and services (among other things). You can create other profiles though, and configure exactly how you want Windows XP to start. Here we’ll create a Gaming Profile.
When you boot your Windows XP PC, all hardware, necessary drivers, and personal settings for sound and video, RAM (virtual memory), and services (among other things), automatically start. You may not need or want all of these things to start, especially if you want to conserve resources because you’re planning on playing a resource-intensive game. Some items you may want to disable on boot up include:
* Fast User Switching Compatibility
* Help and Support
* Messenger
* Plug and Play
* Themes
* Windows Time
For a normal setup, all of these services, your personal sound and video settings, your hardware, your RAM configuration, and more are, for the most part, the way you should have it configured.
Tip: You can view services by opening Administrative Tools (you may have to choose Start and then Search to find them if you have Windows XP Home Edition), and by opening Services.
For a gaming profile, you can disable printers and scanners, and you might want to disable Web cams or network cards too. You can also tweak virtual memory settings, enable specific functions of sound and video devices, or enable gaming hardware in Device Manager.
Beyond the obvious though, you can also disable quite a few services. A gamer won’t need the Routing and Remote Access service, for instance, nor will he need the Help and Support service. Disabling services is easy; knowing which ones are safe to disable is a little more difficult. Let’s look at the former first. To disable a service, follow these steps:
1. Open Administrative Tools. Administrative Tools is available from Control Panel in Windows XP Professional, and by searching in Windows XP Home Edition. Older versions of Windows won’t have these tools. To find out if your version has these tools, click Start, choose Search, and type Administrative Tools.
2. Open Services.
3. Select a service and double-click it. For the purpose of instruction here, select Alerter. The Alerter service notifies selected users and computers of administrative alerts. By default it is disabled.
4. To change a services startup type, next to Startup Type choose Disabled, Manual, or Automatic.
5. Click OK when finished and close the Services window. (You may want to click Cancel to make sure you do not make unwanted changes.)
So what services are not necessary? Well, that all depends on what you do and don’t want your PC to be able to do. Here are a few of the services a gaming profile should have disabled:
* Alerter
* ClipBook
* Computer Browser
* Error Reporting Service
* Help and Support
* Indexing Service
* Net Logon
* Performance Logs and Alerts
* Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
* Remote Registry
* Removable Storage
* Routing and Remote Access
* Server
* Smart Card
* Smart Card Helper
* Themes
* Windows Installer
* Windows Time
* Print Spooler
Now you can configure the options for boot up. You can choose a specific profile to be chosen each time you boot the PC, you can choose to show all of the profile choices for a specific amount of time and then have a specific one start automatically, or, you can choose to show all choices and not boot until one is selected. To set any of these configurations, follow these steps:
1. Right-click My Computer and select Properties.
2. In the System Properties dialog box, choose the Hardware tab.
3. Click Hardware Profiles.
4. In the Hardware Profiles dialog box, under Hardware Profiles Selection, make the appropriate choice. They are:
a. Wait Until I Select A Hardware Profile. Check this is you don’t want the PC to boot until after you make a selection.)
b. Select The First Profile Listed If I Don’t Select a Profile In _____ Seconds. (Select this if you want a profile to automatically start after a certain amount of time has passed. If you want the first profile listed to start automatically, select 0 seconds.)
5. Click OK twice to exit.
The point I want to make is a simple one; reduce the load on your PC for better gaming performance!
Next: Windows XP: Hardware Profiles (Part III of III)