Check this out:
Increasing File System Caching
To increase the amount of memory Windows will locked for I/O operations:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Edit the key IoPageLockLimit
4096 - 32megs of memory or less
8192 - 32+ megs of memory
16384 - 64+ megs of memory
32768 - 128+ megs of memory
65536 - 256+ megs of memory
Common Command Console Utilities
WindowsXP comes with quite a few console utilities you can easily run from the command line:
Computer Management - compmgmt.msc
Disk Managment - diskmgmt.msc
Device Manager - devmgmt.msc
Disk Defrag - dfrg.msc
Event Viewer - eventvwr.msc
Shared Folders - fsmgmt.msc
Group Policies - gpedit.msc VERY GOOD. You can change, style of start menu and remove certain items you do not want.
Also if more than 1 person is using your computer, then from here you can monitor what they can access and use. Many
Other excellent stuff in here also,
Local Users and Groups - lusrmgr.msc
Performance Monitor - perfmon.msc
Resultant Set of Policies - rsop.msc
Local Security Settings - secpol.msc
Services - services.msc
Component Services - comexp.msc
Msconfig
Regedit
Dxdiag
Increasing System Performance
If you have 512 megs or more of memory, you can increase system performance
by having the core system kept in memory.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive
Set the value to be 1
Reboot the computer
Pressing Windows key and pause/break key will open the device manager. Many Options to increase performance can be
found there. In the performance section, it's advisable to disable all options except "smooth screen fonts" and
"Use visual styles and buttons". The other options are barely noticable and most advanced users will find it better
to disable them and increase performance. On desktop properties, you can enable cleartype as a type of font smoothing. It is made with LCD
screens in mind, but even if you have a standard CRT, you will still see the difference in clarity of the fonts.
Increasing Start Menu Speed
Start Regedit.
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\CONTROLPANEL\Desktop. and look for the key "Menushowdelay". It's default value is at 400, you can lower that
to what you desire. Or increase if you desire. (Which would be strange though!!)
Use Windows Update, the first time I opened it it had a system update and 2 device drivers update.
NTFS V FAT32
In the Windows Xp installation, you are asked whether to format using FAT32 or NTFS. If you are ONLY going to use XP,
it is recommended to use NTFS. It's more reliable, better security options and gernerally better. However be warned,
a FAT32 file system will not recognise a NTFS partition. Also, any windows 98/ME bootable CD's will
not recognise the NTFS file system so if you want to dual boot or uninstall XP and format and install a different OS,
It's recommended to change to FAT32 filesystem before you put the other OS on. This can be done in the XP installation
program.
There are many more options inside Windows XP to tweak. If you want more, try
http://www.tweakxp.com/ and
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/default.asp
Windows XP is more complex then the Windows 9x series, so for some users, some options such as where the temp files and your Internet, history, cookies and temp Internet files may not be visible initially. Goto Windows explorer, to the folder documents and settings. This will show all the users on your system. Under the names, will be all their Temp, history, cookies and temp net files.
Enable ATA/UDMA 66 support, assuming your hard drive(s) supports it that is. By default in Windows XP, support for ATA/UDMA66 is disabled (On Intel chipsets at least). Click on Start, Run, type in regedit & hit Enter. Go to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\
Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
\0000]. Add a New DWORD value entitled EnableUDMA66 & give it a value of 1 to enable support for UDMA/ATA 66, 0 disables it.
The last tweak for this guide - and a good one. The main components of your computer have an IRQ number assigned to them. With this tweak we can increase the priority given to any IRQ number, thereby improving the performance of that component. The most common component this tweak is used for is the System CMOS/real time clock, which improves performance across the board. First of all, decide which component you want to give a performance boost to. Next, you have to discover which IRQ that piece of hardware is using. To do this, simply go to Control Panel, then open the System panel (You can also press the shortcut of Windows+Break). Click the 'Hardware' tab, then on the 'Device Manager' button.
Now, right click on the component you want to discover the IRQ for and click 'Properties', then click on the 'Resources' tab.
You can plainly see which IRQ this device is using (if there is no IRQ number, select another device). Remember the number and close down all of the dialog boxes you have opened, then start up RegEdit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl in the registry. Now, we have to create a new DWORD value - called IRQ#Priority (where '#' is the IRQ number), then set the data to 1. For example, the IRQ of my System CMOS is 8, so I would create the key IRQ8Priority.
Now, after restarting, you should notice improved performance in the component you tweaked. I would strongly recommend the CMOS, as it improves performance around the board. Also note that you can have multiple IRQ prioritized, but it is fairly inefficient and can cause instability. To remove this tweak, simply delete the value you created.
Hope it helps