How to improve performance

1) The Kernel

First, what is the kernel? Well kernel is a piece of code that is considered the "heart" of the operating systems. It's responsible for managing system resources and the basic communication between hardware and software. It translates any functions between the applications and the CPU, main memory and other devices.

Accessing the kernel from the hard disk is usually the default on any operating system. You can set it to automatically load in the system's RAM at the boot and get better performances.

First open the Regedit tool (Start Menu - Run - regedit.exe). By using the icons in the left panel, navigate to HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management (by clicking the + sign near each and expanding it).
In the right panel you can see the values assigned. Double click the DisablePagingExecutive to edit that field and change it to 1. Be sure to make the change in decimal.

This will make all drivers and kernel to run from system's memory.

You can also edit LargeSystemCache value and change it to 1 in decimal. This will improve kernel access time.

Then you can edit IOPageLockLimit field. Change it according to these rules:

- 4000 if you have 128 RAM or less
- 10000 if you have 256 RAM installed
- 40000 for more

This will change the number of bytes for input-output operations and will increase system performance.

2) Boot

To improve boot times edit the following value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters

Change this value from 3 to 5 in decimal. This will improove boot time with 5 to 20 seconds depending on your system's speed.

3) Shutdown

There are some tweaks that help your computer to shutdown faster.

• automatically end any task running Caution: this will disable any confirmations like "Do you want to save document X before closing?"

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop using Regedit and edit the AutoEndTask key. Set it to 1 in decimal.

• make the open applications close faster at shutdown

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and set the WaitToKillAppTimeout and HungAppTimeout keys to 1000. Make these two changes in the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop too.

• make any service close faster

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control and set the WaiToKillServiceTimeout to 1000.