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General Tweaks For Windows 98/ME BIOS
I have an Abit BF6 motherboard, which is very configurable. To get to the
bios, press the DEL key while booting up. Some of these settings may not be
available in your bios menu. These are my key settings, and have helped improve
my system performance considerably.
soft menu III
CPU operating frequency- user define
CPU FSB clock (MHZ)-75 (this, and the value below, give processor speed. Mine
is 562.5mhz. Be VERY careful with these settings, as going too high can disable
your motherboard, albeit temporarily, requiring you to reset the dip switches on
the board itself. This is very fiddly, and quite risky. I recommend you use SoftFSB to see what
your system will tolerate, before adjusting these particular bios setting,.)
CPU Multiplier Factor-7.5
Sel100/66#-Low
AGP clock/CPU fsb clock 1\1
In order queue depth 8
Level 2 cache latency 1 (speeds up processor tasks. Although my bios said it
had altered the latency to 1, using CPU-z showed the latency actually running at 5.
I used WCPUL2
to adjust it and it now runs at a latency of 1)
Advanced Bios
Quick Power on Self Test enabled (Stops the system checking memory etc before
starting. This setting alone saves a huge amount of boot time)
virus warning disabled (MY choice, simply to get faster boot time. I can't
recommend doing this, although my personal feeling is the biggest computer
viruses around are those sold to us as virus checkers, on the back of public
fear of malice.)
CPU Level 1 cache enabled (ensures the small, fast cache memory inside or
close to the CPU chip works.)
cpu level 2 cache enabled (ensures the second level cache", a larger, slower
cache between the primary cache and main memory works.)
cpu level 2 ecc checking disabled (stops the cache and therefore the
processor checking every action for errors. Can speed things up considerably,
but if you start getting odd error messages disable it
video bios shadow enabled
other shadows disabled
1st boot HDD-0
Report no fdd for win95 disabled
swap floppy drive disabled
boot up floppy seek disabled
delay IDE 0
Chipset Features
Sdram ras-to-cas delay 2
Sdram ras precharge time 2
sdram cas latency time 2
sdrm precharge control enabled
dram data integrity mode non-ecc
system bios cacheable enabled
video bios cacheable enabled
video ram cacheable
8 bit IO recovery time 1
16 bit IO recovery time 1
memory hole at 15m-16m disabled
delayed transaction disabled
AGP aperture size(MB) 64
passive release enabled
sdram leadoff command enabled
PNP/PCI configurations
PNP OS installed enabled
force update escd disabled
Intergrated Peripherals
USB Keyboard support disabled
Power Management
Disable all settings
Memory
Your system has two different types of working memory. The first is your *RAM
(very fast) and the second is the *swap file (virtual memory) on your hard drive
(not fast, only as fast as your hard drive can read and write) The obvious thing
to consider is to use RAM as much as possible, and swap file as efficiently as
possible. Here's how: 1. Right click on 'My Computer' and click 'properties'
from the menu. Select the performance tab and then the virtual memory button.
Select the 'let me specify my own virtual memory settings'. If you have more
than one hard drive, choose the fastest one. Then tell windows how much virtual
memory you want. It should be about twice the size of the amount of RAM you
have. Press OK and then OK on the warning. The computer will then tell you to
reboot. Do so, and you should find your system is a little faster, and will
defragment less over time. 2. If you have 128mb or more of RAM, you can ask
windows to use virtual memory sparingly., and therefore RAM more efficiently.
Press 'Start' and then 'Run' . Type 'sysedit' in the white box. You will see
five files cascaded together. Click on system.ini and scroll down to '386enh' .
Under this write 'ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1' , and save. (N.B. it always a
VERY good idea to back up any files, before you change them.
There is a very good utility called cacheman
which can optimise how windows uses it's memory. It's worth using PerformanceTest as a ready
reckoner, to fiddle with the settings in this, until you find your optimum
point.
Another good utility is Rambooster which manages
(surprisingly) your RAM for you. Some swear by this type of manager, but as it
frees up (fast) RAM memory and makes the system use slower swap file memory, it
may be worth seeing how you get on. If you set it so it only runs when ram
becomes very low, you are unlikely to `dangerously low on resources' warnings as
it makes Ram buffer before all the resources are used up.
If you want to manage your swap file really effectively, you can create a
partition for it. This way, Windows treats it as having a physical wall between
the virtual memory and other files. Less defragmentation of both the virtual
memory and programs is the result. I used The Partition Resizer which is small
as easy to use as Partition
Magic, I think and is free. Read the instructions very , very carefully.
Create a partition the size of your virtual memory, and once created, place the
virtual memory in the new partition. This will stop it defragmenting, and will
minimise fragmenting other partitions of the hard drive. Right click on 'My
Computer' and click 'properties' from the menu. Select the performance tab and
then the virtual memory button. Select the 'let me specify my own virtual memory
settings'. Choose the new partition,, and set it to just below the size of your
new partition. (If you set it to the same size, it will have no room to read and
write data, and Windows will revert to the default.
Right click on my computer, go to device manager, and select properties for
each of your drives. Ensure DMA access is checked. This writes direct to memory,
and speeds things up overall. My system recently became sluggish, and running
'PerformanceTest', found I'd lost 8% in overall performance, and 60% disk access
performance. I checked to see if DMA had been disabled, and it had. Ticking
those DMA boxes make a big difference!
Right click on my computer, go to properties, select file system, and select
removable drives. Tick the box to enable write behind caching. Useful for zips,
LS120s etc.
Tweak Programs
Tweakui The ubiquitous
teak program that everyone ought to have in their control panel.
X-Setup is also very good
indeed The puppies privates ! It is exceptionally well laid out, and will warn
you if you are about to do anything in the least risky. Highly recommended. It
does rely on Msdos.sys to be present for start up tweaks, so use it before the
winboot trick or recreate msdos.sys by creating a text document, naming it
Msdos.sys, and pasting the contents of winboot.ini to it. After Xteq have
tweaked, you can move the info back to winboot.ini, and dispose of msdos.sys as
before.
Compression
It is always handy to compress data in order to maximise storage. Most of the
files downloaded are compressed, in order to make them smaller and safer to
download. It also means you can put a lot of files in one download package. The
most popular compression tool is Winzip, currently on version 8. However, I
have found that winrar
compresses files more effectively, and is easier to use. It supports drag and
drop, so you are able to add and delete files to compressed folders very easily.
Both are evaluation programs, but are quite cheap to purchase.
Most of the software described here is free. However, a notable exception has
to be Neolite This remarkable
program compresses your applications and executables, so not only do they take
up less space on your hard drive, but load into memory much quicker. It really
is like having extra RAM or a faster processor. The full version is quite
expensive, but you can get a trial version for free. I have used it on various
system files, like Explorer.exe. I couldn't do this directly, but made a copy of
Explore.exe .
I made another (uncompressed) copy of explorer.exe and put it on a floppy. I
compressed the first copy, choosing to compress non-ordinal Table data under the
miscellaneous and to the maximum. I found without doing this explorer couldn't
communicate with other files properly. I also asked it not preserve extra data.
I made another (uncompressed) copy of explorer.exe and put it somewhere safe,
on a floppy. I then moved the modifed explorer to the root of C: (in C: ,but not
in any subfolders) I then booted to command prompt. (by pressing F8 during the
boot process and selecting 5)
I then typed 'move explorer.exe c:\windows' (without the quotes) The computer
asked me if it was O.K to overwrite the original. I chose yes, confident I had a
back-up safe on floppy, and re-booted Windows. Explorer is now half the size,
and actually appears to be more stable. I do not remember the last time I had a
fault with it. (Famous last words) Because it is almost half the original size,
it starts quicker and because I disposed of extra data, it appears to operate
smoother, without taking up too much memory. This has also worked with Internet
Explorer files, including MSHTML.DLL. I know it has worked for me, but I had a
lot of trouble learning the optimum settings.
It may also vary from system to system, though I don't know why it would. Try
it and see by all means, but beware of the risks, and ensure a safe backup of
files. Lotus Smartsuite absolutely flies with it.
A little known optimisation tool that is native to Windows is Walign. It is
very fiddly to use, but does align your applications to open in memory more
efficiently. Because it is so user unfriendly Winmag have introduced a smal file
to use it more easily, called wmalign. Having used
it, I can say it really speeds things up, but back up the directory first (I use
the storage mode in winrar) However, they helpfully include an 'unalign' option
to restore files, as it can corrupt files. Winmag explain things far more
eloquently than I can here, so take a look at the the link.
Another tool that does something similar is speedload, which corrects
installation integration problems, and therefore decreases execution times.
You would think your computer would be able to keep time at least as well as
your wristwatch. It can't, and can be losing several seconds a day. Clockalign puts this
right by correcting your system time by timebases across the internet.
Internet
IE5.5 does store frequently visited pages to load faster, but for a faster
cache utility download Netsonic and
install it. You will find surfing at regular sites will gradually become a lot
faster.
Open a shortcut to Internet Explorer, right click on it ,and write -nohome at
the end of the target line. Ensure there is a space between the last quotation
mark and the dash in -nohome. This will open IE much faster, as it doesn't look
for a default home address. Even `about blank' is a default page, and windows
still looks for it.
To make the most of your connection download use easymtu or one of the other
connection tweakers if you like. Over time, I don't think they've made any
difference to the speed of my connection, but you may have more luck. For more
detail go to Axcel216.
If your modem squeals when you dial out, try this. Go to control panel and
click on modems and then properties, then the connection tab. Click on advanced,
and in the extra settings box type m0. If you want make sure your modem dials as
fast as possible, type s11=30 in the same place.
Go to port settings and make sure each slider is set to high. Then go to
dial-up networking and right click on your dialup connection icon. Click the
server types tab and tick only 'enable software compression' and 'tcp/ip'.
Everything else should be unticked. Ensure your password is set to be
remembered, and go to 'connection', then 'settings' on the dial-up networking
window, and untick 'prompt for information before dialling' and show a
confirmation dialogue after connected'.
You can also set to redial here, but using something like Phorever might be better, as it
will automatically reconnect you as well. If you have problems with your dial
out password (This is often unsolvable.), you could use another dial out like Kiss
Dialer which, after setting up, sits in the system tray. And one click will
connect you.
Fastnet '99
will remember all the DNS settings for all you favourite sites. A DNS is like an
address for the site. Allegorically speaking, what normally happens is your
browser looks up and down the street, winds its window down and asks directions,
knocks on a few doors, and finally gets where it wants. Fastnet '99 gives it a
map and house number. It really seems very effective on my system.
This produces a 'host' file, and you can use this to minimise the amount of
ads you endure while surfing. This will speed page download times, and where the
ad was, you'll just have a box with a page error in it.Go here copy and
paste the 127.0.0.1 addresses (you'll see what I mean there), then open
c:\windowshosts (no extension) with notepad and paste them in and save.
Subsequently, right click on any ad banners that evade this list, and copy the
first part of the address (the part that says www.ad.com or whatever.)into the
host file, with the prefix 127.0.0.1. Bear in mind, however, that pages like this
are only possible through ad revenue, so please click the banner at the top to
keep 50megs.com free for persons such as me and you!
Another browser enhancer is Netsetter which works by caching and
compressing data.
An indispensable item in your internet toolkit has to be a download manager,
to obtain all this kit I'm recommending. Window's own downloader is poor
compared to what is available.
download
accelerator plus which is solid. Another one is gozilla but this occasionally crashed on my
system, and I believe it surreptitiously retrieves data for marketing purposes,
which isn't at all obvious, and you may find that unattractive.
Start Menu
When you think about it, the start menu is a pain. Click on start, move
cursor up to programs, move across to Lotus, then down to Word Pro, and click on
it, all to write a letter. You can have shortcuts on the desktop, but they look
messy, when you have more than a few it can be difficult to find what you want,
and they can significantly slow down boot time. Here's my solution:
Right click on desktop, and go down to 'new' and select folder. Name it
'Shortcuts' . Open 'C' in 'my computer', and then Windows, and then 'start menu'
Open 'Programs' and select right click on each program in turn and select
'move'. Move them to the 'shortcuts' folder you created. (N.B., move the program
shortcuts i.e. word pro, rather than the folder shortcuts, i.e. lotus
smartsuite.) Once you have emptied the folders, you can delete them. Once you
have moved all the shortcuts in to the new folder, move it to the C drive, and
the create a shortcut of the folder on the desk top. This enables you to change
the icon. Right-click on the folder shortcut and select properties. Press
'change icon' and select one of the ones offered, or browse for another one. The
n drag it on to the task bar, nest to the 'Show Desktop' icon. All your
favourite program shortcuts are now just one click away.
Sometimes, Windows doesn't allow right clicks on the start bar. If this the
case, follow these steps:
Right click on the desktop, and select 'new' then 'new folder.
Open My computer, then your C: drive, then the windows folder.
In here is a folder called start menu. In here there is a folder called
programs, and each of your programs has a shortcut in here.
Click and hold on an icon you want easy access to, then drag to your newly
created folder.
When done rename your folder something easy like shortcuts.
Registry
The registry consists of the files where your system remembers what it is and
what it is supposed to be doing. As such it is very valuable to your system. If
you have disabled scanreg as described in the start-up tweaks section, it is a
good idea to run it from the run command on the start menu from time to time
(just type 'scanreg' without the quotes and press return). This will check your
registry for errors and offer to back it up. Choose yes. This will give you some
insurance if you need it. You can choose to restore the registry by going into
Dos (F8 while the system starts, choose 'command prompt' and typing scanreg) it
will offer a range of dates of backups. Choose the one nearest to the date
before you had your problem.
Over time the registry becomes very cluttered and often erroneous. It will
often work around little errors, but this of course takes time, and over time
impairs performance. One program which cleans out the registry effectively is ToniArt's EasyClean.
This will also chuck out unnecessary files such *.bak, *.tmp, *.old etc. and is
very customisable.
Another good cleaner, which will do an automatic clean as well as manual
selection is regcleaner.
The third one in my registry auto clean armoury is OLE Clean which gives
you registry a thorough scrub.
Because each of these use slightly different methods to get at and clean your
registry, one picks up what the others miss. So it's a good idea to use more
than one cleaner, especially as they are all free!
A tool that does the same job as Registry Compressor pro is Regcompact which, as you may
have gathered, shrinks your registry, and in the process makes it more
efficient. It is shareware, but nag free.
My last link here is registrar lite. The
best thing about this is it's automatic search and replace option. I like to
keep my program files on a separate partition to windows, so if Windows went
belly up, my programs and data would be safe. Before finding this gem, it took
literally hours to replace all the items in the registry called c:\prog with
D:prog this does it automatically for you and in seconds. This is free. It does
have a nag screen but only when you exit and for the huge advantages you can
live with that, can't you?
Privacy
Cookies. Junkbusters describe
them thus
"Imagine that your remote control informed stations the second you
switched to them, and that they could sell this information to their advertisers
to help them decide what junk mail to send you.
Would you want to be pushing buttons on a remote that could tell an insurance
company to phone you while you're watching a program about financial planning?
Well, your mouse and browser are now giving them exactly that power, except that
instead of just the channel number, they are getting the exact URLs of the Web
pages you look at.
We want you to know how they can identify you individually and how you can
protect your identity from being discovered and sold. Don't let them use your
browser as a tool of surveillance."
Some sites need cookies, to remember who you are from when you last visited.
This appears to be their only legitimate use. Fortunately, you can do some
things abouut it. Visit junkbusters, and follow their advice. You can also
download cookie muncher, which
eats cookies as they appear on your system. You can mark some cookies as
read-only with it, to protect your Hotmail Egg card or Tesco account.
Doing a quick scan of my cookies folder in windows, and my temporary internet
folder munched 4811 cookies!
While we are on the subject of Internet security, zone alarm is a personal 'firewall' that
will protect you. Steve Gibson's excellent tutorial on making you system safer
is at Shields UP.
Other Tweaks
If you have a PS/2 mouse, get
ps2rate plus. This makes your mouse use much smoother and more accurate.
Use 16bit colours and no background on desktop. This uses less resources, and
helps boot up time. Unless you are a graphic designer or a golden eagle, you
probably won't notice any difference between 16bit and 32bit colour (btw, that
is the correct spelling for colour. Colour is prononced culerr, hence the U.
Without it, it becomes Culorr. Very silly. Yes I am a pedant.)
Visit 98 lite. This stops
the narcissistic embrace of windows explorer and Internet explorer. My system
seems smoother since installing it, and I have had NO error messages since. (I
was getting them several times a day before) A step further would be to use IE Off
which turns off all the features that can make windows 98 drag it's feet. It
also turn off the task bar.
*CAREFUL* If you want run you CPU to the maximum it will stand, get SoftFSB. It starts
automatically with windows, and runs my processor 12% faster. I have not been
able to persuade my motherboard to run my processor any faster than the standard
500mhz, but I can with this program. It doesn't recognise my motherboard (A BF6
ABIT) but sets it as a BE6, and runs the processor at 564mhz. (I have since
found out how to set the dipswitches on the motherboard, so this is now set in
BIOS) If you set your processor too high, there is a very small chance it will
burn out. What is more likely to happen is that your system will freeze, and you
will have to turn it off and disconnect the power to reset it. Great care is
needed but the benefits are evident.
Have a look around here Tweak3d to see if there is anything that will
help run your graphics card faster. I have a Voodoo 3 2000 which has a default
refresh speed of 143mhz. It will run at 175mhz on my system with this
overclocker. Of course this speeds up how fast your graphics card can
present you with graphics, and so speeds up everything from the boot process
onward.
Ensure you have the latest drivers available for the devices on your systems.
You can go to the web site of each device, or winfiles, or you can use CNET Catch-up which will not only direct
you to the latest drivers for your system but also the latest versions of
software you may have.
Send To...
If you right click on any file or application icon, you will see one of the
options here is to 'send to' somewhere else on the computer. This only makes a
copy of it, and doesn't move it, and the choice of destinations is very brief.
There are a couple of things you can do about this. One is to download the send to
powertoy, which will allow you to send files anywhere you want on your
system, and gives you the choice of whether you to copy or move them there. The
other is to go to your windows folder on your C: drive, open the 'send to' menu,
and place shorcuts to your destination(s) . You can put a shortcut to your
printer in here, and it will allow you to print multiple files, (hold down the
mouse button and drag around files, or hold down the control key and click on
each file you want to select.), without having to open each of them in turn, and
selecting 'print' from a drop down menu.
There you have it. With these tweaks as a taster, you can actually start
using Windows 98 to its full potential.
I have to repeat all these tweaks carry an element of risk to them. This is
your risk entirely. I have tried no end of tweaks, and have found that the
tweaks and programs laid out here have tweaked my system most efficiently but
your mileage may, as they say, vary.
Web Page
This web page was built using Lotus Word Pro 97 (free off the front of a
magazine. It is incredible that companies charging hundreds of pounds for a
product will quite happily give it away in the hope that you will upgrade to the
new version. Sometimes, staying a step behind is a very good idea.) and Max's Html Beauty++ ME
Updates
I will on occasions update this site. Two links worthy of noting are Madotate,
which folds windows into a 3D perspective so you can keep them in view and have
space back on your desktop. It is difficult to describe, but I have never seen
anything quite like it. The linked site will probably ask you if you want
download Japanese language support, but there is no need as it carries an
English translation. I have been asked about dual processing support in Win98.
Sorry, but it just isn't possible as far as I know. Motherboard Monitor 5 does supply all the
info you need as far as you computer's CPU(s), monitor and motherboard are
concerned.
My System
500mhz Celeron Processor clocked to 562.5mhz
128MB RAM
Voodoo 3 2000 video card clocked to 170mhz
6.3gb Hard Disk
LS120 Super Floppy
BACK TO Optimise 98SE to ME
ON TO Vinyl to MP3
