Windows XP happens to be memory hungry when running several applications simultaneously. I being a Windows XP user was a bit impatient & decided to check windows registry for some memory tweaks. Viola! I found a memory management folder. Within no time I had a back up of registry and after some trial and error tweaks I could extract a significant amount of performance from my xp installation.

This is how to do it. Open the Run window (win logo +r) & type ‘regedit’. Next, navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management. On the right pane, find the key ’DisablePagingExecutive’ and set this value to ‘1’.Next find a key called ‘LargeSystemCache’, and change its value to ’1’.
Now right click and create a new DWORD called ’IOPageLockLimit’ and set it to a value of ‘40000’ if you have 512MB or more. If it’s under 512MB set it to ‘10000’. Remember that these should be HEX numbers.

Under Memory Management folder on the left, find a folder called PrefetchParameters. Click this and on the right pane find a key called ’EnablePrefetcher’. Set this value to ‘3’.In my case it was already set to 3.

After this tweaks Windows XP should be cruising. This tweak can be applied to Vista too.

‘DisablePagingExecutive’: This instructs Windows to keep programs in the memory for as long as possible before paging to the hard disk, resulting in quicker response if you have plenty of memory.

‘LargeSystemCache’: This instructs XP to load its kernel to memory, enabling it to run quicker. This tweak improves the system response

‘IOPageLockLimit’: This speeds up your disk cache.