may be some did knot know, if you right click my computer properties, advanced, preformance
and set from let windows decide,  to adjust for best preformance, on my test  render at  defualt  was 171 sec. after change was 63 sec.  note. you will lose your fancy windows  graphics.

What should I do if I have Windows ME?
What  should I do if I have Windows XP?
What should I do if I have Windows 2K?

Quote - What should I do if I have Windows ME?
What  should I do if I have Windows XP?
What should I do if I have Windows 2K?

xp -start menu->my computer--right click--properties--advanced--preformance--settings --adjust for best preformance

uh... what sort of  "fancy window graphics" will be lost?

And will anything get permanently changed -- anything that doesn't return when the setting is changed back again?

can we then change this back?
are there any chances that this will F... my computer up? 

Quote - can we then change this back?
are there any chances that this will F... my computer up? 

your windows will look like ,win98 style no fancy icons, and yes you can change back its just a display setting, its a very basic pref. change, not a big deal.here read about it, http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5034438.html

Quote - uh... what sort of  "fancy window graphics" will be lost?

And will anything get permanently changed -- anything that doesn't return when the setting is changed back again?

no and no, you can always change back

Just note that if you're running Vista, you don't want to disable 'Desktop Composition.'

Everything else is fair game, though you probably wont see a dramatic improvement in performance because Vista uses your GPU for all these effects, not your CPU. May help if you've got one of those clunky onboard Intel things of course.

so when doing a final render i just make ''adjust for best performance''. when the render is finished i go back and make it ''let windows choose''

right?

*go back and make it ''let windows choose''

right?*

right - b/c you most likely want to have your settings  returned back  to  the way they  were  - so  your windows displays , etc. look how they used to look.

( but there is no  harm in  NOT   changing the setting back)

anyone tested if its almost one times faster?

While we're on the subject  here is another *major *render speed up  trick  ( not so  much  a trick , really, just  a reminder.....)
before you  render - open your task manager and  sort your processes by memory usage...

look  at  the highest  memory using processes , ones that  are  NOT running by  command of  user = "system"

for the processes that are running by command of  user  "your local user name" you will probably  see Poser as the biggest memory user,  but then next biggest  you  will see stuff that might surprise you
Check  for processes  that your PC  has been  told  to  open  at start up but don't relly perform  any  real  up  front useful function for you-  if you don't  need these processes,  shut em  down!  if you look,  you  will find that under your local  user name,  you probably have a lot of memory being eaten by printer services.  if you  are not printing,  shut those svcs down!  they  will  start up  next time you  restart your PC ...also  stuff like :" I-tunes updater "  "Quicktime" functions  and  stuff  ...they start up  stealthily on our PC and are annoying culprits  that use up  memory without you realizing it. 

Your firewall and antivirus  are probably running under your local  username; obviously, don't shut those down ;-)

Santicor

Quote - may be some did knot know, if you right click my computer properties, advanced, preformance
and set from let windows decide,  to adjust for best preformance, on my test  render at  defualt  was 171 sec. after change was 63 sec.  note. you will lose your fancy windows  graphics.

something I did not realise, my first render time took into account loading of the textures, then I made the change to windows, the second render time was faster because the textures were loaded into memory, now my render test's are inconclusive,  so  I,am back to being a lurker.