Just got my new laptop; 1.8gHz windows XP, 512 meg I can't believe how much faster this is than my old laptop! This is going to put a lot more fun into my Brycing!

congrats! I read in some magazine (PC World I think) that the service pack 1 for XP was really affecting the performance and that there was a fix from Microsoft, (somewhere?). I have a dual boot system with ME and XP, and I've noticed that the XP side really eats up the ram with hardly any programs running. Anyone have any info?

XP is a memory hog, but I think there's a memory-manager build in. You can set programs priority in terms of using system resources. Realtime mode gives the best performance, but slows everything else down to shit. I hope I remembered this the right way. I don't use XP.

PC mag had an article on how to keep xp from hogging so much ram. I haven't had the chance to look at yet, though I did save the link to somewhere. When I find out, I'll let you know (something about changing things to be more like win 2000...)

Attached Link: http://www.blackviper.com

you might look at www.blackviper.com, he has a list on how to configure XP .. what things aren't needed that get loaded, what can be set to manual instead of auto and the like. He has a downloadable PDF file on the hows and whats of it. He hasn't uploaded the latest yet (24 may) but should. I am using the former version and haven't had any troubles.

Thanks for the link, unclebob. When I see all those services and processess, I just get dizzy. This will be a great help.

Set your desktop to Windows Classic Mode as opposed to XP mode. Turn off Windows Transparency. Set your desktop to "Best Performance" as opposed to "Best Appearance", by right-clickong My Computer and selecting the "Advanced" tab. And definitely, definitely go out and get yourself Tweak-XP (found at http://www.totalidea.com). It has a built-in RAM defragmenter and all kinds of tweaks. I've got two XP Home boxes and won't even consider running XP without it.

Nukeboy, XP takes 128 meg for it's own use even so but all I've done is set for best performance and it's passable - I read from a winXPnews newsletter that if you turn off the indexing service it may speed up the performance but so far I haven't done that

here's a link to winXPnews. If you try that let me know if it works. - TJ

I loved Tweak UI for 98, so thanks Cick for the link for Tweak XP! The novelty of the XP UI has just about worn off, so I do intend to kill it. On the other hand, I like the transparent icon names; I ran a program called "Transparent" on my '98 machine that used a whopping 2k. Will it work on XP? Is there a replacement? Currently, XP seems to be using a little over 200meg even after shutting everything that blackviper recommends, including indexing and COM+ I know I have to delve deeper, the nice thing that I seem to be hearing is that XP is much more forgiving than other WIN platforms when it comes to tweaking and recovery. I can't tell you how many times I had to reinstall 95 & 98 after making a "minor" adjustment. Now, if any of you incredibly intelligent folks can tell me how to have Explorer display the extensions of associated files, I'd be forever in your debt (or at least send an international money order for the price of a glass of Scotch)!

In Explorer/tools/file options/view uncheck hide file extensions for known file types and check Apply to all folders? Been a long time since I conigured my folder options - you might try it anyway.

Doh! I had looked at there a hundred times and never saw the check box. I knew it had to be there, but I just didn't see it until about an hour after I posted the message. I think I need more sleep, more coffee or more Scotch... not sure which. :-) Thanks again!

Have some coffee to wake up enough to enjoy the Scotch! ;-)

I like a sound plan of action!