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The following is a list of XP tweaks that either do not work, do not work as advertised, or that are better left alone. Many of these once worked in some version of Windows and virtually every other tweak guide and program uses these tweaks.

Memory Optimizers

They claim “Increasing the amount of available RAM improves performance”. However, the only thing that these programs can do is harm real system performance.

Although gaining more available memory might seem beneficial, it isn’t. As RAM Optimizers force the available-memory counter up, they force other processes’ data and code out of memory. However, because virtual memory masks the layout of physical memory from processes, processes can’t directly benefit from having virtual memory backed by contiguous physical memory. As processes execute and undergo working-set trimming and growth, their virtual-memory-to-physical-memory mappings will become fragmented despite the availability of contiguous memory.

Prefetch Parameters

The Prefetcher component in Windows XP is part of the Memory Manager, and helps to shorten the amount of time it takes to start Windows and programs. You may want to disable this component for troubleshooting scenarios or in lab environments. The following list describes the different possible values for the Enable Prefetcher key.

0 = Disabled

1 = Application launch prefetching enabled

2 = Boot prefetching enabled

3 = Applaunch & Boot enabled

By default the Prefetcher is set to a Value of 3 in Windows XP. Values such as 4, 5, 6 etc. do not exist and are thus useless. The default value is already optimal for maximum performance.

L2 Cache Tweak

Many tweaks claim “Adjusting the SecondLevelDataCache Registry value to match your CPU’s L2 Cache size will improve performance”.

Actually Windows will use the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) for retrieval of the L2 cache size automatically on boot up. The HAL is able to retrieve the L2 cache size from any CPU using the set-associative cache design (Pentium II or newer).

Always Unload Dll’s

The first and most important point is, no evidence shows that this setting works in Windows 2000/XP. In fact, the official Microsoft technical documentation clearly and unequivocally states. For operating systems prior to Windows 2000, you can shorten the inactive period by adding the following information to the registry.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\AlwaysUnloadDll]

Windows 2000/XP uses a complex and efficient process to manage memory operations. It keeps the DLL loaded in case you need it again. If this tweak actually did work, you have hurt your overall performance because you unloaded a DLL when it didn’t need to be and caused the system to have to load it again when called upon.

Set Irq Priority

This “tweak” can be found in most XP all-in-one tweaking applications. This is a perfect example of why they are not recommended. Adjusting the Priority of IRQs especially IRQ 8 will improve system performance” -

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\PriorityControl]

“IRQ8Priority”=dword:00000001

However, IRQs don’t even HAVE a concept of “priority” in the NT family. The NT family of OSes doesn’t even use the real-time clock (IRQ for time keeping in the first place!

Large System Cache

Most tweaking applications think Enable Large System cache will increase I/O speed of the file system -

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management]

“LargeSystemCache”=dword:000000001

This setting is also achieved by going to Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced > Memory usage = System Cache.

Under XP this tweak could be of some value under various odd circumstances. However, it causes problems with many drivers/hardware/applications. This tweak is really designed for machines running as a server. If you use this tweak and have problems don’t be whining at the driver/application writers for writing code that takes advantage of the way XP uses memory. They didn’t ask you to turn your machine into a server.

I/O PageLockLimit

The tweak below are always considered as an effective way to boost your harddisk buffer.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management]

“IOPageLockLimit”=dword: somevalue

Indeed, it does absolutely nothing in Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 and up, and absolutely nothing in Windows XP.

FIFO Buffer

This is a new myth about tweaking Windows. It says that Increase the FIFO buffer can greatly boost your Windows system

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Serial]

“RxFIFO” = dword: &H10

It is real a fake, since the registry key “Serial” claims that it is only related with “Serial port”. How can “Serial port” work on the whole performance of Windows?

PageFile Size Setting

Note that the common myth about the pagefile being .1.5 x RAM. or some other multiple is quite clearly counterintuitive. Consider the situation where you only have 128MB of RAM: setting the maximum pagefile size to 1.5 x 128MB = 192MB + 128MB = 320MB of total available memory for Windows XP which is obviously not going to give you enough memory for modern games and applications. Remember, it is about how much total memory (RAM + Pagefile) that should be made available for Windows to operate efficiently.

Source: Optimizexp

Team Opera is working very hard on the next major upgrade.Opera v9 would also be using the new engine which has been the subject of a lot of speculation.Although nothing much is known about v9 at the moment, but more and more details are slowly emerging.Olafur Arnason aka Olli has revealed that the new version would have significantly improved standards support.It would support XSLT, a selected selection of CSS 3 selectors and WebForms 2 among others.The biggest improvement is support for Rich text editing.A part from that Opera v9 is expected to pass the Acid2 test.

Interestingly Opera has codenamed v9 as Merlin which is the name of a small falcon. Tim Altman has written an interesting article regarding the use of acronyms by Team Opera.You can read it here

Keep it up Opera :>>

Google is trying out a pilot program to alert site owners when they are removing their site for violating Google’s guidelines. JavaScript redirects are the first trial, but they have also sent a few emails about hidden text. This is targeted to sites that have good content, but may not be as savvy about what their SEO was doing or what their SEO software and sarch engine submitter was doing.

Source

As I had mentioned in my article 3 days ago,Opera became free from today.No more ads.As expected premium support won’t be available for the free version.If you want premium support then you need to register your browser for 29$.This would entitle you to recieve premium support for 1 year.If you want you can still buy Opera from here
I think this is a smart decision as it would increase the popularity of Opera manifolds.Many people would be wondering how would Opera be able to fund itself.It is well known that Mobile market is a major source of revenue for Opera.As far as I can see there are several other sources of revenue too.Some of them are
a)The search bar.Everytime someone searches in Google using Opera’s search toolbar Opera makes money.Recently they have revised their contract with Google.The extended contract with Google
includes a search revenue deal, marketing support and
technical cooperation. Opera expects this contract to
increase the revenue per user.
b) Opera is reselling slipstream.
c) You can still buy Opera for 29$ in order to get premium support.
d) I believe recently they have entered into a partnership with about.com.This may be a source of some revenue too.
e) The already have an partnership with Adobe.

During the first half of 2005, 30% of Opera`s desktop
revenue was generated by selling advertising displayed in the integrated ad banner, 25% by licensing sales and 45% by Google search and other affiliate partners. Users have had the option of removing the ad banner and receiving support for a fee of US$39.

Also people who have purchased Opera less than 30 days ago would probably get a refund.

Opera v8.50 has also been released.You can view the changelog here.The major changes in the browser itself are

• Security issue in Secunia Advisory 16645 has been fixed.

• Browser Javascript is now enabled by default

Also Opera has made a noticable improvement in ACID2 test.This version of Opera identifies itself as IE by default.Opera employee Tarquin commented on this matter that

As we demonstrated with the 8.10 preview, we are evaluating the possibility of a change to IDing as Opera by default. Obviously, we must do that without breaking Web sites for our users. We have a few methods at our disposal, mainly ua.ini and browserjs.
Obviously we have a lot of pride in our products, and we want to ID as ourselves, but doing so will break a few sites. We must make sure we have a solution to these problems before we can change to IDing as Opera by default, so that our users get a seamless experience.

Opera is probably going to identify itself as Opera in Merlin.

Opera is available for download here
Learn why Opera became free
Read Opera Software’s announcement on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
http://www.opera.com

Yes.A big announcement is expected from Opera on 20th of September, as a highly placed source put it.According to him Opera is going to become a Freeware. This is not the first time that this idea has been raised.Ealier when this was discussed Jax an Opera emplyee has commented that
“The desktop Opera is crucial to what we do (and profitable, incidentally), there is no benefit
in leaving it. We were not, are not, will not merely be a phone browser. Don’t worry about it,
no point in suggesting it either”.
This seemed to me a clear hint that Opera isn’t considering the possibility of becoming completely free on Desktop.Hence this information does come as a surprise to me.I can’t confirm it from anyone else.So,it may be totally wrong.But,I am keeping my fingers crossed.

#Updated on 18th Sept.

Yahoo is upgrading it’s web-mail interface and it has been made available to a lucky few beta testers.It is supposed to be much faster than any other existing web-mail services.

According to ZDnet Yahoo Mail is currently looking more like Outlook.Softpedia has hailed it as a Glimpse into the Future of Web E-Mail.However at the same time there is a major cause of concern for Opera users.This interface currently does not support Opera,allthough I have been told that it works fine with Firefox.

Here is the error message that appears in Opera

I think it is time for Opera to wake up.Only sticking to standards won’t do.With time the web would evolve and with that we shall see new and more complex technologies being used.If Opera has to stay in this competitive market then it would have to move ahead with time.I am afraid most users wont buy their explanation that “it doesnt follow the W3C standards”.Opera is progressing,but I am afraid not fast enough.For eg. more than a year ago Gmail was released.At that time Opera didn’t support Xhttp.But due to large no. of complaints and huge popularity of Gmail it was forced to add Xhttp support.However, it still doesn’t support Gmail completely (Rich text formatting),which is dissapointing.

When Opera had provided the oppertunity to chat with it’s CTO H?kon Wium Lie I had specifically asked him about this.His reply was

Gmail and other advanced applications are pushing the limits of what browsers can do. That’s great, and we will make sure we can run them. Also, we’ll work hard to make the applications run on mobile devices. Finally, we have to make sure the techniques are documented somewhere and WHAT WG is an effort to do so.

Another such example is the newly released Microsoft Vista website.Again my question is if Firefox can support it why not Opera?And no,this time it isn’t Microsoft sniffing Opera and sending it bad code as even editing the ua.ini file didn’t help.

It’s time for Opera to wake up.Till then we can only use some other browser to view these websites and hope that Opera keeps it’s promise so that soon we would be able to browse these sites on Opera also.

And in case you want to enroll yourself for beta testing you may do so here,but dont be too hopefull about getting an invite soon.

Thanks to AquaDex from Neowin for the image

Google has launched two new search features designed specifically for finding information about the hurricane’s aftermath more quickly. With the ongoing help of the American Red Cross, Microsoft, Yahoo and many other organizations,Google has indexed a large number of public Katrina databases, including KatrinaSafe.com.

The new Katrina People Search helps people to search across all of these databases at once to find information on friends or family who may have been affected by the hurricane.

We also built a special search index that only returns results from Katrina-related web pages, so you can search on any keyword and know all the results will be relevant.

Click here to go to Google’s Page devoted to Hurricane Katrina.

Source