Speed Up Windows XP – Master Tutorial to Make Windows XP Super Fast

This tutorial is meant for increasing the performance of Windows XP, either its a fresh installation or an older one. After following this tutorial, you'll notice a major improvement in your system performance.
So without wasting time, lets start the tutorial:
1. First download registry script given in following topic which contains a few tweaks which are completely safe and can help you in increasing the performance of Windows XP. Just download the ZIP file, extract it and run the REG file:
Download Windows XP Registry Tweaks Collection
2. Now right-click on Desktop and select Properties. In Desktop Properties window, go to Appearance tab and click on Effects button. Now in the new opened window uncheck the following options:

• Use the following transition effect for menus & tooltips.
• Show shadows under menus.

3. Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Properties (or press <WIN> key + <Pause/Break> key), now go to Advanced tab in new window and click on Settings button in Performance section.
Now disable all unnecessary options in Visual Effects tab, you can remain following options enabled according to your requirements:

• Show window contents while dragging.
• Smooth edges of screen fonts.
• Use common tasks in folders (If you use the left side pane in My computer)
• Use drop shadows on icon labels on the desktop. (to make the desktop icons label transparent.)
• Use visual styles on windows and buttons. (If you use XP themes.)

4. Open Windows Explorer and click on Tools -> Folder Options. Now go to View tab:

Now uncheck following options:

• Automatically search for network folders & printers.
• Display file size information in folder tips.
• Display simple folder view in Explorer's Folders list.
• Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color.
• Show pop-up description for folder and desktop icons.
• Use simple file sharing.

Other options don't affect the system performance. You can enable/disable them according to your requirements.
5. Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Manage (You can also open it by typing services.msc in RUN and press Enter). Now go to Services & Applications -> Services. Here you can set a few unnecessary services to Manual, which will not start with windows and will decrease the boot time and will increase system performance. Please follow the following tutorial to know about which services can be safely set to MANUAL:
Windows XP Services Configuration: Turn Off / Disable Unnecessary Services to Optimize Performance
6. Type msconfig in RUN and press Enter. Now go to Startup tab and deselect the unnecessary entries, which you don't want to start automatically with Windows, e.g. you can disable VGA driver utility, Sound Card utility, etc to speed up the startup time and to increase system performance.
7. Open Sound & Audio Devices in Control Panel (or type mmsys.cpl in RUN), go to Sounds tab and select No Sounds in Sound Scheme section. Or you can remain some of your favorite sounds but set Exit Windows, Start Windows, Windows Logoff, Windows Logon to (None).
8. Also don't forget to:

• Install only necessary software
• Use the latest device drivers
• Keep your Windows up-to-date

After following all the above mentioned points, you'll definitely notice improvements in your Windows XP performance.