This guide cover these areas:
How to boot up faster
How to shut down faster
How to maximize your battery life
All "tweaks" apply to Windows XP, some could work in Vista but focus here lies on XP.
First I should tell you where I am so far, and this guide will show how to get there:
1. Cold boot time: 24s just after reinstall of the NC10 with only a few registry tweaks + McAfee Removal.
Cold boot time with all my apps installed including MS Office etc: around 34s
2. Boot time from hibernation: 12s
3. Shut down time: approx. 5s (this is w/o hibernation)
4. Shut down using hibernation: 15s
5. Battery life internet use: approx. 7 hours 15 minutes (brightness 3-bars, Wifi on, browsing in Firefox continuously),
Battery life, video playback: approx. 5 hours 40 minutes (720p video playback using VLC), 3-bar brightness, volume just below 50%, Wifi off.
Battery life tested with Battery Eater Pro: 7 hours 36 minutes "Reader test" (file input: Battery Eater Pro's version history.txt)
Settings: Screen Auto-dimming: Off, Turn of monitor: Never, Turn of harddisk: Never, Sleep and Hibernate: Never of course. Brightness: 3 bars, Wifi on.
Many of the things go hand in hand so I will make a different step-by-step guide below depending on where/how to make the changes.
I will make this post sticky and keep it updated, both with my own suggestions but please write in the thread with your own tips and I will include them in the guide accordingly.
Partitioning the harddrive?
From a performance point of view? No, not recommended. You can keep the 6GB hidden partition, but then it's best to have everyting on one large partition C:
Partitioning has its advantages though. My opinion is however not to do it.
McAfee Antivirus Removal
First of all and this is the most important thing, remove McAfee Antivirus by using a tool that really removes everything, you may think you have removed everything but "Add/Remove Programs" doesn't do it. McAfee hides in the background taking up important system resources and generally slows your NC10 down.
The McAfee Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR.exe) can be found here!
(if the link stops working then just google for MCPR.exe)
BIOS
To get into the bios, shut down your machine.
After turning on the power, press the F2-key continuously (tap, tap, tap...) until you get into the BIOS.
There you should change two things:
1. Change the boot priority and make it bootsearch for the HD first.
2. Shut off the LAN (well, do not do this if you usually connect through a cable), but if you only use the Wifi - go ahead and do this.
Device manager
Like the other things these are just suggestions, you cannot really shut off the BT if you use it of course...
Go to Control Panel, then System and go to the Device Manager
One setting I have found works to have the NC10 draw less power is to disable the following:
Bluetooth
USB Host Controller 27C9
Startup
Run msconfig (Start - Run - msconfig and <enter>)
Go to the Startup-tab and only let the following programs run:
SynTPEnh
DMLoader
These you can allow to run, but they are not essential:
BatteryManager (if you want the screen to dim, all other settings can be changed within Windows)
PreMKBD (if you want the Fn-shortcuts at Fn+F7 + Fn+F8 to work, but these are not necessary)
Only these are more or less necessary but you may want to keep some stuff there. In my case I also have the
"TwoFingerScroll", "RocketLauncher", and "BattStatLauncher" (all are 3rd party apps)
If you really, really want - then keep your antivirus startup also but I would seriously recommend to remove that also. You can have an antivirus installed but I really don't see then need for having it running in the background all of the time. Depending on what antivirus you use please also note that the antivirus can have a service running and I would recommend shutting that down also and only run it once in a while when you need to check your downloads or programs for potential threats.
Page-file or no page-file?
Well here the are some different opinions. I would recommend not using it if you have 2GB of RAM.
To disable it and set it to 0, right click on My Computer and go to the
Advanced Tab, there you will find it under "Performance". Click "Setting" then choose - Advanced
- Virtual Memory - Change - No paging file. Then click "Set" and "Ok".
But if you do want to use it:
If you have 2GB RAM then you should set your page-file to 3057-3057MB (i.e fixed size) so that the page file does not resize all of the time.
If you have 1GB RAM then you should set the page-file to 1524-1524MB.
A general rule is to set the page file 1.5 times the amount of RAM and always set the page file to a fixed size.
You will find this setting if you right click on "My computer", "Properties", "Advanced", "Performance - Settings", "Advanced", "Virtual Memory". Change...
Custom size, set this to 3057 initial size and same for max: 3057.
Press "Set" then Ok.
Services
Like I said before, shut down the antivirus service and set it to "Manual" so you can start it when you need to. Letting an antivirus be running on your computer all of the time is not something I would recommend if you want better performance and max. battery life.
Now to what services to let run, these settings are quite kind, you can disable more of them, but check what they are used for first, these changes will however not change anything that you really need.
Use msconfig to change these, (you know the drill: Start - Run - msconfig and <enter>)
Goto the services tab and disable all, then sort them in alphabetical order and set the following:
DCOM Server Process Launcher
DHCP Client
DNS Client
Event Log
Network Connections
Network Location Awareness (NLA)
Plug and Play
Print Spooler
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Security Accounts Manager
Task Scheduler
Themes
Windows Audio
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
Windows Management Instrumentation
Wireless Zero Configuration
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
Windows Installer
If you use Windows update then you should also enable:
Automatic Updates
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
*phuh!* (please note that I do not allow the Bluetooth Service run, enable this if you use it).
(if you encounter problems with connecting to a network or other computers, then try enabling Workstation and Server services)
Registry
Open up the registry editor: (Start - Run - regedit <enter>
Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Change value for WaitToKillServiceTimeout from 20000 to: 1000
(this value has to do with how fast XP shuts down)
Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Change value for WaitToKillAppTimeout from 20000 to: 1000
Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Change value for ClearPageFileAtShutdown to: 0
Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Change value for MenuShowDelay from 400 to: 100
(Decimal-Value)
(this value changes how fast your start-button and menus respond, 100 is very fast, please fool around with this value to fit your liking, try like 200 instead)
Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Change value for AutoEndTasks from 0 to: 1
Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Change value for WaitToKillAppTimeout from 20000 to: 1000
Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Change value for HungAppTimeout from 5000 to: 1000
Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Change value for NoSaveSettings to: 1
(if the key isn't there - then create it, type: DWORD)
To disable balloon tips:
Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Create a new DWORD-value called "EnableBalloonTips" (without the quotes) and give it the value 0.
To disable Windows tool tips:
Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
and change the value for ShowInfoTip from 1 to: 0
Temp-files
Check them from time to time and delete them.
Start - Run - %tmp% <enter>
Clear that folder from files.
My computer settings
Right click on My computer, choose "Properties". Go to "Advanced"-tab.
Click on "Settings" under "System and Recovery".
Uncheck "Time to display list of operating systems"
Under "System failure", uncheck:
"Write an event to the system log"
"Send an administrative alert"
In the Advanced tab, click "Error reporting" and disable it, but keep "But notify me when critical error occur"
In the Properties for My Computer you will also find the "System Restore"-tab. Check "Turn off System Restore"
Open My Computer-"folder" or any other folder and select Tool - Folder Options - View. There you can uncheck
"Automatically search for network folders and printers" and Apply (this will make opening "My Computer" somewhat faster), also here you can do some other settings, for instance, I prefer to uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".
Hibernation
I have changed my mind here, nowadays I use it all the time.
If you want to use Hibernate then you can also create a Hibernate-button right along the Stand-by button in the Shutdown menu by using regedit:
Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\Shutdown
(if you do not find the System and Shutdown-folder here, do not worry, this can be normal.
Then you just create these "folders", i.e under "Windows" create a new key (subfolder) and under this "System" you create another key (subfolder) named "Shutdown" so that the tree looks like
Windows
System
Shutdown
Create a DWORD named ShowHibernateButton in "Shutdown" and set its value to: 1
Now check your shut-down menu
You can also put a short-cut on your desktop or anywhere else and point it to this:
%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll, SetSuspendState
This short-cut will put your NC10 in hibernation, right click the short-cut and make a short-cut key for it like Ctrl+Alt+H
Right click on the green battery in tray and choose "Adjust Power Properties". For one thing, here you can either disable or enable Hibernation and if you use it, here you can also change what keys and buttons enables it. You may want to enable Hibernate when you press Fn+Esc (instead of the default Standby) and you may want to make the actual powerbutton on your NC10 to make it hibernate instead of "Asking you what to do...".
My recommended settings:
When I close the lid of my portable computer: Hibernate
When I press the power button on my computer: Ask what to do
When I press the sleep button on my computer: Stand by
Silent Mode?
Press Fn+F8 and here you can change the setting to "Silent Mode", this means that the fan doesn't come on until the CPU reaches around 50 degrees Celsius. After setting this you can still go in to the Samsung Battery Manager and set the Customized scheme. This means that setting it to "Silent Mode" with Fn+F8 is not the same as setting the power scheme to "Max Battery Life" in the Samsung Battery Manager. Pressing Fn+F8 and changing to Silent Mode somehow changes the setting for when the fan starts.
