Faster WinXP Booting!

2 articles on winxp bootup tweak

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1320&page=3
by :Colin Sun

Even though WindowsXP is a fairly fast OS, I often hear people complain about how long it takes to boot up. Not to worry though, there's a simple registry tweak that can dramatically speed up your WinXP boot times! [Ed: Also have a look at our 'Fast Boot Tips!' article for more tips on this subject]
Click the Start button then go to 'Run' and type in 'Regedit'. Now follow this string HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Control -> SessionManager -> MemoryManagement -> PrefetchParameters.
Once inside, find the Prefetch string and change the value from 3 to 5. Since the value's are so low, it doesn't matter if you're using Hexadecimal or Decimal.
With this little tweak, WindowsXP should load up between 5-10 seconds faster! 5 seconds doesn't sound like a lot of time, but when you're waiting for a computer to load, it can feel like an eternity! =)"

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=641
by : Keith McClellan

For example, adding the line stacks=0,0 to the config.sys file can significantly speed up a computer. However, the two files I really want to focus on here are system.ini and msdos.sys. Within system.ini, add the following lines under [386Enh]:
LocalLoadHigh=1 - This setting tells the computer to load everything the operating system needs into upper memory by default, freeing up as much conventional memory as possible (the first 640K). Microsoft would like us to believe that this no longer effects the system, but they are lying.
DMABufferSize=64 - This setting tells the computer to leave as much memory available for DMA data transfers as possible, speeding up not only the boot process but the system in general.
There are some even more exciting settings available within the msdos.sys file for optimizing the boot process. Before you can modify the msdos.sys file (which is a hidden file, by the way, so you'll have to set Windows to show hidden files from within Windows Explorer), you will need to remove its read-only attribute. To do this, right click on the file, enter its properties menu, and uncheck read-only. Now that you've done that, open the file in notepad and add the following lines:
Logo=0 - This setting turns off the silly Windows splash screen during startup. Disabling this will shave a few seconds off your boot time.
Drvspace=0 - This setting turns off support for Drivespace-compressed FAT16 drives. Since no one uses this anymore, it is safe to disable. Disabling it will not only speed up your boot time, but it will also free up some extra resources as well
Dblspace=0 - Same as above, but this time for Doublespace-compressed FAT16 drives.
DisableLog=1 - This setting disables the log file which Windows creates by default when booting up. Disabling this will shave a few seconds off your boot time, and since no one ever uses the log file for anything anyway, it won't be missed.
AutoScan=0 - This line disables the automatic scandisk that is run if the computer is improperly shutdown - saving a bunch of time if you are constantly restarting your computer using the power button instead of the 'correct' way. Sadly, however, this doesn't appear to work with Windows Me.
Applying these tweaks should dramatically decrease the amount of time it takes for your computer to start up or reboot. Hopefully, these tweaks will help your computer boot up faster, and give you a slight performance boost as well.