Folder customization – Windows Me

Open My Computer, select View, then Folder Options. Here you can modify how your Windows desktop appears & how you can open folders/files. By default Windows Millennium Edition uses a slow, resource intensive method. You’ll want to change that of course. Select the General tab.

The settings pictured above will give you the fastest drawing of folders (as no web content is shown) & allows folders/programs/shortcuts, etc. to be opened with a single click of the mouse. You can change this to suit your own needs, but this is what I would recommend using.

Another item you might want to look into is replacing the Windows shell (explorer) with a shell replacement, such as Smartalec's Darkstep. This should only really be considered by more advanced users however.

Autoexec.bat & config.sys – Windows 9x

This is more intended for Windows 9x than Me as Me tends to screw around with the autoexec.bat & config.sys. The msdos.sys settings however will be covered in full in a different guide (Which will be posted soon).

Open the C:\ drive, select config.sys. Right click it, select Open with. Use Notepad to open it. Add the following line to the file (If you must add anything at all).

Stacks=0,0

You should remove all other lines in this file. This will increase available memory & the other lines are only required in DOS mode, not in Windows.

Next, right click on autoexec.bat & delete all the lines in there. This should be done along with the config.sys clearing out, & for the same reasons. Again they are only required if you use full DOS mode.

NOTE – If you are unsure make a backup of them in case you need to restore them at any point. Some lines (e.g. SBLive DOS emulation) will need to be REM’d instead of removed as they are recreated upon boot-up. Simply put a REM (blank space) in front of them.

General Enhancements

Right click on My Computer, select Properties. Select the Performance tab, then the File system button. Change the Typical role of this computer to Network server. For a more detailed (& possibly better) setting for this check the Registry tweaking guide.

Click the Floppy disk tab. Untick the box there. This can speed up the booting process.

Click the CD-ROM tab next. Move the slider bar all the way to the right, & select Quad-speed or higher for Optimise access pattern for. You can find more advanced CD\DVD-ROM tweaks in the CD\DVD tweaking guide.

Click Ok.

Select Graphics. Set Hardware acceleration to Full. Check the Voodoo3, Voodoo 4/5 & TNT\GeForce tweaking guides for video card specific tweaks.

Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel. Double click the Sounds applet. Find the Schemes option. Change this to No sounds. This will disable the sounds that Windows plays for certain events. This will improve performance. Once you’ve disabled the sounds, you can delete the contents of your C:\Windows\Media\ folder as the audio files will be needed no longer.

If you have Office 2000 (Or other Office 2000 application such as Word 2000) installed on your machine, be sure to run OTUNEUP.EXE, located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office (By default). This utility optimizes Office files on the hard drive & can improve system performance.

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