This guide from forum regular John Smitthers [[email protected]], unedited.
Note: Before I begin note that most of these tweaks were gathered from around the WWW and I am *NOT* in any way shape or form taking credit for them. I am here simply to combine them together and explain how to get a speedy and stable Microsoft Windows Longhorn Alpha setup. Thx. Go out to AlphaAlien from HardwareGeeks, and Koroush Ghazi of Tweaktown for their wonderful guides (Excellent job you two!)
As many of you know a Windows Longhorn Alpha was leaked in September of 2002. Most people think because this was an Alpha release, that it is not a stable functioning microsoft standard. Out of the box Longhorn is not only unstable, but slow. In this guide I will attempt to teach you how you can make Longhorn your primary OS. IMHO Longhorn is even better than XP Pro, when tweaked enough!
Firstly it is important to obtain a bootable Longhorn Alpha. The original Longhorn Alpha is not able to be burnt and ran from CD, unless you follow the following tutorial, or similar Bootable Longhorn
Now it's extremely important to obtain the following files so that the Longhorn Alpha will be cracked permanantly and the timebomb will be removed. The second file is to fix IE 6, so that you can download files without Internet Explorer 6 crashing! So now it's your job to do your homework and get Longhorn_Activation_Crk.zip, and ie_fix.zip. Once you have these two files I would recommend that you A. Save them to floppy B. Email them as attachments to yourself. (Don't waste a CDR on small files, it's just stupid!)
Ok now you are ready to install Longhorn. Put the CD in your tray, reboot and do a fresh installation. Make sure to format your HDD with the NTFS Filesystem, as it has numerous advantages over FAT32, including bigger file size, more secure, better stabability etc.
Wait for Longhorn to do it's thing, and setup. Depending on your copy you may get multiple errors and/or a DOS window in the lower left hand corner of your screen (I did). Simply ignore these errors and continue with the installation of Longhorn.
Once you have a Longhorn system up and running install and *FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS* of the Longhorn_Activation_Crk.zip, and also TweakNT (Inside the zip folder...) After you reboot install ie_fix.zip NOTE: You may have to select the utility twice and/or restart IE 6 before the changes take effect.
Now it's time to actually start the tweaking process :O) NOTE: You do not have to do every tweak, but many of them will speed Longhorn up significantly.
Tweak #1 (Disabling unnesasary loaded system files)
- Firstly type the following into the IE adress bar without the quotes: "%windir%\inf\sysoc.inf"
- Now for every line that has the word HIDE in all captials, delete that word so that there will be the two comma's. It looks like this: Before-TabletPC=tabletoc.dll,TabletSetupProc,Tablet.inf,H IDE,7 After-TabletPC=tabletoc.dll,TabletSetupProc,Tablet.inf,, 7
Tweak #2 (Windows Components)
- Go to: Control Panel\Add or Remove Programs\Add\Remove Windows Components and uncheck the following:
Windows Future Storage Services, Windows Automatic Updates, TabletPC Components, and MyGames
- Uncheck whatever else you want, *BUT* Leave the blank entry as that contails *CORE* windows components that will screw up Longhorn if unchecked!
Tweak #3 (How your Desktop looks)
Go to Control Panel\System\Advanced and click on Performance Settings. Uncheck the following:
Animate Windows when minimizing and maximizing
Fade or slide menus into view
Fade or slide ToolTips into view
Fade out menu items after clicking
Show shadows under menus (imporant!)
Show window contents while dragging (also important)
Slide open combo boxes
Slide taskbar buttons
Smooth edges of screen fonts (last important one)
Smooth-scroll list boxes
NOTE: I also recommend going into Control Panel\Folder Options and in general click off what you don't want, and under the view tab uncheck what you don't want
Tweak #4 (Startup tweaking)
Click on your start menu, and then go to run. Type the following without the quotes "msconfig". Then click on the startup tab. Numerous startup items can be disabled here. Here are some that you can safely uncheck: IDW Logging Tool msmsgs nwiz NvCpl wizard winampa You may not have all these on your system, and actually you probably don't. More information can be found at Tech Spot
NOTE#1: I highly recommend you take a look at this guide if you are unfamiliar with startup items.
NOTE#2: By clicking on Start, Programs, and highlighting Startup, you can right click on any of the files contained in the Startup folder to stop them from starting up. This will *NOT* delete the program, so don't worry :O)
Tweak #5 (Speed Tweakage)
Ok firstly right click on My Computer, and select Properties. Click on the Remote tab and uncheck 'turn on remote assistance'. Now click on the Automatic Updates tab and uncheck 'keep my computer up to date...'. Now click on the System Restore tab, and check the box to disable System restore.
Tweak #6 (Disk Performance/Sharing)
Double click on My Computer and then right click on your C drive. Now Select properties. Uncheck the two check boxes on the bottom. They are both uneeded and can cause slowdowns, especially with lower speed HDD's. Now select the Sharing tab, and select do not share any drives.
Tweak #7 (Disabling Unnessasary Services)
NOTE: The following obtained from Koroush Ghazi's awesome tweaktown guide available here.
Firstly click on Start, Run, and then type "services.msc" without the quotes. To edit a service right click on it, and then select properties. From the dropdown box you can select what you need. Here are what you should select for the following:
Automatic:
Cryptographic Services
DHCP Client
DNS Client
Event Log
Plug and Play
Protected Storage
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
System Event Notification
Task Scheduler
Themes
Windows Audio
Windows Management Instrumentation
Windows Time
Disable:
Alerter
Automatic Updates (manually update using Internet Explorer>Tools>Windows Update)
Clipbook
Error Reporting Service
Fast User Switching Compatibility
Help and Support
Human Device Interface Access
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
Indexing Service
IPSEC Services
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Network DDE
Network DDE DSM
Performance Logs and Alerts
Portable Media Serial Number
Print Spooler (Set to Automatic if you have a printer installed)
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Routing and Remote Access
Secondary Logon
Security Accounts Manager
Smart Card
Smart Card Helper
System Restore Service
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Upload Manager
Volume Shadow Copy
WebClient
Wireless Zero Configuration
WMDM PMSP Service
WMI Performance Adapter
After all these tweaks you will see a remarkable difference in how longhorn performs. And if you don't A. Get better hardware B. Get 'better' software such as XP Pro SP1 (If you think it's better...)
I do not want credit for this guide, nor shall I take credit as it is others work that I have combined together. If you want to send email saying thanks, send one to Koroush Ghazi or AlphaAlien :O)
Note: Before I begin note that most of these tweaks were gathered from around the WWW and I am *NOT* in any way shape or form taking credit for them. I am here simply to combine them together and explain how to get a speedy and stable Microsoft Windows Longhorn Alpha setup. Thx. Go out to AlphaAlien from HardwareGeeks, and Koroush Ghazi of Tweaktown for their wonderful guides (Excellent job you two!)
As many of you know a Windows Longhorn Alpha was leaked in September of 2002. Most people think because this was an Alpha release, that it is not a stable functioning microsoft standard. Out of the box Longhorn is not only unstable, but slow. In this guide I will attempt to teach you how you can make Longhorn your primary OS. IMHO Longhorn is even better than XP Pro, when tweaked enough!
Firstly it is important to obtain a bootable Longhorn Alpha. The original Longhorn Alpha is not able to be burnt and ran from CD, unless you follow the following tutorial, or similar Bootable Longhorn
Now it's extremely important to obtain the following files so that the Longhorn Alpha will be cracked permanantly and the timebomb will be removed. The second file is to fix IE 6, so that you can download files without Internet Explorer 6 crashing! So now it's your job to do your homework and get Longhorn_Activation_Crk.zip, and ie_fix.zip. Once you have these two files I would recommend that you A. Save them to floppy B. Email them as attachments to yourself. (Don't waste a CDR on small files, it's just stupid!)
Ok now you are ready to install Longhorn. Put the CD in your tray, reboot and do a fresh installation. Make sure to format your HDD with the NTFS Filesystem, as it has numerous advantages over FAT32, including bigger file size, more secure, better stabability etc.
Wait for Longhorn to do it's thing, and setup. Depending on your copy you may get multiple errors and/or a DOS window in the lower left hand corner of your screen (I did). Simply ignore these errors and continue with the installation of Longhorn.
Once you have a Longhorn system up and running install and *FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS* of the Longhorn_Activation_Crk.zip, and also TweakNT (Inside the zip folder...) After you reboot install ie_fix.zip NOTE: You may have to select the utility twice and/or restart IE 6 before the changes take effect.
Now it's time to actually start the tweaking process :O) NOTE: You do not have to do every tweak, but many of them will speed Longhorn up significantly.
Tweak #1 (Disabling unnesasary loaded system files)
- Firstly type the following into the IE adress bar without the quotes: "%windir%\inf\sysoc.inf"
- Now for every line that has the word HIDE in all captials, delete that word so that there will be the two comma's. It looks like this: Before-TabletPC=tabletoc.dll,TabletSetupProc,Tablet.inf,H IDE,7 After-TabletPC=tabletoc.dll,TabletSetupProc,Tablet.inf,, 7
Tweak #2 (Windows Components)
- Go to: Control Panel\Add or Remove Programs\Add\Remove Windows Components and uncheck the following:
Windows Future Storage Services, Windows Automatic Updates, TabletPC Components, and MyGames
- Uncheck whatever else you want, *BUT* Leave the blank entry as that contails *CORE* windows components that will screw up Longhorn if unchecked!
Tweak #3 (How your Desktop looks)
Go to Control Panel\System\Advanced and click on Performance Settings. Uncheck the following:
Animate Windows when minimizing and maximizing
Fade or slide menus into view
Fade or slide ToolTips into view
Fade out menu items after clicking
Show shadows under menus (imporant!)
Show window contents while dragging (also important)
Slide open combo boxes
Slide taskbar buttons
Smooth edges of screen fonts (last important one)
Smooth-scroll list boxes
NOTE: I also recommend going into Control Panel\Folder Options and in general click off what you don't want, and under the view tab uncheck what you don't want
Tweak #4 (Startup tweaking)
Click on your start menu, and then go to run. Type the following without the quotes "msconfig". Then click on the startup tab. Numerous startup items can be disabled here. Here are some that you can safely uncheck: IDW Logging Tool msmsgs nwiz NvCpl wizard winampa You may not have all these on your system, and actually you probably don't. More information can be found at Tech Spot
NOTE#1: I highly recommend you take a look at this guide if you are unfamiliar with startup items.
NOTE#2: By clicking on Start, Programs, and highlighting Startup, you can right click on any of the files contained in the Startup folder to stop them from starting up. This will *NOT* delete the program, so don't worry :O)
Tweak #5 (Speed Tweakage)
Ok firstly right click on My Computer, and select Properties. Click on the Remote tab and uncheck 'turn on remote assistance'. Now click on the Automatic Updates tab and uncheck 'keep my computer up to date...'. Now click on the System Restore tab, and check the box to disable System restore.
Tweak #6 (Disk Performance/Sharing)
Double click on My Computer and then right click on your C drive. Now Select properties. Uncheck the two check boxes on the bottom. They are both uneeded and can cause slowdowns, especially with lower speed HDD's. Now select the Sharing tab, and select do not share any drives.
Tweak #7 (Disabling Unnessasary Services)
NOTE: The following obtained from Koroush Ghazi's awesome tweaktown guide available here.
Firstly click on Start, Run, and then type "services.msc" without the quotes. To edit a service right click on it, and then select properties. From the dropdown box you can select what you need. Here are what you should select for the following:
Automatic:
Cryptographic Services
DHCP Client
DNS Client
Event Log
Plug and Play
Protected Storage
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
System Event Notification
Task Scheduler
Themes
Windows Audio
Windows Management Instrumentation
Windows Time
Disable:
Alerter
Automatic Updates (manually update using Internet Explorer>Tools>Windows Update)
Clipbook
Error Reporting Service
Fast User Switching Compatibility
Help and Support
Human Device Interface Access
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
Indexing Service
IPSEC Services
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Network DDE
Network DDE DSM
Performance Logs and Alerts
Portable Media Serial Number
Print Spooler (Set to Automatic if you have a printer installed)
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Routing and Remote Access
Secondary Logon
Security Accounts Manager
Smart Card
Smart Card Helper
System Restore Service
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Upload Manager
Volume Shadow Copy
WebClient
Wireless Zero Configuration
WMDM PMSP Service
WMI Performance Adapter
After all these tweaks you will see a remarkable difference in how longhorn performs. And if you don't A. Get better hardware B. Get 'better' software such as XP Pro SP1 (If you think it's better...)
I do not want credit for this guide, nor shall I take credit as it is others work that I have combined together. If you want to send email saying thanks, send one to Koroush Ghazi or AlphaAlien :O)
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