41. Do a Windows repair install

If you are having serious performance issues with your XP system, or are getting repeated crashes and/or error messages, it could well be a problem with Windows XP's system files. If one or more of these files has become corrupted, or if the hardware configuration of the computer has changed significantly since you first installed Windows XP, performing a repair install may well be the ticket to resolving your problems.

A repair installation re-writes all essential Windows XP system files and re-detects all hardware without affecting the registry, current desktop settings or user data stored on the hard drive. This is the only way short of a full installation that can recover from errors caused by installing a different motherboard in an XP system, for example.

To perform a repair installation:

Boot the system from your XP CD.

Choose the 'press enter to set up Windows XP now' option.

Press F8 to skip through the EULA (though if you haven't read it before, you should now. See our legal article for details as to why.

Now press R to begin a repair installation.

Your system will go through the entire XP install process, but will not attempt to replace any of your existing data. It will simply reinstall the vital system files, fixing any that are corrupted or missing.

42. Stop hard disks spinning down

By default, Windows XP spins down all hard drives after 20 minutes of inactivity to save power. This can cause significant delays when it is necessary to access the drives after this time. To increase performance and reduce wear and tear on your drives, disable this feature in Windows XP's power options.

Go to 'start/control panel/performance and maintenance/power options.'

Set the 'turn off hard disks' drop down box to 'never.' Click 'ok.'

43. Reduce recycling bin reserved space

By default, Windows XP reserves 10 percent of each hard drive to store deleted files in the recycling bin. This is a bit excessive. Actually it's a lot excessive, unless you habitually delete files a gigabyte in size or more. Fortunately, there is an easy way to reduce the amount of hard disk space that is reserved for the recycling bins on each drive.

Right click on the recycling bin and select 'properties.'

Choose the 'global' tab.

The slider shows the percentage of each drive that is reserved by the recycling bin. Reduce this to a more appropriate amount, like 2-3% or more depending on the size of your drives. The larger the drives, the smaller the number you should use. If you wish to configure each drive independently, check the 'configure drives independently' button and adjust the slider to the desired amount in each of your hard disk's tabs. The advantage to doing things this way instead of using the 'global' setting is that you can see the actual amount of space on each drive that is being reserved.

Note that files larger than the recycling bin's capacity on a given drive are deleted for good. Windows XP will warn you when this condition occurs.