Turning off the 'eye candy' in Windows XP

I often will use these to save system resources and increase performance on my XP machines. In cases where you are running low on system RAM or Processing Speed, you can use these steps to improve performance.

Windows XP needs an entire list of items enabled/disabled in order to cut away all the eye candy, improve long and short term reliability, and increase performance. Some of these may also work in Windows Vista.

Special thanks go out to JD Hurst, Admin of Thinkpads.com Support Forum for compiling this list.

• Make sure the system is running NTFS
• Ensure US language, US English, US Keyboard
  
• Lock Taskbar
• Do not auto hide
• Keep taskbar on top
• Show quick launch
• Do not hide inactive icons
• Classic Start Menu
• Display Run
• Display Admin tools (not for everyone)
• Expand Control Panel
• Expand Network Connections (ease of use)
• Show small icons
• Do not use personalized menus
• Display logoff
• Slow down mouse double-click
• Speed up mouse movement
• Make trackpoint more sensitive (not Windows)
• Enhanced pointer precision
• Auto move to default dialogue
• Disable ultra-nav (not Windows)
• Disable Fast User switching
• Disable Welcome screen
• Create strong passwords
• Set for maximum performance (zero eye candy)
• Then set on Smooth Screen fonts and Common tasks
• Reduce amount of disk for system restore
• Turn off auto updates - Notify if updates are available
• Disable remote invitations being sent
• Windows Classic Theme
• Disable desktop cleanup wizard
• Set Clear Type
• Set sounds for Default Beep and Email Notify to Windows 2000
• Turn off sound for Start Navigation
• Disable Search for network Files and Printers
• Turn off Simple Folder View
• Turn off Simple File Sharing
• Display full path in Address
• Display full path in Title
• Don't hide extensions
• Remember folder settings
• Show Control Panel in My Computer
• Disable Offline Files
• View Details (instead of Icons)
• Add Delete, Cut, Copy, Paste to Explorer menu bar
• Add status bar to bottom of Explorer Window
• Show NIC icon when connected
• Restrict IE Temp files to 70Mb or less
• Disable auto connection
• Disable script debugging
• Disable personalized menus

Windows 2000 Interface
Some of this can be done directly in the System Control Panel. Under the "Advanced" tab, click the Settings button under Performance. This will open up "Performance Options." Click on "Adjust for best performance" then click Apply and OK. This will change XP's Interface back to the Windows 2000. This works in Windows Vista!

Windows 2000 Start Menu
You can revert the Start Menu to the Windows 2000 Style by opening the "Taskbar and Start Menu" control panel. On this page, click on the "Start menu" tab and select "Classic Start menu" followed by Apply and OK. This will revert the Start menu to the Windows 2000 style which includes the items "Settings" and "Programs," similar to the Windows 9x - 2K interface.

From these control panels, you can also enable/disable other items in the list above.