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Windows Tip: Faster PC Identity

Trick your Windows 95/98 system into going faster.

By Kate Botello October 17, 2001

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Did you know that your computer can go faster if you tell it it's a different type of machine?

By default in Windows 95/98, memory is defined by the role your computer plays. When your machine is defined as a desktop computer, it sets aside memory for the 32 most recently accessed folders and 677 most recently accessed files. This takes up about 10KB of memory.

You can trick your machine into remembering more files and folders by telling your PC that it's a network server. When you're a network server, lucky you: Memory will retain the 64 most recently opened folders and 2,729 most recently accessed files!

That's a pretty big difference. The only downside is that this setting eats an additional 30KB of memory, but it only makes the total about 40KB. In the big picture, that's not much.

To convince your desktop computer that it's a network server, follow these steps:

Right-click on My Computer. Choose Properties. Click the Performance tab. Choose the File System button. Choose Network Server in the drop-down menu under "Typical role of this computer." Close and reboot.

If you're running Windows 95 or 95a, you won't be able to do this manually. However, thanks to our friends at Speed Guide, you can download a patch to fix it. Thanks to Speed Guide for this tip!

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Answers

SAR01, that's really neat!

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Thanks, SAR, I definitely have an "up yours" computer.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

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