Check out our newest creation Tutorial Grad. The automated tutorial directory.

Subscribe to our rss feed

Disable Visual Effects to Speed Up Windows XP

Posted in Tips and Tricks, Windows Tutorials by John Ward on the September 9th, 2007

If you are running Windows XP on a slower computer you may want to turn off all the excess visual effects. These effects can look appealing, but there is no doubt that the more visual effects the Operating System has to handle, the slower the system will be. You can disable the visual effects to increase the speed of Windows XP. I personally have used these settings to run Windows XP on a Pentium II with little lag.

First we need to get to the Visual Effects settings. Right click on My Computer and select Properties.
Speed up Windows XP by disabling visual effects

Click on the Advanced Tab. Then under the Performance section click the settings button.

Speed up Windows XP by disabling visual effects

The Performance Options window should open with the Visual Effects tab open.
Speed up Windows XP by disabling visual effects

As you can see my computer is set for best appearance. The easiest option is to simply choose the option to Adjust for best performance. This will turn off all of the visual enhancements.
Speed up Windows XP by disabling visual effects

You can also select which option you would like to turn on or off. To do this select Custom, then check the boxes next to the options you would like to turn on. For my system I will leave every option unchecked except for “Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop”.
Speed up Windows XP by disabling visual effects

Just remember that the more visual effects that you turn on, the slower the computer will respond. After you have made you changes, click the apply button and then OK. There should be a noticeable difference in speed, especially in older machines.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Reddit

Other Related Tutorials

Tutorial Grad - Recent Tutorials

3 Responses to 'Disable Visual Effects to Speed Up Windows XP'

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Disable Visual Effects to Speed Up Windows XP'.

  1. Mike said,

    on September 9th, 2007 at 7:20 am

    This helps the speed of my computer a lot. Thanks!!

  2. Jan said,

    on May 24th, 2008 at 5:52 pm

    Thank You so much!
    Maybe this will help me play the game i really wanted. XD


  3. on August 10th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    [...] like to use. The first link will speed up things a bit for you. Again, it is all user preference. Disable Visual Effects to Speed Up Windows XP – Team Tutorials This link has other tips of helping performance, tip 5 will help speed things up to and will not [...]

Leave a Comment