I did not write this whole thing,i wrote most of it but i had help from some of my clanmates fine tuning it.....

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Creating a XP Gaming Profile- Running your system on the correct setting for an improved gaming experience.

BASIC STEPS:

The following steps will guide you on how to do this:
Go to: Control Panel>User Accounts
Create a profile titled "Gaming"
Login to your "Gaming Profile"

Delete the default background image and replace it with just a solid blue- like Windows 2003. To do so, right click My Computer, choose Advanced>Visual Effects, then select "Adjust" for best performance.

Disable ANY extra, third party applications that are not necessary for game play; such as applications that appear in your task bar (icons to the bottom left). You may also be running hidden applications; applications that do not appear anywhere on your screen, but have processes running in the Task Manager. Every unnecessary process cannot be listed- but if you see any unfamiliar ones, you may "End their Process" (use at your own risk)

NOTE- if you are unsure of anything, post below for additional info.

ADVANCED STEPS: (some recommended)

To increase system performance

Right click my computer. Click properties.
Click advanced.
Click settings (under performance).
Click Adjust for best performance.
Scroll to the bottom and check the last one “use visual styles on windows and buttons”.

How to disable XP's -crud- built in CD Burner

Click the start button.
Select Run.
Type services.msc and click ok.
Go to IMAPI CD-Burning Com Services open it and click on start up type, change to "Disabled".


These Settings will fine tune your systems memory

You need at least 256MB of ram to do this:

Go to start\run\regedit -and then to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management

1.DisablePagingExecutive -double click it and in the decimal put a 1 - this allows XP to keep data in memory now instead of paging sections of ram to hard drive yields faster performance.

2.LargeSystemCache- double click it and change the decimal to 1 -this allows XP kernel to Run in memory and improves system performance a lot.

3.Create a new dword and name it IOPageLockLimit - double click it and set the value in hex - 4000 if you have 128MB of ram or set it to 10000 if you have 256MB set it to 40000 if you have more than 512MB of ram -this tweak will speed up your disk cache.

Reboot


Unable to delete from Avi files from HD

XP holds files in it's memory even after you have closed the application using them making it impossible to delete them from your hard drive. To fix this:

Start -> Run -> Regedit
Find the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shel lex\PropertyHandler\ directory and delete the "DEFAULT" key.

Tweak The Swap File

For Users with 256 MB RAM or more this tweak will boost their Windows- and Game-Performance.
What it does: It tells Windows not to use any Swap File until there is really no more free RAM left.

Open the System Configuration Utility by typing msconfig.exe in the RUN command. There in your System.ini you have to add "ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1" under the 386enh section.

Restart your Windows and enjoy better Game performance

Disable Services

XP Pro runs a lot of services by default that are pointless if your not on a corporate network, the following services are ones that I safely disable thereby freeing up memory but check what each one does first to make sure your not using it for something:

Go to Run and type services.msc, right click on each service, properties and choose disable.

Alerter
Application Layer Gateway Service,
Application Management
Automatic Updates
Background Intelligent Transfer
Clipbook
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Distributed Transaction Coordinater
Error Reporting Service
Fast User Switching Compatibility
IMAPI CD-Burning
Indexing Service
IPSEC Services
Messenger
Net Logon
Net Meeting
Remote Desktop Sharing
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Secondary Logon
Smartcard
SSDP Discovery Service
Telnet Themes
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Webclient
Wireless Zero Configuration
WMI Performance Adaptor


Speed Up The File System

NTFS is a great file system, but its feature-set comes at a slight cost in performance. You can negate this a little with the following tips:

* By default NTFS will automatically update timestamps whenever a directory is traversed. This isn't a necessary feature, and it slows down large volumes. Disable it by going to Run and type regedit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\FileSystem and set 'DisableNTFSLastAccessUpdate' to 1.

* NTFS uses disparate master file control tables to store filesystem information about your drives. Over time these core MFT files grow and become fragmented, slowing down all accesses to the drive. By setting aside a little space, MFT's can grow without becoming fragmented.

In the same key where you disabled the last access feature create a new DWORD value called 'NtfsMftZoneReservation' and set it to 2.


Disable DLL Caching

Windows Explorer caches DLLs (Dynamic-Link Libraries) in memory for a period of time after the application using them has been closed. This can be an inefficient use of memory.

1. Find the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer].

2. Create a new DWORD sub-key named 'AlwaysUnloadDLL' and set the default value to equal '1' to disable Windows caching the DLL in memory.

3. Restart Windows for the change to take effect.


Tweak The Prefetch

1. Run "Regedit"
2. Goto [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher]

3. Set the value to either 0-Disable, 1-App launch prefetch, 2-Boot Prefetch, 3-Both ("3" is recommended).

4. Reboot.

It will decrease the boot time but double and increase the performance of your XP.


speedup Your Connection By 20% (Cable Users Only)

1.Log on as "Administrator".
2. Run - gpedit.msc
3. Expand the "Local Computer Policy" branch.
4. Then expand the "Administrative Templates" branch.
5. Expand the "Network" branch.
6. Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left pane.
7. In the right window pane double-click the "Limit Reservable Bandwidth" setting.
8. On the settings tab check the "Enabled" item.
9. Change "Bandwidth limit %" to read 0.
10. Then go to your Network connections Start=>Control Panel>Network & Internet connections>Network Connections and right-click on your connection. Then under the General or the Networking tab, (where it lists your protocols) make sure QoS packet scheduler is enabled.

It may take effect immediately on some systems. To be sure, just re-boot.

Wouldnt the use of a "Gaming Hardware Profile" be better than creating a New User ? due to all the changes that you make outside of your Log In will effect everyone else that uses that machine ?

The likes of the TweakXP programs actually have a section that drops off the services running that you dont require...

Thats my personal thoughts

__________________

Thanks.

Hmm, I did it, and I get a DirectX error now. Won't let me play singleplayer at all and when I minimize multiplayer then bring it up I get the error.

Wouldn't recommend using this guide until you know what causes the error.

OK, reversed all the changes in the guide and it's back to normal so it is something to do with the guide. If you do them all one by one and testing them out in between then you can see what causes it and ignore that tweak.

Thank you Nixon, very much for this and your other related post with the cfg file. Prior to utilizing this information I could not play at all in multiplayer online. Now playing online in multiplayer is no different than single player with EVERYTHING maxed. I am a recent convert from BF2 but was dissapointed that I could not engage in online, now I am an extremely happy camper and looking forward to meeting all of you in the field of battle.

is this also for vista ?

hey wasup all, and nixon, i just read your post at the top and done a few of the changes but now when I turn on cod4 multiplayer my sound doesnt work, I tried different sound settings etc and the sound wont work.... I can change users and the sound works so its something to do with the tweaks and whatnot that you have listed the last thing I did on the list was....


3.Create a new dword and name it IOPageLockLimit - double click it and set the value in hex - 4000 if you have 128MB of ram or set it to 10000 if you have 256MB set it to 40000 if you have more than 512MB of ram -this tweak will speed up your disk cache.

Reboot

mainly cuz I didnt wanna mess anything up going through all that other stuff at the bottom... also I know I didnt do anything wrong because I went step by step very slowly due to Im not gifted person on pc when it comes to things like this.... if you have any ideas gimme a reply... thanks

i have pc with graphic card geforce512 7300/7200 1.50GB ddr of ram and cpu pentium r 3.2ghzL2cache..... the game is choppy i tried cg_drawfps it shows 24fps in red coler some maps higher but all in red coler can anyone help me n tell me wt to do?

My guess is your GPU (Graphics Card). By the way, what settings do you run CoD4 with?

Has anyone tried installing COD4 on a 4 to 8 GB thumb drive to increase performance?

Just a thought ...