Windows has it’s own power management functionality which can help you save energy and that’s a good thing. But, you shouldn’t do it at the expense of speed and productivity unless you absolutely have to.

As an example, if you are running you laptop as a desktop (permanently plugged in) you don’t need to turn your hard drive off after 5 minutes, your processor to throttle back when not in use or your video settings to be reduced by being set to ‘optimised for power saving’ mode.

As you are not bothered about making the battery last longer, you can speed pc up by setting all performance settings to the maximum.

Windows comes setup with ‘Balanced‘ performance which means you won’t get the best out of your system unless you change the settings pc.

To change your power settings in XP, follow these steps:

 - Click Start, Settings, Control Panel.

 - Click Power Options.

 - Select your desired Power Scheme (which best suits your use).

 - Adjust the Turn off monitor, Turn off hard disks, and System Standby settings as you want.

That’s It. If you find your pc is better or worse in the performance area you can readjust any of these at any time and you should not do any damage to or harm your machine in any way.

You can also do this with any version of Windows.

Also, I added this video as it is gives you a guide around Control Panel and is one of my favourites – you will see why when you watch it. Please do let me know what you think of it.  

speed pc up

 Mail this post