Let me know what you think about this

[rory 0]

Document on Tweaking Windows - any changes / additions please let me know

Derived from what I do to my DVRs ...

 

Thanks..

 

http://www.bahamassecurity.com/uploads/XP-TWEAKING.pdf

[frosted 0]

yeah thats seems pretty good chap, i can pm some suggestions if you want?

 

i take most the dvrs your chuck out are pc based with cards?

[rory 0]

In this case, yes it is totally for PC Based DVRs with Windows XP SP2.

 

This is geared towards Speed for Standard PC systems, though here is the original for DVR setup, which cuts out alot of other things also.

http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=36977#36977

 

Suggestions are welcomed ...

thanks

Rory

Edited March 7, 2006 by Guest

[frosted 0]

do you find the support cost of supporting pcs much of a problem with the cctv installs?

[rory 0]

Havent had to support one since I started installing the PC systems back in august. Mind you they are all on Voltage Regulators.

[Jasper 0]

Nice Documentation Rory.

 

If you still want the customer to be able to open a support document such as a PDF file, not referring to the above document. There is this little gem I found awhile back that allows you to replace Adobe Acrobat with a very slim and efficient way of looking at PDF files.

 

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

[CollinR 0]

I'm not up on the FAT32 thing, explain where this started for you.

 

 

Okay the stuff I'll add into discussion.

 

Mobo

 

*** Change boot sequence to HD>CD>floppy

If floppy is first it will check on every boot, that adds 5-10 seconds to the boot, nobody boots from floppys anymore. Same goes for CD, if there is one in the drive it will read the thing before booting, not needed!

 

*** Open the AGP bus apature size to 50% of your system memory. Alot of BIOSs default to something like 64MB, few have 128MB RAM anymore. I don't know if this helps in a DVR but I do it anyway.

 

*** Enable PCI Bus Mastering, this can help with correctly configuring connections.

 

XP

 

*** Shut off all the graphical display stuff nobody cares about (not only for DVRS).

 

Right click "My Computer" choose "properties".

Choose the tab labeled "advanced".

Under performance choose "settings"

Choose the tab labeled "Visual Effects"

 

Check the box next to "Adjust for best performance"

 

*** Fixed Swap File (Virtual Memory)

 

While you are in the system properties choose the "Advanced" tab. In there it is possible to customise the Virtual Memory. For custom size, this is often recommended to be 1.5 to 2 times the amount of your total RAM for both initial and maximum size. If you have more then 1GB of operating memory use registered memory, shameless plug for Crucial.com, because memory is crucial.

 

*** Kill all unneeded apps.

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

 

Start>Programs>Startup

 

You can also do it with msconfig, once you have built a few machines thats probably how you will.

 

Never use msconfig to modify services, run services.msc instead.

 

*** Kill the new start menu.

 

Right click on your taskbar and choose "Properties"

Choose the "Start Menu" Tab and then click on "Customize"

Choose "Classic Start Menu"

Scroll Down the "Advanced Start Menu Options" list and uncheck the "Use Personalized Menus" option, click "OK", then "Apply" and "OK" to finish.

 

*** Use F6 to install your Raid or SATA drivers, thats right once you have installed XP the SATA drivers will work but you won't get the speed. Go ahead test away.

 

*** Make sure XP has correctly set your HD's transfer mode.

 

Right click on "My Computer", select the Hardware tab, and Select Device Manager.

Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and double-click on "Primary IDE Channel"

Under the "Advanced Settings" tab, check the "Device 1" setting. More than likely, your current transfer mode is set to PIO.

Set it to "DMA if available"

Repeat the step for the "Secondary IDE Channel" if you have one.

 

*** Always give your DVR a static IP address! Even if you have to buy a 1 port firewall/router. This fixes DHCP startup lag and hell it's just obviously good all around.

 

(Okay basically if this doesn't work for you, you don't need to be reading articles like this. I am aware that there are more then one way to skin a cat and DHCP isn't required nor does the router need to act like the DHCP server. SBHO and residential will work like this 99.9% of the time.)

 

Log into your router>Check it's status, you should write down the DHCP pool range, subnet mask, gateway address and DNS server addresses. Limit the pool to the same size as the number of PCs you have and change the values from 192.168.1.1-100, maybe something like 192.168.69.69-74 (5 slots). ^ Router config and security really deserves a seperate article, but XP is effected by it's DHCP client so I'm posting it here.

 

Right click My Network Places and select Properties from the drop down menu. This will open up the Network Connections window. Locate your Local Area Network connection and right click it, select Properties.

Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click Properties at the bottom.

In the next window, click 'Use the following IP Address'

Change the IP address to one that is inside the pool and hopefully not currently in use by another PC on the network

Change the subnet mask and gateway to the values from your router

Choose "Use the following DNS server addresses"

Fill in the DNS server addresses from your router or add your own DNS server addresses if you don't use those provided by your ISP or you have internal DNS running.

 

*** Disable boot logo

 

Edit boot.ini add " /noguiboot" right after "/fastdetect".

 

Speeds your boot time slightly.

 

*** Prevent useless fonts from loading on startup.

 

Make a folder in My Documents called fonts2 and move unneeded fonts there, now they won't be loaded at startup and if you really need them you still have them. Maybe we should convert the whole article to wingdings I think not, you will find useless fonts that you can't seem to get rid of.

 

*** Disable Offline Files

 

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Folder Options > Offline Files > Uncheck "Enable Offline Files"

 

*** Disable Hide Inactive Icons

 

Start > Settings > Taskbar and Start Menu > Taskbar TAB > Uncheck "Hide Inactive Icons"

 

*** Disable Automatic Desktop Cleanup Wizard

 

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Desktop > Customise Desktop > Untick "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days"

 

*** Disable Notification Area Balloon Tips

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced Right-click the right pane, create a new DWORD value, and then name it EnableBalloonTips . Double-click this new entry, and then give it a hexadecimal value of 0 . Quit Registry Editor. Log off Windows, and then log back on.

 

*** Disable CDROM Autoplay

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom

Set autorun to 0

 

This prevents you from getting Sony's newest rootkit when your braindead customer desides to play music on their new DVR.

 

*** Disable System Sounds

 

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Sounds Tab > Sound Scheme to None.

 

~~~ Processor scheduling should be set to background services and not Programs.

 

Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced Tab > Background Services

 

I think we need to test this some, I don't do it but I can see why it might help a DVR.

 

*** Qos packet scheduler mod

 

Run gpedit.msc,

Expand the "Local Computer Policy" branch

Expand the "Administrative Templates" under computer

Expand the "Network" branch

Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left pane.

In the right window pane double-click the "Limit Reservable Bandwidth" setting

On the settings tab check the "Enabled" item

Change "Bandwidth limit %" to read 0

Go to your Network connections

Start=>Connect to=>Show All 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.

 

*** Disable disk performace counters

Open the command prompt

diskperf -n

 

If you use the disk usage counters you don't want to do this, I personally don't want the badnwidth on the bus.

 

 

*** No need for more then 32 bit color depth or more then 16 bit audio, both of these you can hardly tell a difference until you start graphing.

 

 

More coming...

[Thomas 0]

Don't bother with QoS packet schedualing unless your upstream provider is a serious provider. If it's comcast or mom and pop ISP then they are going to ignore it. (There is no requirement in the IPv4 or IPv6 specs to honor it and they are going to shape your traffic anyway. It's a Cisco only spec and some other providers don't support it completely or at all. Your Linksys and Netgear routers don't.) It has zero use for home users and just adds to packet overhead. I swear to god I'm going to find the person who started spreading this idea to home users and throttle them.

 

Bad things that can come from this:

Increased packet overhead.

QoS conflicts if your router supports QoS.

The TCP/IP stack in Windows doesn't have great QoS support and depending on your hotfixes then you can create an unstable system.

[CollinR 0]

The TCP/IP stack in Windows doesn't have great QoS support and depending on your hotfixes then you can create an unstable system.

 

No doubt there.

 

 

Here is a log viewer for you guys who use the windows firewall.

 

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=3307

[rory 0]

Thanks Colin, I'll look through it when I get back on Thursday, meanwhile, alot of that is actually in the PDF already ... except that the article isnt geared towards setting up a network, or DVR for that matter - this is for a home/business PC only. Also, this is all based on starting with a default Windows XP install, so something like 32 bit is default. As for formatting, etc, dont go into too much depth as thats where we, you, come in to help them.

 

Thanks

Rory