Chapter 3: Optimizing the Windows Environment

Exam Objectives

check.png Optimizing operating systems by modifying virtual memory settings

check.png Using utilities to monitor and identify optimization areas

check.png Optimizing hard drives and temporary files

check.png Improve performance by turning off OS features

check.png Managing services and startup of applications to optimize system ­performance

Few things in life are perfect, and if you put them on a scale from perfect to lousy, most things fall somewhere in the middle. Computers play a part in my life, and I can safely say that they are not perfect, especially when dealing with speed and performance. I regularly work with other people’s computers and find the responsiveness of many computers far less — very far less — than perfect. Over time, if left to its own devices, your computer will slow down, sliding down the scale from the perfect end to the lousy end. When I comment on the slow response of a computer that just completed a 15-minute boot and logon, I am often surprised, ...

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