Pre-fetching (the reading of system boot files into a cache for faster loading) is a commonly overlooked component that can have a significant impact on system boot time. To see which files are gathered using each setting, clear the prefetch cache located at C:\Windows\Prefetch and then enable one of the settings listed in this hack.
Clear the cache and repeat for each setting. Set the Registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher to 0 to disable prefetching, 1 to prefetch application launch files, 2 to prefetch boot files, or 3 to prefetch as many files as possible.

Win XP Tip #29: Disable 8.3 Name Creation in NTFS

Files that use the 8.3 naming convention can degrade NTFS drive performance. Unless you have a good reason for keeping the 8.3 naming convention intact (such as if you’re using 16-bit programs), a performance gain can be achieved by disabling it.
Set the Registry DWORD key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\Control\ FileSystem\NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to 1.

Exit the Registry and reboot.

Win XP Tip #30: Cleaning Recent Docs Menu and the RUN

The Recent Docs menu can be easily disabled by editing the Registry. To do this go to the following Key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.

Now in the right pane, create a new DWORD value by the name: NoRecentDocsMenu and set it's value to 1.

Restart Explorer to save the changes. You can also clear the RUN MRU history. All the listings are stored in the key:

HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\RunMRU.
You can delete individual listings or the entire listing. To delete History
of Find listings go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft \ Windows \CurrentVersion\Explorer\Doc
Find Spec MRU and delete.

Win XP Tip #31: DMA Mode for CD-ROMs

Like Windows 2000, Windows XP still fails to set the DMA mode correctly for the IDE device designated as the slaves on the primary IDE and secondary IDE channels.
Most CD- ROMS are capable of supporting DMA mode, but the default in XP is still PIO. Setting it to DMA won't make your CD-ROM faster, but it will consume less CPU cycles. Here's how: Open the Device Manager. One way to do that is to 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 devices attached to it. Reboot.

Win XP Tip #32: Speed up IE Start Up
This tweak tells Internet Explorer to simply 'run', without loading any webpages. If you use a 'blank' page, that is still a page, and slows access. Notice the 'about:blank' in the address bar. The blank html page must still be loaded. To load IE with 'nothing' [nothing is different than blank]:

1. Right-click on any shortcut you have to IE
[You should create a shortcut out of your desktop IE icon, and delete the original
icon]

2. Click Properties

3. Add -nohome [with a space before the dash] after the endquotes in the Target field.

4. Click OK

Win XP Tip #34: Internet Explorer As Fast As FireFox:

Open registry editor by going to Start then Run and entering regedit. Once in registry, navigateto key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\microsoft\Windows\ Current Version \InternetSettings.
Right click on the right windows > New > DWORD. Type MaxConnectionsPerServer > You can set value (the more higher the no, the more good speed eg:99). Create another DWORD >type MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server. Then put a high value as mentioned above. Restart I.E and you are done.

Win XP Tip #35: Increasing Band-Width By 20%

Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for their own purposes like Windows Updates and interrogating your PC etc. Click Start then Run and type "gpedit.msc" without quotes. This opens the group policy editor. Then go to:

Local Computer Policy >> Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Network >> QOS Packet Scheduler and then to LimitReservableBandwidth.
Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the 'Explain' tab i.e."By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default." So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, and then set it to ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the default 20%.It works on Win 2000 as well.

Win XP Tip #36: Disabling Drives in My Computer

To disable the display of local or networked drives when you click My Computer go to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\Explorer
Now in the right pane create a new DWORD item and name it NoDrives.
Now modify it's value and set it to 3FFFFFF (Hexadecimal). Now press F5 to refresh.
When you click on My Computer, no drives will be shown. To enable display of drives in My Computer, simply delete this DWORD item.

Win XP Tip #37: Shutdown and Reboot in Style
Turning off or rebooting XP involves a several-step process: click the

Start menu, choose Shut Down, and then select Shut Down or Restart. If you want, however, you can exit or reboot much more quickly, by creating a shortcut that enables one-click shutdowns. You can also use the shortcut to customize the shutdown or reboot for example, by displaying a specific message or automatically shutting down any programs that are running.

First, create a shortcut on your desktop by right-clicking the desktop, choosing New,and then choosing Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard appears. In the box asking for the location of the shortcut, type shutdown. After you create the shortcut, doubleclicking it will shut down your PC.

But you can do much more with a shutdown shortcut than merely shut down your PC.
You can add any combination of several switches to do extra duty, like this:

shutdown -r -t 01 -c "Rebooting your PC"

Double-clicking that shortcut will reboot your PC after a one-second delay and display the message "Rebooting your PC." The shutdown command includes a variety of switches you can use to customize it.

Switches you can use with shutdown

Switch what it does

-s Shuts down the PC.
-l Logs off the current user.
-t nn
Indicates the duration of delay, in seconds, before performing the
action.

Switches you can use with shutdown

-c "messagetext"
Displays a message in the System Shutdown window. A maximum
of 127 characters can be used. The message must be enclosed in
quotation marks.
-f Forces any running applications to shut down.
-r Reboots the PC.
Here are the ones I use for shutdowns and restarts:
Shutdown -s -t 03 -c "See you later!"
shutdown -r -t 03 -c "You can't get rid of me that quickly!"
You always have to turn from the CPU after running this command. (Same with AT and ATX powered machines.) If you want to turn down power of ATX machine automatically, run the following commnd "c:\windows\system32\tsshutdn.exe 00 / POWERDOWN / DELAY:00"
This is used to turn off a server. Even though you don't have networked computers attached to your computer, this works.