Miscellanious tweaks

SHUT DOWN XP FASTER
1) Start - Run - Regedit
Navigate to the following Registry key:
HKEY CURRENT USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Double click on the AutoEndTasks entry and replace the 0 with a 1 in the Value data text box
For the next two, if the dword value indicated does not exist, create it:
Double click on the WaitToKillAppTimeout entry in the right pane and change the Value data to 2000
Double click on the HungAppTimeout entry in the right pane and change the Value data to 1000
Reboot
If still having a problem, make the next change:
2) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Right-click on WaitToKillServiceTimeout and change it to 2000
NOTE: The lowest value Windows will recognize is 1000 (1 second)
ADVISORY: While rare, the "WaitToKillService" tweak can cause problems. If an application is in the process of saving data and the associated service is stopped prematurely, the data will not be saved and may be lost.

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TURN OFF INDEXING TO SPEEDUP XP
Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of searches on your hard drive then I suggest turning this feature off:
1. Control Panel
2. Administrative Tools
3. Services
4. Disable Indexing Services

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TWEAK AERO BY DISABLING MIN/MAX ANIMATIONS
The new animations in Windows Vista look great for the first month or so but then they can become an annoyance since they feel like they increase the amount of time it takes to minimize and maximize a window. If you can live without the minimize and maximize animations that you can bring back the super fast feeling of your windows instantly disappearing and appearing by disabling the min/max animations.
Follow the steps below to make your windows faster:
1. Click on the Start Menu and key in SystemPropertiesPerformance and hit Enter.
2. On the Visual Effects tab uncheck Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing.
3. Click OK.
Other Steps:
1. Click on the desktop and select Personalize.
2. Select Windows Color and Appearance.
3. Uncheck Enable Transparency.
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TWEAK INDEXING OPTIONS FOR PERFORMANCE BOOST
The indexing service in Windows Vista is responsible for making those search boxes all over the operating system lightening fast. By default Windows automatically indexes all files in your user profile folders, start menu and any files you have setup for offline access. If you have a lot of files in these locations and the files change often you can be putting a heavy load on the indexing service. For maximum performance when using Windows Vista I recommend disabling indexing for all other locations other than the Start Menu. This will lessen the background work that Windows Vista has to do. It will also slow down your searches of other locations but that is the price you must pay for this performance benefit.
Follow these steps to tweak the indexing locations:
Click on the Start Button and key in Indexing Options and hit Enter. Indexing Options will now load.
Vista tweak
* Hit the Modify button.
* Next, click on Show all locations.
* Scroll through the tree-view and uncheck any folders you do not want to be indexed. When you are finished, click OK.
* If you want to change advanced indexing settings such as what file types are indexed click on the Advanced button. Otherwise hit Close.
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Speed up wireless WAN connection
In Windows Vista the networking components were designed to be much more intelligent and automatically adjust the network settings to optimize the connection speed. This is a great new feature. Your network components basically tweak themselves for optimal performance. In most situations, these components automatically adjust perfectly for best performance. However, with wireless WAN cards the detection of network conditions is flawed and can result in slower network performance.
To fix this problem, Microsoft has released a hotfix for users affected by this issue. If you have a Wireless WAN device, I suggest you give this hotfix a try.
KB 940646 details:
This problem occurs because of the way that TCP receive window auto tuning is used in Windows Vista for connections that only receive data.
This tweak will be automaticallly installed it you install Vista SP1.
Windows Vista obtains a round-trip time (RTT) estimate at the time of connection setup and every time that a new segment of data that is transmitted. A connection that only receives data is limited to the single RTT sample that is obtained at the time of connection setup. Because the connection only receives data, the connection cannot "converge" to the actual RTT of the connection. For example, because the RTT data may fluctuate for various reasons, a "converge" operation is performed to estimate a meaningful RTT by using blending current and previous RTT data. However, if the connection cannot converge to the actual RTT of the connection, the bandwidth delay product (BDP) estimate that Vista obtains is also incorrect. Therefore, the connection's receive window is limited, and throughput of the connected transmission network is reduced.