In my Windows XP pc I usually have some files that can’t be deleted. I am not sure where this problem is coming from, but it is very annoying when you can’t delete a file for no reason. Here is a way to solve this:

Open a Command Prompt window and leave it open. Close all open programs

Click Start => Run and enter TASKMGR.EXE

Go to the Processes tab and End Process on Explorer.exe. Leave Task Manager open

Go back to the Command Prompt window and change to the directory the undeletable file is located in.

At the command prompt type “DEL <filename>” where <filename> is the file you wish to delete

Go back to Task Manager, click File => New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE

Close Task Manager

Ok no problem again with these awful undeletable files. I am not sure if this is working with Windows Vista too, so please comment if you know.

This one is the best tweak for windows XP I ever found, and it works very well. With this tweak we will force windows to load kernel and drivers in memory.

Here is what you have to do :

1) Open the regedit tool (Start -> Run -> regedit.exe )

2) Use the navigation in the left and go to HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

3) Double click the DisablePagingExecutive attribute, and put 1 in the decimal value field
This will make the drivers and the XP kernel run in memory.

4) Double click the LargeSystemCache attribute, and put 1 in the decimal value field
This will improve performance of the kernel

5) Double click the IOPageLockLimit attribute. On some later versions of windows XP that doesn’t exists, so if this is the case you’re done. Otherwise you have to put to the hex value : 4000 for pcs with 128 mb ram, 10000 for 256 mb ram and if you have more put 40000. This value specifies how many bytes can be used for I/O operations in your system.

That’s it, enjoy your faster pc

You may know that Windows XP is not the best operating system in memory management. Many times you need to reboot your pc, just to clean the memory. Of course there is a simpler way to do this by creating a shortcut. Here is what you have to do:

1. Right click on desktop, New -> Shortcut
2. Copy/paste this piece of code in the location box: %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
3. Save the file
4. You are done! Now every time you need some memory double click on your newly created shortcut

In case you are bored to create the file, or you just don’t understand exactly what I write, just download the Memory cleaner from here (right click->Save As).