Having just received my new TR3 yesterday, I noticed a rather large amount of tools that are preinstalled in the taskbar (at least 10). Obviously this slows down the performance, and was wondering how I could de-activate a few. I’m not too familiar with XP, so any help will be appreciated. Also, if there any other tweaks that may boost performance, please let me know (other than making a complete fresh XP reinstall!)

I’ve also got a strange issue, where every time I boot my TR, the zoom out function seems to activate itself, showing a black frame around the desktop. Is there any way to default the zoom to a certain magnitude (I like the 2nd zoom in) ?

Hi there, fellow TR3 owner.   Yes, I’ve had a problem with that in the past. Something that might help a little is for you to find a file under “Programs” in the “Start” menu called “Startup.” Anything that’s in that file will be activated at Startup. Simply remove the items you don’t want to be activated the next time you log-on to Windows on your TR3. ( by removing, I mean deleting; files in “Startup” file are really just “short-cuts” ). Not all the files that startup in the taskbar are disabled through this file. You might have to right-click each program and disable their startup through their properties.

You can also have other items automatically startup by placing the files and/or their shortcuts in the “Startup” file, like an appointment reminder. Simply open notepad or wordpad, type something down, and “Save As” in the “Startup” file under Programs in the “Start” menu. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried that before, but it’s pretty neat.  8)

I hope this helps.

-best,
Concura

22 June

1. Install a startup control panel (like this one at URL http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml) and start disabling programs you do not need to run when your computer boots up;

2. Install TweakUI from the XP powertoys page at URL http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx and start tweaking;

3. Start Menu -> Control Panel -> System -> Advance Tab -> Performance Settings -> Visual Effects and disable most of the Animations, Fading-outs, Sliding effects, etc etc.

There are also XP registry performance tweaks but let’s not touch the registry until you feel comfortable doing so. Then start googling for those XP registry performance tweaks and hack to your heart’s content.