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1. Last access update is another feature that I'd turn off and will help you get a little more performance out of your hard drive. What is this? NTFS updates the date stamp on directories whenever it opens the directory. To turn this rather useless feature off browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentContolSet\Control\Filesystem and change the NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate registry entry to 1

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate"=dword:00000001

2. Short names is something that is needed for DOS compatibility. Most of us will want to turn this off. The only time you'll want to leave this on is if you are supporting DOS or win 3x based clients. I think all of us have some machines like that in our CLOSET but certainly not in use. To turn this off you'll have to go browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem in your registry and change the default value of the NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation registry entry to 1.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation"=dword:00000001

Or to put both of them to use insert this into your *.reg file

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation"=dword:00000001
"NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate"=dword:00000001

Reboot after making changes.

Memory Performance

Improving memory performance can be done simply by preventing your hard drive from being used for cache. This is only useful with 256Mb or more of RAM.

Everything that you'll need to edit here can be found in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Session Manager/Memory Management

So of course add [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management] to your *.reg file.

Disable Paging Executive
This will prevent pages sections from RAM going to the hard drive. If you have a large amount of RAM at least 256Mb (I suggest 512) you might want to keep the data in your RAM to improve your performance considerably due to reduced amount of hard drive swappage. The entry that you will want to modify is called DisablePagingExecutive. Changing this from 0 to 1 will keep the data in your RAM.

"DisablePagingExecutive"=dword:00000001

System Cache Boost
The XP kernel can be loaded into your RAM with a simple registry edit. This can greatly improve performance since the NT Kernel will always be in your RAM. With this edit you will allocate roughly 4Mb of your RAM for the kernel. Sometimes more RAM is used but most of the time it is only 4Mb. The entry that you will need to find is called LargeSystemCache and you'll need to change this from 0 to 1 in order to enable this. 

"LargeSystemCache"=dword:00000001

To put both of these RAM tweaks into use you'll add something like this to your reg file

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"DisablePagingExecutive"=dword:00000001
"LargeSystemCache"=dword:00000001

Disable Virtual Memory

Right click my computer

Click the advanced tab

Click the settings button under performance

Click the advanced tab

Click change by Virtual Memory

If you have more than 512Mb of RAM I suggest you click no paging file

Click set then ok 3 times and you'll need to reboot

This may cause your system to quit booting

DirectX based games that use large textures will often times NOT be able to run even when you have 512Mb of RAM.

Adobe products also have problems with this it seems at ANY RAM size. It's worth trying but if your adobe programs quit working afterwards this will most likely be the reason.

The only limitation is that the drive can only be 32MB in size. :(