How to speed up your Lenovo X41T

[k0lo]

Have you been disappointed by the slow performance of your X41T? If so, this article may be the solution that you've been looking for. After 5 months of living with the factory installation of Windows, I finally got so fed up with the poor performance of my X41T that I bit the bullet and did a clean install of Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005. What an amazing difference! I held off writing this article until I was sure that this fix really worked reliably, but I can hardly contain my enthusiasm any longer. I am so pleased with the outcome of this process that I want to share it with all of the users of this forum.

First, a quick summary of the problems with the X41T:

• Horribly slow boot-up time, approaching 5 minutes for a factory-fresh tablet with the IBM image
• Very slow to open windows and start programs
• The "Stuttering Cursor" problem where the machine is sometimes so busy with background tasks that it can't even keep up with cursor movements
• Does not act like a multitasking operating system; when starting two programs at the same time, the second program does not start up until after the first one has finished starting
• An event log that fills up with errors and warnings
• Mysterious freezes and crashes that bring down the whole operating system and require a (glacially slow) reboot
• Deteriorating performance after a few days of going into and out of standby and/or hibernation, requiring another (glacially slow) reboot every couple of days to fix
• Strange behavior of the Tablet Input Panel (TIP). Normally, the TIP pops up when your pen is near a text-entry area and does not appear when you are drawing/sketching with the pen on a document that doesn't have any text entry boxes. After a few days of operation without a reboot, the TIP would start to appear all of the time, even when there weren't any text boxes. This could be fixed by a logout/login. (Note: this isn't the memory leak problem that was fixed by a Windows Update patch; I have this patch installed)

Reinstalling the OS, however, will not fix the following known problems with the X41T:

• <s>What some have called the "Streaking Cursor" problem, where the pen occasionally draws a streak heading towards the tablet buttons. This problem is discussed in other threads on this forum and is a hardware problem with the Wacom digitizer interacting with the backlight power supply.</s>*Edit 2/23/2006* Fixed by Lenovo with an update (version 9.0.4.8) to the Intel Pro Wireless LAN 2200bg and 2915abg mini-PCI adapter driver.
• The hard drive "Clicking" problem where the hard drive makes an obnoxious noise every time it parks its head. We're stuck with this incredibly annoying clicking sound until another manufacturer makes a 1.8" hard drive that will fit in the X41T (Seagate, where are you? I love my 2.5" Seagate 7200 rpm notebook drive; it's completely silent even while parking the head, but it won't fit in the X41T).

Before purchasing the X41T, I'd never seen an installation of Windows XP that performed so horribly. Many have blamed this on the slow 4200 RPM hard drive, but the poor performance that I'm talking about here is all out of proportion to the slower speed of the hard drive. This machine is just slow, slow, slooow. However, as I found out, the root cause of the problem is not the hard drive; it's the bloated factory image provided by IBM with the X41T. The cure is to erase the IBM image and do a clean install of Windows XP Tablet Edition. This isn't for the faint of heart. It's a lot of work, but believe me, it's well worth the effort. You won't believe the difference it will make!

Here are some specifics that I measured on my X41T (18666SU version with 1 GB RAM). Keep in mind that your results will depend on how many programs you have installed on the machine, how many of the IBM apps that you have chosen to keep and the way that you set your machine up. I'll describe my setup in more detail later. In the table below, Column A is the machine as received from the factory; column B is after installing my suite of software apps, uninstalling unwanted programs, and much tweaking to improve performance. Column C is right after doing a clean install of XP Tablet Edition, and Column D is after loading up the machine with all of the programs that I use.
Image Insert:

14.77Â*KB
? I wasn't keeping accurate records; these are guesses
* Tasks started by an entry in the registry key \HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Cur rentVersion\Run
** Tasks started by an entry in the "Startup" folder
*** Does not include IBM Service Partition
================================================== ==================================
What doesn't come across in the above table is the improvement in the feel of the machine. It is absolutely amazing. The "Stuttering Cursor" effect is almost completely gone. Windows "pop" into view instantly instead of slowly filling in after long delays. Programs start much faster, the freezeups and crashes have vanished, the event logs are clean, the problems with the TIP have vanished, and I've not rebooted the machine for a week, going into and out of hibernation many, many times without seeing any evidence of performance degradation. In short, the re-born X41T now behaves like I'd expect Windows XP to behave; just like on a desktop machine.

Before anybody thinks that I just had a screwed-up machine to begin with, let me relate a story. I work at a University with a group of people who are using Tablet PCs to teach. We have about a dozen people in the group with brand-new X41Ts. I put my re-born X41T on the desk right next to a coworker's factory fresh X41T and we both did the same operations at the same time. The difference in speed and responsiveness between the two machines was clearly apparent. For example, we both clicked "Start, Control Panel". On the factory-fresh machine there was a 1 or 2 second pause after clicking the Start button before the menu popped out. Then after clicking the Control Panel button, there was a 3 or 4 second delay until the window border was drawn, then the window decorations filled in, then the little flashlight came out and started waving back and forth, then the control panel icons started slowly filling in. On my machine, I clicked the Start button -- the start menu instantly popped out. Then I clicked the Control Panel button. After a 1 second delay, the entire window popped onto the screen, completely drawn and with all icons filled in. My coworker was impressed.

If you want to fix your X41T you'll first need to make a bootable Windows XP Tablet Edition CD. I'll explain this in Part II. Then you'll need to reinstall the OS, which I'll explain in Part III, including which IBM utilities I chose to keep and which I chose to remove.

I'm now a very happy X41T owner.:-)

[k0lo]

Part II
If you're going to do a clean install of Windows XP Tablet Edition, you'll need to make yourself a set of install CDs. OEMs like IBM, Toshiba, HP, etc. do not provide these for you, but most of what you'll need is already installed on your tablet. You will need the following:

A. Your tablet PC with a licensed copy of XP Tablet Edition (XP TE) installed
B. The Windows XP Product Key from the sticker on the bottom of the tablet
C. A legal, licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 2 on a CD (needed for a few files that aren't on the tablet) **Edit** If you don't have a Service Pack 2 CD, you don't need to "slipstream", or update your version to SP2 because you will be using the i386 folder from your tablet, which is already built for SP2. What you will need is the identifying files for step 3 of the procedure, which are WIN51, WIN51IP, and WIN51IP.SP2. You'll most likely be missing WIN51IP.SP2 or both WIN51IP and WIN51IP.SP2 if you have an earlier version of Windows XP. Each of these 3 files contains the single word "Windows" and is otherwise identical. If you have one of the files, just make copies and change the name. Or you can create any of these three files yourself using notepad to create a file containing the word "Windows" (without the quotes), and then save the file with the desired file name. **Warning** Notepad will add the extension .txt to the file automatically, so be sure to delete the .txt extension. You may not be able to see the extension if you have Windows configured to "Hide extensions for known file types". To be certain, go to Control Panel/Folder Options/View and be sure to uncheck Hide Extensions for known file types.
D. A CD burner
E. CD burning software that can burn bootable CDs, like NERO, for example
F. A boot sector extractor utility that you can download from the internet

Before starting, read the following articles for some background information on the process:

http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/to...TOPIC_ID=18190
http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/to...?TOPIC_ID=7454
http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/to...?TOPIC_ID=4827

Next, get ready to go. If you have a desktop PC and are connected on a home network, it is more convenient to work on the desktop machine, especially if it has a couple of GB of free hard disk space and a CD burner. I didn't have the external CD/DVD burner with my X41T, so I did all of the following on my desktop machine.

My objective was to create an install CD that has all of the capabilities of the CD that should have been given to us by the manufacturer, including all extra software, help files, and the ability to be inserted into a CD drive of a working system to do repairs. If your only objective is to reinstall Windows, then you can leave out a lot of the extra stuff. I'll indicate those items that are optional. Here's the procedure that I used to successfully create the XP TE Install CDs:

1. Create a folder on the desktop PC called "VRMPOEM_EN" (this is the name given to the CD by Microsoft; don't ask me what it means, although the _EN portion of the CD name is for the English Language version, so if you have a different language version be sure to name it appropriately)
2. From your tablet, copy the following three folders to the newly-created folder -- "SUPPORT, VALUEADD, and I386". You'll find these folders at the root of your C: drive on the tablet. (Only I386 is required; the rest are optional).
3. From your Windows XP Install CD, copy everything BUT these three folders to the newly created folder. These 5 files are required-- "SETUP.EXE, WIN51, WIN51IP, WIN51IP.SP2, wpa.dbl". see the note for C) above if you're missing any of the WIN* files. If your CD does not have wpa.dbl (the Windows product activation file) then copy it from your tablet at C:/Windows/System32/wpa.dbl. These files are optional-- "AUTORUN.INF, README.HTM, SETUPXP.HTM, DOCS folder".
4. Create a second folder called "VRMPOEM_EN2" on your desktop machine.
5. From your tablet PC, copy the folder "CMPNENTS" to the newly-created folder.
6. Create a new folder called "DRIVERS" inside the "VRMPOEM_EN2" folder. In other words, the second CD will contain two folders; CMPNENTS and DRIVERS.
7. From your tablet PC, locate the folder "77RA05WW" inside the "C:\DRIVERS\ folder. As of the date of this article, that's the folder that contains the latest Broadcom Ethernet driver for the X41T. You'll need this after installing the OS in order to get connected to the Internet. Copy the "77RA05WW" folder to your newly-created DRIVERS folder.

You now have two folders that will be burned onto two CDs. The first CD must be made bootable, however. So you'll need the XP boot sectors off of your Windows XP CD. You can use the utility "Bart's Boot Image Extractor" at Bart Lagerweij's web site to extract the boot sectors into a file:

http://www.nu2.nu/bbie/

8. Following the instructions on the above web page, extract the boot sectors to a file called "XPBoot.bin" on your desktop machine.

Next you'll burn the two CDs using NERO or your favorite burning software. **Note: I've heard that you can download a demo version of NERO7 that you can use to do this if you don't currently have NERO installed** The procedure for creating a bootable CD is a little tricky, so read the following article for help:

**Edit 5/30/2006** The web site previously quoted in this article has been taken down. Use the following site instead.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...slipstream.asp

9. Follow the procedure described in step 5 of the article. Do NOT do steps 2 and 3; they are unnecessary because the i386 folder on your tablet is already updated to SP2. Be sure to make the Volume Label "VRMPOEM_EN". Copy only the contents of the folder "VRMPOEM_EN" to the CD; NOT the folder itself. After you make the CD, it should contain exactly what the folder on the desktop machine contains.

10. Burn the second CD conventionally; it should NOT be made bootable.

You now have a pair of installation CDs that will allow you to reinstall XP TE on your X41T. Continue with Part III of this article for details on how to rebuild your X41T.

**Disclaimer -- The CDs that you made are for your personal use only, and are to be used only for reinstalling the operating system on the Tablet PC that you have a legal copy of Windows for. Sharing them with someone else would be a violation of copyright law. The manufacturer of the PC should have given a set to you when you purchased the PC, but chose instead to put the installation files on your hard drive. Dumb move on their part. Perhaps if enough of us complain to the manufacturers of Tablet PCs we can get them to supply XP Tablet Edition Install CDs with the PC like the manufacturers of desktop PCs do.

[k0lo]

Part III
First, a disclaimer. Rebuilding a PC is not for the faint of heart. You can accidentally destroy all of your data and settings, so please be careful. Although I'm trying to be helpful by writing these instructions, I am not responsible for any mistakes that you might make. You shouldn't attempt this unless you've done it before and are comfortable installing an operating system from scratch.

Now it's time to get to work. Before starting, Make Backups!!! If you are using IBM Rescue and Recovery, make a set of restore disks so that you can go back to the original factory installation if all else fails (but believe me, you'll never want to go back!). Do a Full Backup of your entire disk to a DVD or to another PC on your network. Don’t store the backup on your tablet’s hard disk! The folder that Rescue and Recovery uses will be overwritten during the install process.

In addition to the full backup, take the time to copy anything that you'll want on the newly-rebuilt PC to a folder on your desktop machine, or to a USB thumb drive. Here are a few suggestions:

1. A copy of your favorite web sites from C:\Documents and Settings\(your user name)\Favorites
2. A copy of your start menu structure from C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
3. If you use Microsoft Office, run the "Save My Settings Wizard" and store a copy of the settings file. You can then restore all of the settings in Office very easily (kudos to Microsoft for this nice tool).
4. A copy of your address book from your email program.
5. A copy of the settings for your email accounts (for example, if you use Outlook Express, go to "Tools, Accounts" and export the settings for each email account, LDAP account, and Newsgroup).
6. All of your user files from C:\Documents and Settings\(your user name)\My Documents
7. Anything else that you can think of.
8. This one is personal preference -- if you liked any of the trial software that came with the X41T, you'll want to copy the installer folders from the C:\IBMTOOLS\APPS folder. I tried all of these programs out, and in the end decided to uninstall all of them, so I did not need to transfer any of these to the new installation. Your mileage may vary....
9. There is no need to copy any of the drivers because they can be downloaded from IBM's web site after you get XP reinstalled (other than the Ethernet card driver, which you put on the Windows Install CD in Part II of this article).

Now, check to be sure that you have everything backed up. Check again. Say goodbye to your very slow X41T and let's begin!

To install XP Tablet Edition, you'll need to have an external CD drive. I didn't have one so I borrowed one from a friend. {As an aside, it would be really nice to install from a bootable USB thumb drive, since the X41T does not have a built-in CD drive. I spent too many hours trying to do this, and eventually gave up. I could make the X41T boot into DOS from a USB thumb drive, but couldn't figure out how to make it then start installing Windows. If anyone knows how to do this, please post an article in this forum.} *Edit* For the truly adventurous type, see the posts by moneyburninghole on page 4 of this thread for a way to install from a USB drive.

**Edit 3/2/06**
Before starting the installation you may need to change a setting in the BIOS. If you are going to keep the IBM Service Partition, before you start installing Windows you need to go to the "Security" area in the BIOS and set the "Access IBM Predesktop Area" setting to "Normal: Change allowed; contents hidden from OS" If you are going to delete the IBM Service partition, instead choose "Disabled: Not Usable. Visible and reclaimable".

1. Connect the external CD drive, put the first install CD into the drive, and then restart the PC. The Windows XP installer should start up. If not, you may need to restart the machine, press F1 while starting to enter the BIOS setup, and then set the external CD drive to be higher in priority than the internal hard drive on the list of boot devices.

2. Follow the prompts on-screen to do a fresh install of Windows XP.

3. When you get to the steps for partitioning your hard disk, you have a decision to make. If you want to keep the IBM service partition, be sure not to write over it. If you want to discard the partition and recover an extra 4.9 GB of drive space, tell Windows to use the entire disk. I chose the latter, but you may want to do differently. If you remove the IBM service partition and later want it back, you'll probably have to use the IBM recovery CDs that you made to restore the entire disk first, then go back and reinstall Windows again. Choose carefully!

**Edit 9/2/06**
When installing Windows, the Windows installer will install its own boot loader, thus over-writing the IBM bootloader that allows you to start up into the IBM service partition (by pressing the Blue Access IBM button on startup). The partition will still remain on your disk, but you will not be able to access it until you replace the Windows bootloader. People who dual-boot multiple operating systems have this problem.

According to Bit_Bucket, you can restore the correct functioning of the blue "Access IBM" button by keeping the IBM service partition intact during the clean install of Windows. After you have finished installing Windows then install IBM Rescue and Recovery. The installation of Rescue and Recovery will restore the IBM bootloader. See his post of 2/13/06, the second one from the top on page 3 of this thread.

4. Enter the Product Key from the sticker on the bottom of your tablet when prompted.

5. At the appropriate point in the install process, Windows will prompt you to insert the second CD that contains the Tablet PC components and the .NET components.

6. Near the end of the install process, Windows will ask again for the first CD.

7. When your machine restarts at the end, you should see the Keyboard Surrogate appear on the desktop and you will know that you have successfully installed XP Tablet Edition, not just plain XP.

8. After entering passwords and user account names, Windows will probably nag you to activate over the Internet. Dismiss the prompt with "I'll activate later". You first need to install your network card drivers before you can activate.

9. Go to "My Computer" and open the C: drive. At this point in the process, you should only have three folders; "Documents and Settings", "Program Files", and "WINDOWS". Create another folder called "Drivers". Insert the second CD into the external CD drive and copy the folder "77RA05WW" into this folder (this is the current version of the Broadcom Ethernet driver as of the date of this article).

10. Open the C:\Drivers\77RA05WW\TOOLS\DRVINST folder and click on Setup.exe to install the Ethernet driver.

11. After you restart the machine, you should have Internet access (provided that you're connected to a wired LAN).

**Edit 1/30/06**
If internet access is working, go ahead and activate Windows now.

At this point you won't have the correct display driver, audio, or wireless, and some of the tablet buttons and Fn keys won't yet be working, but we'll fix those next. Open Internet Explorer and go to Lenovo's web site at http://www.lenovo.com

Go to the "Support and downloads" area and enter the IBM Product Number from the sticker on the bottom of your tablet, then click on "Software and Device Drivers - ThinkPad X40, X41, X41 Tablet". This will bring up a list of drivers and software downloads that are specifically for your tablet PC version. Scroll down the list and find the "Software Installer". As of the date of this article it was version 3.21.0601 dated December 20, 2005. Download the file to your desktop and then install it.

12. The software installer makes it easy to find and download all of the drivers that you'll need for the tablet PC. Kudos to IBM for this nifty tool. Start the software installer, and on the first screen choose "Install or upgrade driver(s) or software", then click on "Next". Be sure that "C:\Drivers" is listed in the "Search the following locations" box, and be sure that "Retrieve latest information on the internet" is checked. Choose "Next" and the installer will search IBM's web site for drivers. At this point it will find a lot of them. You should probably allow it to download them all, and this will take a while. Go take a well-deserved break!

Some people have reported that the Software Installer does not automatically find all of the required drivers and programs for their tablets, like it did for mine. If you seem to be missing a driver or want to verify, go to Lenovo's web site and view the list of drivers to see if you've got all of the ones that you wanted.

13. Here's where you'll want to make careful decisions. If you just install every driver and utility you'll end up with a machine that is slower than it needs to be. Let's start by installing only the essentials. We can run the installer again later to install the rest.

14. Press "Next" to get to the "Install Package" page of the Software Installer. Let's start by installing the drivers for the Intel Chipset Support 4 for Windows 2000/XP, ThinkPad Video Features(Intel 910GML/915GM) for Windows 2000/XP, the ThinkPad Track Point Driver, ThinkPad Power Management Driver, ThinkPad SATA Power Management Driver. Put check marks next to those drivers and uncheck the rest, then choose "Install".

15. After re-booting the machine, go to Start/All Programs/Windows Update. If you are a Microsoft Office user, consider signing up for Microsoft Update, which is like Windows Update except that it will simultaneously update your Office programs. To do this, click on the link on the right side of the first page. You'll have to install an active-X control that will first validate your copy of Windows, and then you'll eventually end up at the Microsoft Update web page.

16. Choose "Custom" (not Express) so that you can see all of the proposed updates. BE CAREFUL! If MS update proposes updating an IBM hardware driver, do not download it! You'll want to download device drivers from IBM. Look through the list and download all of the updates to Windows XP. Do this two or three times until you have all of the updates for XP, and the .NET framework updates for tablet PC, including 1.1, 1.1 Hotfix, and 2.0. In keeping with the philosophy of only installing software that you need (to keep the registry size under control), choose not to download optional components that you know you won't be using.

At this point you should have a working version of XP Tablet Edition, so navigate around it for a while. Notice how fast it responds, how quickly it reboots, and how responsive it is. As we continue to load more programs, things will get progressively slower so enjoy it while it lasts!

17. Time to load more IBM device drivers, so go back to the IBM Software Installer. Here are the drivers that I chose to install:

• Atmel TPM Driver (security chip)
• IBM ThinkPad Audio Features VI for Windows 2000/ XP
• IBM ThinkPad Tablet Button Driver (support for the buttons along the edge of the tablet)
• IBM ThinkPad Tablet Shortcut Menu (the toolbox button at the edge of the tablet)
• Intel(R) PRO/Wireless Driver (11a/b/g, 11 b/g)
• Fn On-Screen Display
• ThinkPad Configuration (this utility allows you to change some settings in the BIOS from within Windows)
• ThinkPad Integrated 56k Modem for Windows 2000/XP
• ThinkPad Web Navigation Keys Agent (support for browser forward/backward keys near the arrow keys)
• ThinkVantage Active Protection System (I've already had one hard drive develop bad sectors, so I'm paranoid about avoiding damage to the new drive)
• ThinkVantage Fingerprint Software (so convenient)
• **Edit 9/2/2006**Microsoft Windows XP update module Q920295 - ThinkPad X41 Tablet -This update from Microsoft almost completely eliminates the "stuttering cursor" effect on Tablet PCs. Highly recommended!

18. More importantly, you need to consider which drivers and programs to NOT install. Here are the ones that I passed on, with a few words of explanation. Again, make your own choices.

• ThinkVantage Technology - System Migration Assistant (maybe this would help in moving this new image to another PC, but not needed now)
• IBM ThinkPad Power Manager -- This is a nifty utility that allows more control over the machine's power states than Windows, but it has a fatal flaw. In order for it to automatically switch between your power profiles, the great-big honking battery symbol must be displayed in the taskbar. On this little screen, that's a waste of space when there's so little screen real estate available. And it's two more processes to load at startup. No thanks. Windows can manage the power profiles acceptably well, with the same great battery life as the IBM Power Manager.
• Scroll Lock Indicator Utility - another startup process. No thanks.
• ThinkPad Easy Eject Utility - you may need this if you have a docking station. I don't.
• ThinkPad FullScreen Magnifier -- I'll pass
• ThinkPad Keyboard Customizer Utility - this was one of the processes that was always crashing in the factory installation of windows. I was afraid to try again.
• ThinkPad Presentation Director - The Fn+F7 toggle key performs this function just fine
• ThinkVantage Access Connections -- you may want to consider this choice carefully. I really like what this utility is designed to accomplish. I love the ability to customize a connection profile, and really appreciate all of the detailed information that Access Connections can provide about your wireless connection, the channel in use, the nifty wireless map in version 4; the idea is wonderful. The problem is in the execution. Access Connections is horribly slow; one of the real performance drags on the machine. If you have to work in multiple locations with both fixed IP addresses and automatic (DHCP) address assignment then you may need this program. If, however, you always connect via DHCP (automatic), then you'll find that the native Windows Wireless Zero Configuration utility works much faster. I passed on Access Connections. I miss the ability to get detailed information about my wireless connection, but to tell you the truth, Windows Wireless Zero connects so much faster that I don't even think about it. I just open my laptop cover at home, and I'm automatically connected to the home wireless network. Open it at work and I'm automatically connected to a Secure-W2 network, open it in the classroom and I'm automatically connected to my wireless projector. No fuss, no delays, but very Spartan. If you can accept the performance hit, Access Connections is a great program; just be sure to turn off the automatic search mode and select your connection profile manually with Fn+F5, unless you like waiting forever for it to automagically establish a connection.
• ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery - another very nice program with problems. It starts a background process called "logmon.exe". I found that when I was viewing web sites with Flash animation, logmon was using up to 30% of the CPU, making the machine run slower. I ended up uninstalling Rescue and Recovery and instead using Acronis True Image as a backup solution. Rescue and Recovery is free, however (well, you paid for it when you bought the machine). I like True Image a lot better.
• TrackPoint Accessibility Features - you may need these if you have a handicap
• Bluetooth Drivers -- install these only if you are using Bluetooth devices

With Drivers installed, it's time to load up your favorite software applications. Just remember that the more stuff you add, the larger the Windows Registry will become. A large registry will slow down the startup and shutdown time, a phenomenon that has come to be called “Windows Arthritis�.

19. Go to Sun's web site and download the latest version of Java. Or, you could use IBM's version; your choice.

20. Install Adobe (Macromedia) Flash

21. Install your favorite web browser. I currently am using Firefox and IE7.

22. Install an Antivirus product. This will cause a big performance hit, especially if you set your AV software to scan every file on disk reads. If instead you first do a full scan to be sure that there are no infected files on the machine, then set your AV software to scan only on disk writes, the hit won't be as bad.

23. Go to Microsoft’s Tablet PC web page and download all of the free goodies for Tablet PCs, including the Tablet PC Experience Pack, the Tablet PC Education Pack, and PowerToys for Tablet PC.

24. As you install software, keep your eye on the Startup folder. Just because a program installs a startup task in there doesn't mean that you should let it. Each startup task only makes the machine take longer to start up or log in. Also keep an eye on the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Cur rentVersion\Run" branch in the registry to see if programs are putting startup processes in there. Some of these are required, so leave them alone if you don't fully understand what they are there for. Delete the ones that are optional. Each of the files in this branch is loaded at startup, again slowing the machine down. **Be careful when editing the Registry, you know the drill.**

25. Defragment your disk frequently during the installation process. A fragmented hard drive will slow the machine down considerably; remember that this is only a 4200 rpm drive, so don't make it hunt all over the place for sectors.

26. When you've finished installing all of your programs, copy over your user files, set up your email software, and get things tweaked the way you like. I also put a folder in the root of the C: drive called "XP Install CD", and copied the contents of the CMPNENTS and I386 folders from the Windows Tablet PC Install CDs into the folder. Then you won’t need the CDs when Windows needs to find a printer driver, or whatever. Be sure to tell Windows where the installer files are located by opening the Registry Editor and navigating to the key "HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Cur rentVersion\Setup\. Change the data in the key "Source Path" from "D:" to "C:\XP Install CD\"

Finally, benchmark your machine. Compare the time it takes to start up, open programs, hibernate, standby, and shut down with the times that it used to take before you reinstalled Windows. You should be amply rewarded for your hard work. I'd be interested in hearing how this worked for anyone who has tried it. Please post your results.

I still can't get over how well this little X41T performs now compared to the way it performed when it was fresh from the factory. Fixing it takes a lot of time, but it's absolutely worth the effort. I couldn't be happier[thumbsup]

[bmhome1]

Mark,

Fantastic tutorial and great information even if one doesn't own an IBM tablet! Do you feel registry cleaners are effective in continually maintaining the OS speed over time? I know they are controversial and some feel they are useless.

I have found quite the opposite, my OS install is the original with 240 applications now in the Programs folder and grown to over 12GB in size even with all possible data files on separate partition. Yet the speed is still high overall, standby is instantaneous, hibernation less than 20 seconds. I've got tons of processes loaded (75 - 80) and lots of startups (load to desktop takes long time but flies then on).

I run Registry Mechanic several times a week, and it always finds a least a dozen dead registry entries and sometimes several hundred after a large application uninstall. My year old OS has had at least a thousand to three thousand dead registry keys cleaned over that time and I really believe it is a key component in maintaining overall OS speed. I notice that most of the anti-registry cleaner camp also advocate a clean reinstall twice a year to remove "cruft." The implication seems pretty clear to me. Most users don't realize a registry entry is made for every file ever placed on the desktop which will grow very large indeed just from that single function.

I also have found a clear relationship with problematic installs or uninstalls and just running the registry cleaner to quickly resolve them. Invariably there will be many dead registry entries left behind even from smooth uninstalls. Over time, I feel the registry grows to be huge (relative to the small entry sizes) and that is really the source of much of the accepted OS slowdown equated with "bloat."

I also run a good defragment application frequently (O&O my choice after trials of all available) and by keeping fragmentation at very low levels (2-3% typical, never over 5%) there is a small, but palpable speed benefit along with the resulting very short defrag process time.

Running CCleaner for removing temp files, Registry Mechanic and O&O Defrag takes only a few minutes (because the low levels of processing remains so short, O&O defrag takes two or three minutes instead of hours dealing with badly defragmented OS). My OS is huge with many, many large applications yet just as fast as when first loaded.

In the beginning I closely monitored every new application's affect on OS overall speed (some got dumped for that very reason, there's no excuse for the resource load QuickTime dumps into an OS, to me its more like malware) and often easily found much better alternatives, often freeware. Getting rid of Acrobat Reader's bloat and replacing with 2MB freeware Fox Reader for same PDF handling at twice the rendering speed, as an example.

Maintaining the speed of the OS over time can be a challange keeping the careful setup benefits. Everything added to the OS potentially can quickly ruin the hard earned speed with the endless injection of added startup entries, or worst of all, auto update checks enabled at startup being added without asking first. I have found freeware Autoruns very useful for keeping those in check and freeware Zone Alarm's secondary feature of disabling apps "phoning home."

Then there's vigilance needed to shut out the continous assault of spyware and malware getting in and wrecking the OS speed. But that's a subject onto itself.

[Shadowen77]

AWESOME K0lo! Fantastic post!!! I've been thinking about doing this for some time but knew it would be a major hassle and wanted to make sure the benefits would be worth it. Sounds like they are. It's really a shame the X41T is so crippled out of the box.

Also like you I can't stress enough how much Virus Scanners slow down WinXP. I'm actually so disillusioned with them that I haven't had one active daily for years.

My strategy is to just stay away from ever using Outlook/IE, and then run a forced HD check every month or when I've been downloading/running some sketchy programs... usually with just a free Antivirus scanner. Has worked like a charm.

Thanks for the step-by-step... I'll post my experiences using your message as a guide when I can track down an external CD-ROM drive.

[bmhome1]

Have you tried either NOD32 or (my choice) Kaspersky Anti-virus? They are leagues ahead of competitive and more widely known applications; lean in size, VERY low resource use, and most importantly updated frequently, often several times a day. The protection they offer monitoring all web activity in real-time makes them essential in today's environment. Kaspersky always running has virtually zero effect on OS speed or web speed for me, except during full scans.

[royarad]

Great Post i will be doing it in a few days i will keep you posted.

[bastiaan]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to write it all down.

Guess it would be a good addition to mention the two files you need to save to keep the activation valid. I am on the road now so can't look them up. Better put them in the orginal posting.

[k0lo]

Bastiaan:

No need to do that. After you finish the installation and connect to the internet, just activate again.

[geoPirat]

Wow - Thank you VERY much for this detailed tutorial. I have the X41T for three weeks now and wished I could have installed the machine as you dircribe when it was virgin.

Just wanted to give my experience. When I got the machine (with 512 kB RAM), it was not as slow as you described, but still unacceptable slow.

After I installed the additional 1024 kB RAM after one week, the perfomance of the machine improved much. My times are in between your Column B and Column D times. I used the Kensington RAM, so cost were acceptable.

I usually build up my Laptops from the scratch every 12 months, so I bookmarked this topic for further use.