Unless you use Windows Home Server as your
main workstation, it’s unlikely that you want or need to optimize
applications. However, if you do run programs on Windows Home Server,
you can do a few things to improve the performance of those
applications. The next few sections offer some pointers for improving
the performance of applications under Windows Home Server.
Adding More Memory
All
applications run in RAM, of course, so the more RAM you have, the less
likely it is that Windows Home Server has to store excess program or
document data in the paging file on the hard disk, which is a real
performance killer. In Task Manager or Performance Monitor, watch the
Available Memory value. If it starts to get too low, consider adding
RAM to your system.
Optimizing Application Launching
Prefetching is a
Windows Home Server performance feature that analyzes disk usage and
then reads into memory the data that you or your system accesses most
frequently. You can use the prefetcher to speed up booting, application
launching, or both. You configure the prefetcher using the following
Registry key:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\
Select Edit, New, DWORD (32-bit) Value, type EnablePrefetcher, and press Enter. Once again, select Edit, New, DWORD (32-bit) Value, type EnableSuperfetch, and press Enter.
Initialize these settings as follows:
1—Use this value for application-only prefetching.
2—Use this value for boot-only prefetching.
3—Use this value for both application and boot prefetching.
I normally recommend configuring both settings to 2
for boot-only prefetching. This value improves boot performance and, on
most systems, has little or no effect on application performance
because commonly used application launch files are probably in the RAM
cache anyway. However, you can experiment with setting the values to 1 to optimize application launching.
Getting the Latest Device Drivers
If your application works with a device, check with
the manufacturer or Windows Update to see whether a newer version of
the device driver is available—in general, the newer the driver, the
faster its performance.
Setting the Program Priority in Task Manager
You can improve the performance of a program by
adjusting the priority given to the program by your computer’s
processor. The processor enables programs to run by doling out thin
slivers of its computing time to each program. These time slivers are
called cycles because they are given to programs cyclically. For example, if you have three programs running—A,
B, and C—the processor gives a cycle to A, one to B, another to C, and
then one back to A again. This cycling happens quickly, appearing
seamless when you work with each program.
The base priority
is a ranking that determines the relative frequency with which a
program gets processor cycles. A program given a higher frequency gets
more cycles, which improves the program’s performance. For example,
suppose that you raise the priority of program A. The processor might
give a cycle to A, one to B, another to A, one to C, another to A, and
so on.
Follow these steps to change a program’s priority:
1. | Launch the program you want to work with.
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2. | Open Task Manager.
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3. | Display the Processes tab.
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4. | Right-click your application’s process to display its shortcut menu.
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5. | Click Set Priority, and then click (from highest priority to lowest) Realtime, High, or AboveNormal.
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Tip
After you’ve changed the priority of one or
more programs, you might forget the values that you have assigned to
each one. To help, you can view the priority for all the items in the
Processes tab. Click View, and then click Select Columns to display the
Select Columns dialog box. Activate the Base Priority check box and
click OK. This adds a Base Priority column to the Processes list.
