I'll be telling you a collection of tips to improve your system performance ...

1)CHANGING THE CACHE SIZE:

Go to start --> Run --> System.ini

Write these to the system.ini file
[vcache]
MaxFileCache=8192
MinFileCache=2048
ChunkSize=512

These cache settings are for power users with 128 mb of ram ... if you have more ram ... you can increase the settings to double also.

2)Right click My Computer --> Advanced --> Performance options
Select optimize performance for Applications
And change the virtual memory size to double your RAM size ... and if you need more virtual memory ... make small amount of virtual memory on different drives. One whole piece of virtual memory slows down performance.

3)Go to Control panel --> System --> Device Manager. Go to disk drives and click on your hard drive, go to properties and click the settings tab and then check the DMA box. Do this for all your hard drives. This will improve hard drive io.

4) CHANGING THE REFRESH RATE:
Right Click on desktop --> Settings --> Advanced --> Monitor
Change the refresh rate to maximum ... greater refresh rates provide with clear screen and less eyestrain.

5) INCREASING THE MODEM SPEED:
Right Click My Computer --> Properties --> Device Manager --> Ports(if you cant find you modem port .. then go directly to modem)
Go to your modem port ... click on bits per second and change it to maximum.
Click Flow control and change it to none.
In ports ... go to Advanced .... make sure use FIFO buffers is checked ... and receive and transmit buffers should be on max.

6) You can move your temporary files to your smallest and fastest drive .... this can improve io tremendously.

7) Click ‘Display’ in Control Panel. Select ‘Effects’ tab and uncheck ‘Use transition effects for menus and tooltips’

8) Click Display in Control Panel. Select Mouse ... and uncheck the mouse shadow.