World Magazine 2024
- When in Control Panel, look for the System icon and double click on it to open the Systems Properties page.
- File System Button –
When you click the File System Button, you’ll see the File System Properties sheet (Figure I) and you’ll be viewing the settings for your Hard Disk. Most installations of Windows 98 set the Typical Role for this computer to a Desktop Computer configuration. (See top Red Arrow at Figure I). Now, using the down arrow to the right of the entry “Desktop Computer”, change the typical role of the computer to Network Server (See Figure J). Even though your computer may not be a server or even on a network, making this change will increase the number of cache buffers for Windows and improve the system’s performance in some areas. Next, set the Read-ahead optimization to Full if it isn’t already there (Lower Red Arrow). Once you’ve made the change, click Apply. Windows will ask you to restart your computer for these changes to take effect.Figure I:
Figure J:
- Now let’s make some changes at the CD-ROM Tab by clicking on it. When the property sheet opens for your CD-ROM drive, it will look like the example in Figure K.
Figure K:
Set the Supplemental Cache Size to Large and set the Optimize Access Pattern to Quad Speed or Higher. These settings make quite a difference to your file system. Again, once you’ve made the change, click Apply. Now let’s go back to the System Properties Page by clicking OK, as there are just a few more things to check and change.
- Back at the System Properties Page, click the Graphics button. This will display the Advanced Graphics Settings dialog box. If your computer is of recent vintage, 1 to 2 years old, set the Hardware Acceleration to Full. If your graphics card (video card) is capable of maximum acceleration, this change will help you gain the full potential of your graphics card. Once you’ve made the change, click Apply and then click OK to close the page.
As you can see in Figure H above, this page tells you quite allot about this computer. It lets you know the total amount of physical memory in the computer, the amount of free (unused) Windows system resources, that your Windows file system is 32-bit as is your Virtual Memory and that there is no disk compression and no PCMCIA cards installed.
At the bottom of this page, you will see three Advanced Settings Buttons. One for the File System, another for Graphics and another for Virtual Memory. There are three basic ways in which you can tune from this screen, and we will walk you through each one.
