Requesting suggested Windows XP Professional software and tweaks

Hey!

I just installed Windows XP Professional (32 bit) yesterday, to run some old CBTs. And they work perfectly. So Im set with regards to what I need it to do.

But, as expected, I enjoy maximising any install I have (common problem amongst us Im sure ), and I asked for Nvidia 1070 in a thread under the Hardware section.

When It comes to software and addons/tweaks; any suggestions?

I installed Service Pack 3, and did the patch registry hack, so Ive updated Windows XP as far as Microsoft allows me.
Ive installed Firefox, MalwareBytes and 360 TotalSecurity (, as suggested by Elisabeth in another thread).

I also have an issue that checkdisk keeps wanting to run during startup. I checked the scheduled tasks, and there is nothing there to remove. Also, I checked my registry, as recommened by a blogpost, and I couldnt find the registry entry he was pointing to. Anything you might be able to shed light on? I can manually cancel the checkdisk session, so its not a major problem.

Any other suggestions?

 

if as in your other thread, I would let 360 resolve anything it finds, I have not had a false positive, and since you use 360 then I know it scans flash drives before you can open them, flash drives are a good way to infect a computer if you do not scan them first. 360 does its best scanning with all 5 engines running.

and as for xp tweaks, I do a lot of them anytime I reinstall but they are subjective and you need to troll through several links and threads to pick the ones you want, then open notepad or a word program and list all changes and how to to do them, so you will know next time:

https://www.google.com/search?sourc...b..9.17.2856...0j0i131k1j0i10k1.0.THgEXzLXTk0

 

One suggested thing I do right away is kill all the garbage that xp comes with, netmeeting, outlook, front page, media player etc..

It requires a hack since all these file re install themselves right after deleting.

I boot from a linux live CD, delete all the prefetch files for the things I don't want, like windows activation, all the program mentioned above and then delete the folders from within linux where they are not protected. After a reboot they never come back but the empy folders re appear. With a further hack those can be made to go away.

I also go to services and disable about half of them.

As final I run a batfile in startup that kills all other unwanted programs on start up, wmipserv, alg.exe etc..

 

or you can just delete the files FIRST in the dll cache, (show hidden folders) and then you can delete the files inside the folder, I read somewhere long ago that the folders need to be there, but if you have no problem with them gone, great, I also delete MSN and netmeeting , online services, movie maker and msn games .
You can also remove alot of stuff if you make a lite iso with nlite.