[Digital Genesis]

Turbocharge Photoshop, without expensive hardware!
(all you hardware buffs, you can use these tips too and totally rocket out of this world)

First of all:

Preferences > Memory & image cache

Disable 'Use cache for histograms'
Set cache levels to 1
Set memory usage to around 90 percent (or appropriate for your current memory configuration)

Next:

Click the little arrow to the right of the Layers palette. Choose 'Palette options'
Disable thumbnails. That's right, learn to use descriptive words instead.

Next:

Unless you have very simple imagery on the screen, you should disable or hide the navigator window. It takes up a lot of resources to keep that little window updated. Personally I have it sharing a window with 'Info'. If I really need the navigator, I'll click over to it, use it and click back on info.

If you are a navigator addict, like I used to be, learn to use keyboard shortcuts. Here's a few of the most common:

H - for the hand/pan tool.
Z - for the zoom tool. Pressing ALT and clicking, while using the zoom tool will zoom out.
J- Airbrush
E-Eraser
B-Brush
X-Switch color fg/bg

It's usually faster and more precise using the zoom tool and pan tool than the puny navigator window anyway.

Next:
To improve saving times-

Preferences > Saving files

Disable 'Include composited image with layered files'.
This cuts down file size, and you won't be able to view your image in various popular image browsers. (who cares, you should be keeping the finished-for-distribution products as flattened tiff files anyways (that you'll then mutilate with awful jpg compression :/

While you are there, choose 'Never Save' in the menu for Image Previews.
This way photoshop won't have to internally flatten and resize (create thumbnail) the picture for small scale previews.
If you save often, like I do, you will appreciate this a lot. It improves speed significantly.

Next :

Make sure you don't have any annoying programs running the background. Virus scanners are notoriously evil. Do you -really- need it? Most people don't get that many foreign files.
Disable and make sure it doesn't load in memory upon start up.

Norton utilities and their brethren. More needless crap (hehe). Norton protected recycle bin can be a little leech. System protection and anti-crash software - disable and make sure it doesn't load on start up. It takes up a lot of resources. You don't need inactive dll's remaining in memory, after manually ending the program. Better not to have it load at all in the first place.

Next:

Frequently defragment your harddrive. I use Norton Speeddisk.
Also frequently troubleshoot your computer. Although flawed shortcuts and various registry errors, etc. usually won't slow down your computer, you can be sure it'll kill it without mercy, when you need it the least.

Next:

Make sure you're using FAT32 (there's a fat32 converter included with new versions of windows), It's faster and more space efficient than fat16.

Finally, optimize your registry. There are various programs to accomplish this, but the most effective way I've discovered is thus:


(Quoting an online site page I saved, can't remember where I found it though):

====================================================(START OF QUOTE)

The following method will provide a safe, thorough cleansing of the registry, removing invalid references unlike any program on the market, and best of all, it's FREE! Be sure to follow the directions exactly. The procedure scans all keys and verifies that the data is present on the drive, therefore it may take several hours to complete, depending on the speed or your system, size of the hard drive and the amount of programs on it. It will appear to hang at certain times, but don't fret, just let it run, it will complete.

Preliminary:

1. Shut down all unnecessary running processes (including screen saver).
2. Scandisk all drives (Thorough Mode).
3. Defrag all drives.
4. To be able to compare the "before and after" of the process, copy your SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files (in C:\Windows) to the C: (root) directory. "Show all files" in the explorer View/Options will need to be enabled to see these.
5. Click Start, Run, and type in REGEDIT, OK or Enter.
6. Verify that My Computer is highlighted, then click Registry, Export Registry File.
7. Enter Filename- C:\TEMP.REG, and save to the C: (root) directory.

The nitty-gritty:

1. Click Start, Shut-down, Restart in MSDos mode.
2. At the prompt, type- REGEDIT /C C:\TEMP.REG (Enter)
3. Again, the process may take quite some time, so go enjoy a movie or a round of golf, or a good night's sleep (if it's that time.)
4. When completed, type EXIT to return to Windows.

You can compare the results of your old user.dat and system.dat files in C: to the new ones in C:\Windows. Once you are satisfied that everything is functioning normally, the files you created in C: may be deleted - system.dat, user.dat, temp.reg.

Even after running Norton Utilities and FixIt's registry tools, including the Registry Defrag, this method trimmed another 91K off these two files on my system. I have heard reports of it shrinking the registry by as much as 1 meg. for some.


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Views By Moon:
(1) Our gang personally likes to use "scanreg/fix" after a re-boot to a DOS command prompt But the above scenario works. While your there, you might go ahead and compress the Registry so Type "scanreg/opt" [Done].
(2) We also think the use of MS regcln is a useless piece of crap "in that it only checks COM, OLE links with a few system program files".
(3) Also, It would be a good idea to save backups outside of the default directory -- maybe even on another HD or partition.
Note: A handy utility called SrEdit (in the Windows 98 Resource Kit) which lets you add certain files, and change the number of scanreg backups OR edit the Scanreg.ini .

====================================================(END OF QUOTE)

Of course you need you make sure that windows is otherwise running efficiently. You can check this out by going to Control Panel, clicking the System icon and checking the Performance tab.

Make sure you have the latest drivers for your hardware, on a frequent basis, by visiting the manufacturers' websites and looking under support/drivers.

That's it. There are more and still yet obscure ways of improving your system. Such as hardware jumper settings, overclocking and do-it-yourself improvements to source codes - but since these are all very setup specific (and tend to be risky) I won't stick my neck out.

I hope someone got something out of this

DG

[Eudoxus]

Wow,cool! You didn't have write some much stuff ya' know. But I must admit, it does help. Thanx! :)

Oh yeah, that's right the quote bitty isn't yours, ah well that's still a lot'o'witt'n

[Frost]

Thanks Digital Genesis! A very useful post!

frost.

[n8]

woah...thats alota shtuff...
thanx =)

[[Shizo]]

About startups.. to disable all that POS on start up which cuts down on your RAM and swap file, go to Start/Run type msconfig and OK it.
Go to Startup panel, uncheck everything you dont need. [u]NEVER[/u] uncheck ScanRegistry and SystemTray!!!!!
You will also have to look up what you REALLY need besides that, say for example Tablet.exe :o

And yes, RealPlayer will have to go too :o
No more easy viewing of your pr0n movies eh?


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Russia is power. You dont agree --> we nuke you!

[B]

for those of you who don't know this,.
go into the registry to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENT_VERSION/RUN

to disable apps starting with your computer

[Zor]

Another way to get the best mem out of your system is if you type "MSCONFIG" within the run command, this is a really easy way to tweek that reg without going into it yourself. (win98 only)

its amazing what you will find that is loaded on bootup.. stuff like realplayer and winamp icq etc etc.. take them all out do you really need them? or is moving ya mouse over the start menu a lil bit tricky

[Guybrush]

oh, and you could clean up your startup folder ! something with msconfig.exe or regedit ..

guybrush