Windows 7 - Tuning for Single Application

Asked By Jan van de Poll

14-Nov-09 08:03 PM

Hi all

I am evaluating XP for my purpose, (and will migrate to XPe) which is a
single application that will use:
Industrial cpu board.
usb for Joystick and I/O Board (cdc).
Full screen 1024 x 768 x 16 bit colour.
Network at startup, but then needs to disable it.
On-Board Compact Flash as hdd. (not usb)
No keyboard, no serial ports, no printer ports etc.

In order to evaluate, I made a clean copy of XP pro sp2 on a hdd, and
installed my app. However, I now need to tune xp, so that maximum task time
is given to my foreground app.

My experience with XP is from a user point of view, so my knowledge on
tuning is limited. Can anyone point me in the right direction, or a tool that
accomplishes what I am trying to do.

Because it is a standalone testrig, mistakes are not that devastating.


Regards

15-Nov-09 12:41 AM

Youre settings for that would be,R.click my computer,properties,performance,
advanced tab,processor scheduling,set to "programs" or "background services",
Memory usage, set to "programs" or "system cache".
For more info/tips,go to:
http://www.intel.com/cd/ids/developer/asmo-na/eng/189869.htm?prn=Y
or go to: http://www.microsoft.com/technet  Look in the library or search.

16-Nov-09 09:32 AM

In my experience, when tuning XP for application performance it is
pretty good out of the box and benefits most from identifying the
system services that can be disabled.  In your case, XPe allows you to
completely eliminate those components that are not needed for your
device so you will probably benefit most from starting with a working
build of XPe and removing components until you have trimmed it down to a
minimal platform that still provides your needed functionality.

For help with this process on XPe, you might want to ask in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded - there are a number of regular
posters in that group that can probably help.

--
Zaphod

Arthur Dent, speaking to Trillian about Zaphod:

17-Nov-09 08:27 PM

Hi all

Thanks for the responses. My main reason for the request was that my app was
really slow, (even when set priority "High"), but when I copied the app to
the Compact Flash, (still booting with a HDD) the speed improvement was
enormous.
I dont understand that, as there is no disk access in my app.

Regardless, I will be operating of a CF, so it is not an issue.
Once again, thanks for the help.

Regards

17-Nov-09 09:45 PM

The OS has to load your app; hence there is disk activity during the app
startup.  The OS does not necessarily load the entire app into memory; hence
there may be disk activity after the app starts.  The app may need to use
the pagefile; hence there will be disk activity then.  It is very hard to
keep a virtual memory system from using disks.
The CF card is just another type of disk...
Jim