My BF2 Setup some may like this other may not

[fluffydice]

Hi there,

I have always thought that Windows XP causes performance problems when gaming, it could be firewalls, windows services, antivirus ect. My installation of the 1.03 patch went fine the only problem was the invalid key problem which I fixed by doing a reinstall.

My XP has a separate hardware profile just for gaming and a separate user called ‘Gaming’. With this hardware profile I disable all unnecessary services, things like firewalls, antivirus and windows services. I can’t prove that this will improve your performance or give you less crashes but I have never had any problems with gaming. I have a 6600GT and I run BF2 at 1280x1024 and I have great performance, never had any crashes.

When I boot up with this hardware profile and the ‘Gaming’ user I also created a batch file (Taskkill.bat) that runs when the Gaming user logs on, that kills some programs that are loaded from the registry. I don’t recommend deleting any thing from the registry! If anyone is interested in the process killer here is a link http://home.broadpark.no/~dwatts/Process.zip or you can search the web for it. Copy the file into C:\WINDOWS\system32. After the batch is complete I am only using 87MB of ram for windows out of 1GB of memory

Say I installed Sygate Firewall. I disabled the Services but the GUI still loads. So I use this command process /q Smc.exe

Taskkill.bat

process /q daemon.exe
process /q Smc.exe
process /q realmon.exe
process /q iTouch.exe
process /q EM_EXEC.exe
process /q wdfmgr.exe

To create a hardware profile right click on My Computer – Hardware – Hardware Profiles. You should only see 1 profile. Click on copy and rename it to what ever you like. I used Gaming. I also had chosen to select the default HW profile (WinXP) if nothing was selected from the user after 5 min. I then created a new user in Windows XP and made it an local Admin. This will be the user just for Gaming. Reboot the PC and choose the Gaming profile at the startup and log onto the PC with the Gaming user. Make sure that this user is a local admin.

Stop Services:
==============
Click on Control panel - administrative tool - services
Here you can stop services you don’t need running when gaming. The best thing to do here is to sort the list and view all the services that have started. If some services have not started but have an Automatic startup type then just leave it be. I set the unnecessary services that were running to Manual startup So I ended up with only 7 services running on my gaming profile.

Here is a link to see my services running that are running and the ones that are not. http://home.broadpark.no/~dwatts/services.htm

User Profile
========

Check that there is nothing in the Startup. Like in the all users startup:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Be careful not to delete anything here instead move it to the startup of your normal user account that you use for Windows

After all that you should have Windows running with hardly any services running that means allot more resources are available for gaming. Some of you will disagree with this like disabling the firewall but this profile/user account is only used for gaming not surfing or anything else. I have never had any problems since I did this in January this year.

[ptegan]

Re: My BF2 Setup some may like this other may not

Thx fluffydice, I have realy wanted to do this for a long time but have always been too lazy to figure out which services to kill and which to leave.

Thanks again. Nice to see a constructive post around here once in a while :)

[Billen]

Re: My BF2 Setup some may like this other may not

Whatever you do, never, ever disable your firewall.

If you don't understand why, feel free to post your IP here and leeave your machine running for a couple of hours.

[fluffydice]

Re: My BF2 Setup some may like this other may not

Whatever you do, never, ever disable your firewall.

If you don't understand why, feel free to post your IP here and leeave your machine running for a couple of hours.

I do undertand why, And yes i can agree with you, there are bots out there looking for security holes. I allways update with latest XP patches. My Wireless router has a built in firewall. As i said i have never had any problems. But i may ask you is Windows firewall that good. No it is not! The chances are higher you get hacked by surfing the net on dodgy websites with IE than playing BF2!
Unless you really anoy someone online and they decided to take a look at your IP.

So yes do not disable your firewall

[TacticalSkirmish]

Re: My BF2 Setup some may like this other may not

Question - I thought EM_EXEC.exe is related to the mouse (Logitech). If I remember when I quit this process my custom buttons no longer worked in the game. Perhaps EM_EXEC.exe is something else? I'll do a web search.

TS!

[fluffydice]

Re: My BF2 Setup some may like this other may not

Question - I thought EM_EXEC.exe is related to the mouse (Logitech). If I remember when I quit this process my custom buttons no longer worked in the game. Perhaps EM_EXEC.exe is something else? I'll do a web search.

TS!

I suppose it depends which model you have, I have the Logitech wireless optical with the 3 buttons. I dont use the thumb button but the rest work fine.

[TacticalSkirmish]

Re: My BF2 Setup some may like this other may not

Yes, that's why I think fluffydice. When using all the buttons on my MX510 optical mouse I'm pretty sure you need to run this process.

Interesting post nonetheless.

[Chet Spartan]

Re: My BF2 Setup some may like this other may not

Not to belittle all the work you've done fluffy, which was very well written as well, but rather for those that would like to accomplish pretty much the same thing with a lot less hassle - use SmartClose.

http://i.domaindlx.com/bmproductions/index.htm?http://i.domaindlx.com/bmproductions/smartclose/

[OldSchoolSoldier]

Re: My BF2 Setup some may like this other may not

If you're behind a NAT router that acts as a firewall and stops unsolicited traffic. If you are very sensible then you can probably do away with a software firewall. I still like to run one because I want to know what all applications are doing :)

[fluffydice]

Re: My BF2 Setup some may like this other may not

Not to belittle all the work you've done fluffy, which was very well written as well, but rather for those that would like to accomplish pretty much the same thing with a lot less hassle - use SmartClose.

http://i.domaindlx.com/bmproductions...ns/smartclose/

No, of course not thanks for posting the information. I would still setup a new hardware profile and user and then use smartclose. I dont think i would like to use smartclose with my default profile in windows. But thanks for the link. nice!

[fluffydice]

Re: My BF2 Setup some may like this other may not

If you're behind a NAT router that acts as a firewall and stops unsolicited traffic. If you are very sensible then you can probably do away with a software firewall. I still like to run one because I want to know what all applications are doing :)

I allways run a firewall in normal windows mode (windows hardware profile) like Sygate because as you said you can allow or disallow certain programs to access the internet

Another programm i like to use is codestuff starter quite a neat tool to see what processes are running or whats starting up with windows, automatic registy lookup and with a simple click you can look it up with Google.

http://www.simtel.net/product.download.mirrors.php?id=57830