Tips and Tricks

I still remember those fun days back in 1998 when I got my first computer.

For MS-DOS there was AUTORUN.BAT, TSRs etc. When Windows 98 came to us, there was win.ini, system.ini for modifying a few system settings. Along with it came access to a powerful settings database called Windows Registry. All these were the locations you could load drivers, memory resident programs or update system settings to give your system a little dose of N2O boost.

Now in 2021-22, we still have Windows Registry and Group Policies which controls system behaviour. There are many hidden settings not normally available to the user via a UI. You can modify them to gain additional performance improvements for your ageing PC or Laptop. Make sure you backup your original or default settings.

One major, performance boost comes by switching from an HDD to an SSD. If its for your PC this is straightforward. Get a SSD (a mid-range one from WD will do). Partition it for your Windows/Linux/Pen Testing OS along with a partition for you to install Windows applications (optional but I like to keep all my files organized). For Laptops it is better to get a larger SSD to replace the existing HDD. There are SSDs can also go into the NVMe M.2 slot.