Speed Up the Windows XP New Menu

Creating new files or folders is quick and easy using the ‘New’ popup menu in Windows XP. Right-click in the explorer or an open window and the popup menu shows a list of available files you can create. This list is actually based on templates for various applications. So as you use your PC for a longer time, the list grows with the many applications that you have installed over time.

What you might have noticed is that showing the ‘New’ menu in Windows XP is slow when many templates are available for new files. As a result this handy feature can become slow and frustrating, giving the impression of a slow computer.

So let’s speed up Windows XP by speeding up the ‘New’ menu. The best way to do this is by using a Microsoft tool called Tweak UI. This tool can be downloaded for free at: www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Once you install this application, start the tool and select the Templates category in the list on the right-hand side. The right-had panel will list all the document templates that are installed and available on your computer. Each template has a checkbox to indicate whether or not they are available in the New menu. So remove the checkmarks in the checkboxes in front on the templates that you hardly use or can do without. This will reduce the number of entries in the ‘New’ menu, and effectively speed up the menu.

Keep in mind that you can easily activate the templates again if you later decide you do need them. Using the Tweak UI tool to optimize Windows XP this way will help you to maximize your computer performance.