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The Windows Magazine Test and Tuneup Kit, or Wintune for short, tests your system components and leads you through the process of optimizing Windows for best performance. The current version (2.0) is designed for Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11. This fall, we'll have a version of Wintune for Windows 95.
Wintune's Application Performance graphs give you an estimate of where the bottlenecks are in your PC. For the system being tested (Current), most of the time is being spent in the CPU and video subsystems. Concentrate your tuning efforts there.
Wintune's RAM graph shows how quickly the CPU can copy blocks of data between two locations in memory. This is a typical two-tier graph for a 486, which shows the performance advantage of the 486's built-in 8KB cache. Many systems will also have a secondary cache that will show three tiers of performance.
To get more information on a system while looking at a Comparison graph, just click on the bar for that system. You'll get a report similar to the one you get in Wintune's Details screen.
If you don't already have Wintune, you can download it from America Online (keyword WinMag), Compuserve (GO WINMAG), or our Web site (http://www.winmag.com). You can also get Wintune from the quarterly WinMag CD-ROM; call 800-???-???? to subscribe or purchase it at your local bookstore.
When you download Wintune, be sure to get the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file. This covers the most common problems and issues that users have when installing and using Wintune. If you need further help or technical support in using Wintune, check out the Wintune folders in our America Online and Compuserve forums. In addition to our support staff, other Wintune users may be able to walk you through situations they have encountered before.
When you start Wintune the first time, it will show you a system information screen. Please fill this in, and especially fill in the check box for notebook PCs if it applies. (If you want to change this data later, you can get to it through the File menu.) Wintune saves this information in the database, and also uses the notebook check box to change the tips it gives you. For example, the tips to upgrade the CPU or add a math coprocessor are not displayed for notebook PCs, since most notebooks can't do these upgrades.
Before you start to implement any of the tips that Wintune gives you, it's a good idea to back up your PC's essential configuration files. Nearly all the tips involve changes to your system configuration files, and if you make a mistake in those changes you may not be able to start Windows. At a minimum, you should include CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, SYSTEM.INI, and WIN.INI. If you plan to do any major tuneup chores such as defragmenting your hard disk, first make a full backup of all your files.
To get the most reliable results, you should run Wintune with no other applications running. A common cause is that one or more applications are in your Startup group. If other applications are active while Wintune is running its tests, they may cause the results to be erratic. In particular, the America Online 2.5 software or a background DOS session will lower Wintune's CPU result and make your system look slow. However, Wintune's results are correct in these cases. With other applications running in the background, the application that you are using gets less CPU time and runs slower.
During Wintune's video test you may get a message that says "XXX caused a General Protection Fault in YYY" where XXX and YYY will depend on your system. The most common cause of this problem is a bad video driver. Try running Windows and Wintune with the standard 640x480 VGA video driver and see if the problem disappears. If it does, you'll need to contact your PC maker or video board maker for an updated driver.
If you'd like to know more about how each of Wintune's tests are performed, click on the performance indicators after the tests have been completed. In the right-hand pane you'll see a short description of what the test does and how the test works. There's also more information on each test in Wintune's help file.
When Wintune runs its tests, it generates a graph that shows the performance of your RAM. If you'd like to see the graph after the tests have completed, click the pointer on the RAM performance indicator. Most 486 and Pentium systems will have a two-step or three-step graph due to their memory caches. A "flat" graph with little or no variation may indicate a problem with the internal or external memory cache.
For a quick at-a-glance comparison of all of Wintune's measurements, click the Performance tab, then the System Performance tab along the left side. You can choose any four systems in Wintune's database to compare to your current results. If you'd like to see a specific measurement in more detail, click the Comparisons tab.
Inside the Comparisons tab, you can quickly get a text description of a system you're using for comparison by just clicking on the graph bar for that system. A window will pop up that shows the details of how that system was configured.
In Wintune, click the Performance tab along the top and then the Application Performance tab along the left side. This screen shows you how your system compares to four others when running either a spreadsheet or word processing application. The smaller the bar, the better the performance. The segments in each bar show approximately how much time is spent in each subsystem. You'll generally get the most payback by improving the subsystem in your PC that has the longest bar segment.
If Wintune tells you to check your turbo switch or memory wait state settings, you'll also want to make sure your BIOS information is correct. Usually, you'll see a message telling you what keys to press to get into the BIOS setup when your PC boots. Once you're there, make sure that your caches are enabled, power saving features are disabled, and memory wait states are correct for the RAM that's installed.
If you're using the standard Windows VGA or Super VGA drivers, you're probably not getting the best performance out of your video board. Most video boards come with diskettes that have high-performance Windows drivers. You can also find video drivers in the vendor support forums of services like America Online or Compuserve.
If your video board and monitor support multiple resolutions and color depths, run Wintune at each one and compare results for the different video settings. Some vendors optimize their drivers for a particular setting, so you may find that 1024x768 resolution is actually faster than 800x600. Most video boards perform best at 256 colors, but some high-performance boards handle higher color modes with no loss in performance.
If you have a system with only 4MB of RAM, Wintune's top tip will probably be to add at least another 4MB of RAM. Windows can barely run in 4MB, and Windows applications are getting bigger all the time. When it runs out of RAM, Windows swaps data to the hard disk, which can make your system slow as molasses. Given a choice between a faster processor and more RAM on a 4MB system, always add more RAM first.
If you take Wintune's advice and enable 32-bit disk or file access, there's a small chance that Windows won't start because your system isn't compatible with those features. If that happens, start Windows with "WIN /D:X" to temporarily disable the features, start the Control Panel Enhanced icon, and turn the features off again. It's also a good idea to keep a DOS boot diskette handy in case you make changes to your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS file that keep the system from booting into DOS properly. If you're using MS-DOS 6.x you can press F5 at the "Starting MS-DOS..." message to bypass these startup files.
For a hard disk larger than 528MB, you may need a special driver from your disk or system vendor in order to get 32-bit disk access. If you try to use the standard driver that is provided by the "Enable 32-bit disk access" box, Windows may give you an error message after you restart your system. Windows 95 has built-in support for 32-bit disk access on large hard disks, so getting the special Windows 3.1 driver isn't worth the effort if you plan to upgrade soon.
Wintune will recommend that you add a math coprocessor if you don't have one already installed. However, this is usually the last (and lowest priority) tip in the list. Most applications don't get the kind of performance boost that justifies the cost of a math coprocessor. CAD or engineering calculations are some of the few areas where you'll get a large bang for the buck. Even most spreadsheet users don't make enough use of complex math to justify the cost of a math coprocessor.
The best way to use Wintune's advice is to first do all the things that are free, such as adjusting cache sizes or turning on 32-bit disk and file access. Then take a look at the tips that require money, such as adding RAM or replacing your video board. For example, if your current system is a recent-vintage 486 with 4MB of RAM that you plan to keep a few more years, then a $150 investment for 4MB of RAM makes sense. On the other hand, if you have an old 386 it's probably better to spend the money on a new computer.
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