I recently found this little tweak to be very simple and at the same time very useful. Apparently M$ has been holding back on the amount of bandwidth it allows you, reserving a certain percentage back for whatever reason. Well seeing as M$ could only make things worse with that small amount of bandwidth, let’s take it back, shall we?
- Start -> Run…
- type in “gpedit.msc”
- Under Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration, click the + next to Administrative Templates
- Now click the + on the Network folder that pops down
- Select the QoS Packet Scheduler folder
- Over on the panel on the right, find and double-click “Limit reservable bandwidth” (the bastards, I know…)
- Click the Enable radio button and in Bandwidth Limit (%) type in 0
- Ok/Apply
I performed before and after download tests on two different machines that I applied this tweak to and both showed an increase of performance, but as always, your mileage may vary. At home I have DSL and after applying the tweak, I actually maxed out my bandwidth at what it’s rated for (768kbps) as opposed to what I was originally getting (around 704kbps).
Mind you, I say only XP pro and above (including 2003 server, etc) because you can modify these settings fairly easily in these versions. Home edition may or may not have the ability to modify QoS settings, or may not even have the Group Policy Editor; I am going to have to find a machine with XP Home.
While you have the Group Policy Editor up, you might as well paruse. There are a lot of settings that Windows wouldn’t let you modify otherwise. Look particularly in the User Configuration -> Administrative Templates; there are some pretty neat tweaks you can play around with.
(Note: In order to use the setting, you have to Enable it).
PM me with any comments/questions.
thoriphes
