Is a seperate User Setup in XP Worth It?

I was wondering if it would be worth it to set up a seperate user profile in XP to play games. My concern is performance - would a clean profile with only games in the start menu yield any sort of performance gain? I would keep things to a minimum in the background as well. Since my wife used the computer too, there is a plethora of crap all over the desktop. The computer does have 3 hard drives, with programs mostly located on only two of the drives.

If it were worth it, where might I find a good resource on setting it up. I do have a general idea of how to create a new profile, but I have never done it.

Thanks.

 

This is more of a Software question than just a game question, as performance tweaks help all software.

Wouldn't make a whole lot of difference unless she's got a lot of applications running in the background, and your account could be set up without those running. Other than that, the serious performance helpers are Windows Services, and those are global settings that would affect both accounts. You CAN trim the Services you don't need. Black Viper's site has excellent tutorials on setting up Services. I'm at work and don't have the link to his site. You can Google it, or somebody may notice and post it here, or you can ask in the Software forum & should get a quick answer.

 

well i can see what your thinking but no, it wouldn't help. what makes games better is better hardware such as more ram, a good video card, sound card, and good amount of space on a hardrive. You see, even though you would logging out of the other account and into the 'game' account, there would still be stuff on the hardrive from the other account. Also what makes games run a little better is eliminating the other stuff that is running.

 

Good site Black Viper, excellent tutorials on what should be running and what shouldn't. Here's the link.

http://www.blackviper.com

 

Don't mean to be rude but making a seperate profile with different services running and no backround, sounds, or desktop icons and such would free up resources (ram, cpu cycles, ect) which would help games (tho not THAT much, it still helps).