Normally, multiple instances of the same application (such as multiple windows in Internet Explorer) will share a single process thread. If you have stability problems or slow application loads, launching each application in its own process will improve stability and speed up load times.
Navigate to:
HLM\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ PriorityControl
Optimise XP’s process priority control by setting the DWORD Value for Win32PrioritySeperation to… well, the default is 2, and 27, 28, 37, 38, and more have all been quoted as good values (in decimal). Experiment a little. But after doing this, open My Computer, go to Folder Options under the Tools menu, choose the View tab, and check “Launch folder windows in a separate process.”
This will run each application window in a separate process. However, note that that each process will consume the same amount of memory: this hack is therefore only recommended if you have 512 MB or more of system RAM. Ideally, a restart is not required.
