How to fix randomly slow shortcut keys

From my post on microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

Problem: I have an icon on the desktop which is a shortcut to the .EXE of a file manager application. That icon has a shortcut key to it, Ctrl+Alt+N. I extremely often switch to this application, so I press the shortcut key maybe once every minute or two throughout the entire working day.

The problem is that often, Windows will NOT switch to the application when I press the keyboard shortcut, but very slowly, only after perhaps half a minute.

Solution: The best solution that was found so far is to apply this registry patch: fix slow hotkeys:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager]

"SafeDllSearchMode"=dword:00000001

Find out how much of the paging file has been used

Check current and peak paging file usage

Deleting crap in Windows XP

C:\Windows subfolders that you can safely delete:

• installer{*
• installer*.msi
• installer*.msp
• pchealth * - whatever you can delete without a sharing violation; some files get recreated
• SoftwareDistribution* - whatever you can delete without a sharing violation; some files get recreated
• system\1025 1028 1031 1033 1037 1041 1042 1054 2052 3076
• C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe # MS Out of Box Experience; to prevent repair, also wipe the files below:
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\msoobe.exe
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\oobebaln.exe
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\msobcomm.dll
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\msobdl.dll
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\msobjs.dll
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\msobmain.dll
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\msobshel.dll
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\msobweb.dll

Here is a batch file to delete some junk from Windows:

set Sys_Drive = %SystemDrive%
set Win_Dir = %WINDIR%
rem Replace above with D:\ and D:\Windows if you want to delete useless files from another Windows partition

C:
CD %Win_Dir%
del system32\dllcache\progman.exe
del system32\progman.exe
del Help\progman.*
del welcome.*
del system32\tourstart.exe
rd /S /Q Help\Tours
REM deltree was replaced by RD /S in Windows 2000/XP

del inf\mdm*
del inf\monitor*

for %%f in (*.log OEWABLog.txt) do del %%f

rem Delete the hotfix updates because they proved stable (http://www.bootstrike.com/WinXP/faq.html)
attrib /D /S -H $NtUninstall*
rd /S /Q $NtUninstall*$
echo Y | del SoftwareDistribution\Download\*

rd /S /Q "%ProgramFiles%\Online Services"

attrib -H -S %Sys_Drive%\pagefile.sys
del %Sys_Drive%\pagefile.sys

Thanks!

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