Quite frequently OS/2 performance can be dramatically improved with a few simple
tuning tips. Back your config.sys up before starting.

 * If you're not running HPFS, REM out the IFS=C:\OS2\BOOT\HPFS.IFS statement
   in your CONFIG.SYS. Unless you're running HPFS it wastes .5MB of RAM plus
   whatever disk cache you're allocating.

 * Disk caches should be no larger than 512K and possibly lower. There are
   three general cases here (These numbers for a 16MB system):

   - Running HPFS only: Make HPFS Cache 512K, make DISKCACHE=32,LW

   - Running HPFS and FAT: Make HPFS Cache 256 or 512 K (Check system
     performance on both. If it doesn't noticeably degrade at 256, leave
     it there) and DISKCACHE=256,LW,32,AC:C (Or whatever fat drives you have)

   - Running FAT only: REM out HPFS.IFS line, try the same DISKCACHE line as
     above, try it at 256 and 512. If performance doesn't noticeably improve
     at 512, leave it at 256.

    - On 8 MB systems, Caches should be no larger than 256K and preferably 128K

    - On 4 MB systems, Caches should be no larger than 64K and preferably 32K.
      You can _NOT_ run HPFS on 4 MB systems, so get rid of the HPFS drivers.

 * Locate the MAXWAIT= line in your CONFIG.SYS and set it to 2.

 * Locate the THREADS= statement in your CONFIG.SYS and set it to 256. If you
   are on a network or run a -lot- of programs, you can try setting this to
   512. On 4MB systems, leave THREADS= where it is.

 * There are usually some extraneous drivers you can remove. Warp installs
   floppy drivers for both Microchannel machines (IBM2FLPY.ADD) and other
   machines (IBM1FLPY.ADD). REM out the extraneous one depending on what type
   of bus you have. Since you have a Pentium machine, it's a pretty safe bet
   that IBM2FLPY is the one you want to REM out.

 * Put SET RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY in your CONFIG.SYS

 * Run a normal load of programs on your machine and then check
   C:\OS2\SYSTEM\SWAPPER.DAT. Divide its size by 1024 and use that to
   determine how much space to pre-allocate for your swappath. My
   system normally has a 14MB SWAPPER.DAT so my swappath line
   in my CONFIG.SYS looks like this:

   SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 2048 14680

There are a couple of other things you can do to your CONFIG.SYS. I don't
suggest doing these on a normal system, but if you want to do a lot of
background telecommunications or other I/O and Timing sensitive things, these
may be of some help:

 * PRIORITY=ABSOLUTE in the config.sys. OS/2 normally gives the foreground
   process a priority boost to improve performance. If you're doing background
   telecommunication, this may not be a good thing. PRIORITY=ABSOLUTE causes
   OS/2 not to do this.

 * TIMESLICE=32,32 in the config.sys. This one usually needs some tuning. The
   first number is the Minimum number of ms a timeslice is. 32 is as low as you
   can go. The second number is the maximum amount of ms the timeslice can be.
   I've seen this at 64 and 128 as well.

Leaving off with the CONFIG.SYS there are a few other things you can do:

 * If you're running a video driver at a very high color (65K or 16.6 Million
   colors) that can severely impact system performance. Try running at 256
   colors and see if it works any better.

 * If you're running CLOCK or PULSE, don't.

 * Run CHKDSK every so often from diskettes (I suggest at least once a week) as
   per the "Recovering from errors on the hard drive" section of the User's
   Guide. This will keep the EA's in top shape. Don't use DOS disk utilities
   on the drive either, even from DOS.

 * If you're running a 4MB system, expect a lot of swapping. More memory will
   always improve performance.