If your laptop or PC is running on Windows XP Pro, did you know that the OS actually limits your broadband connection bandwidth by 20%? I was Stumbling around when I landed on freepctech.com’s Windows XP Tips and Tricks page (an excellent place to find ways to improve the performance of your Windows XP) and discovered this.

So, the culprit is the QoS Packet Scheduler. Simply put, it reserves 20% of your bandwidth, regardless whether it’s activated or not. Yes, it’s one of those “by default” thingy.

Some would say changing or disabling this would not make any difference but I did find my surfing experience has improved. If you want to give it a try, just do the following. You can either change the QoS default 20% to 0% or disable it totally.

To change the value, run gpedit.msc (be careful) and look for QoS Packet Scheduler under Administrative Templates, Network.

Double-click Limit reservable bandwidth, choose Enabled and change the Bandwidth limit (%) to 0. Click OK.

To disable the QoS Packet Scheduler, access your connection Properties and untick the checkbox.

Good luck.