my dad read this online told me to try it because he didn't want to take a risk of something bad happening, so the nice guy he is, he told me to try it.....

One of the advantages of Windows XP over older Microsoft operating systems is the speed with which the operating system starts, but if you'd like to see even better startup performance, you can try this tip shared with us by reader Daniel S.:

Click Start | Run and type regedit to open the Registry Editor.
Navigate to
HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
In the right pane, right click EnablePrefetcher and select Modify.
Under Value data, change the value from 3 (the default) to 5.
Reboot and watch XP fly.

can i try this and if it infact really works, how much faster are we talking?