How to increase the bandwidth by 20% in Windows XP

Microsoft XP Pro reserve 20% of your available bandwidth for their own purposes (suspect for updates and interrogating your machine etc.)

Here's how to reclaim it:

1. Click Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc

2. This opens the Group Policy Editor. Then go to: Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> QOS Packet Scheduler -> Limit Reservable Bandwidth.

3. Then double click on the Limit Reservable bandwidth. The original message says that is not configured, but the truth lies under the 'Explain' tab: "By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default."

4. The only thing you have to do is to Enable reservable bandwidth and then set its value to ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the default 20%.