Speed Up Win7:
Windows 7 is Engineered for speed. Special attention has been given by the Windows 7 team for making Windows 7 faster than the previous operating systems. Windows 7 is much faster than Windows Vista, but even then most of us don’t get satisfied with it. There are many who still have their old PC. Installing Windows 7 on them wont be as soothing as they work with with XP and Even with latest hardware’s installed some users still long for more performance. At least if we don’t make it lightning fast we can optimize Windows 7 to the maximum possible extent and enjoy the maximum performance we could squeeze out from it. So for all the extra performance lovers, let me present you wit this Ultimate Guide To Speed Up Windows 7.
I guarantee that after following this guide and implementing the recommendations on your PC, you will really get the performance gain.
The bare Minimum Requirements You need To Run Windows 7
1) 1GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
2) 1GB of main memory
3) 16GB of available disk space
4) Support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface)
5) A DVD – R/W drive
Even if you don’t have the DX 9 graphics card there is no problem because our target is performance and not the ” Eyecandy ” . Of course if you need the aero experience you need a powerful graphics card for sure.
So lets start The Ultimate Guide to Speed up Windows 7
I guarantee that after following this guide and implementing the recommendations on your PC, you will really get the performance gain.The bare Minimum Requirements You need To Run Windows 7
1) 1GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
2) 1GB of main memory
3) 16GB of available disk space
4) Support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface)
5) A DVD – R/W drive
Even if you don’t have the DX 9 graphics card there is no problem because our target is performance and not the ” Eyecandy ” . Of course if you need the aero experience you need a powerful graphics card for sure.
So lets start The Ultimate Guide to Speed up Windows 7
Disabling the Search Indexing Feature in Windows 7
- Right Click the “Computer” Icon in the desktop and select “Manage”.
- Click “Services and Applications” in the “Computer Management” window.
- Click on “Services”.
- You can see a lot of services listed there. Look for “Windows Search” in that.
- Right Click on “Windows Search” from the list and choose “Properties”.
- The “Windows Search Properties Window” will open up. From “Startup type” click on the drop down menu and choose “Disabled”.
- Click “Apply” then “OK” and that’s it. The Windows 7 Search Indexing Feature is now disabled.
Most of the Windows 7 users do less searches in there system. The Search Indexing service in Windows 7 will index keeps track of the files so that they can be found quickly when asked at some other time. This feature is useful only if you perform frequent searches on your system. For occasional file searchers the Search Indexing service in Windows 7 is a total resource hog. It unknowingly eats up your system resources. What you need from windows 7 is maximum performance from it then i would certainly recommend you to disable this resource hogging Windows 7 Search Indexing Feature. To Disable the Search Indexing Feature in Windows 7 If you want to completely disable the search indexing feature in Windows 7 you can set the Search Indexing Service to Manual (See the above method about disabling unwanted services).
Disable the Aero Theme on Windows 7
- Right Click on your Desktop and select ” Personalize ” click the Window Color Tab.
- Uncheck the Box saying ” Enable Transparency ” and then click on ” Open classic appearance properties for more color options”.
- Then a window will open up. Apply a Standard or Basic theme from it. The Standard Windows 7 theme is more preferred.
The aero user interface certainly adds some ” Eyecandy ” to Windows 7 but certainly is a resource hog especially when, what you expect from windows 7 is more performance juice. Aero user interface squeezes your graphics or video card to its maximum. So why dont we just avoid the Windows 7 aero? if we care more about speed and performance in Windows 7. So Disabling the Aero in Windows 7 certainly adds an extra speed boost to it. Disabling the Unwanted Visual Effects in Windows 7 to Speed Up more
- For this right click on ” Computer” and select “Properties” from the right click menu.
- Click on ” Advanced System Settings ” from the left pane to open up the ” System Properties ” window.
- Select the “Advanced” tab from it. Then Under ” Performance ” click ” Settings “. Choose ” Custom: ” Options From it.
- Now un tick all the options and select only the last four options (actually three only needed; you can un tick the second option from the last four). See the screen shot if you have any doubt.
- Now just logoff your system and turn logon.
Even though we have tuned off the aero effects in Windows 7 still there are many unwanted visual effects that can be safely disabled to speed up windows 7 even more. Disabling the Unwanted Services to Speed up Windows 7
There are many services in windows 7 that we dont require for our daily use. There are some exceptional cases though. Services such as “print spooler” is only needed when we use a printer. If we use a printer only occasionally we can safely turn off that service in Windows 7 and turn it on only when we need to take a print. I have previously prepared a List of services in Windows 7 that can be safely set to manual / disabled. Disabling the unneeded services in Windows 7 can really speed up the system boot time.
Disable the User account control (UAC) Feature in Windows 7
- From the Control Panel open the ” User Accounts and Family Safety ” > User Account.
- Click the User Account Control settings link.
- Now just Drag the Slider towards “Never Notify”.
- Click “OK” and Reboot your system.
The User account control (UAC) feature in Windows 7 is very annoying though it says it can protect your computer from harmful virus activity etc. But if you are a daily user of your computer this windows 7 feature will be a total nuisance to you. To Disable and Turnoff UAC in Windows 7SetUp the Windows 7 Ready Boost Service for an Extra Speed Boost
- To configure the Ready Boost Feature in Windows 7 you need to have a High Speed Flash/USB or Pendrive with you which is ready boost compatible.
- After plugging you pendrive, open “Computer” > Right-click the on USB Drive/Pendrive > select “Ready Boost” tab > tick the “Use this device” checkbox.
- You can configure how much space on your USB drive/ Pendrive to be used as Ram.
The ready boost feature in Windows 7 will help you to use your flash drive or pendrive or USB drive as Ram there by improving the performance and speed of windows 7 greatly. You can certainly experience it when launching bulky applications such as Adobe Photoshop etc. Turn off Unused Windows 7 Features
- Open up ” Programs and Features ” from Control Panel.
- Click the ” Turn Windows features on or off ” from the left pane.
- Now uncheck all the Feature that you don’t use in Windows 7 and restart the system for the changes to take effect.
There are many feature in windows 7 that we often don]t use. Disabling these unused features in Windows 7 will really help in speeding things up.
Disable the Windows 7 Sidebar (Actually the Gadgets)
- Right click on the sidebar and select ” Properties “.
- On the properties windows untick the check box showing ” Start sidebar when Windows Starts “
- From now on windows sidebar won’t start when windows 7 start up.
Disabling the window 7 sidebar is definitely help you to to gain a few seconds during start up time. There are many useful utilities such as the RocketDock etc. which are good application launchers. To Disable the Sidebar in Windows 7,
Disable the Aero Peek and Aero Snap features in Windows 7
- Open the Windows 7 ” Control Panel ” and double-click on ” Ease of Access Center ” icon.
- Now click on the ” Make it easier to focus on tasks ” seen at the bottom in there
- Now untick the check box saying ” Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen ” .
- Right click on the Windows 7 taskbar and select ” Properties “.
- Now untick the ” Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop ” option from there.
Aero Snap will help you to maximize, minimize and resize the windows just by dragging and dropping it into the screen corners. To disable Aero Snap Feature in Windows 7, That will now disable the Aero Snap in Windows 7. Now To Disable the Aero Peek feature in Windows 7 The Aero Peek feature in Windows 7 helps you to peek through all open windows by hiding all other windows and showing only the outlines of all windows. Aero Peek is similar to the ” Show Desktop ” Feature in XP and Vista. If you have followed step 3 then Aero Peek will be automatically disabled. If not, The aero peek feature will now be disabled in windows 7.
Change the Power Plan To Maximum Performance
- Double click the ” Power Options ” in the Control panel.
- Click the down arrow showing ” Show Additional Plans ” to see the ” High Performance ” power plan .
- Now just activate the ” High Performance ” plan and that’s it.
- You may go for the advanced settings for further tweaking if you want.
The Power settings in Windows 7 is not automatically set for maximum performance. By default the power plan in Windows 7 is set for a balanced performance with energy consumption on hardware. So you may not get the optimal performance from windows 7 if this is the case. So we need to change the power plan to High Performance Mode. Disable the Thumbnail Preview Feature to speed up File browsing in Windows 7
- Double Click on ” Computer ” >click on the “Organize” drop-down menu and select the “Folder and Search options”
- Under ‘Files and Folders’ section, go to the “View” tab and tick the check box showing “Always show icons, never thumbnails” checkbox.
The thumbnail preview feature in Windows 7 will show the small thumbnails of the contents of a folder instead of showing it’s icon. But this feature really do take up some system resources. So by disabling the Thumbnail Preview feature in Windows 7 the file browsing in Windows 7 explorer can be speed up. Most Essential Softwares To Speed Up Windows 7
In order to maintain your Windows 7 Performance and keep it up in Top Shape there are some very essential software’s that can help us to Speed Windows 7. I will list some of them here. You can download these utilities. But i remind you that you need to run these utilities at least once in a week. Only if you do it regularly your Windows 7 will be in top shape every day. You can read this post which i have prepared earlier about the Top 5 Tools To Speed Up Your PC. http://www.computingunleashed.com/2009/05/top-5-tools-to-speed-up-your-pc-to.html There you can know more about these software i mentioned now.
Registry Tweaks to Speed Up Windows 7
Here are some registry teaks that can be used to speed up windows 7 even more. I have complied only the safest tweaks that can be applied to your PC. Apart from speeding up windows 7 they will also add some functionality in windows like adding Copy to / Move to in right click context menu to speed up your daily tasks. http://www.computingunleashed.com/2009/01/registrytweaks-for-speeding-up-windows.html If you have the complete version of Tune Up Utilities software with you then it is the best one to keep your Windows 7 in top shape.
Turn OFF Windows 7 Password Protection To save a few More Seconds!!!
If you have set a password for accessing your user account in windows 7, then you need to enter it each and every time you logon to windows. Logging into windows automatically without entering any password will save you a few seconds more. If you are the only person who use your computer then i would recommend to turn this off. If that is not the case you can skip this step. How to Automatically Logon to Windows 7 without entering any username or password
Turn OFF Windows 7 Screen Saver and Wallpaper
- Right click on desktop and choose “Personalize”.
- Click the Screen Saver link ” From the Screen Saver drop down menu, Set it to “None” and click “Apply” and then “OK”.
- Now click on “Desktop Background” link.
- From the “Location” drop down menu select “Solid Colors” and pick one color and click “OK”.
In order to display the wallpaper and screen saver the system needs some memory. So by disabling those two we can save a few Mega Bytes of memory. To Disable The Screen Saver and Wallpaper in Windows 7,
Disable Unwanted Start Up Items and Speed Up Windows 7 Start Up
- Type ” msconfig ” in the “RUN” option from start menu press [Enter] to open up the System Configuration Utility.
- Now navigate to the “StartUp” tab.
- Untick the Entries which are not needed
This really matters when you have installed a lot of softwares on your PC. Many software such as AcdSee will run services such as device detector etc during the system start up. These are of no use actually for most windows users. So preventing such services from starting up during the start up of windows 7 can result in quicker start Ups. This will actually save some seconds during windows 7 start up.
Disable Unwanted System Sounds in Windows 7
- Type mmsys.cpl in RUN From the Windows 7 Startmenu search box and press [Enter].
- Navigate to the “Sounds” tab.
- Now from under “Sound Scheme:” select “No Sounds” > Click “Apply” > “OK”.
- You can keep some of your favorite sounds turned on if you want, but sounds played during the Windows 7 start up, shutdown, Logon, logoff, start navigation etc should be set to none if you want some real speed boost.
In order to play the sounds you hear in windows 7, system resources are being utilized. So if you can disable these sound effects you can gain some speed and also free some system resources too. To disable the system sounds in Windows 7,
Disabling the aero theme alone in Windows 7 will really speed things up. You can know this by looking into the memory consumption when aero is turned on and off.
You will now notice the speed difference now.
Disabling UAC is for advanced users only its not recommend doing it if not.
For disabling thumbnails in Windows 7,
Thats it following all these steps will certainly boost the speed and performance of your windows 7 operating system. RAM:
As you know, RAM is the most important hardware for laptops after CPU. Having more memory makes your laptop faster. So, if your laptop can not process as well as you need you should freed more memory to have more available memory for your programs. To solve this problem I recommend these eight tips:
1) Minimize your open windows to freed more memory:
It is very easy to do! It is just enough to identify the programs that use amount of memory then you can minimize them when you want to work with another program at the same time. For example Firefox and Photoshop use amount of RAM. When you minimize a program, your computer will have more available memory for faster processing and when you maximize it, the memory usage of that program will grows up.
2) Use some tools to manage the memory usage:
If you are tired of crashing your programs and it is very important for you to have more available memory for special program(s) and your laptop RAM limit goes below a critical point, it is really recommended to download and use some tools that control your computer memory usage. In fact almost these tools attempt to free a specified amount of RAM in order to maximize your laptop performance. You can also use these ones as a program on your laptop: RamCleaner, RamOptimizer, MemMonster, Free Up Ram, SuperRam, RamSmash, MemZilla, MemoryWasher and etc.
3) Close the program that are not necessary to run:
As you know when you boot up your OS, some programs starts automatically and you can see their icons on your system tray. Well, you can control them on your Taskbar and close them. You can also check them on Windows task manager:
- Press Alt+Ctrl+Delete to Windows Task Manager appears.
- Click on Process tab
- Under Mem Usage category find the program(s) memory usage.
- Select each one(s) you want to close by clicking on it.
- Press End Process and then close Task Manager window.
4) Reduce Firefox memory usage
A good friend of mine has provided 8 great tips to reduce Firefox3 memory usage on his blog. Reading this tutorial helps you to save about 30MB of memory! What a fantastic tutorial it really is! I recommend it!
5) Remove Spywares:
Spyware is hidden software that runs in the background of your computer and uses your system resources. Well, there are many solutions to solve this problem, but I have provided two free recommended anti spyware here: SUPER Antispyware (free edition or pro edition) and Spybot Search & Destroy.
6) No Norton Antivirus:
Norton Antivirus needs amount of RAM to work. You can use another antivirus for your laptop.
7) Have Virtual Memory on your OS:
- It is possible to have virtual memory on Windows and Linux. you can have virtual memory on Windows after following the steps below:
- Right click on My Computer and then select Properties
- Click on Advanced tab
- Under Performance category click Settings button to Performance Options window appears.
- Click on Advanced tab and under Virtual memory category click Change button to Virtual memory window appears.
- Select a partition and select a custom size on the control box. then multiply your laptop Ram by 1.5 and type the result as the Maximize Size(MB) there and then press OK.
Add Ram
Finally if your memory problem is critical and you can not solve your problem using the tips above, you can buy and add a RAM on your laptop! (But it depends on your laptop model to support more memory or another RAM).
Hard disk
1) Having a scheduled Defragment:
Using your laptop files makes your file fragmented and your notebook will slow down because your Hard drive has to search for files scattered across the drive. Defragging your hard-drive will solve this problem and will pack all your files together for easy access from your hard-drive.
To perform a Defragment it is just enough to follow the steps below:
- Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter
Then select a partition to defrag it.
It is recommend to Defrag your Hard drive every 2 or 3 months to keep your laptop working smoothly.
2) use an external Hard disk
Do not use your Hard drive to store amount of files that you can store them on an external Hard drive.
Improve your laptop battery life
- Sometimes you need to work on your notebook using battery. Using the tips below helps you to optimize your laptop battery usage and extend your battery life:
- CPU activities need amount of battery power. So, you can use some programs that control the CPU speed to optimize the battery life. For example SpeedSwitchXP is simple and straight-forward to use, and you can
- Control the speed of your CPU to give you either Max Battery.
- Defragging your Hard drive can also help your battery to work longer and better.
- Decrease the LCD brightness.
- Kill unwanted program which are not necessary to run at the moment. if your antivirus is running stop it and try scanning later, stop Google Desktop and so forth.
- Remove external hardware. USB mouse, cool disks and etc. These ones use your battery.
- Increase your memory (by adding RAM) and decrease virtual memory. Because more memory causes your battery works less.
- Prefer Hard disk usage and use CD\DVD ROM(S) less. So, if you need to use a DVD\CD when you are using battery power, make a back up and then run your program from your Hard disk.
- Clean your battery pin(s).
- If you never use your laptop on battery power use is minimum once every 2 or 3 weeks. Otherwise your battery will be ill too soon! But do not use your battery power fully (just use it for a short time)
- Hibernate your notebook and don ‘t standby. (Hibernate mode needs less battery power)
- Decrease your laptop temperature. (follow this post to find a tip about this topic)
- Decrease Graphic card activity (disable Screen resolution and disable screen savers).
- Turn off auto save on the software(s) you are using at the moment. and just set your laptop to Hibernate after finishing battery power to do not lose your data
- Set your windows power option to use battery power less (check it to don’t be max battery)
- If you do not need to Wifi or Bluetooth, turn them off!
CD\DVD ROM
Do not use your CD\DVD ROM(S) to watch movies or listening to music. just use your laptop CD\DVD ROM(S) to make backup for your movies and sound files.
Laptop Position
- Sudden movement can hurt your laptop for example it could hurt your LED\monitor or Motherboard. So, be careful about your notebook position. To do this just try to put your laptop on flat surfaces
- It is really recommended to avoid eating and drinking at your laptop: It is common that some pieces of food goes behind the laptop keys and this causes you can not type with your keyboard. to avoid this, do not eat at your notebook and also do not work on it where there are many powder material in the air.
- When some water or coffee or every other liquid reverses on your laptop, turn it off and reverse it as soon as possible. Then after waiting for enough time turn your notebook on and if it doesn’t work well, take it to a specialist serviceman.
Laptop temperature
- Putting your laptop on flat surfaces also causes reducing laptop temperature by existing some air under your laptop to have a good ventilation.
- Check orifices of your laptop and keep them clean. They should always be open to have a good ventilation for your notebook.
etc
- If your hands sweat a lot and you should type a lot using your laptop keyboard, it is really recommended to use an external keyboard (a USB keyboard). Because sweating can hurts your notebook body and changes its color.
- Use special napkin to clean your monitor. you can also use the napkins that are used to clean glasses.
