Windows 7 Tips/Tricks to Make to Faster

[dandaman2234]

Hi Guys,

I know theres aload of articles out on the net about this but I've dealt with tweaks that are no use to anyone before.

Could someone please list some useful ways of speeding up Windows 7 to make it operate quicker on start up and during use as there has to be some features/services MS install by default that never get used.

Thanks.

 

[Azuse05]

Ssd.

 

[Raumarik]

Pretty sure Sirius will be along shortly to shoot me down in flames but I'm fairly sure Windows 7 only loads most services when they're required, hence it's reasonably nippy at boot. As Azuse05 mentioned an SSD or a Raid card + stripped drives would help, it does on my PC (PERC5i) and my laptop (SSD).

Generally speaking you'll get more performance out of running the correct AV, McAfee is one I keep uninstalling from peoples PCs and shoving MSE on instead, it's amazing just how much that improved performance!

1. Windows 7 is very well optimised out of the box, there's little need to tweak it. You can disable services, but in general there's very few you can disable and those you can probably won't make the blindest bit of difference.
2. Check your power profile in windows, it could be putting the HDD to sleep regularly.
3. Check what AV you are using. Personally I prefer Microsoft Security Essentials.
4. Check you have the most up to date firmware and drivers for your hardware.
5. Don't allow any old program to load at startup unless you actually use it regularly!

 

[j.col]

pretty much the same as halfmad says.
also i make sure i clean out my startup folder (run/msconfig) or use ccleaner for this.
then the usual defrag, rubbish cleaner, malware scans etc...

imo the most important tip to keep any OS running fast, is use your common sense.
if you install loads of crap, your pc will slow down, its obvious.
be selective in what you install on your pc, and uninstall anything you dont use.
also do a reinstall every 6months or a year

 

[SiriusB]

Pretty sure Sirius will be along shortly to shoot me down in flames

Wrong guy, maybe? I agree with your post in it's entirety!

The only worthwhile tweaks in Windows 7 are simply GUI changes, such as making the Taskbar preview a bit quicker and so on. Nothing earth-shattering.

I do have a few nitpicks with j.col though...

pretty much the same as halfmad says.
also i make sure i clean out my startup folder (run/msconfig) or use ccleaner for this.
then the usual defrag, rubbish cleaner, malware scans etc...

Set defrag to a schedule and never, ever think about it again. Don't use any kind of registry cleaner either. At best they do nothing, at worst they screw things up. CCleaner is great for nuking temp files, just don't use the reg cleaning bit. Autoruns from the SysinternalsSuite is the tool for checking startup items. Makes MSCONFIG and CCleaner look amateur!

imo the most important tip to keep any OS running fast, is use your common sense.

Not a lot of this about, unfortunately!

also do a reinstall every 6months or a year

Pff, if you're on XP maybe. If you follow your own advice you wouldn't need to reinstall 7 short of a disaster. But then we all create a nice HDD image of our shiny OSs so we don't need to reinstall. Right?

 

[j.col]

lol SiriusB, i knew you would pull me up over those tips

i never run registry scans etc..
i just use ccleaner as you said for temp files and for startup items, its easier for some novices (inc. me ) to check startup items.

with some of the stuff i download i do make regular images, but a lot of people do not.
i have seen some really slow and badly infected pc's, and its just faster to do a backup and reinstall