Tweaks for Faster Windows 7

[Rubicks13]

Hi All,

I just installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit with 4GB of RAM on a Dell XPS 410. What a difference from XP! I have been reading around and saw many ?speed tips or tweaks? that have made the OS even faster. However some say a particular tweak works and others say that it does not. Is there a reliable tweaking tutorial that can be posted or a link to a tutorial? Thanks for any help.

CUBE

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

Honestly Rubicks - id suggest you don't 'tweak' it at all.

Windows 7 by default is optimized as best your gunna get, any software modifications there means a possibily of BSOD's and other general annoyances. Just let Windows 7 do it's thing. You won't be disappointed.

[kjx]

For a new installation:

- Install all the latest drivers - especially your graphics drivers.

- Tweak your services using services.msc. There are many guides out there, but the point to note is NOT to touch a service unless you are sure of what you are doing - "tweaking" some services can slow your startups like anything and you'll struggle to find which one is causing the problem. If you've never done it before, there'll be some trial and error but eventually you'll get better and will be able to do it without a guide.

- After being reminded by something hdood mentioned: Disable system restore (if you are willing to reinstall Windows should something go wrong; my own selection is based on the fact that in my entire history with Windows, not even once has System Restore worked properly for me when something goes wrong), disable hibernate (saves space if you don't use it), remove Windows features you won't use, .. I'll list more here if I remember

- Continue reading below...

Reposting from a similar thread... Everyone has their own opinions - this is what works for me.

Here's how I get a "used" installation back to speed (in this order):

- Manually check for updates to Windows & other software.

- Manually run a full system antivirus scan (only if I'm feeling patient; this happens on schedule anyway because my laptop is often on 24x7 with a refreshing reboot every few days).

- Uninstall software I don't use anymore.

- Run a DiskMax Complete Scan - (disclaimer: I write this myself, it's got reviews and stars, blah blah.. I'd recommend it but then that would hardly sound unbiased)

- Run CCleaner - partly to be thorough and partly to see what DiskMax might have missed. Plus CCleaner does a good job with the registry which DiskMax barely touches.

- Run Eusing Free Registry Cleaner.

- Use Autoruns to check all my startup entries.

- Run Auslogics Registry Defrag (everyone will say this is just a "placebo" but every one of my boots are timed and I see performance increases)

- Run chkdsk /f on all my drives.

- Clear prefetch manually. Restart. Wait for 3 minutes. Restart to check prefetch has learnt what I want it to learn. (clearing prefetch to improve performance is considered to be another myth - I can only speak for myself but reseting prefetch after the above maintenance operations improves performance - based on manually measured startup times and application load times - obviously the first and maybe the second loads after clearing won't be the best)

I used to also manually go through every single folder on my hard disk with system files shown, but DiskMax takes care of that now.

[hdood]

In my opinion, the only really worthwhile "tweaks" are the same as they were in Vista and XP. Things like disabling system restore if you never use it (saving you space and a few seconds when stuff is installed), going into the system properties, performance, visual effects and disabling all the animations (which can make your system feel slower if you don't like them), and so on.

I suppose some of the things Koshy John mentions might make sense, but they're really things that are only relevant if you've broken the system. Things like CCleaner and registry cleaners and stuff serve no useful purpose if you exercise smart computing. I'm more of a fan of preventative actions.

[kjx]

I suppose some of the things Koshy John mentions might make sense, but they're really things that are only relevant if you've broken the system. Things like CCleaner and registry cleaners and stuff serve no useful purpose if you exercise smart computing. I'm more of a fan of preventative actions.

Smart computing is hard. ;)

I reinstall Windows every 3 months because I experiment, and "damage" something or the other. If I feel like reinstalling, the first thing I do is start installing all the software I wanted to try and form opinions on them. So that when I reinstall Windows, I only have to install the software I know are good.

[hdood]

Smart computing is hard. ;)

I reinstall Windows every 3 months because I experiment, and "damage" something or the other. If I feel like reinstalling, the first thing I do is start installing all the software I wanted to try and form opinions on them. So that when I reinstall Windows, I only have to install the software I know are good.

What I do when I want to run random things that I don't necessarily trust, is to do it in a virtual machine.

[iamwhoiam]

Smart computing is hard. ;)

I reinstall Windows every 3 months because I experiment, and "damage" something or the other.

THE smartest thing YOU could do in that situation is to make yourself an image and restore from it, instead of a reformat every 3 months.

[kjx]

THE smartest thing YOU could do in that situation is to make yourself an image and restore from it, instead of a reformat every 3 months.

Most of the software I use would have been updated by then, and there's often very little difference between that, and reimaging & then manually updating. The biggest issue would have been reinstalling all the Windows updates but I'm on a blazing fast university connection + cumulative updates just feel better than a patchwork of updates on top of each other (when going the reimaging way).

For most people however, what you've said holds true.

And one of the reasons I can help people troubleshoot problems quickly is because of the practice I get digging into Windows' guts regularly.

[JoseyWales]

here are some tweaks you can look through. http://members.cox.net/bstelling/Windows%20Registry%20Keys.rar

[hdood]

And one of the reasons I can help people troubleshoot problems quickly is because of the practice I get digging into Windows' guts regularly.

That's the part I find strange. If you spend time learning how Windows works, why not just use that knowledge to avoid breaking it? I mean, I'm having a really hard time seeing what possible justification there could be for reinstalling every three months. If you want systems to really mess around with, why not make them virtual?

Personally I haven't reinstalled or run any "tools" since I installed 7 last year. I have no problems.

[cork1958]

In my opinion, the only really worthwhile "tweaks" are the same as they were in Vista and XP. Things like disabling system restore if you never use it (saving you space and a few seconds when stuff is installed), going into the system properties, performance, visual effects and disabling all the animations (which can make your system feel slower if you don't like them), and so on.

I suppose some of the things Koshy John mentions might make sense, but they're really things that are only relevant if you've broken the system. Things like CCleaner and registry cleaners and stuff serve no useful purpose if you exercise smart computing. I'm more of a fan of preventative actions.

I have to agree here. About the only tweak you need is performance/visual effects. I normally disable system restore too, but lately have just reduced the size it saves.

With your setup, depending on video card, you shouldn't need to tweak anything.

What Koshy John suggests is about ridiculous for anyone but him. :wacko:

I purposely play with various softwares/malwares and about anything I can find, just for the sake of knowing how to fix it and have no need for reinstalling Windows every 3 months or some absurd number of times, like that. He is right about crapcleaner though. Why would you need to clean anything when reinstalling Windows so often!! :laugh:

[+Warwagon MVC]

Smart computing is hard. ;)

I reinstall Windows every 3 months because I experiment, and "damage" something or the other. If I feel like reinstalling, the first thing I do is start installing all the software I wanted to try and form opinions on them. So that when I reinstall Windows, I only have to install the software I know are good.

Yep you really need use a VM great for testing. Like on Vmware 7 I have a snapshot of Just windows with all the updates that I can always roll back to after installing something.

[soonerproud]

Leave it well alone unless you know what you are doing. I am going on 7 months on this installation of Windows 7 and it runs every bit as fast if not faster than the day I installed it. There is no need to restore a image every 3 months if you just leave it alone. Tweaking is the number one cause of issues with Windows from personal experience and has not been necessary since XP.

If you feel you must tweak, then check out Tweakguides from Koroush Ghazi. His guides don't just blindly tell you what to tweak. Instead he educates the end user on how Windows technologies work and then give some suggested tweaks from a informed perspective. The simple fact is you can not tweak Windows 7 to make it faster because of the low priority IO system and services triggers already do what the so called tweaks claim to do.

Most of the software I use would have been updated by then, and there's often very little difference between that, and reimaging & then manually updating. The biggest issue would have been reinstalling all the Windows updates but I'm on a blazing fast university connection + cumulative updates just feel better than a patchwork of updates on top of each other (when going the reimaging way).

For most people however, what you've said holds true.

And one of the reasons I can help people troubleshoot problems quickly is because of the practice I get digging into Windows' guts regularly.

As mentioned before, do this in a virtual machine so you can keep your main Windows installation pristine. There are a number of free virtualization tools to choose from, including VMware Server and Virtualbox. You will save massive amounts of time and energy and your PC will always be ready to work for you instead of dealing with the downtime of reinstalling every three months from scratch.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I'd recommend Vmware. Even though Virtualbox is a solid product there is no drag and drag and the lack of drop and that will get old REALLY quick when trying to get files into the VM to test. The Virtualbox team seriously needs to get their head out of their ass and add drag and drop.

[hdood]

There are a number of free virtualization tools to choose from, including VMware Server and Virtualbox.

VMWare Player can actually make virtual machines as well now. It lacks some of the more advanced management features, but it's still good.

[Roger H. Veteran]

I agree VMs are best for running but for some reason i just hate them for any testing. In a production environment i use VMs to test stuff before fully deploying but on my laptop i just format and install. With my USB memory key Windows 7 installs in 11mins FLAT. I can put it in and boot up and go check the mail and get something from the fridge and take a few bites and it's already done and ready to start setting up. I could also just use a File Transfer wizard to configure all my settings and then just have it all up and running again but i hate doing that for whatever reason. Even installing software like VM stuff irks me to no end sometimes.

What i find myself doing these days is i just use my other HDD and install and test on that then swap back in my normal HDD and ready to go. Removing the HDD in my laptop requires 1 screw (not even a long one) and it's a quick pop out and pop in kinda deal. I have 2 laptops now so i've been doing my testing on that one but when i go back to only having one i'll be swapping HDDs again.

All the tweaking stuff however i saw is non-sense also, most of it is a placebo. There are some that appears visually faster (actual might be debatable) and there's stuff like turning off System Restore (i do it also as i rather formatting). I don't tweat any services as my system starts up pretty fast as is.

Windows has started up:

Boot Duration : 38536ms

IsDegradation : false

Incident Time (UTC) : ‎2010‎-‎04‎-‎05T13:17:50.624800300Z

Windows has started up:

Boot Duration : 36617ms

IsDegradation : false

Incident Time (UTC) : ‎2010‎-‎04‎-‎03T23:33:03.780800500Z

36 seconds to boot is fast enough for me, i don't need to shave off the extra 13 seconds to get uber l33t times!

[JoseyWales]

there are all sorts of things that can be done to tweak/customize windows 7. adding things to the right click menu, custom themes, menu speed adjustments and on and on. the file of reg tweaks i posted covers allot of tweaks and optimizations and being .reg you dont need to go hunting through the reg or services to change them.

[DavidM]

THE smartest thing YOU could do in that situation is to make yourself an image and restore from it, instead of a reformat every 3 months.

Yes, this is the easiest if you don't want to use a Virtual Machine.

The way I do it is to install Windows and run Windows Update, install the latest driver for my machine, and make an image. This way all I have to do is run Windows Update, check on a few drivers and install my most used programs. I have a list of programs I like and their version numbers on my desk at all times (yes, i know it's a little strange) in a notebook I use to jot down anything I think needs jotted down.

Good luck.

[BajiRav]

In my opinion, the only really worthwhile "tweaks" are the same as they were in Vista and XP. Things like disabling system restore if you never use it (saving you space and a few seconds when stuff is installed), going into the system properties, performance, visual effects and disabling all the animations (which can make your system feel slower if you don't like them), and so on.

I suppose some of the things Koshy John mentions might make sense, but they're really things that are only relevant if you've broken the system. Things like CCleaner and registry cleaners and stuff serve no useful purpose if you exercise smart computing. I'm more of a fan of preventative actions.

I believe disabling System restore will also disable Previous Versions. People should keep that in mind.

[soldier1st]

For a new installation:

- Install all the latest drivers - especially your graphics drivers.(Windows 7 does a good job of installing good drivers but if your having a problem then perhaps upgrading your gpu drivers could fix the issue)

- Tweak your services using services.msc. There are many guides out there, but the point to note is NOT to touch a service unless you are sure of what you are doing - "tweaking" some services can slow your startups like anything and you'll struggle to find which one is causing the problem. If you've never done it before, there'll be some trial and error but eventually you'll get better and will be able to do it without a guide.(Tweaking services is a waste of time unless you suspect that one is causing problems and the only services you should tweak are 3rd party ones but if there not causing any problems or you don't want em enabled then disable them)

- After being reminded by something hdood mentioned: Disable system restore (if you are willing to reinstall Windows should something go wrong; my own selection is based on the fact that in my entire history with Windows, not even once has System Restore worked properly for me when something goes wrong), disable hibernate (saves space if you don't use it), remove Windows features you won't use, .. I'll list more here if I remember

- Continue reading below...(Disabling system restore is just dumb as it's there as a safety net as it's better than nothing and it won't slow you down)

Reposting from a similar thread... Everyone has their own opinions - this is what works for me.

Here's how I get a "used" installation back to speed (in this order):

- Manually check for updates to Windows & other software.(i agree)

- Manually run a full system antivirus scan (only if I'm feeling patient; this happens on schedule anyway because my laptop is often on 24x7 with a refreshing reboot every few days).(I agree)

- Uninstall software I don't use anymore.(I agree)

- Run a DiskMax Complete Scan - (disclaimer: I write this myself, it's got reviews and stars, blah blah.. I'd recommend it but then that would hardly sound unbiased)(your choice since it's your app)

- Run CCleaner - partly to be thorough and partly to see what DiskMax might have missed. Plus CCleaner does a good job with the registry which DiskMax barely touches.(I would only use ccleaner to clean up temp files and such but the reg part is not a good idea to touch unless you may have a problem)

- Run Eusing Free Registry Cleaner. (Reg cleaners have been proven to either damage your registry or do little if anything to improve performance)

- Use Autoruns to check all my startup entries.(This i do agree with)

- Run Auslogics Registry Defrag (everyone will say this is just a "placebo" but every one of my boots are timed and I see performance increases)(The default defragger is all you need)

- Run chkdsk /f on all my drives.(only do this if your having problems or suspect that you are having problems)

- Clear prefetch manually. Restart. Wait for 3 minutes. Restart to check prefetch has learnt what I want it to learn. (clearing prefetch to improve performance is considered to be another myth - I can only speak for myself but reseting prefetch after the above maintenance operations improves performance - based on manually measured startup times and application load times - obviously the first and maybe the second loads after clearing won't be the best)=Very dumb to do sides windows does it anyway, it has been proven that cleaning prefetch only hurts performance but i will say this about cleaning prefetch and thats if you suspect your having some kind of issue with it then clean it but only do it if your having problems)

I used to also manually go through every single folder on my hard disk with system files shown, but DiskMax takes care of that now.(again not needed unless your trying to either clean up an application install/temp files or you suspect you have malware)

out of all you said only perhaps 30% makes sense to do while the rest IMHO is either a waste of time or does nothing if anything. i used to believe that cleaning the registry did something but now i don't believe it does anything only cause problems.

[kjx]

out of all you said only perhaps 30% makes sense to do while the rest IMHO is either a waste of time or does nothing if anything. i used to believe that cleaning the registry did something but now i don't believe it does anything only cause problems.

Windows 7 does not always bring me the latest GeForce drivers for my 9600M as soon as they come out (WHQL compliant ones). I've had occasions when it's suggested older drivers for my network card - not anymore though.

Tweaking services shaves a good 10 to 15 seconds off a clean 50 second boot time for me (~25% improvement). I probably notice this more because my laptop has a 5400 rpm drive.

System Restore has never done me any good - don't disable it if you think you could use it. But I leave it enabled on smaller partitions where I store my documents and other self created files to take advantage of shadow copies. I do a biweekly sync with an external HDD for backup purposes but sometimes I need a newer revision.

I thought that Windows Defragmenter could not defrag the following:

- the MFT (you need third party apps to do this; what I do is just increase the MFT size after a clean install because it always fragments if I don't).

- registry (maybe the actual files get moved around but defragging without compacting out space not being used anymore) - the way I understand it, the registry grows everytime something new is created in it but it never shrinks in size when something is deleted. So if I install 100 apps and the registry grows to say 120MB from 60MB, and I uninstall all of them and manually remove any left-over reg entries, the registry will remain at 120MB. And even though the registry structure will work (almost?) just as well, it will take longer to load and use more memory overall.

- the pagefile (deleting the pagefile will recreate it as a contiguous block though if such a block is available)

Even though it is true that registry cleaners have not offered tangible performance increases consistently, I can't shake the squeaky clean feeling I get because they often find entries from programs that I've uninstalled, folder paths that no longer exist (particularly installers that ran from the temp folder), DLLs that are no longer present, unused file extensions (often extensions detected by explorer wrongly because of a period in the file name like .Remap.2009), etc. And since the registry cleaner I use create backups, I'm not particularly concerned. Registry cleaners are only recommended for those who have problems (you should see the junk that turn up on systems that people ask me to help optimize though!) or those who don't mind taking on a little risk. If you are going to use a registry cleaner, I'd thoroughly recommend Eusing - I've been using it since Vista came out and I've had no problems till date.

I clean prefetch when my startup times start expanding to 50 seconds and beyond (sometimes as high as 1.5 to 2 minutes consistently) from the optimal 25-30 seconds. I run the whole maintenance sequence then. If even after I do all that, it is still sufficiently far from 25-30, I set a date to reinstall Windows.

One in every five times or so, chkdsk does find problems for me (maybe from a crashed app or whatever) even if there appears to be no logical reason to run it.

The important thing to note is that I only speak from my own emperical data. My way of doing things is not suitable for everyone - but I guess a different perspective helps those who want to try new things.

[kjx]

I'd recommend Vmware. Even though Virtualbox is a solid product there is no drag and drag and the lack of drop and that will get old REALLY quick when trying to get files into the VM to test. The Virtualbox team seriously needs to get their head out of their ass and add drag and drop.

I've found virtual machines extremely slow and frustrating to use even with that virtualisation setting for the processor turned on in the BIOS. I'll try VMWare then..

[Udedenkz]

Uninstall bloatware, instead install lite versions or find lite alternatives.

- Rationale: Faster, doesn't slow down boot (or doesn't slow down boot as much), smaller RAM footprint, more HD space.

Clean boot, see if something that you use doesn't work, find that service/start-up item enable it, leave the rest disabled - you do not use them.

- Rationale: Disable that which starts-up with Windows, but as you don't use it - it simply is waster resources, slower boot time

Create New Account, move to the New Account (your FireFox bookmarks for example?), delete old account.

- Rationale: This just helps, somewhat like a fresh reinstall does, but on a smaller scale, might fix problems too. Removes bloat / Junk Files / Leftovers from other account.

Some applications that are very good,

- CCLeaner (Cleans your computer, frees space, good for privacy)

- WMP:HC (Lightweight, quality video player to avoid codec pack problems, bloat, legal issues, etc)

- Adobe Reader 9.3 Lite (Adobe Reader without the bloat)

- jv16 Power Tools (Not Free, a powerful registry cleaner with many other features)

- Revo Uninstaller Pro (Not free, Uninstalls Applications, then removes traces / leftovers of said application from registry and hard drive)

- EnchanceMySe7en (Not free, Overall a good tweaking application, but it might screw your Windows badly - double edged sword, some bad tweaks and bugs...)

[Raa]

Don't tweak it. It's running fine as is.

[Roger H. Veteran]

Just installed Ccleaner for the heck of it and you know what it found? Temporary internet files (that deletes itself when my browser closes) and some stuff in my recycle bin and a few other little files that's not hurting a single thing. Did a registry scan and it found like 12 things, some missing shared DLLs (about 8) and unused extentions.

Seriously people? Seriously?

Granted this system isn't that old, i formatted on March 30, 2010 so not much gunk on here but even with all the stuff i've been installing to test and all that. It only found some cookies, and temp internet files that i can delete myself?