19 Unofficial Ways to Speed Up Windows 7
Here are a few tips to increase the speed of Windows 7.
Looking to tweak Windows 7 and squeeze out a little more speed? You're in luck, as the unofficial Windows 7 Forums provides nineteen ways to make that tasty new OS run faster. The helpful list includes a few obvious tips like boosting your RAM to 3 or 4 GB, switch to solid state drives, and keep the system drivers updated.
One of the tips found on the list is to install the correct version of Windows 7. Consumers with a high-end PC with over 3 GB of RAM crammed inside should be using the 64-bit version "in most cases," as the 32-bit version won't take advantage of memory just over the 3 GB limit. There's also a thorough explanation found here that offers a more detailed reason as to why you should use the 32-bit or 64-bit version.
The list also provides other obvious ways to speed up the OS, however we've known about these since the days of Windows 95/98/98SE/XP: defrag the hard drive(s), disable those pesky, unwanted startup applications (Real Player and QuickTime as usual suspects), and disable unwanted services. You should also uninstall unnecessary software, clean up old files, and run periodic anti-spyware scans... no-brainer stuff there.
Unfortunately, this list of tips doesn't really provide anything utterly bewildering like "change this registry key" or "do this to speed up that." The list does suggest that you disable gadgets, choose a high performance plan, disable search indexing, and make use of keyboard shortcuts. The list also says that you should change Windows 7 visual effects, perhaps even disable all the effects to get the maximum boost.
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Oh, you forgot to put "Most useless article of the week:" before your title.
Erm, this one is useful for non-SSD ntfs drives if you have lots of ram free (uses a few hundred mb when copying) :
fsutil behavior set memoryusage 2
If your memory gets swallowed up change it back to 1
1 unofficial way to speed up Windows Vista - Strap Vista DVD to a bottle rocket.
@Zoonie Ouch... A little harsh, no?
Oh wow, so, you're telling me that upgrading to SSD's, adding more RAM, and using a 64 bit OS on machines with > 3gb RAM will help?
Thanks for the astute observations, Captain Obvious.
This article could apply to ANY operating system...or any system PERIOD.
hur dur
Oh, you forgot to put "Most useless article of the week:" before your title.
excellent
This article almost implies that doing all of these things wouldn't speed up a computer in general, just Windows 7.
I already know that a SS drive is faster than mine.
Personally I don't really consider things like upgrading a way to "speed up." It's a given anyway; why in the world would you spend money if it won't speed up your PC.
I was expecting more like tips, tweaks and stuff.
@Zoonie Ouch... A little harsh, no?
Yeah perhaps you're right. Sorry man, I'm not a mean guy, but Kevin keeps pushing out Cpt. Obvious articles on a site I used to love for its useful information.
Lol True.
Yeah perhaps you're right. Sorry man, I'm not a mean guy, but Kevin keeps pushing out Cpt. Obvious articles on a site I used to love for its useful information.
I have more of an issue with the source. They detail 19 ways to perform common sense tasks. "Install more RAM"...... No, really?
ah general stuff... i was thinking it was some hardcore tweaks...
... 7tweak is a nice app... sadly, it is not free...
I have more of an issue with the source. They detail 19 ways to perform common sense tasks. "Install more RAM"...... No, really?
Ha...
Reformat to completely rid of OEM crapware, don't run an antivirus (but be careful of your browsing habits), and don't try to run Vista/Win7 on only 256MB of RAM, and you'll be just fine. =D
windows 7 + razer megalodon = 5 mins of usuage during gaming
damn win 7/razer drivers >
This is the most painfully obvious list i've ever seen. Is this list meant for people who've never used a PC before? my god.
Worthless on a tech forum....
Also, what is the 3GB limit mentioned?????????? I mean i know what the x86 4GB limit is, never heard of the 3GB one.
C'mon tom's! We expect more of you guys! We know you can do better! I guess, just in case, someone manages to find your site on their computer, and still knows nothing about their computer, this would be interesting.
step 1: format your disk
step 2: install vista without any service pack
now you have a faster pc. every time microsoft alters something about their os, they make it worse.
The most effective way is to install SSD.
Worthless on a tech forum....Also, what is the 3GB limit mentioned?????????? I mean i know what the x86 4GB limit is, never heard of the 3GB one.
As pretty much everyone knows, except maybe you, the 4GB limit on 32bit systems include GFX cards and mappable memory addresses on motherboard system devices. Yes, I understand not all GFX cards have the same amount of memory but you will never see the full 4GB, so round down to 3GB.
this is very useful, thanks!!!
One question though: What's does PC stand for?
I like the Aero interface but I always revert to classic windows and turn everything off except like screen font smoothing, mouse cursor shadow, windows shadow, translucent selection, etc.. Also, when using Photoshop with a tablet I always turn off the Tablet PC service and just make sure the wacom service is running. ALSO.. (pheww), Photoshop has the OpenGL acceleration support (for CS4) and if you turn off 3D interaction acceleration and under advanced drawing turn off use for image display ALONG with having the classic windows interface you will experience maximum draw perfomance all this assuming you have a decent video card! Alternatively you can turn off OpenGL support entirely and that has even faster draw rates but you get the slow zoom and pan. Anyway, I turn off System Restore, Indexing, all the advanced options mentioned before, I have Diskeeper Pro installed (awesome program), NOD32 (64bit)... and my sound card (Xfi) and that's it. My machine is pretty much not going to do much better and for now it's all I need. And, that's that.
Doh! Hoping not to CONFUSE anyone, when I said, "When using Photoshop with a tablet" I was NOT referring to a Tablet PC, so don't try and turn off the Tablet PC service if this your case!!! Otherwise.. you wont be usin' no PEN buddy! I was referring to a Wacom Tablet.
1 unofficial way to speed up Windows Vista - Strap Vista DVD to a bottle rocket.
hehehe.. that was funny!! +1
Oh, you forgot to put "Most useless article of the week:" before your title.
Not even sure why this was news worthy...
Not even sure why this was news worthy...
Because some readers may be the kind who just buy the box off the shelf and dont know an SSD from a hole in the ground. If the article writers cater exclusively to the geek fringe it will just become an intolerable clique.
Unbelievable... Has Toms hardware run out of topics to talk about? What has Kevin Parrish been smoking ===* ??
What has Kevin Parrish been smoking ===* ??
Maybe he's been on the NASA tour ... ;-p
I nominate thee Kevin Parrish as Captain Obvious!