This is the 3rd tutorial of our "Master Tutorial" series. We have already posted 2 other tutorials for Windows XP and Windows Vista in past and now its turn of Windows 7.
Although Windows 7 is already very fast and reliable but this tutorial will help you in getting the max performance out of your system.
So without wasting any time, here we start our tutorial:
1. Registry Tweaks:
Following topic contains a few registry tweaks to optimize your system performance and add a few useful extras:
Collection of Registry Tweaks for Windows 7
You just need to download the ZIP file, extract it and run the file. It'll ask for confirmation, accept it. Restart your system to take affect.
2. Right-click on Computer icon on Desktop and select Properties (or press WIN + Pause/Break keys). Now click on Advanced system settings link in left side pane (You can open it directly by giving sysdm.cpl command in RUN or start menu search box). Now click on Settings button in Performance section:
It'll open another window. Disable all unnecessary options in Visual Effects tab, you can remain following options enabled according to your requirements:
- Enable desktop composition (If you want to use Windows Aero theme)
- Enable transparent glass (If you want to use transparency in Windows)
- Show thumbnails instead of icons (If you want to show thumbnails in Explorer)
- Show window contents while dragging (If you want windows to show content while moving them)
- Smooth edges of screen fonts (If you want to show smooth fonts)
- Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop (If you want to show shadows under desktop icon labels)
- Use visual styles on windows and buttons (If you want to use Windows Aero or Basic theme.)
3. Open Windows Explorer and go to "Organize -> Folder and Search Options" and click on View tab.
Now disable following options:
- Display file size information in folder tips
- Hide extensions for known file types
- Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color
- Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items
4. Right-click on Computer icon on Desktop and select Manage (You can also open it directly by giving services.msc command in RUN or start menu search box).
Now go to Services & Applications -> Services. Here you can set a few unnecessary services to Manual, so that these services don't start automatically with Windows and you can get a faster startup.
Visit following tutorial to know which services can be set to MANUAL to increase system performance:
Windows 7 Services that can be Safely set to MANUAL
5. Type msconfig in RUN or Startmenu search box and press Enter. Now go to Startup tab and disable unwanted startup entries. You can disable your graphics card's driver utility, Sound Card utility, etc to speed up the system startup and to increase system performance.
6. Open Sound applet in Control Panel (or type mmsys.cpl in RUN or Startmenu search box and press Enter). Now go to Sounds tab and select No Sounds from Sound Scheme section. You can keep some of your favorite sounds enabled if you want but make sure to set Exit Windows, Windows Logoff, Windows Logon and Start Navigation to (None).
Also disable "Play Windows Startup sound" option to disable the sound clip which is played at login screen.
7. Also don't forget to:
- Defrag the hard disk regularly
- Install only necessary software
- Use the latest device drivers
- Keep your Windows up-to-date
After following all the above mentioned points, you'll see some noticable improvements in your Windows 7 performance.
Complete list of AskVG articlesThis article was posted in Windows 7.
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Dnyanesh
Nice!
Asfaq Tapia
Would you recommend disabling the Page file if I have 4GB RAM?
VG
^^ Nope. Pagefile helps in improving system performance so I'll never advise to disable it.
Asfaq Tapia
VG: I may be wrong, but isn't the pagefile supposed to store data that has to be eventually processed by the processor? If you have enough RAM already, why use it?
VG
^^ if you turn off page file, it'll cause wastage of physical RAM. Most of the programs require virtual memory to run and if you sum all the required virtual memory by these programs, it can easily cross hundreds of MB. If you turn off virtual memory ( aka pagefile), the OS will assign physical memory to these programs and it'll lock the RAM out from any actual use. So its always a good idea to keep pagefile turned on.
informale
VG,
so what would be your pagefile setup for x64 4 Gb RAM system?
Cuz i use no pagefile ever since i've installed 4 gigs and i've never ran out of ram, although i use photoshop and other memory intensive apps.
Tom
The suggested techniques are ineffective and aren't notable that much in performance. You're only limiting the graphics a bit, not improving the overall performance of the system. Step 4, 5 and 7 might be effective if done right, but if done wrong, these will only introduce problems. (Do not blindly put that list on manual, do not blindly disable programs, ...)
The key to performance is to get your idle resource usage to a minimum, while not disabling any stuff that are efficient to use. Better to have 0 - 2 % idle usage than having 8 % idle usage and a OS that is limited on several things.
I would suggest to start of exploring the Resource Monitor, rather than applying hoaxes.
( Yes, those services set to manual do not use your processor, thus applying that tweak is a hoax, rather look what services use the most and limit those. For example putting SQL Server to manual when you install Visual Studio.
)
Tom
The possibility to disable the page file depends on the Peak Commit Charge that you are using. If that's only between 1 - 2 GB on _busy_ moments then you can just disable the page file as the chance to hit 4 GB is not that high. And if it does hit that limit, you will be notified that your system is out of memory. I would only assign a page file in that case.
There is no need to have your slow disk I/O involved if your RAM is not going full ever, RAM that is not used is wasted RAM. The page file has been invented for systems that _might_ use Virtual RAM than Physical RAM.
Ingnition
thnkx for this vg, i really like how fast in windows 7 now
Sora
Finally the master tutorial for windows 7! Been waiting for a long time