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 leave following options enabled according to your requirements:
- Enable Aero Peek (If you want to use Aero Peek feature)
- 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 contents 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 but make sure to set Exit Windows, Windows Log off, 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 definitely notice major improvements in your Windows 7 performance.
Complete list of AskVG articlesThis article was posted in Windows 7.
Related Articles
Popular Articles
- Frequently Asked Problems with Solutions
- Is Your System Infected with a Virus / Spyware / Adware / Trojan?
- Transform Windows Vista into 7 without using Customization pack
- Transform Windows XP into 7 without using Customization pack
- Transform Windows XP into Vista without using Customization pack
- All About Resource Hacker in a brief Tutorial
- Master Tutorial to Make Your Windows 7 Super Fast
- Master Tutorial to Make Your Windows Vista Super Fast
- Master Tutorial to Make Your Windows XP Super Fast
- All Kinds of Restrictions for Windows XP, Vista and 7
Tommy
Great tutorial, but just an FYI to everyone that you may wanna include,, in step 2 if you disable anything aero peak will also be disabled. Not too sure what some of it even has to do with aero peak but I hope they fix that in future builds, its kinda annoying.
Ian
One month after installing the Windows 7 beta, I had over 10 unnecessary items showing in the msconfig startup list. It just shows how much clutter can be added over time... every application seemed to want some wasteful startup application to display a pretty system tray icon!
nudeveloper
i have always admired VG for his work but i think this time for Windows 7 he is doing it too early.
) and you should think of some more different registry tweaks that are really effective 
Registry tweaks dint have much effect on the OS nor the tweaks are so effective to make it suitable to be applied.
sorry, but dear VG you should wait a little bit till the Candidate Release of the Windows 7 expecting it be a bit stable than Beta Builds (having lots of bugs
Hope you will take me positively.
your friend tauqueer!
VG
^^ As I earlier said Windows 7 is already very fast, but this tutorial was made because lots of our readers wanted it and we can't disappoint them, can we?
watzabatza
thank you for posting it, my OS now is already Windows 7. it helps me a lot. thank you for helping people like me... good job!
Shahnawaz
Please upload the default windows registry settings file.I want to restore these settings to their default value as my system has become less responsive.
VG
^^ Please check Registry tweak topic. It contains the restore script.
Shahnawaz
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Juan
Hey Vishal, is this safe to apply on build 7057?
Thanks!
VG
^^ 100% safe.