WINDOWS 7 SPEED UP TIPS
Turning off Automatic Disk Defragmentation:
The automatic disk defragmentation feature of Windows 7 makes it a little slow; instead you can disable this function and run the disk defrag once a week. For disabling this you need to do the following:
1. Go to Start> Computer
2. Right Click on C: Drive and click on Properties
3. Select the Tools Tab and click on Defragment Now
4. Uncheck Run on a schedule option
Using Readyboost:
Using the ready boost feature you can use a pen drive and increase your system performance. The drive acts as an extra RAM. To use this feature you need at least a 2GB USB drive. I didn’t have a 2GB though. Follow the below steps to use this feature:
1. First connect the USB Flash Drive to your pc
2. Then go to Start> Computer
3. Right Click the USB Drive in My Computer and select the Ready Boost Tab
4. Choose Use this device
5. Select as much space as you can free up for RAM usage vs. Storage
Disable transparency of windows:
The transparency of windows is really awesome but it might not be great for users who don’t have great pcs as it slows down the performance. You can disable the transparency in windows by following the below steps:
1. Right click on the desktop and select Personalize.
2. Select the theme and then go to Windows Color.
3. Uncheck Enable Transparency.
Disable UAC (User Access Control):
UAC isn’t that annoying as it was in Vista. But, if you still don’t like it then you can disable this feature by following the below steps:
1. First go to Start> type msconfig in the search bar and hit enter
2. Go to tools> Change UAC settings
3. Click on Launch, set the option to ‘Never notify’ and press ok.
4. UAC will be turned off once you restart your pc.
Turn off unwanted features:
There are may be several features which are not really required. These features might slow down your pc. You can disable such features by doing the following:
1. First go to Start > Control Panel> Programs and features.
2. On the side menu, click on Turn Windows features on or off.
3. Scroll through the list as shown below and remove the check from any feature you do not want installed.
4. Click OK once you are done. The features will now be uninstalled.
Disabling min/max animations in windows:
You might just love the minimizing and maximizing effect in Windows. But after a few days of use, some of you may get irritated as it will increase the minimizing and maximizing time of windows. Well, I have a different opinion here though, I like the minimizing and maximizing effect. To disable this function you can do the following:
1. First click on the Start Menu enter SystemPropertiesPerformance in the search bar and hit Enter.
2. On the Visual Effects tab uncheck Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing.
3. Click OK.
Disable unwanted Windows Services that Auto-Launch at Startup:
1. Go to Start and type ‘msconfig’ in the search bar and hit enter.
A new window will pop up, on the ‘Services Tab’ deselect the following:
1. Offline Files (unless you’re using Offline File Sync)
2. Tablet PC Input Service (unless you have a tablet PC)
3. Terminal Services
4. Windows Search (If you have already disabled indexing)
5. Fax (unless you’re using a fax modem)
Windows hibernation might use a large amount of system resources. If you don’t really use this feature then you can disable hibernation by doing the following:
1. Go to start> Control Panel> Power Options.
2. Now click Change Plan Settings.
3. Click on Change Advanced Power Settings.
4. Expand the Sleep selection.
5. Expand the Hibernate After selection and enter zero on the box.
6. Click Apply.
Speed up external hard drives:
Write caching is disabled in external drives as it allows you to connect and disconnect any external drive frequently, but in case if you have a drive which is hardly disconnected then this feature might just decrease your performance. You can enable this feature if you are not disconnecting your external drive frequently by doing the following:
1. Go to Start, then right click on Computer and select Manage.
2. Click on Device Manager on the side menu.
3. Expand Disk drives and locate your external drive from the list.
4. Right click on the drive and select Properties.
5. On the Policies tab, select Optimize for performance.
6. Next, check ‘Enable write caching on the disk’ and ‘Enable advanced performance’.
7. Select OK and restart your pc.
You can improve the performance of your hard disk by enhancing write caching. But in case you have frequent power cuts and no battery then I strongly recommend you not to do this as there is an increased risk for data loss or corruption. You can enhance your writing cache by doing the following:
1. Go to Start and in the search bar type Device Manager and hit Enter.
2. Expand Disk Drives.
3. Right click on your hard drive and select Properties.
4. On the Policies tab, check ‘Enable write caching on the device’.
5. Click on OK and close Device Manager.
