Listed below are a few of the things I have noticed that increase the speed and responsiveness of Windows 7. Some tweaks are only seeing minor gains, while others are getting significant improvement.
Disable Indexing
Indexing creates and maintains a database of file attributes. This can lead to multiple small writes when creating/deleting/modifying files. Searching for files will still work even if you disable indexing.
HOW TO: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services – > Right-Click Windows Search -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK
(Only on SSD’s) Disable Defragmentation
Defragmenting a hard disk’s used space is only useful on mechanical disks with multi-millisecond latencies. Free-space defragmentation may be useful to SSDs, but this feature is not available in the default Windows Defragmenter.
HOW TO: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services – > Right-Click Disk Defragmenter -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK
Disable System Restore
Don’t write backup copies of files when installing new programs or making system changes. Can free up between a few hundred MB to a couple GB. Although unlikely, if a driver installation corrupts your system, there won’t be an automatic way to recover.
HOW TO: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> System Protection Tab -> Configure -> Turn off system protection -> Delete -> OK
Disable Hibernation
You may free up 1GB of space on the SSD if you have 1GB of memory, 2GB of space if you have 2GB memory. You will lose the hibernation feature which allows the equivalent of quick boots and shutdowns.
HOW TO: Start Menu -> Type cmd -> Right-Click the cmd Icon -> Run as Administrator -> Type powercfg -h off -> Type exit
Related posts:
