speed up alt-tab - how?

Good evening!

I was wondering if there is a way tweak windows 7 in order to speed up the process of Alt-Tabbing between applications - particularly switching back into games may take up to a minute (while tabbing back to windows works like a charm).

I assume that the cause for this is the transfer of the game's data from the swap file back into the RAM - yet I am inclined to believe that 8 GB RAM shoud -theoretically- be enough to allow windows to keep it all 'in mind' during a brief switch to the desktop and back...

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and suggestions!

~sahib

Please read carefully following:
System File Checker - SFC /SCANNOW Command

Keep running sfc until you get a clean bill of health.

I always assumed it was a game thing rather than a windows thing; many games alt+tab back in as fast as when going out to windows. On the other hand, there are several games which are just slow to get back in, on the exact same computer.

karlsnooks said:

Please read carefully following:
System File Checker - SFC /SCANNOW Command

Keep running sfc until you get a clean bill of health.

As expected:

Code:

C:\>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

C:\>_

Good.

Now what anti-virus / firewall software are you using?

First I needed to verify that your system is basically in order.

Now we are going after some common programs that interfere with / slow down normal operations.

karlsnooks said:

Good.
Now what anti-virus / firewall software are you using?

- Avira AntiVir (which I switch off before playing games)
- Windows firewall

Orbital Shark said:

I think you'll find that if a game requires a lot of resources it will inevitably take longer to task-switch back from Windows. Thus, as Windows has to re-allocate certain resources back to the game once switched that can also take some time.

This re-allocation of certain resources is exactly what I would like to speed up - or avoid, if possible. I'm unsure though which part of the system is the bottleneck in this case - my system (check my specs) should provide the means to keep the required resources allocated at any time while the game is still running. So I assume it's just a question of making Windows realize that, and adapt its processes accordingly.

Orbital Shark said:

You'll also find that if the game is using a different resolution than the native Windows resolution then it will take time to adjust the monitor to the selected output.

Most games I play are capable of running my native Windows resolution (1920x1200), that includes Starcraft II (which I am currently playing - this one is taking particularly long to switch back to after tabbing to windows)


Thanks for your time!
~sahib

What background programs do you have running?

Any communication programs? Some of those interfere.

Any system monitoring programs?

Look at the programs running at startup and uncheck all that are not absolutiely essential. I only have one desktop gadget and MSE checked.

Now if all of these don't solve the problem them I'm out of ideas. Perhaps the people in the Games forum of sevenforums would have ideas.