Windows 7: Configuring Windows 7

Is there any good instructions for configuring Windows 7? Like getting rid of unneccessary features that run in the background such as Windows Firewall or whatever. That way, the OS can use minimum resources.

Hello crimson

There are tweaks and hacks available if you search for them but many here, me included would suggest Windows 7 is set up as lean and efficient as it is out of the box so to speak. There's no real need to mess around with the OS and chances are you will do more harm than good in the long term. Often disabling services etc leads to more problems down the line than it does in gaining you any performance.

Just my thoughts
Danny

Hi crimson, I agree with Danny. Windows 7 tends to run slowly after its installed, but gets faster all by its self the more its used.

Isn't it bloated? Like large on the hard drive, and use alot of resources? Ubuntu is less than 1GB I think with system requirements of 5GB. And minimum system requirements for Windows 7 is 20GB.

Does anybody know why so much is needed for an OS? Shouldn't an OS use much less disk space, so the rest can be used for software?

Pass ????

Huh?

No. No. No.

Um...Ubuntu is not less then 1 GB, where did you even get that? Windows 7 takes up less then 8 GBs of space. Harly bloated, and no Ubuntu is not 1 GB, its around the same under 8 GB.

Let me guess, you are a troll?

Generally speaking, Windows 7 runs fast and efficient as is. turning off services, and uninstalling things can often just lead to slower overall system performance.

As far as being bloated, I don't think so. Besides, hard drive space is quite cheap. If you want to reduce the amount of disk space used, my best advice is to install 4-8GB of RAM, turn off the pagefile and eliminate the hibernate file (powercfg -h 0ff).

Linux distros are often smaller, no doubt about it. And they cost a lot less as well. If you are comfortable with branching out and trying something new, by all means give it a shot. If I recall correctly, Ubuntu takes about 4.5GB of space, while Windows is going to consume about 8GB.

Ubuntu 11.04 takes about 4GB straight out of the box. I have just installed it in VMWare Player today and that is the disk usage ATM.

Well under 5 GB for Windows 7, SP1 and all current updates for the 32-bit version. The 64-bit version would be a little more, probably close to 8 GB. You would see about the same increase on the 64-bit version of Ubuntu. See screenshot. (The winsxs folder is Windows, it contains every DLL and application that is part of the installation.)