Tweaking Windows 7 for speed/stability

JoesMorgue · 01 Dec 2012

OK. I have this wonderfully powerful machine.

It multi-tasks more than it runs anything that puts a load on it. The largest load I run is VirtualBox running XP as a dual-core 4 Gig machine. With that, I'm at like 12% load, and 49% memory usage.

What tweaks do should I consider for the OS to make it faster/more stable?

It doesn't get shut down very often, it just sleeps when everyone is AFK, and in this house, that won't change, as games get paused then continued the next day...

I do realize that putting the folders on a local drive would speed things up, but several user accounts access the same files [makes it VERY nice at times] and combined, they wouldn't fit on my SSD...

indianacarnie · 01 Dec 2012

Not much tweaking required or needed for 7. I don't even GO to Black Vipers site anymore

. Just normal maintenance, start ups to a minimum etc. I've done little to no tweaking on mine and I'm a fanatic about those things. I wipe my free space every now and then, but if you have a SSD you won't need to do that. Turn off all the unused "features" you don't want. WMP etc.

I used to live in Novi/Walled Lake many moons ago, you close to there?

theveterans · 01 Dec 2012

Like indianacarnie said, you don't need tweaking if you have ssd. The only thing that needs to be tweaked is probably disabling Windows Indexing, search, and superfetch. You can also turn off hibernate and system restore if you find yourself running out of space.

gregrocker · 02 Dec 2012

If this is the Compaq in your specs then you'd of course want a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

At least I'd Clean Up Factory Bloatware

In addition to the steps given in those, I'd also use these to Optimize Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

JoesMorgue · 02 Dec 2012

gregrocker said:

If this is the Compaq in your specs then you'd of course want a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

At least I'd Clean Up Factory Bloatware

In addition to the steps given in those, I'd also use these to Optimize Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

The ONLY thing Compaq about this computer [now] is the case and faceplate. When it was Compaq, it was Vista. The SSD was new, and a full install of Win7 was used [No OEM in the key]

MOST of that list I did, there has to be more I can do.

I tried disabling IPv6 on my other Windows box, but it didn't go as the page suggested, so I'm not sure if I did it right. What is the best way to tell?

Is there a list of services that are normally on, but commonly can be shut down?

What does the OS Boot Information check box [Boot tab of MSConfig] do?

gregrocker · 03 Dec 2012

Win7 doesn't have any services to give up since anything not needed at boot is set to Manual on fast triggers, a genius development for Win7 which also saved Vista in SP1.

OS Boot information is a verbose boot that won't tell you anything about performance.

Additional steps here in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 will help resolve errors in logs, utilize System resources to find solutions to problems, establish and keep a Clean Boot, test hardware, etc.

After these perhaps it would be best to tell us what deficiencies you notice. Is Win7 instantaneous and never hangs as it should be natively on adequate hardware with a perfect install?