Freeware programs that increase performance?

sobber said:

Try Advance System Care Free Edition
Advanced SystemCare Free | Windows 7 Registry Cleaner | Free Registry Repair for Windows 7, Vista, XP, and 2000

I am using a Pro Edition in my home & Free Edition in the office of that and it was a great help in maintaining my PC's performance, the only big difference is the Automated care & Turbo Boost

Im going to advise against ASC. It is totally unnecessary.

1) Windows does a pretty good job of looking after itself and doesnt really need this program
2) For System Cleanup CCleaner is superior
3) The Defragger isn't Superfetch aware, this slows down performance, because Windows takes longer to cache files. Windows built in Defragger is Superfetch aware.
4) The "Memory Cleanser" is useless, it clears Superfetch data, again slowing down your machine, as they need to be reloaded into the Cache again.
5) "Turbo Boost" just disables certain services, this can be achieved with a program called Soluto which will monitor your boot times and tell you what can be got rid of from your startup: Soluto – Anti-Frustration Software and is again superior.

Layback Bear said:

That was a great read that Brink has compiled. It tell me that most speed improvements are built into windows 7. No snake oil. Thank you for posting it richc46. Folks after doing every thing that riche46 has posted by Brink it will help a lot but will not remove the fact that adding more ram is necessary for a faster operating windows 7. Windows 7/64 loves at least 4 gigs or more. Weather one has access to more ram doesn't change that fact. I bookmarked Brink's tutorial.

You could put 16 GBs or RAM into a computer. But it is worthless if the processor is crap. Just adding RAM alone is not enough. However, a netbook is not designed to be a power house in the first place. The Atom processors are severely limited in what they can do.

Most often, the upgrade from 2GB to 4GB of RAM is the biggest bang that you are going to get...unless you are running something very RAM intensive (VM's, etc). Going for 4GB to 8GB will not result in much performance gain for everyday use and going above 8GB will most likely result in no noticeable performance increase.

...You are all know that this is a netbook right? Not a desktop...

Xisuma said:

I didn't read every post, someone may have mentioned you can boost performance by turning of windows areo and other visual features. Also why do you need more power? Just want your pc to run faster?

You actually have it backwards. Turning Aero on is recommend. With Aero on that frees up the CPU for more important tasks. However, the OP has Windows 7 Starter which does not have Aero. Otherwise it would help the OP to turn it on.