Free Windows Tuner - Is the program safe and real?

[feardaduck]

So I was searching around on softpedia when I ran into this program. It seemed like a nice choice for what I was looking. I downloaded it and installed it. After, I did a spybot scan and it found something like "chameleonman toolbar". I deleted it. Im not sure if it was this program or some other things because I did try other programs earlier. Is anyone able to test it out and confirm its safe and it actually makes a difference? I ran it and it seemed real enough. I also submitted the install file to virus total and it came out clean. Here is the site.
Speed up your Windows

Thanks

 

[solarmystic]

Hello feardaduck,

As a simple rule of thumb, Windows 7 does not require any of those 3rd party tuning programs or utilities or even tweakers that claim to increase your performance; Microsoft has already strove to create the perfect out of the Box experience for Windows 7, and it's reflected almost everywhere you look in the OS.

Engineering Windows 7 Graphics Performance - Engineering Windows 7 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Boot Performance - Engineering Windows 7 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Those 3rd party utilities often don't really help your system as they claim, and sometimes can cause more harm than they're worth to your system.

That being said, if you wish to optimize your Windows 7 installation with some tried and tested methods, refer to this following tutorial.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

 

[BrownChiLD]

hi

I will have to agree with solarmystic On this one. But, while it is True that almost everything you need to tweak and make your system perform faster is built into the Windows 7, tweak tools like this in question are very very useful as well. I do a lot of systems a lot and I try to make each system I build as efficient and as fast performing as possible by turning off a lot of unnecessary services in heavy theme options and all that and it does get very tasky to go To each setting, into the registries, and all of that just to make these tweaks. Sometimes I get the point that I forget to turn on this turn off this to optimize this etc. etc. So these tools don't really give you anything you to make your system run faster but it puts everything into one place which makes it easier for everybody , both newbies and to a seasoned and administrators who does this a lot.

so I for one am for these kind of tools but it's actually the user who can mess things up if they don't know what they're doing.

Now back to the topic, I'm also wondering if this tool is really good. I might tested today if I find time but it would be great if somebody could just let us know And save some time.
http://www.sevenforums.com/member.php?u=77404

 

[boohbah]

as for having everything in one place for easy access dont forget "god mode"
to create a god mode folder ,
create a new folder and rename it ....

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

also you can add it to the control panel...

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/238686-control-panel-add-remove-all-tasks-god-mode.html

 

[Dark Rider]

I have to strongly disagree with solarmystic to an extent. Microsoft did a poor job of optimizing the Windows 7 system for performance. You can use the threads solarmystic mentions for some gain but it won't be much. You have to be aware of the 2 major things running on your system that will give you slowdowns (and that's assuming that you have no malware or system file problems) - those are the running processes and services that you don't need.

You will want to go to msconfig from the run box and stop any startup programs you don't need. Next go to the Processes tab and stop all running processes you don't need or want. Next disable all services in the services tab even all Microsoft services and only check the few services you really need to run your system and your desired apps. Reboot and Poof, you'll have a much faster and less resource intensive system.

Warning: You cannot do this in a day. You have to use sites like Google (to search), or Black Viper or a tool called SMARTv2 to learn about each and every process and service on your system and what they do to be sure you can safely turn off processes and services you wont need or want. Yes, you have to look them all up and do some heavy reading but really it is not that much and you can get through it quickly enough. Doing this research and trial and error takes a few days worth of work and learning.

SMARTv2 is a tool that can make most of these changes safely (and lets you change them back) but I don't use it because it does not disable many of the processes and services you can access through Msconfig - it leaves too many things alone you may want to disable.

Once you develop your magic list of processes, services and startup items write them all down in a text file. If your computer ever reverts to default settings with all processes and services enabled, you can always manually go in and make the changes again. I only use allow 18 services to run out of Microsoft's huge list and I can do everything I want to do on my PC from playing games to surfing the web - with much more resources free than I had before - even if they told you to set the services to manual or automatic to save resources, (through services.msc) you will still have many popping on and off as the system warrants and this can give you slowdowns. Don't set to manual or automatic - find out what you really need and permanently disable the rest. With only 18 services running, there is no application I cannot run. All the junk I disabled is stuff Microsoft deems you should run in the background most of the time and is never needed. You will know the ups and downs of these once you study the processes and services.

You might want to make good use of system restore or the much better RollBack RX while you go through this learning process.

The ideal system app that no one has made yet is a tool that lets you make a profile for processes and services so you can return to these settings on the fly by hitting a button - sadly it doesn't exist so you have to do all of this manually in Msconfig to remake these power changes from your list - but once you have it down, this only takes a minute to make the changes and reboot. Hope this helps.

 

[Layback Bear]

Here we go again.
No Windows 7 doesn't need or want those so call Tune Up programs. If one takes that day of Googling all those Tune Up web sites and turn into reading all the post here where such programs have screwed up gross numbers of computers, that would be a learning experience. Leave Windows Services alone. I don't think the super guru's here no how all those services interconnect with other things. Windows 7 is not XP that we tinkered with. Its 10 times better. Using are Tutorials here work well and keep you and your computer happy.

 

[solarmystic]

I have to strongly disagree with solarmystic to an extent. -snip-

I'm quite aware of BlackViper and his website dealing with the services and processes of Windows 7.

I personally used (still am to an extent) to be an ardent supporter of his site and methodology for trimming down as many services as possible on my system. But that was when i was using Windows XP many years ago.

I will not deny that his website offers insight on the various 'configurations' of services and what each does (an invaluable service for the bleeding edge crowd), but the measured (in terms of RAM gained, or boot time reduced) impact of disabling those services, to me, isn't worth the hassle when it comes to Windows 7.

 

[DustSailor]

Did you know disabling services holds no benfit over setting them to manual? Did you know that any benefit in setting an automatic service to manual is very, very small (tested this many times in many computers)? Tell me that it was easy to disable services following BlackViper's advice (without any computer problems afterward) and I'll call you a liar.

It is truly a waste to disable services (spending countless hours on the project) when the benefit just isn't there. To install and use tune-ups and cleaners is also a waste without much benefit. In truth, windows 7 is very streamlined. These programs only serve to complicate it. As stated, we get many people in here who have problems with such programs. More problems arise from tuners than problems are fixed. Want a faster computer? Work that overtime and get one.

Don't get me wrong, Ccleaner is excellent when you need to remove something stubborn. Aside from that, it isn't going to offer much benefit. And this is the only program of its type I would ever recommend. All the rest just don't cut it.

Excellent tutorial on keeping your computer clean and quick, without any need to download programs: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

 

[Layback Bear]

I will also give a to the Optimize Windows 7.

 

[pparks1]

I have to strongly disagree with solarmystic to an extent. Microsoft did a poor job of optimizing the Windows 7 system for performance. You can use the threads solarmystic mentions for some gain but it won't be much. You have to be aware of the 2 major things running on your system that will give you slowdowns (and that's assuming that you have no malware or system file problems) - those are the running processes and services that you don't need.

I agree about shutting down most unneeded things from msconfig. No argument there.

With respect to services, my experience says leave them alone. I've not found any quantifiable gain to shutting these off. Cannot prove anything is better with a stopwatch. In fact, as I shut more and more off, the system actually gets slower and slower in my tests. In theory, I would have more resources and thus it must be better...but real world experience is not showing this to be true for me or many others here.

Doing this research and trial and error takes a few days worth of work and learning.

Bet you will never earn back a few days of time though by the resources saved with all of the tweaking.

Once you develop your magic list of processes, services and startup items write them all down in a text file. If your computer ever reverts to default settings with all processes and services enabled, you can always manually go in and make the changes again. I only use allow 18 services to run out of Microsoft's huge list and I can do everything I want to do on my PC from playing games to surfing the web - with much more resources free than I had before

Could you please provide me with this list, I would like to time a handful of tasks on my PC and then would like to implement your magic list and run the same handful of tests on my pc and time the change with a stopwatch?



This seems to me to be one of those cases where I ask the person if they did time tests before they made changes and compared them to results after the changes...and the answer I always get is, "Naw, I don't like taking the time to measure all of that stuff, it's boring and mundane", "Or I didn't think about it until I already made all of the changes, I don't want to go back and reset my config to gather this info". Instead they like to say, "it feels so much faster". Really, it feels faster, but you don't really know that it actually is??????

 

[Layback Bear]

I also like pparks1 would sure like that list to piddle with. I wonder if Microsoft would like to buy that list.

 

[Dark Rider]

I have to strongly disagree with solarmystic to an extent. -snip-

I'm quite aware of BlackViper and his website dealing with the services and processes of Windows 7.

I personally used (still am to an extent) to be an ardent supporter of his site and methodology for trimming down as many services as possible on my system. But that was when i was using Windows XP many years ago.

I will not deny that his website offers insight on the various 'configurations' of services and what each does (an invaluable service for the bleeding edge crowd), but the measured (in terms of RAM gained, or boot time reduced) impact of disabling those services, to me, isn't worth the hassle when it comes to Windows 7.

What I was actually disagreeing with was this statement:

"Windows 7 does not require any of those 3rd party tuning programs or utilities or even tweakers that claim to increase your performance; Microsoft has already strove to create the perfect out of the Box experience for Windows 7"

I KNOW tweaking my system in my described manner gives me way more resources left over to run graphic intensive programs. Without my tweaks, some games wont even run and with my tweaks, they run just fine.

I have read on here some people feel it's even potentially harmful to follow Black Vipers advice. I don't care one way or the other about BlackViper cept to use his research to learn about your services.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For pparks1 and Layback Bear

As for my Magic List, you have to understand that everyone's magic list may be different depending on your needs. It's simply a list of the services I need and everything I do not need is disabled. There is really nothing special or magic about my list other then it contains only what I need running and nothing else.

People may say that there is no difference between disabling a service or setting it to manual.. but I don't believe it personally. I am a hard core gamer and I know many games will play better if I disable services as opposed to setting them to manual. I seem to have more resources to play the games even though there is no difference in task manager. Can I explain this, no, but as I find this is what works for me, it is my preference.

 

[Alejandro85]

I also have to disagree with solarmystic and all his supporters, Windows 7 is Windows after all, and that about Win7 doesn't even "requires" tweaking is one of the marketing lies that the M$ folks want us to believe.

Anyone that used Windows for a number of years for a number of versions knows that EVERY installations degrades performance over time, and a few tweaks really improve performance sometimes in particular situations. Don't know about that program and generally I don't trust too much that "magic" software that claims miracles in performance, but, being a knowledgeable user I think that a few touches to services, startup programs and installed things can make a difference.

 

[mikeymikec]

Anyone that used Windows for a number of years for a number of versions knows that EVERY installations degrades performance over time

Absolutely untrue. I haven't wiped one of my own Windows installs because "it got slow" in at least ten years. Admittedly between 1996 - 2005 I was having more fun doing weird things to Windows and ended up reinstalling a lot of the time, but that's a different story

What does change are the following:

- The base software that almost everyone uses - e.g. web browsers, security software - these get incremental updates and upgrades and steadily their hardware requirements go up.
- A heck of a lot of users don't treat their computer with care, e.g. instead of "oops, I shouldn't have installed that", just don't install it in the first place. Most users don't have the knowledge required to get rid of what's left behind by say a poorly-written browser toolbar uninstaller.
- In the days of pre Vista, a defrag once in a while
- Users installing printers, a printer eventually dies, the user doesn't uninstall the software
- Users inserting the CD from their broadband provider (I live in the UK, foreign providers may not do these things), or a bloody HP printer CD - ending up with a load of crap they don't need.

As a general point, the playing field has altered dramatically in terms of the hardware generally available to run Windows 7 as opposed to WinXP and its predecessors. I am totally in the "tweak it up" camp, but I think it used to make a heck of a lot more difference than it does now. It used to be easy for me to tell the difference between a Win2k/XP-era computer on a stock install and with the Windows filesharing services (and other unnecessary services) disabled. Now the difference is subtle or non-existent. Personally I haven't seen an appreciable difference. A Win7-64 desktop computer build I've done with MSE for security takes about 45 seconds to boot. My own PC is a bit faster, perhaps because it has 4-6 cores (AMD 960T with unlockable cores), but even that is between 35-45 seconds.

My Win7 install is 2.5 years old. If I reinstalled it now, I'd spend hours getting the software I want back on, and its performance would be identical to what it is now. I remember thinking the same thing for my previous build (Athlon XP 2500-3200+) running XP. I really appreciate a fast booting and responsive system, so if I honestly thought reinstalling on a regular-ish basis made the slightest bit of difference I'd agree with you.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I have to strongly disagree with solarmystic to an extent. Microsoft did a poor job of optimizing the Windows 7 system for performance.

This is where you and all those agreeing with you need to realize that Windows 7 is far different than any other version of Windows ever created. You CANNOT hold it to the same level of thinking as XP, meaning if you think you need to tweak it, you are wrong. People have tried, but in the end, you won't realize any performance gains. Even disabling services has been thoroughly debunked as a performance tip.

My suggestion is to spend some time educating yourself on the history of Windows performance tweaking...and find out why it doesn't really exist anymore, aside from the given methods...don't run a lot of apps at boot, keep drivers up to date...and use an SSD for the OS.

Furthermore, I can't believe I'm even typing this again, but the moment any mention of Black Viper is given, credibility is lost. I can't bare the carpal tunnel pains to retype yet again the history of that horrid site, but I'll sum it up as this. If you want to know the reality of his methods, ask yourself why he's known as QuackViper in the most popular, most well-known enthusiast forums and circles. That site is responsible for killing more XP installs than any piece of malware ever created.

Getting back to tweaking, the best example on updated thinking involves tapes and CDs. We used tapes for the longest time. We developed a best practices....avoid magnets, extreme temps, rewind when done, flip them over to extend play time, break tabs to prevent erasing, etc. NONE of that applies to CDs, so we've had to change our methods and ways of thinking. All just to listen to music. That's how it is with windows XP when compared to Windows 7.

The best tweaking advice given in enthusiast forums is: leave it alone. It's been proven, documented, reproven, and retested.

 

[pparks1]

People may say that there is no difference between disabling a service or setting it to manual.. but I don't believe it personally. I am a hard core gamer and I know many games will play better if I disable services as opposed to setting them to manual. I seem to have more resources to play the games even though there is no difference in task manager. Can I explain this, no, but as I find this is what works for me, it is my preference.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to us. Lots of these types of requests seem to go unanswered or simply ignored.

I'm going to bunch you into the group of people who "believe it to be better" and I think this is mostly founded in they theory it should be better as more resources would be available. Without any quantifiable evidence to prove that it's better, it's just an assumption or a gut feel. It's like having a race car, and increasing the horsepower or reducing the weight of the vehicle. In theory, if you were to drag race the 1/4 mile, you would of course be faster. However, if your tires no longer hook up, or your transmission isn't shifting effective/efficiently, you may actually be slower. And when you pull up to the line and gun it, you may feel that extra horsepower, or the car may be louder and more aggressive sounding, but without the timing of the race, you might conclude you are now faster, when it fact the opposite might be true.

Obviously, if you feel better running in this manner, that is really all that matters and you are free to run your system any way you choose. But I would hesitate to tell others that they can increase the performance of their machines, or that they should take a few days to learn about each and every service to tweak them for best performance, without having any real conclusive proof that this actually makes any real difference.

 

[mikeymikec]

People may say that there is no difference between disabling a service or setting it to manual.. but I don't believe it personally. I am a hard core gamer and I know many games will play better if I disable services as opposed to setting them to manual. I seem to have more resources to play the games even though there is no difference in task manager. Can I explain this, no, but as I find this is what works for me, it is my preference.

There is a difference between a service set to manual or disabled.

As I understand it, 'manual' would be better worded as 'on demand'. So a service set to this wouldn't start every time the computer boots, but if something requested it, it would start.

'Disabled' means that even if something requests that service, it won't start.

Unfortunately a lot of the time (possibly due to bad programming), 'manual' ends up being pretty similar to 'disabled' unless the user goes in and starts the manual service themselves.

I only use 'disabled' if I really mean it (and these days I'm not talking about service tweaking, rather e.g. troubleshooting possibly malfunctioning security software).

Your question about gaming and service tweaking - I can only see a possible connection if the service and the game have some communications, like say the "Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant" and Batman: Arkham City. Disable that service, the game crashes Alternatively say a graphics driver debugging service.

 

[DeaconFrost]

As I understand it, 'manual' would be better worded as 'on demand'. So a service set to this wouldn't start every time the computer boots, but if something requested it, it would start.

Exactly, and that's why, if anyone ever has a need to manipulate services (not for performance, as that doesn't exist, but for troubleshooting), it is best to use manual. You are exactly correct.

As others have pointed out, the real bottom line issue is that no one can prove better performance. This debate has been raging on for over 10 years, and as it stands on enthusiast, performance-oriented boards, like [H]ardForum, the proof is in the numbers. When you gain nothing in performance, but raise your chances if causing issues or instability...there's no reason to spend time on this type of "tweaking". Feeling faster and being faster, are FAR different things.

 

[pparks1]

^And if you spend hours, days or weeks reading about all of these tweaks and then implementing them all, without any real world gains....what have you accomplished? Obviously, time is not the only relevant measure. When it comes to gaming you could measure with a significant increase in FPS. But if you were previously at 12FPS and went to 12.5FPS...it's probably not worth the time and effort. If you went from says 8FPS to 45FPS...that would be a big change...but it's highly unlikely disabling of a single service or a group of services will ever amount to that much.

 

[Layback Bear]

The only thing I'm sure of is if many people start fooling around with Windows 7 services the Crash and Debug people here are going to be very busy.