10 Windows speed tips that DON'T work.

[vpwin7]

I usually just go into my services and features, and disable any that I will not be using. I would have to say boot up performance is definitely increased, but duration after the computer has loaded seems minimally affected.

And as far as unloading DLLs, I believe it is true that they are kept loaded even after the program closes, I'm pretty sure of it. Although I would not suspect such a thing to be a problem unless the computer had little RAM. I was actually taught in when coding to unload DLLs after use, but this was mostly used to prevent memory leaks, and often only loaded DLLs that were rarely used in operations of the program.

 

[CarlTR6]

I usually just go into my services and features, and disable any that I will not be using. I would have to say boot up performance is definitely increased, but duration after the computer has loaded seems minimally affected.

I experimented extensively with services and I found maybe a second's difference in boot time with some of the services disabled as opposed to their stock manual setting. I did leave a few disabled for services that I do not use and for security reasons (such as remote management). Windows 7 manages services very, very well - not at all like XP or even Vista. Win 7 loads services as it needs them and unloads them if they are not needed. That is why you didn't see a difference in performance after the initial loading of Windows.

And as far as unloading DLLs, I believe it is true that they are kept loaded even after the program closes, I'm pretty sure of it. Although I would not suspect such a thing to be a problem unless the computer had little RAM. I was actually taught in when coding to unload DLLs after use, but this was mostly used to prevent memory leaks, and often only loaded DLLs that were rarely used in operations of the program.

The old rules that we used for memory management in XP do not apply to Win 7. It is a brand new game. The Win 7 engineers got memory management right. Win 7 keeps priority items in RAM and low priority items either get removed or written to the pagefile, including dll's. There is no third party app, no tweak you can do to improve memory management in Win 7. This is not to say that some app may not come along down the road; but it is certainly not here yet. For best permance, leave Win 7 to manage memory and services on its own.

 

[Muad Dib]

In the "good old" days of expensive RAM and HDD space there were tweaks to minimize the use of both that were somewhat effective. But any performance boost even those tweaks might have offered were debatable.

Eliminating any unneeded services was often effective in conserving memory usage, so-so on CPU usage. Black Viper's Guides were a very good guide in that respect.

But with lower memory and HDD prices the benefit of the so-called performance tweak is dubious. Especially the "Always Unload DLLs". With the lower memory costs - load those DLLS and keep them loaded, IMO!

The most effective performance tweak available has always been, and remains so, is to turn off any eye-candy you can live without (IMO).

That said, with todays hardware (memory, CPU and HDD) costs the "secret" registry and service tweaks can be far more problematic than they are worth. For instance, the success of adding a software app or a new piece of hardware at some future date may depend on a registry setting or a service that was altered/disabled long ago and forgotten.

It is nice to, finally, have affordable machines that can run Windows as installed "out of the box" without fighting for every processor cycle and I/O read/write.

The "good old" days of DOS with memory expansion cards and drivers were NOT that good....

 

[manhunter2826]

In addition - to my previous posts - the only fine-tuning I engage in is using msconfig to disable particular start-up entries -- but it's never a permanent change (i.e. easy to put back).

 

[CarlTR6]

In the "good old" days of expensive RAM and HDD space there were tweaks to minimize the use of both that were somewhat effective. But any performance boost even those tweaks might have offered were debatable.

Eliminating any unneeded services was often effective in conserving memory usage, so-so on CPU usage. Black Viper's Guides were a very good guide in that respect.

But with lower memory and HDD prices the benefit of the so-called performance tweak is dubious. Especially the "Always Unload DLLs". With the lower memory costs - load those DLLS and keep them loaded, IMO!

The most effective performance tweak available has always been, and remains so, is to turn off any eye-candy you can live without (IMO).

That said, with todays hardware (memory, CPU and HDD) costs the "secret" registry and service tweaks can be far more problematic than they are worth. For instance, the success of adding a software app or a new piece of hardware at some future date may depend on a registry setting or a service that was altered/disabled long ago and forgotten.

It is nice to, finally, have affordable machines that can run Windows as installed "out of the box" without fighting for every processor cycle and I/O read/write.

The "good old" days of DOS with memory expansion cards and drivers were NOT that good....

Well said. +1

 

[unifex]

Well, I do agree that Windows 7 is much better and faster than previous OS versions. It is also clear that with enough memory and hard drive space one does not need most of the so-called "performance tweaks". And I would definitely agree that wholesale removal of registry entries by those so-called 'tune-up' utilities and even CCleaner is not a good idea.

Still, I find that Windows Installer can use a lot of improvement. From time to time I try a new app and more often than not end up uninstalling it. Almost never the stock uninstaller removes all traces of the app. Registry entries, folders and files in various system and/or user directories are routinely left behind. So, if you do this - install and uninstall apps - often, then you see ever growing number of such left-overs. Most likely they do not affect your PC's performance by themselves. But, any kind of scan - anti-virus, malware, defragmentation, even disk clean-up - gets slower, since there are more files to go through. Search produces more irrelevant results. Finally, for some people - such as myself - it's simply too annoying to have to keep this useless stuff.

Same can be said regarding Windows Services. Can anyone explain to me, why would the out-of-the-box Windows enable Tablet services on my desktop? Do I really need services for smart cards and bluetooth devices if I don't have any? Is it too paranoid to consider remote registry and remote desktop to be a security risk, let alone the fact that I would never use them anyways?

I would probably agree that "straightening out" the OS along these lines has nothing to do with performance. But it would be very nice if there were some app to help me out with it. Unfortunately I have yet to see such an app, and thus I have to concur with my fellow posters in this thread - most of the 'tune-up' utilities are a waste of time and money at best, some of them would even make you more trouble.

 

[CarlTR6]

Well, I do agree that Windows 7 is much better and faster than previous OS versions. It is also clear that with enough memory and hard drive space one does not need most of the so-called "performance tweaks". And I would definitely agree that wholesale removal of registry entries by those so-called 'tune-up' utilities and even CCleaner is not a good idea.

Still, I find that Windows Installer can use a lot of improvement. From time to time I try a new app and more often than not end up uninstalling it. Almost never the stock uninstaller removes all traces of the app. Registry entries, folders and files in various system and/or user directories are routinely left behind. So, if you do this - install and uninstall apps - often, then you see ever growing number of such left-overs. Most likely they do not affect your PC's performance by themselves. But, any kind of scan - anti-virus, malware, defragmentation, even disk clean-up - gets slower, since there are more files to go through. Search produces more irrelevant results. Finally, for some people - such as myself - it's simply too annoying to have to keep this useless stuff.

You can use Revo uninstaller; It does a pretty good job of getting rid of all traces of a program.

Same can be said regarding Windows Services. Can anyone explain to me, why would the out-of-the-box Windows enable Tablet services on my desktop? Do I really need services for smart cards and bluetooth devices if I don't have any? Is it too paranoid to consider remote registry and remote desktop to be a security risk, let alone the fact that I would never use them anyways?

Remember that Windows 7 OS is designed to fit users' needs worldwide. Like you you, I don't use Bluetooth, smart cards, or Tablet. However, there are a lot of folks that do. Win 7 is designed to make it easy for them to "plug and play". I, too, disabled these - not that they hurt anything.

I also disabled remote registry and remote desktop for security reasons. I do realize that Win 7 Ultimate was developed for the business world where the IT folks use these tools through their business LAN's.

The caveat to disabling services is that many are interdependent. You have have to carefully look at dependencies to make sure that disabling a particular service does not affect another service that you need.

I would probably agree that "straightening out" the OS along these lines has nothing to do with performance. But it would be very nice if there were some app to help me out with it. Unfortunately I have yet to see such an app, and thus I have to concur with my fellow posters in this thread - most of the 'tune-up' utilities are a waste of time and money at best, some of them would even make you more trouble.

We agree.

 

[Aphelion]

Interesting read -- and I simply think Windows 7 needs very little tweaking, out of the box IMO . Thanks JMH.

Depends on what you're doing, if it's real-time operations Windows 7 needs plenty of tweaks. Don't know about the 10 tweaks mentioned here but I have a (required) list that I perform on machines built for professional audio recording.

So far the all-time champ for this type of work is Windows XP, low overhead and reliable.

Ap

 

[baarod]

Interesting read -- and I simply think Windows 7 needs very little tweaking, out of the box IMO . Thanks JMH.

Depends on what you're doing, if it's real-time operations Windows 7 needs plenty of tweaks. Don't know about the 10 tweaks mentioned here but I have a (required) list that I perform on machines built for professional audio recording.

So far the all-time champ for this type of work is Windows XP, low overhead and reliable.

Ap

Post your list please.

 

[manhunter2826]

Interesting read -- and I simply think Windows 7 needs very little tweaking, out of the box IMO . Thanks JMH.

Depends on what you're doing, if it's real-time operations Windows 7 needs plenty of tweaks. Don't know about the 10 tweaks mentioned here but I have a (required) list that I perform on machines built for professional audio recording.

So far the all-time champ for this type of work is Windows XP, low overhead and reliable.

Ap

Oh well, horses for courses ....

 

[Aphelion]

Depends on what you're doing, if it's real-time operations Windows 7 needs plenty of tweaks. Don't know about the 10 tweaks mentioned here but I have a (required) list that I perform on machines built for professional audio recording.

So far the all-time champ for this type of work is Windows XP, low overhead and reliable.

Ap

Post your list please.

Remember, this is not for everyone as it only relates to real-time performance.

First thing is to check DPC latency using this tool

DPC Latency Checker

Download the PDF product sheet as well, it gives info on use and development.

Here's a screeshot of my current system's DPC latency.



Here's how I got there.

Nothing in the startup folder

Remark out all background processes in the registry's startup <run> key.
(same as msconfig/startup tab) Most of it is junk loaded in the system tray.

Empty "Task Scheduler".

Services: Set as many services possible to manual, some do not have that option, of course they are left as is. Reboot, make note of what services are started and change them to automatic. (this remains flexible as the audio subsystems should be enabled as well any services that are needed for specific operations)

I can post a list if anyone's interested.

These services can cause performance interruptions, also... any services related to nVidia and ATI tend to add some performance overhead. (especially nVidia)

Browser Defender Update Srv ----------manual
Block Level Backup Srv-----------------manual
Disk Defragmenter Srv------------------manual
Windows Defender Srv------------------manual
Error Reporting Srv---------------------manual
Bluetooth Support---------------------manual
(Nvidia/ATI)---------------------------manual

Virus/Malware checking is done manually by PCTools "Spyware Doctor".
Backups are done manually by Macrium's "Reflect" free personal edition. (great stuff).

Set Power Options processor management to Min/Max 100%.

Under Control Panel/System/Advanced System Settings/Performance Options.

Under the visual tab, most everything off unless a client complains Windows 7 looks like Win 98. The graphics subsystem that does Aero and transparencies can use CPU cycles but I generally leave that up to the individual.

Under the Performance/Advanced tab set processor resources to "Background Services", audio drivers fall under this category, improves real-time latency.

Under System protection - Restore off on all drives.
Under Remote - Everything disabled.

Basically.. I shut everything down possible because I think :huh: I can do it better myself. (so far, so good).

The main benefit is, a -much- smoother running system that can manage to record multiple 24-bit audio while playing back dozens more.

oops.. almost forgot. Usually go to the manufacturers site for the most recent drivers for network controllers & system audio, also run the latest BIOS as MB manufacturers are still tweaking their BIOS for Win7.

and....

In device manager disable any devices not being used, 1394 (Firewire)...etc.
In BIOS disable ports not being used, usually serial & printer.

Ap

 

[Muad Dib]

Interesting read -- and I simply think Windows 7 needs very little tweaking, out of the box IMO . Thanks JMH.

Depends on what you're doing, if it's real-time operations Windows 7 needs plenty of tweaks. Don't know about the 10 tweaks mentioned here but I have a (required) list that I perform on machines built for professional audio recording.

So far the all-time champ for this type of work is Windows XP, low overhead and reliable.

Ap

Post your list please.

Ditto, please post your list..... I do some work with Sound Forge, et al. They might be handy...

 

[Aphelion]

p.s.

The reason for disabling devices and serial/parallel ports in the BIOS is the assumption that the user will be installing a high end audio card, can't really use the onboard $2 audio device for anything too serious as the freq response is uneven and the noise floor too high.

Digital audio/MIDI systems put a lot of strain on the system, data I/O invloves real-time streaming 30, 40 or more 24-bit 44.1kHz (or higher) wave files, along with native DSP effects and multiple monitor graphics.
Every bit of the PC's resources need to be available with the least amount of interference from the OS as possible.

Ap

 

[logicearth]

Under the visual tab, most everything off unless a client complains Windows 7 looks like Win 98. The graphics subsystem that does Aero and transparencies can use CPU cycles but I generally leave that up to the individual.

You would actually use less CPU cycles with Aero. Only Aero is off-loaded to the Graphics card on Windows 7. The others are CPU only.

 

[Aphelion]

Under the visual tab, most everything off unless a client complains Windows 7 looks like Win 98. The graphics subsystem that does Aero and transparencies can use CPU cycles but I generally leave that up to the individual.

You would actually use less CPU cycles with Aero. Only Aero is off-loaded to the Graphics card on Windows 7. The others are CPU only.

Thanks for that, graphics is least what I'm sure about.
It was simple in WinXP.

Ap

 

[HellionDarklord]

I understand that services being stopped or disabled doesn't do much, and I would not stop superfetch. The things I do stop, and there are 4 of them, are tasks that are started at start up. LPRemove, and some others. Registry tweaks are risky too.

 

[solarmystic]

@Aphelion.. Thanks for the tips that you've listed above... Boosted my realtime performance considerably.. That DPC Latency Checker came out green for me pre-optimization with several smallish spikes that i leveled after following your mini-guide.. thanks again!!! So according to the website, we should be getting all green for the best real-time PC performance, right? That software should be at the forefront of any Windows tweaking effort!

 

[Aphelion]

@Aphelion.. Thanks for the tips that you've listed above... Boosted my realtime performance considerably.. That DPC Latency Checker came out green for me pre-optimization with several smallish spikes that i leveled after following your mini-guide.. thanks again!!! So according to the website, we should be getting all green for the best real-time PC performance, right? That software should be at the forefront of any Windows tweaking effort!

Solarmystic,

Yes, for best realtime performance you want to see all green, all the time.
Most modern systems can easily survive a single spike or two in the red.
Windows-XP because of it's lower overhead was considerably more forgiving.
Win-7 has extra layers of OS in both graphics and audio so it's prone to "cough" sooner than XP. Several contiguous red spikes will usually cause an audio glitch, more than this will cause video to drop frames to remain in sync.

Realtime I/O need minimal OS interference or at the least, efficient OS control.

I think Win-7 drivers will come up to speed. I'm hoping Microsoft is listening as there's been a host of audio issues with Win-7.

Ap

p.s. be warned... some of the services I've disabled relate to virus/malware protection.
I'm doing this on purpose because I have third party protection that I run manually.

 

[sygnus21]

In the "good old" days of expensive RAM and HDD space there were tweaks to minimize the use of both that were somewhat effective. But any performance boost even those tweaks might have offered were debatable.

Eliminating any unneeded services was often effective in conserving memory usage, so-so on CPU usage. Black Viper's Guides were a very good guide in that respect.

But with lower memory and HDD prices the benefit of the so-called performance tweak is dubious. Especially the "Always Unload DLLs". With the lower memory costs - load those DLLS and keep them loaded, IMO!

The most effective performance tweak available has always been, and remains so, is to turn off any eye-candy you can live without (IMO).

That said, with todays hardware (memory, CPU and HDD) costs the "secret" registry and service tweaks can be far more problematic than they are worth. For instance, the success of adding a software app or a new piece of hardware at some future date may depend on a registry setting or a service that was altered/disabled long ago and forgotten.

It is nice to, finally, have affordable machines that can run Windows as installed "out of the box" without fighting for every processor cycle and I/O read/write.

The "good old" days of DOS with memory expansion cards and drivers were NOT that good....

Great post and very well said.

 

[HellionDarklord]

Maybe windows 7 is so much better because Microsoft decided to allow manufactures to say things rather than telling manufacturers what was what...