Optimize Your Windows 7 PC

[Night Hawk]

Optimize Your Windows 7 PC

Squeeze the very best performance out of your PC with these Windows 7 optimization tricks.

David Murphy, PC World
Oct 18, 2009 9:00 pm

Conserve Resources

Once you've installed a fair amount of programs on your PC--your "core base" of apps, as it were--you'll want to check that your system doesn't have any unwanted applications running in the background that could otherwise impede the machine's general performance. These programs launch themselves during the operating system's startup process, and are often designed to help you load their corresponding applications faster. The problem is that they run every time, regardless of whether you intend to use the application during a given session.

Click Start and type msconfig into the 'Search programs and files' field. Press Enter. In the System Configuration window that appears, select the Startup tab. Move your mouse between the headers of the Manufacturer and Command columns, and shrink the Manufacturer column down; the Command column is the one you care about.



A number of the startup applications that launch on your machine sit in the background, consuming resources. For example, take iTunes: If you've installed this application, you'll find iTunes and QuickTime listings in the Startup tab. Both iTunesHelper.exe and QTTask.exe are unnecessary additions to your system--the former launches when you start iTunes anyway, and the latter places a QuickTime icon in the corner of your system for easy program launching. Uncheck them both.

As for the other programs on your list, try running a quick Web search of each application's executable-file name to find out if the program is worth keeping or removing. Once you've checked the programs you want to launch at startup and unchecked the programs you don't, click OK.
In addition to startup programs, you'll find services on your PC; Microsoft recommends trimming both to squeeze the most performance out of your system. For the services, click Start, type services.msc into the search field, and press Enter. Up pops the Services window, a list of options and executables that's even more confusing than the startup window.

More at: Optimize Your Windows 7 PC - PC World

 

[sup3rsprt]

Guys, if your going to tweak startup apps. Forget msconfig. It's old and decrepit.

Use Sysinternals Autoruns.

 

[Brink]

This should help better.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-speed-up-performance-windows-7-a.html

 

[Night Hawk]

That is better! Most of what is covered in the article there is rather "old school" to start with anyways. But that's news for you?!



(they actually call it that? :roflmao

 

[Uber Philf]

Haha, Agreed on forget msconfig, i use CCleaner's start up Manager to sort mine out, only have 3 things on boot, MSE, Fraps and HD Audio Control Panel.

 

[Night Hawk]

I use trnasparency here to some degree and already found the write cache and quick removal on the drives was already enabled just by going back over the guide Shawn wrote there. Why would you need any 3rd party tool?

The Autoruns is familiar as well as a Windows Tweaker tool a programmer developed and still the guide there tops all! Keeping it simple!

 

[sabrina]

I use Glary Utilities. All PC troubles of slow bootup, sluggish performance, history tracks, files privacy and security problem are solved by this single program. The program's webpage is Glary Utilities | Glarysoft