How to make Windows 7 faster? Here are the 22 easy and free steps
to make windows 7 faster and faster. I combined these methods from my
experience and experiments which worked much better in improving windows
7 performance. These following steps can be done by any Windows 7 user
and not required third party or paid software and extra technical
knowledge.
Network is a major factor of deciding a OS speed.
Slowness in networking directly affect speed of Windows 7. There for I
have added some tweaks to improve windows 7 network performance also.
Continue reading the easy 22 ways to make windows 7 faster.
1) Make Windows 7 Start up faster by removing unwanted programs and services from startup.
To do this type ‘msconfig‘
in Run or Search box, go to Startup tab and uncheck programs and
services not required during start up. The programs and services listed
here start with Windows 7 every time so by removing them we can reduce
Windows 7 startup time. Do not remove any necessary startup programs.
2) Disable Aero Experience
If
you are not an appearance lover but a performance lover then disable
aero experience in windows 7. This method defiantly affects the
performance of Windows 7. You can gain some physical memory and display
card work load for programs by disabling aero.
Right Click on Desktop, go to Personalize then select any of ‘Basic and High Contrast Themes’
3) Increase Virtual Memory ( Paging File)
Windows
7 consumes more memory than Windows XP but lesser than Windows Vista.
If you are a heavy computer user who open more programs and windows then
you can increase Virtual Memory of Windows 7. Virtual memory works with
physical memory ( RAM). Hard disk space will be used as virtual memory
to keep temporary information which very rarely use by programs and OS.
By increasing Virtual memory in Windows 7 computer make sure programs
and OS work smoothly.
Right Click on My Computer, select Properties. Go to Advanced tab and click on setting button under ‘Performance’.
Go to Advanced tab in next window, press change button under virtual memory.
Here you can see the current virtual memory size. Virtual memory called ‘paging file’ also.
In
next screen under custom size enter size you want to allocate for
virtual memory (paging file). It depends on your hard disk size and
physical memory. Make sure it’s not less than system recommended size. Normally
recommended paging file is 1.5 of physical RAM. In this example
recommended size of virtual memory is 4605MB because my windows 7 RAM is
3GB. So, enter 4605MB in Initial size and Maximum Size fields.
Press Set button, you may need to restart computer.
4) Disable Visual Effects
Again if you are not an appearance lover of Windows 7 then disable visual effects. It will reduce the load on RAM and VGA.
In
same settings tab under performance (mentioned in step 3), go to Visual
effects and set for Adjust best performance. It will bring all visual
effects to very standard level, but to better performance.
5) Windows 7 Disk Clean up
Remove
unwanted and temporary files on your Windows 7 disks. It reduces access
time on system and your files to make Windows 7 faster.
Right click on each disk, go to properties and press Disk Cleanup button. In next screen you can select file types to delete and start clean up.
6) Defragment disks
Defragmentation
helps to improve access time for each file by managing free space and
arranging file locations on disks. It’s recommended to run
defragmentation tool very frequently especially when you have lot of
data. In our case after deleting unwanted files by disk cleanup in
previous step run defragmentation now.
Go to Properties of each
disk, select defragmentation under tools and start. Defragmentation
takes time depends on size of partition and data.
7) Run Error-Checking on disks
This
is another method to improve performance of disk. It will check and
correct any system files or physical disk errors on Windows 7 computer.
Select
Error-check under tools in each disk with both options selected. If the
particular partition is a system, boot or having paging file then
error-checking will start in next boot.
8.) Disable Side Bar (Gadgets)
If you don’t use side bar and gadgets in windows 7 then remove them. This helps to gain some resources on RAM, Network and Processor.
9) Disable Windows Defender
When
you use third party protection software such as Norton, AVG,
MacAfee…etc, then disable windows defender. It does almost the same job.
So it’s not required to run two similar programs in same time which is a
unwanted system load for Windows 7.
You can disable Windows defender in control panel.
10) Disable UAC
UAC
(User Access Control) is a window pop ups for administration tasks and
requires action.UAC in Windows 7 does not irritate you as Windows Vista,
but still you can work faster if you disable UAC.
11) Make Window 7 shutdown faster
You can make windows 7 shutdown faster by editing one registry key. I consider this step also to make windows 7 faster.
Setting it to a lower 4 digit value, (say 5000) will make your PC shutdown faster, but you could end up losing data.
12) Disable Autotuning in Windows 7 Network
This option helps lot in Windows 7 network. If you face slowness in windows 7 network then you must do this.
13) Remove RDC to improve Windows 7 Network
Remove RDC additional network feature to improve data transfer speed over windows 7 network.
14) Remove IPv6
Remove
IPv6 from Windows 7 network adapter settings if it’s not required. If
you are not using IPv6 in internal or external networks then remove IPv6
to improve Windows 7 network performance.
15) Compatibility of drivers and programs
Before
install any drives or programs make sure it’s compatible with Windows
7. It should be officially supported for Windows 7. Installing non
compatible drivers and programs on Windows 7 may cause problem with
system performance and crash your system.
16) Disable Indexing (Windows Search) in Windows 7.
Indexing
in Windows 7 made for improve speed of Windows search. When you search a
file or folder on windows search, if it’s already indexed by indexing
service then results will appear immediately from indexed cache.
When
you use third party indexing search programs such as Ava Finder, Google
Desktop then disable windows 7 indexing service. This method avoids two
programs to index your whole data and slow down disk performance.
You can find out indexing options in Control Panel -> Indexing Options -> Modify button.
Also windows search service can be disabled in Computer Services. Go to Computer Management, Services and look for ‘Windows Search’. Set Disable to startup type and Click Apply.
17) Sync Centre Synchronization
If
any network shares set to sync with your windows 7 and while it’s
happening in background it affects your system very much. During this
time network and disk activity will be very high and you can’t make it
out. Two options are available to avoid this issue.
a) Remove the sync partnership.
b) Let synchronization complete fully without any errors.
Sync Center is located in Control panel.
18) Remove Unwanted Programs
Some
time we install programs for testing purpose or for one time use only.
You can uninstall these type of old and unwanted programs from windows 7
computer. Even though you are not using these programs but some
services and system files of these programs load in Windows 7 all the
time. By completely uninstalling these unwanted programs on your
computer help to improve system performance. Programs can be
uninstalled from control panel.
19) Speed up Menu Show delay time in Windows 7
Editing a registry key speeds up menu show time in Windows 7. I suggest trying manual registry editing (2nd) method available here. So next time menus will appear more quickly than earlier and improve windows 7 performance.
20) Change the power plan to maximum performance.
This
method mostly suitable for laptops. If you don’t run on battery most of
the time then change the power plan to maximum performance. This can
be done in desktop computer also. To do it, go to control panel, power options and select ‘ High Performance ‘ plan and press OK.
21) Virus check with Microsoft Security Essential
Make
sure your windows 7 computer is virus free. Viruses make any computers
slow by giving additional work to processors, memory and disks. You can
run virus check and clean viruses by free antivirus software ‘Microsoft
Security Essential’ from Microsoft. Download Microsoft Security Essential here and run a scan.
22) Malicious software check and Removal
Check
your Windows 7 computer for infection by specific, prevalent malicious
software (including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom) and remove the
infection if it is found.
Download the free latest malicious removal software for Windows 7 from Microsoft and scan now. By removing malicious software you can improve windows 7 speed.Labels: 2012, internet, motherboard, reset., trick, tweak, win7, windows