1. Using minimal Visual
Effects
Disabling certain (or all) visual effects can definitely enhance
performance. To disable visual effects, do the following:
1. Press Windows key
and while holding it down, press Pause/Break key.
2. In
the window that appears, click on Advanced system settings in the
left side pane.
3. In
the Advanced tab, under Performance Section, click on Settings
4. In
the Performance Options window (refer figure) that appears, under Visual
Effects tab, disable the options that you do not need. Or simply selecting
‘Adjust for best performance‘ will disable all options.
5. After
disabling the option, click Apply and then OK.
Doing the above might make the screen less attractive. But, the
performance will surely get a boost.
2. Using minimal Sound
Effects
For disabling sound effects, do the following:
1. Click Start.
In the search box type mmsys.cpl and press Enter
2. In
the Sound window (refer figure) that appears click on Sounds tab
3. Set
the Sounds scheme to ‘No Sounds‘
4. You
could set only the essential sounds if needed in the Program Events, by
selecting the specific event and then choosing the sound from the Sounds drop-down
menu below.
5. You
can as well disable the “Play Windows Startup sound” option.
6. After
the settings are done, click Apply and OK.
1. Run a trusted Anti-Virus
program
Ensure that you have a good anti-virus software loaded on your
laptop/computer. This will ensure that no malware or spyware gets planted
in your system. Without such protection software, there are chances of third
party malware and virus being installed or stored on your system, causing
harmful effects and also eating up precious space.
2. Install only essential
software
Ensure that you install only that software which you need. If
you install any trial software and find out that you don’t really need it,
uninstall and delete it immediately. Else, they might hog precious disk space,
RAM and processor cycles. If you’ve installed a software, which you are unable
to get rid of, and which is hampering the normal functioning of your laptop,
then you might have to format your hard drive. Be aware that formatting your
hard drive might wipe out all your data. Therefore it is best you take a
back-up before going ahead with formatting.
3. Disable or make unneeded
services Manual
Some processes and services, which might not really be
necessary, are by default made to start automatically once the system starts
up. They will consume RAM as well as the processor’s attention, slowing down
other important tasks. It is best to disable them. For this, do the following:
1. Click Start.
In the search box type services.msc and press Enter
2. Go
to Services & Applications > Services. You’ll see the Services window
(refer figure).
3. Right-click
on a service that you wish to set to manual or disable. If the service is
already started, Stop it first.
4. Once
the service is stopped, again right-click on it and select Properties.
5. In
the Startup type, you can either set the service to Manual, if
you would be using it later, or Disable it, if not needed.
6. Once
done, you can close the window.
4. Disabling Unwanted
Start-up programs to speed up System Start-up
Some programs are set to start during system start-up. These
might slow down the start-up process. Programs that are not really needed
during start-up can be disabled. For this, do the following:
1. Click Start.
In the search box type msconfig and press Enter.
2. In
the System Configuration window (refer figure), go to Startup.
3. Uncheck
the box next to those processes that are not important for start-up. This will
disable them.
4. Once
you’ve disabled the processes, click Apply and OK.
Hard Drive related
1. Clean up the hard drive
Remove unwanted files, like temp files, downloaded program
files, recycle bin, etc. You could use Disk Cleanup option to do
this, as follows:
1. Click Start > All
Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk
Cleanup
2. The
system will first calculate how much space can be freed up this way. In the Disk
Cleanup window (refer figure) that appears, select the files in that need
to be deleted under the Files to delete list.
3. For
deleting ‘System Restore‘ and ‘Shadow copy‘ files, click “Clean up system files”
and then on “More Options” tab
4. Finally
click OK. You’ll be prompted again before the deletion. Click Yes.
2. Enable Write caching on
device
This is an option which allows the OS to flush changed data to
the hard disk when the system is idle, so that performance is not affected when
in use. For enabling this, do the following:
1. Press Windows key
and while holding it down, press Pause/Break key.
2. In
the window that appears, click on Device Manager in the left hand
pane.
3. In
the next window that appears, expand Disk drives.
4. The
drop-down list will show the hard drive. Right-click on it and select Properties.
5. Click
the Policies tab in the Device Properties window (refer
figure).
6. Check
the box next to “Enable write caching on the device“
7. You
can as well check the box next to “Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing
on the device” and then click OK.
Note: However, there is one disadvantage in enabling these
options – if there is a power outage or a system crash, data might be lost or
corrupted. If you have a secondary power supply, like a UPS, you could go ahead
with checking these options.
3. Perform Disk
Defragmentation
When there is no sufficient space to store in a hard drive, the
OS splits the file into parts and stores it in different areas on the hard
drive. Defragmenting allows all these parts to be stored in contiguous memory
locations. For defragmenting disk do the following:
1. Click Start > All
Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk
Defragmenter
2. In
the window (refer figure) that appears, click on the drive that you want to
defragment and then click Analyze disk.
3. This
will estimate the time required for the process. When done click on Defragment
disk.
4. Once
done you can either View Report or click Close.
These pretty much sum up the small things that you can do, to
make a big difference to your Windows 7’s performance. If you have some
personal tips you’ve done yourself to improve the performances, we’d like to
hear from you.
