15 ways to boost up Windows 7

Most of the people wish to work on their computer with as fast speed as the system can provide. For the purpose one requirement is the speed of their system and the second target is their operating system. Both are the key factors that directly affect the performance of the system.
There are a lot of ways to boost up the speed of computer but what to with Operating System? In the present time the latest Operating System for computers is Windows 7 and most of the people frequently use it.
We have gathered 15 effective ways that will boost up the performance via Windows 7. Have a look on them and get more out of your system.

1. Disable Unnecessary Visual Effects

To enhance the performance you need to disable all unnecessary Visual Effect. For the purpose you need to do the following.
Click the Start button > Computer > System properties > system settings (in the left pane) > Settings (in the Performance field of the Advanced tab) the Effects tab, click the “Custom” radio button and uncheck unnecessary visual effect options.
keep in mind to uncheck all the options except the four I am mentioning below as they are useful and you some time need them.
-Show window contents while dragging
-Slide open combo boxes
-Smooth edges of screen fonts
-Smooth-scroll list boxes
By un-checking the “Use visual styles on windows and button” option you will observe user interface just what you see in Windows XP.
In case you care about the system appearance then leave the “Smooth edges of screen fonts” checked as it depreciates how fonts look.

2. Speed Up Startup Process

Type “msconfig” in the search box of Start Menu that will start System Configuration, then Open the Boot tab and Check “No GUI boot”. In case you only Boot Windows 7 on your system then you should set Timeout between 0 and 3.

3. Disable Aero Theme

To do this, right Click on blank area on desktop and choose Personalize from the pop-up menu, there you will see an array of themes; pick one in the “Basic and High Contrast Themes” category that includes the Windows Classic themes. 

4. Disable Startup Programs

In case the startup of the system takes too much time it might be attributed due to installed programs that launches on Startup automatically. What you have t do is to remove all unnecessarily startup applications from the startup application list.
For this you need to go on to search box of Start Menu and type “msconfig” to start System Configuration, simply uncheck the unnecessary application so that they do not launch at startup from the next time.

5. Use your USB Flash Drive

Windows 7 features ReadyBoost that allows user to use a USB Flash Device as cache. This feature is also present in Windows Vista but pretty advanced in Windows 7. This feature allows you to use multiple USB devices at a time.
To enable it right-click on the icon of the USB flash device you want to use> click “Properties” from the pop-up menu> Check “Use this device” option in the ReadyBoost tab.

6. Disable all Unnecessary System Sounds

Go to Search Box in Start Menu, enter “mmsys.cpl”, it will start the Sound Dialog. From there you can disable system sounds for individual program as well disable all System sounds by choosing “No Sounds” in the Scheme field.

7. Unnecessary Services

You can save memory usage and speed up the system by disabling unnecessary services on Windows 7 but be careful while disabling services because some components are service-dependant and a shortage of services may affect other programs’ behavior.
The following web page lists Windows 7 services with detailed dependency data.
>http://pasofaq.jp/windows/admintools/servicelist7.htm (Japanese text only)
Take actions at your own risk!
Click the Start button > Control panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools>Choose “Service” to show the list of available services>Click each service to show the description (Do not turn off services you do not really know about)>Double-click a service you want to turn off to open its properties>In the General tab, set the Startup type at “Manual” and click OK.
If you want to turn off the service temporarily, set the Service status at “Stop”. Remember the service resumes when the system restarts.
The following services could be generally stopped.
• Tablet PC Input Service: This enables PC pen and ink functionality. You might as well disable it if you do not use a tablet device.
• FAX: It allows you to send a fax message from your PC (Business/Enterprise/Ultimate editions only).
• WebClient: it enables a browser-based file sharing function “WebDAV”.
• Smart Card: Manages the security of smart card. This service is required for user authentication with a smart card.
• Smart Card Removal Policy: It locks your PC when the smart card is removed from it.
• Remote Registry: Allows remote users to change registry settings on your computer via a network.

8. Turn Off Virtual Memory:

If your PC has 2GB of Memory or more then turn off the virtual memory. But you should be aware of it that the system becomes unstable when physical memory is used up.
To turn off Right Click on Computer in the Start menu>choose “Properties” from the pop-up menu>Click the system settings (in the left pane) > Settings (in the Performance field of the Advanced tab>click the Advanced tab > Change in the Virtual memory field>Uncheck the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” option and choose “No paging file”.

9. Delete Resident Software

The system most often gets slow due to increase in the number of resident software that automatically starts on startup mainly because they are registered in the Startup Folder. To enhance the performance I recommend you to delete all unnecessary programs in the folder. However this procedure is not a cure-all because some programs registered outside the startup folder may also start on startup.
To Delete Click the Start button > programs > folder> Right-click a program you want to click>Choose “Delete” from the pop-up menu.

10. Defragmentation

Most of the time, Fragmentation leads to Delayed response times to recover your data, defragmentation is the best option to get out of this problem.
For the purpose Click the Start button > Computer>Right-click on a hard disk on which you want to perform defragmentation>Choose “Properties” the pop-up menu>Click “Defragment now…” in the Tools tab>Click “Defragment disk” in the Disk Degragmenter window.

11. Turn Off Unnecessary Windows features

Click the Start button > Control Panel > Programs > Windows features on or off>Uncheck features you want to turn off.
Clicking “+” sign shows the sub folders and you can turn on/off features individually by sub folder. Checking check boxes turns the features on again.

12. Remove unnecessary Software

By removing unnecessary software you can speed up and stabilize the system and also can save the hard disk usage.
To remove such software’s, Click the Start button > Control Panel> Programs > a program>Select a program from the list you want to remov>Click the “Uninstall” button to start uninstallation.
The un-installation procedure varies depending on each program.

13. Enable Pre-Fetcher

 

In the Search box of the Start menu, enter “regedit” to launch the Registry Editor. Find registry key “EnablePrefetcher” in the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > Session Manager > Memory Management > PrefetchParameters
Set the value of the key at 0 and you are done with it.

14. Disable Security Center

Click the Start button > Control panel > System and Security > Tools > Service. Double-click “Security Center”, and in the General tab, set the Startup type at “Disabled”.

15. Disable pre-fetch function

Click the Start button > Control panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools. Choose “Service”, and from the service list, double-click “Superfetch”. In the General tab, set the Startup type at “Disabled”.