Add more memory (RAM)

The minimum memory requirement for Windows 7 is 1 GB of random access memory. This is far less than what you actually need in order to have the Windows perform optimally. I would recommend that you have at least 2 GB of memory. The computer at which I am writing this article has 4 GB of RAM and seems to be very responsive. Adding more memory to your computer is quite cheap and if you have 1 GB now you will see a tremendous performance boost by adding more. If you run a lot of application at the same time I would not consider in any way less than 4 GB of RAM if I were instead of you. If installing more memory is not possible you should take into consideration using Windows ReadyBoost which uses a fast flash drive to improve performance.

Check for viruses and spyware

One of the things that generally hog computer’s performance is viruses. You have to make sure that you are running a security product and that it is activated and updated so that is able to detect malicious code. Also make sure to perform a full scan of your computer at least once every 2 weeks. If you have doubts or don’t want to spend money on a security suite or antivirus you should check Microsoft Security Essentials which should do just fine at protecting your home computer. The good news about MSE is that it’s free. If you prefer something else that is free I would recommend any of the following: AVG, Avira, Avast.

Install an SSD drive

If money is not a problem to you then installing a solid state drive is one of the best ways to tweak Windows 7. The thing that you will notice first is that your computer will take half the time it took before when it comes to boot times (the time spent since you pressed the power button until Windows is fully loaded and you can start using the computer). That alone is spectacular but you should take into consideration faster program loading times and expect that a lot of the tasks will be done faster. Conventional hard-disk drives have performance problems when it comes to random reads and writes whereas SSD’s do these without a struggle and it is exactly these types of reads and writes that operating systems do a lot (therefore Windows 7 also).

Remove the unnecessary startup programs

If you just bought a new computer and it does not seem to be performing well you should check to see if it is loaded with bloatware (unnecessary programs preinstalled with your computer). Your computer may also accumulate a lot of programs over time and some of them will turn out to be useless at some point. Some of these programs will run every time you start your computer and it is best to remove them.

There are multiple ways of opening Control Panel but the one that users mostly prefer is the one that involves clicking on its icon in My Computer. It is also possible to open it from the Start Menu. My favorite is typing control in the RUN dialog box (you can open Run by pressing Winkey+R).

How to show Control Panel in My Computer

1. Open My Computer.
2. Go to the Tools menu and select Folder Options.
3. Go to the View tab and check the box called Show Control Panel in My Computer.
4. Click on OK and the Control Panel icon should appear.

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1. Right click on Computer and click Properties.
   
2. In the left side of the System window click on Device Manager. 
   
3. If a User Account Control notification appears hit Continue.
4. The Device Manager should now be open and you should double click Disk Drives and then, your hard disk drive.
5. Go to the Policies tab. 
6. Make sure that Enable write caching on the disk and Enable advanced performance checkboxes are checked.
7. Click OK.
8. You can close Device Manager and System.
9. Repeat the steps 4 and 5 and verify that the checkboxes have remained checked. If they are unchecked then you need to install the SATA or RAID controller driver. As an example, for Intel chipsets you have to install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager. For other brands you have to go to the support page of their websites.
10. After installing the driver repeat steps 1 through 8.

Security Essentials is basic form of antivirus that provides protection against Viruses, Spyware, Trojans and Rootkits. It works in XP, Vista and Windows 7, the last 2 having both x86 and x64 versions. One of the most important things to be taken into consideration is the fact that Security Essentials is free of charge. MSE will do a reasonable job at protecting your files if you are not a heavy surfer of ordinarily browse dangerous sites. If you don’t meet these requirements I advise you to get an all-in-one Internet protection suite (almost all security providers make such suites). There are a lot of positive reviews out there about MSE. I liked the fact that I was able to go through setup like a breeze and that the program itself takes very few resources. The only condition necessary for installation is that you have genuine copy of Windows because the setup program will try to validate the software.

The procedure below applies to the 1.0 version.

This is what you need to do to install it:

1. You need to download Microsoft Security Essentials here.
2. After the download is complete, double-click the installer.
3. Click on Next in the first screen.
4. After reading the license (just kidding) click on I accept.
5. Clicking on Validate will attempt to validate your copy of Windows. I do not advise you to continue if you do not have a genuine copy of the OS.
6. After quickly showing a screen containing “This copy of Windows passed genuine validation” setup will present you an Install button.
7. Click Finish when the last setup screen shows up.
8. MSE will open and it will update itself automatically, without any user intervention, after which it will start a Quick scan of your computer.
9. After it completes the task you can click on the Clean button (if there is any).

How was your experience with MSE? Share it by commenting!

The user sees previews of images, audio files, video files and documents. Other types of files can also be added. This feature in useful in many situations because you can see the contents of a file without having the need to open a specialized application for that file and this saves you a lot of time.

You can activate the preview pane by clicking on Show the preview pane button which is located on the top right side of the window.

After the preview pane appears you can resize it if you want to by clicking and holding its left margin and moving it to the left or to the right.

If you want to disable the Preview Pane you can use the same button you used to open it.

Action Center is one of the numerous ways in which Microsoft tries to offer users an advantage, from the security point of view, by displaying notifications about Windows Update, firewall, virus and spyware protection. It is also a means to keep Windows 7 performing well by offering solutions to common maintenance problems. Some of the solutions offered by the Windows 7 Action Center also improve Windows 7 speed and performance.

When it needs user attention the Action Center will show an icon with a flag marked with an x in the System Notification Area. Clicking on that icon will display a notification tooltip that shows important messages. Clicking on one of the messages will trigger an action for that specific message, meant to help you solve that problem.

Open the Action Center

You have the possibility to open the Action Center by clicking on Open Action Center in the notification near the clock.

You can also open it by typing its name in the Start Menu search box and clicking on it once it appears in the search results.

View archived messages

By clicking on this button you will see a list of past events.

You can view each solution detailed after double clicking on it. You will also notice that the instructions are very easy to follow and that information is structured in a very nice and tidy way.

Change Action Center settings

Clicking on Change Action Center settings opens a window that allows you to select which messages should be displayed as notifications. They are grouped into 2 categories as follows:

Security messages

• Windows Update
• Internet security settings
• Network firewall
• Spyware and related protection
• User Account Control
• Virus protection

Maintenance messages

• Windows Backup
• Windows Troubleshooting
• Check for updates

The default setting for Windows 7 is having all of these messages checked so that the notification for each one of them is activated. Unchecking one or more of the options makes the Action Center disable the notification for the specific item. When you’re done tweaking the settings according to your needs, hit OK.

If you know more about the Windows 7 Action Center you can share with us by posting a comment.

Same as with exporting, you just need to copy a file from one place to another depending on what operating system you are using so that you can do this task quite quickly. In Windows XP the AutoComplete file can be found in C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook and in Vista and Windows 7 in c:\users\user_name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook. Replace user_name with your user name. Just a few clicks and you are ready to use the AutoComplete function!

1. Go to the location where you saved the backup.
2. Right click on outlook.nk2 (default name) and select Copy.
3. Go the folder listed for your corresponding to your operating system, right click and click Paste. 
4. After finishing, open Microsoft Outlook 2007. The shortcut can be found in the Start Menu. If using Vista or Windows 7 you could also type outlook in the Start Menu search box and hit Enter.
5. You should be able to use the AutoComplete feature.

If you are reading this article, it think that the importance of rules in Outlook is no longer something you want to hear about because you are surely convinced of it. In order to transfer Rules and Alerts from one computer to another you have to export them first and you can find an easy way to do that by clicking here. Assuming that you now have the file containing them (the .rwz file), we can begin the process.

1. You should select Mail from the Navigation Pane.
2. Open Microsoft Outlook 2007 by double clicking on its Start Menu icon (or Desktop icon if you have one).
3. Go to the Tools menu and select Rules and Alerts.
   
4. Find the Options button and click on it.
5. Now you can click on the Import button.
6. A wizard will appear asking you where the file containing the rules is located. You should go to the path where you have its backup and select it.
7. After hitting OK twice, your rules are imported.

Rules and Alerts is a very powerful feature of Microsoft Outlook 2007 that helps you by automating some of the things that otherwise would have to be done manually. It lets you create rules by following simple wizards so it is a great way to remain organized even if you have a lot of emails or accounts.

If you want to save a copy of the rules file you can use the following instructions:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook 2007.
2. Go to the Tools menu and click on Rules and Alerts.
3. Click on the Options button.
4. Click on Export.
5. You should now select where to backup the .rwz file.
6. Click on OK twice and you have successfully exported Outlook 2007 Rules and Alerts.

If you don’t know what to do with the exported file, this tutorial will show you how to import it back into Outlook 2007.

When you start entering the first letters of an email address in the TO: field, while composing a new message, Outlook gives you some suggestions of previously used addresses. In order to export Outlook 2007 AutoComplete information you have to copy a file with the .nk2 extension which Outlook 2007 uses to store this information. As you may know if you have tried to export mail and addresses file locations differ based on the operating system you use. In Windows XP the AutoComplete .nk2 file is located in C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. In Windows 7 and Windows Vista the same file is located in c:\users\user_name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook. In the case of both paths user_name should be replaced with the name of the user who’s AutoComplete you want to transfer. Before copying anything you should make sure that Windows shows hidden and system files. For Windows 7 you can do that here.

Copy the .nk2 (AutoComplete) file:

1. Go to the location of the file in your operating system.
2. Right click on the .nk2 (Outlook.nk2 is default) file and click on Copy.
   
3. Go to the backup location and paste it there.

You now have the AutoComplete information which you can use for disaster recovery or simply for importing it to another computer with Outlook 2007.