Microsoft Windows 7 is fast in a lot of ways. It seems to be optimized for performance right out of the box. Despite these facts there are some things that you can do in order to improve your user experience and have fast program loading times and a snappy interface. I will describe a few of ways to tweak Windows 7 performance now.
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.
Like the other Windows titles, Microsoft has designed the OS to slow with time. Here are some of my optimizations
I use a SSD primary, leaving a small secondary partition on the SSD. Presently it is a 9 gig partition about 75 percent used.
The first thing I do is make a copy of the cmd.exe from the Windows/system32 directory to the empty partition then edit the environmental variable for comspec to point to the copy. Every window requires its own copy of the cmd.exe to run, meaning it is the first thing loaded when you open a new window. But Microsoft places the cmd.exe in one of the largest 3rd level directories in the largest second level directory making finding it a relatively lengthy task when the computer is new, and a horribly long task after you have grown those two directories by installing more software.
Second thing I do is turn off the automatic control of virtual memory in a advanced performance options and then take all the virtual memory and put it on the SSD setting it as managed by windows. This keeps the Virtual memory from getting fragmented all over the c: drive which it would. And defragmenting never defragments the virtual memory. The virtual memory will also work faster if all located on the SSD.
You can reduce the size of the SSD necessary if you add a fast SATA drive and install programs that you use only occasionally there, rather than on the SSD. I do however keep antivirus and browser software if nothing else installed on the ssd.
Nice! Thank you for the feedback, Dennis Purdy!