Computer Optimization Guide

Wow, didn't realize BV was back. Last I saw of him was (I think) just before Vista came out. As I recall, a couple of online tech sites had reviewed his *tweaks* and found they really didn't offer much in the way of improvements.

 

Yeah, I don't really bother tweaking any of my services, especially with Windows 7. But I thought I'd just list it on here for those interested.

 

Google Chrome for me is faster. Depends on your preferences. Google Chrome doesn't take much memory when using it. I still use firefox because of the add ons. You can check the memory use in the task manager and compare it.

P.S. Nice guide jpzsports I've learned new things I didn't know before. Kudos to you.

 

nice guide! +rep

 

Thank You


BTW, I'll be doing a revision of this soon with some more changes (mostly related to Windows 7) but in the mean time, basically everything already applies to Windows 7 as well.

 

Thanks for the guide, it really helped me

 

Glad you liked it.

 

2/28/10 - I did some pretty big updates to the Guide today. I organized it and made it easier to read, condensed some links, and revised some of the recommendations.

Enjoy!

 

WOW, thank you for this guide! I downloaded the CCleaner, and that program is amazing! Cleaned a bunch of stuff on my vaio!
Thanks for sharing!

 

In this guide you say to use Firefox.

I love FF and do use it myself but I think it would not be fair to let users know the truth about Firefox and Internet Explorer's resource usage.

Recent studies that have benchmarked the resource usage have found that the latest Internet explorer actually uses less resources than firefox does.

I dont have a url but there is info on this if you do a google search.

This is good for laptop users that need to save power consumption and or resources because they have limited Ram.

I could not.. did not want to believe this myself. You can prove it to yourself by running default versions of each browser and monitor their resource usage in task manager.

 

thanks for a nice guide, will maybe print it for ppl i know that aint so good with comps

 

Glad you liked it!

 

Very good article for those wishing to make the computer run faster and smoother, but I'd like to point out one thing which I do not agree fully.
This is the statement that "you should update [..] and bios of the computer".
As for the BIOS, there is no ned to update it, if the computer is running well. The general, point to follow is to leave the current version of the BIOS, unless there are obvious/ evident issues with the computer.
Just that little thing, but overall great job!

 

Thank you. That is a good point about the BIOS. I definitely understand your reasoning. I just added that on there because some BIOS updates may contain improvements to the fan management as well as some other bug fixes, etc. I would say though that it's for the more experienced user and I should probably consider that recommendation optional. I'll make the edit now.

Thanks for the advice and glad you liked the Guide!

 

Add this to the list:

-Set to "High Performance" for Power Setting when plugged in.
-Set to "Power Saver" when on battery.
-Turn Off "Aero" and "Transparency" by selecting "Windows 7 Basic" on Personalization
-Set to "Best Performance w/Thumbnail" on Advance system setting

KISS

 

Appreciate the advice, but I must agree to disagree on a few things.

First of all, after a lot of studying and much debate, I've found that the "Balanced" power setting is actually all around better than High performance. For more information on this, please see this link:

Power Plan Controversy

And I would only recommend turning off Aero if your computer is rather weak and can't handle it. Personally I find Aero to be worth running since it's a nice feature of Windows 7.

 

Great guide! Instead of just recommending openDNS i'd run namebench to check others for speed. If ofcourse you create an openDNS account you can then add filters and such. However, if you're looking for raw dns speed, i'd test it and use the best. It's a simple portable app.

 

nice guide very infomative

 

Update: 11/7/10

Some minor link fixes and formatting changes

 

Noticed you included Black Viper's Web Site I've been a big fan of this site for a very long time, find it very informative, and helps me in deciding which services to manually disable. People: If you have never seen this site take a look!

 

Update 12-8-10

Awesome new Image added to the Guide.

Thanks to the3vilGenius!!

 

no problem, thx for letting me use yur great guide +rep

 

Are both CCleaner and Glary Utilities needed or just one of them will do?

Per your recommendation, I plan on installing MS Security Essentials. So then do I need to select only firewall option when installing Comodo (free version)?

 

You could run both CCleaner and Glary Utilities, but personally I only use CCleaner as of now.

I'd say just stick with CCleaner, as it is simpler and does an excellent job.

And good choice with MS Security Essentials. Version 2.0 was just released last week and has some great improvements.
Personally I just use the Windows Firewall because it's already built-in and integrates well with Microsoft Security Essentials.

But if you prefer, an excellent alternative is Comodo Firewall. Here is the direct link to the free firewall:

Firewall Software Download | Free Computer Protection

Hope that helps and let me know if you have any more questions.

 

1-8-10

Update: Added basic Hardware Upgrades section

 

Thanks a lot for providing such a wonderful stuff. IT was really very helpful for me...Keep sharing...!!!

 

From what I read, running a DEFRAG on a SSD drive is not recommended. It will not increase the write speeds by grouping fragmented data together (the write speeds will be fast anyway because it is a SSD). It will decrease the life of the drive by using up some of the finite number of write cycles a SSD has.

 

That is true and I agree 100%. For most people with regular hard drives, defragging is definitely recommended but it is not necessary and can actually be detrimental to SSDs. I'll add in an exception about this in the Guide.

Thanks for the input

 

4/21/11 - Minor updates to the guide

If there's anything else you'd like me to add, let me know.

 

Thanks for this guide! +rep.

 

OpenOffice is no longer supported. Google docs is a free and virus free (barring the site gets hacked/ XSS) option.

 

No longer supported in what way? OpenOffice.org is still up and they are working on OpenOffice.org 3.4 Beta right now.

Google Docs is an excellent option, as well as LibraOffice but I still think OpenOffice works great for the average user looking for a free Office replacement.

 

Very nice guide. It will definitely be helpful. Rep added.

 

awesome guide, i did this to my desktop and will be doing it to my m14x when I get it

 

Thanks guys! Glad you like it and appreciate the comments.

Let me know if you have questions or need any assistance regarding the steps in the guide.

 

Am not sure if iam posting this in the right place..but
I just got my hands on this new lappy ! Unfortunately,my younger bro messed up with it and now what i have got is a perfectly normal resolution and even in personlize,"small" is selected as display which is the default one ! Yet,the icons in the screen are way way large :/ And also,on the left hand side of the screen,i think he has added fences which allow me to scroll through the various giganormous icons :/ How do i go back to normal stuff? I mean i want to get rid of the fences or whatever causes that scroll bar to the left and i want to restore the icons to their proper size !
Any good advise and help would be greatly appreciated ! Help needed ASAP
P.S-See sig fr laptop and specs

 

Have you tried doing a system restore to a date prior to when your brother used it?

 

Wow, this is really solid information!

My wife has an old (2007) Acer laptop, running Vista and has a partitioned hard drive. I would like to get rid of the partition, as the partition holding the programs is just about full.

If anyone can point me to the right resource for formatting and getting rid of the partition, that would be most appreciated!

Hey, and I love the quality content on this forum: very helpful indeed!

Akos

 

Alas ! I forgot system restore,lol..anyways got rid of those stuff , thanks ! And my laptop seems to be on the hotter side..can you tell me a way (gadget) to measure the individual temp. of the CPU,GPU or the laptop as a whole?

 

As far as measuring the temps go, there's a variety of apps out there that can work. Here's a good one:
Core Temp

And I also recommend a notebook stand to help keep the computer cool. Here's the one I use:

Amazon.com: Targus Ergonomic Cooling Mobile X-Stand designed for up to 17 Inch Notebooks AWE09US (Silver): Electronics

Hope that helps!!

EDIT: I added a small section about fans to the guide.

 

Hi all,

I went about trying my hand at "optimizing" my own computer and I am really glad to see a lot of the suggested techniques and installations in this thread are what I have been performing. I have been following this thread and I wanted to say thanks for the mention and suggestion of CCleaner. Since I am coming from Mac OS X, "cleaner" programs tend to be frowned upon, and I wouldn't have thought to use one - but CCleaner works great.

I have installed Microsoft Security Essentials, Google Chrome, Open Office, and CCleaner on my computer after removing updating Windows and removing all the minimal bloatware.

I am looking for some informational-type programs concerning things like my battery (life/capacity/cycles/etc), system information (beyond processor/amount of RAM/etc) and things of that nature. Are there any programs that anyone would recommend?

Thanks, and I appreciate the guide.

 

Glad you like the guide! So far, everything you installed is great and it's good to see you're taking the steps to ensure you're computer functions at its best.

As for a program to give you detailed info about you system, I recommend Speccy. It's made by the same company that makes CCleaner. It's free and works great! Here's the link:

Speccy - System Information - Free Download

And for the battery information, try BatteryCare:

BatteryCare

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks, I will give those a try! : )

I have a few general questions if you don't mind. When a program asks "would you like x to make changes to this computer?" (CCleaner does this), is that normal? It happens for a couple of programs. Sometimes, my screen flashes or "flickers" when installing something ... is that normal too?

Also, regarding Windows Update, is there a way to remove the "failed" update entries? There's really no need to, just a preference.

 

Yup, that's normal. It's just part of Windows' user account control. It wants to make sure you allow these programs to access your computer. Just precautionary.

And not that I know of. Over time, there's so many updates that occur that you won't even see the failed ones.

Make sure to keep updated often. Windows update should be automatic. And use file hippo's update checker to keep your other programs up to date.

Hope that helps and let me know if you have any other questions.

 

That helps a lot. : )

Anything on the screen flicker though? My display flashes a blank screen when installing usually ... is that normal?

Thanks!

 

Do you mean the flicker that occurs when the "User Account Control" window pops up? Yes, that's normal.

 

Yeah, when it asks permission to install something it will flicker with a blank screen.

 

Tomorrow is the 3 year anniversary of this guide! Thanks to all of you who have visited it and please feel free to spread the word about this guide to anyone it might benefit.

I will continue to update it as needed

 

Thanks to you! I used it today again while setting up my gf's laptop.
Sadly Les was banned, this guy was writing awesome guides.

 

XD, thanks.
I still have a unnoticeable black pixel on my start button. ._.
Other than that, thanks for the guide.