How do you tweak your Win7?

As the subject asks, I'm curious what people do to make their Win7 experience better? I've read through this and seems interesting as to what features others disable and enable:

http://www.msfn.org/board/windows-7-rtm-32-64-bit-updated-t137765.html
http://www.msfn.org/board/windows-7-registry-tweaks-t139653.html

Hope someone finds it useful Just remember to back up your registry before you mess around with it and blah blah standard disclaimer about tweaking at your own discretion...

 

i do nothing. i chose hw conbinations that make the experience awesome out of the box, no tweaking needed. as always..

now lets rule in the processor-count-tweaks on boot, the pagefile tweaks, the hibernationfile removals, the power-mode-to-max-change, the random registry entries that microsoft has not added but change how fast the os is, the file deletions, the rights changes, the uac disablings, and all the rest

 

Nothing really, W7 works great out of the box. This is the first time I can safely say that you do not have to do a boatload of tweaks to get a Windows OS to run at its best.

 

I disable some services and things like hibernation. I would barely call it tweak. There isnt much to tweak in Win7 really

 

That's good to know. Though I'm still weary since several members of the Acer forum have noticed significantly lower battery life in Win7 compared to Vista.

 

Disabled hibernation and pagefiling, tweaked some power plans to match my needs, disabled some rarely-used Services.msc, changed some startup programs with CCleaner, closely monitored startup programs and services, removed certain features from Turn Features On/Off, removed a few tasks from Task Scheduler. Oh and turned off Search indexer.

Then visual tweaks. Made taskbar smaller, changed start menu look, changed a few Windows Explorer display options.

7 runs well as it is.

 

-reduce page file to conserve space (wouldn't do with +256gb drives)
-get rid of hibernation (use sleep instead, again wouldn't do with +256gb drives)
-create a power plan
-reduce size of system restore
-disabled any service I do not want to use ever (ex:error reporting)
-turn off indexing
-Lots of visual customizations, like show file extensions and hidden folders, and make every explorer window show the file menu bar, change the taskbar back to vista style, disable the new win7 features that annoy me when moving windows around, get rid of the sidebar, change system tray to show all icons
-customize the mouse and audio settings
-require ctrl + alt + delete in order to log in
-change windows media player background ( http://windows7news.com/2009/11/30/how-to-change-the-background-in-wmp12/)
-make my own support information in the registry so it shows in properties of my computer ( http://www.walkernews.net/2008/04/13/how-to-add-an-oem-logo-to-vista-system-properties/)

I don't do any "performance" tweaking cause there are none.

 

Those tweaks shown were not good at all. Disabling many stuffs will only lead do unstable as well as you just don't need to do it.
Seriously, I think 7 do not need such a high intensity of tweaks.
I just "manual" some of services and disabled 1 of the "tablet" services because it annoys me when I plug in my Tablet. LOL.

 

pretty much all i do is this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5459182#post5459182

 

max-ing out the ram in my system. Even with recent price increases in ram, memory is the single best way users have to improve performance.

 

yeah...64bit o/s and 4gigs of ram or more ....that makes the difference....

 

how do you disbale/turn off hibernate?
if you turn it off from power option will the processes still be loaded on boot up?

 

I use to love the Copy to/Move to menu items. Then I realized it doesn't show my favorite folder's list. Useless.

 

what processes? a process that waits for your shutdown button to be pressed to check if it should shutdown or hibernate?

or do you want to get rid of the hibernate file on disk?

 

Disable indexing
Diasble UAC
Tweak services.msg
Remove media center

 

i meant the program thats associated with hibernate. but i think its a harware level process so there really is no windows service/program that handles hibernate

 

why should there be anything. it's just a setting in the energy plan. and on shutdown, it does hibernate. the only moment hibernation is active is WHEN IT HIBERNATES.

that's like your browser, or word, or what ever. that's only active when you use it.

 

why? search is useful

why? it is useful

why, they are useful the way they are?

why, it is useful..



tweaking is useless.

 

Maybe because he wants to? It's his computer you know. Just because you think it's useful doesn't automatically make it useful for everyone. In case you didn't know, there is such a thing called "user preference". I don't understand how someone can tell someone else how to run their computer when that person doesn't know anything about that other user.

I disable index because I want to. I have no need for it. My seraches always are isntant anyways.

I tweak my services. I set everything I don't usally want to run at "manual" and set the services I don't want to run ever at "disable" (which is like only 4).

The ONLY reason i haven't removed media center is because I have a tv tuner and I haven't found a suitable replacement for it. Otherwise, there are many other applications that people may like instead of media center.

 

well, most likely is "because he doesn't know better", and thinks it enhances his experience in any way. which it doesn't.

just as your tweaked services don't do ****, which you would know, if you would have read up how services work in win7.

and indexing is not about instant searching, but about searching for CONTENT, not filenames. once you get that, you hate yourself for disablin git.

and media center removing does not gain anyone anything. don't use it if you don't like it (which i can understand but is sad anyways), but actively removing it is more work than it's worth. doesn't gain space, performance, or anything. it's just useless.

that's why i ask. those tweaks don't CHANGE A THING ABOUT THE SYSTEM.

so why do people do it? for having a good feeling about their placebo tweaks, that's why.

 

Symbolic links baby! Love 'em, been waiting for them forever since I started using them in *nix back in the day.

 

they existed in every windows on nt partitions..

not that i use them much after my xp days anymore..

 

First, some people, like me, don't tweak to "enchance" performance. I tweak to "change" my experience. When I tweak i am not looking for a speed boost. Why do you assume everyone tweaks to get some speed boost? I don't.

Second, I always research the services i want to disable. For example I disabled error reporting. Why? Because I don't want it to run.... EVER! I don't care if people like you think I should leave it on. I am not looking for a perofrmance increase from disabling it.... I just don't want it to run. Boo-hoo I won't be able to send ms an error report.

Third, I don't care about searching for content. I don't use my pc in that way. OMG, someone who doesn't use their pc the same way you do? Wierd, is it not? I use only 44gb... that's it.

Remving media center is a personal preference. Why leave it on if you are NEVER going to use it?

All i am trying to point out is that just because you find something useful doesn't mean that someone else should find it useful. They call it a "Personal"-computer for a reason.

 

why turn it off if it has NO effect on the system?
why turning indexing off if it has NO effect on the system, but could get useful one day, when you suddenly happen to "use your pc that way". which happens. and did happen before, while you didn't even noticed it as it was always unavailable to you.
error reporting is there FOR you, so it's your choice. just never cry about a problem, as, if you don't report, you have no right to blame anyone else but yourself.

you put a lot of research in what you do, but not, if you actually gain anything from it. which you don't.

removing media center is removing one item in the startmenu programs subfolder, which you normally never access anyways for starting apps, as it's about the slowest way possible.

of course, it's your personal choice. what i want to do is mythbusting. to do so, i have to ask why people apply their changes. if they consider some gain, i can then bust that gain, as it normally NEVER is a gain (there is really not much you can do to enhance the performance, stability, security or usability of a typical windows 7 installation).

most people do the tweaks because they heard that they're good, or they where good years ago, and they forgot that times might have changed.

disabling a service is exactly such a thing. in win7, that's a no-op. it does change nothing.

 

? Disabling a service prevents it from running; therefore it does SOMETHING. It doesn't increase performance, but that's not the point in disabling services.

And you do gain space by removing media center, cause I've done it. Don't believe me, do it yourself. It's only a few hundred megabytes though.

 

btw, darth bane. the question wasn't asked towards you, but towards the poster. out of curiousity.

you didn't had to attack me for this. i know your position on the whole, and while i see no points in your system changes, it's your thing.

as said, i try to do mythbusting, because a lot is needed for the new windows (including vista). there's a lot of wrong knowledge spread on the web. so i always ask if someone messes with his system, why? and this will repeat on and on.
because, by asking such questions, people (including me) can learn.

 

interestingly, windows services in windows 7 don't physically run, even while they state that. they are in trigger mode, that means, they're completely idling, not even eating up ram (that's what the msdn tech team posted). they just wait for an event to happen when they are needed.

and yes, the main point for people IS increase performance. that was the nr. 1 reason people disabled tons of things in xp. because they heard it slows down the system (and it was true back then). on win7, they work best the default way.

you disable error reporting, that's just cosmetical, imho, wrong anyways, but your choice.

but a lot of people are NOT aware that disabling services does not gain in ram, or performance, anymore, actually (or, not in an amount that it ever happens to matter.. saving 10ms on boot time is not a gain, nor is 1kb in ram or 2 (edit: which get paged out to the non-disabled page file anyways ))

 

The only changes I made was:
Unlocking the admin account
Changing the delay for Aero Peek

 

can i see that aero peek one? curious on what delayed parts it all affects.. i might like it.

unlocking the admin i had no need for so far. the default user can get all the rights he needs. except you might use it for some networking purposes (does unlocking give it free for remote accesses? unsure about that)

 

Sure thing. I did Method two on this website, but I'm sure the program will work just fine.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20337-aero-peek-change-delay-time-preview-desktop.html

I'm not sure what you are asking.

 

thanks. interesting, that's a new section of the registry, explorer\advanced. nice to know about that section.

and the program is the same as typing in the text btw (it triggers the import/export part in regedit).

well, then you haven't done it for that purpose, i guess.. you know, when you want to remote access another pc, you can by default not do this by the local admin account of that machine. unlocking it might allow that. but that's a "networking for corporate networks" topic, mainly.

what's your use of the admin? i'm a curious guy, always asking

 

Tips, tricks and hacks to make Windows 7 more awesome

The recommended tips and tweaks are fairly common knowledge to most Windows power-users.

 

A nice read, even if you don't apply anything from in there. Why a nice read anyways? As it highlights some of the "new, weird, annoying things of win7". so people could get an idea that things are planned that way, and not buggy. (like hide empty drives and such).

 

If you are asking about Remote Desktop, I'm not sure. I use it on the unlocked Admin account all of the time, but I never tried it before I unlocked the account. I'm pretty sure that will be no problem without the Admin account though.

Again, I reference http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3922-remote-desktop-connection-rdc-network.html

No use really. I just don't like being annoyed with UAC, and setting privileges. I'm fairly confident I won't mess anything up. I don't need Microsoft holding my hand and telling me what I can and cannot do. Basically, I use it to not be annoyed lol.

Sure it exposes your computer to the risk of a user caused problems, but I will take my chances.

 

Isn't that what "Tweaking" implies? It wouldn't be a tweak if it was for everyone. It would be made that way.

What do you want to debate about? If windows 7 needs tweaks or not? If that is the case, then let me begin:

In general, Win 7 is great out of the box. No real need to tweak anything. Every component/process has a purpose, and in general, it does a good job of managing things.

 

Then what IS the point? If it does not improve performance, then WHY do it?

Gary

 

I find it quite interesting that you take dave to task saying that just because he doesn't think the tweaks suggested by noelia are useful to anyone does not make it so. But you have nothing to say about noelia suggesting that they are useful to everyone. Since noelia in no way qualified who or when the tweaks sohould be applied, the lack of such qualifications implied they were applicable to everyone.

Gary

 

It will improve performance if you disable ton of them. LOL. I mean start-up/boot up time.
Basically, MS Services are not heavy, only those 3rd Party Services(some lousy softwares are crazy to add their sh!ts into the services.msc) are crappy.
Most importantly, start-up programs are those which needed to be disabled instead of MS Services.

 

nobody is against disabling 3rd party services btw, darksilver.

we just talk about windows services. they should not be touched.. they are so lightweight you could disable all of them and it would nearly not affect the boot process

 

yeah. i'd love the day a tweaker would state "you know, this stuff is useless, i do it just for the fun of it, and the placebo effect"

 

no, i was more talking about f.e. mapping \\machine\ipc$ to remote edit the registry/services/what ever..

well, i would be annoyed to always have to take care about knowing what i do exactly, and if that messed up the system. i like to let the computer handle it, so that i don't have to think about it. that's what a computer is made for: reduce my work.

and yes, i'm VERY confident that i don't mess up anything. but still, i'm more confident that MY PC KNOWS BEST WHEN I HURT HIM. and i don't have to care about it anymore. it's a great gift (like my homeserver, making me not care about my systems at all.. if it dies, replace and restore..)

 

If that's the kind of experience you want, then why don't you just follow the commercial's advice and get a MAC?

There are plenty of reasons to have service settings other than the default.

There are also people who know exactly what a specific service does, the impact of turning it off, and service interdependencies. And no, not by looking at the dependencies tab of scm, but by actual experience. They do not need self healing systems. Self healing systems just get in the way.

 

i would never buy a mac, as it a) does not support my apps, b) sucks big anyways (i uses mac os 9 and os x besides windows for years, it's just meh.. big time)

there are plenty of reasons to have service settings other than the default. nice. show me one. hint: "not needing something" is not one, as unneeded services don't physically run anyways. they just "make themselves ready" if, at any point, you might want to use a feature of it. prime example: all networking services are using up 0 resources while you're not connected to a network.

i am one of those people who knows exactly what a specific service does, and i know that turning it off never impacts the system beyond removing features.

and no, a self healing system only gets into the way of the "i know better" guys. like my mom always knows "better than the navy", and thus the navy never points the right way. if she would just relax and follow it, she would notice that it might suggest another route, but it's a WORKING ROUTE, too.

people always want to get their hands dirty to prove that they know better, to feel better, to get satisfaction. this is the ONE MAIN RAESON WHY THE WEB IS FULL OF TWEAK GUIDES EVERYWHERE.

 

No tweak should be considered useful for everyone. Such thinking is silly. Tweaks are for people who have specific wants, ex: one person may want their computer without UAC, while another wants it on. The problem arises when people based their wants on wrong facts.

 

exactly.

my try is to always find out, if a person really WANTS it, or got told to want it that way based on some random crap. which most tweak-tipps on the web are. and a lot of people follow them blindly.

so is f.e. the question about uac always "do you know why it exists? how it works? what is it good for? what's the problem you have that tells you to get rid of it? sure about the consequences? etc etc etc"...

questions over questions.

i don't specifically ask you, as i know, you only do it to show "i know better" to your pc... (and now i better run as fast as i can hahahaha)

no, seriously. tweaks spread on the internet, and tons of people that don't know **** apply them. seen it enough. it's terrible. tons of crippled systems i support got cripple-tweaked.

that's why i try to do a lot of mythbusting about them.

maybe you understand me now a bit, darth.

i'm not in disagreement with you, i don't have problems with personally messing a system to ones own needs AND wants. i have a problem with false-knowledge, and resulting false-handling, and the resulting problems out of it. which are quite big, actually... if people wouldn't touch their systems, i would have much less supporting issues..

 

Agreed. But then there are the idiots from Apple, Adobe and Google, who think their applications are so important as to justify the need for a startup app or service just to check for their precious little updates. What do I think of those apps/services? Nuke em'. Blow 'em to hell.

Gary

 

I like how you selectively quoted my reply to you. You still didn't answer my question. Do you not see the fact that since noelia didn't explain a thing about who should or should not consider the tweak, the clear implication to any novice would be to use the tweak? Problems ALSO (and more often) arise when NO facts are presented.

Gary

 

LOL. I agree blow em to hell!! Disabling Google updater, Adobe updater, and Apple update services and start-up items are second nature to me.

 

The point of this thread is

Noelia did just that by posting what he does. He doesn't have to explain. It would be helpful if he had explain, but he didn't. If a novice user applies those tweaks without any research at all, they deserve what they get.

Besides, "better experience" is a personal opinion, there is no right or wrong. What I consider a better experience may not be better for someone else.

 

The worst crap ever has to be software from Apple.
Quicktime practically force users to install a pile of bloated crap.