Windows 7 Tweaking?

Does Windows 7 really need any tweaking? I just got the RTM (legitamtely activated).

It seems fast so far, very fast, it's like I got a new laptop, totally stomps over Vista, and even over the previous Win 7 builds. I did not need to install ANY drivers are than my laptop's flash memory card reader! Impressing really


but back to my question......shall I tweak? and what tweaks are there?

 

Start>Control Panel>Performance And Tools>Adjust Visual Effects>Adjust For Best Performance?

For me faster is not necessarily best performing, I prefer the better visuals of the Aero interface. Same thing with some graphics drivers, some give better frame rates but I suspect at the cost of a better visual experience.

 

tweaking is only done when needed. everything else is called "premature optimization". you don't want to be premature, do you? (oh, and, premature optimization normally doesn't optimize, but actually degrade in the long run. if you know a programmer, ask him.. )

 

Yup I agree 100% tha'ts why we bought high end laptops right??


Check this dude >>> http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=405122

 

What about some of the really useless services such a portable player serial number?? what about tweaking the registry to correctly make use of your system's full L2 cache? what about if you really aren't concerned about security and would rather have NTFS encryption and NTFS last access disabled?

What if your system is so stable and you absolutely never need the last known good configuration to be created during startup to further speed up your boot process?

To meh, this all makes sense....... which I've done just now using this program >>> http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=405122

 

Whoever created this "tweak" has no idea what they are talking about.

 

Windows 7/Vista unlike XP, is auto-optimizing. There is nothing you need to do to maximize performance. You can stop services if you want to shave off 1-2 second from boot, but don't expect anything really visible. Especially that OS puts everything on your RAM instead of your HDD, there are no gains.

Services you stop (some services might not be there depending on your edition)
- ASP.NET State Srevice
- Bluetooth support (if you dont have it)
- BranchCache (if you don't use it (for domain joining))
- Certificate Propagation
- credential Vault Host Control Service
- Credential Vault Host Storage
- HomeGroup listener (if you don't use Home Group)
- HomeGroup provider (if you don't use Home Group)
- Media Center Extender Service (if you have no media center extender)
- Microsoft Office Diagnostic Service (Office 2007 service)
- Office Source Engine (Office 2007 service)
- Smart Card
- Smart Card Removal Policy
- Routine and Remote Access
- Remote Registry
- Tablet PC input service (if you don't have a tablet)
- Telephony
- Windows Biometric Servcie (if you don't use the finger print reader)
- Windows CardSpace
- Windows Media Center services if you don't use it.

Despite the long list I saw no visible performance or memory gain.

Also, the amount of Font installed on your system does NOT slow down your system like XP does.

 

Agreed. Also, you can't tweak the registry... Ill put that crap claim with "memory optimizer" programs.

 

Agreed. It is my understanding that cache settings can be set in BIOS, but ultimately is inaccessable by code.

 

While software may arrange data structures to better take advantage of the caches on certain families of processors (keeping in mind the cache line size, set size, replacement policy), you're right, the functionality of the cache ultimately comes down to the CPU's cache controller, not the OS.

 

Also, the provided registry cleaner sucks... gave me a BSOD at startup.
The disk cleaner, is ridiculous, it just randomly selects DRIVER files and wants to delete them.

Some options is just ridiculous, like disable "print spooler" last time I tried that a LOT of applications just freeze at startup or somewhere when you use it, even if you don't have a printer. Why would anyone, would want to remove built-in ZIP feature of Windows? Even if you have WinZip or PowerArchiver or something they just take over, they are no benefits from disabling this. Why wound anyone disable superfetch, especially under Win7 where it's improved over Vista so that it works well with little memory.

This program is absurd, useless and buggy as hell (crashed several times).
And the WORST part is that the UI is EXACTLY what Microsoft said NO TO DO! Do these programmers even know how to read documentation and UI design? It's a joke! Not to mention the lack of help documentation shows that know nothing.

 

you should mature up, and learn that it's useless to disable that stuff, just because you don't want it right now. do you remember all your tweaks exactly in 1.5years, where some of those things happen to suddenly bug you?

if your system is very fast, tweaking won't help. it just costs tons of useless time that you could spend with real life.

99% of those tweaks are placebo effects. if you don't believe that, open your eyes and learn the truth. take the red pill, leave the blue one.

or, in detail:

which doesn't do anything => doesn't cost anything while you don't have a portable player with serial number. then, suddenly, gains appear.

hy, placebo

ntfs encryption is just a file system feature. it is not "enabled" or "disabled". you can actively encrypt or not encrypt file. by default, nothing is => no harm. maybe you want, one day, to encrypt some data, as, one day, something important, private is on your disk. then, having it blocked is just annoying.

and last access is very important if you, one day, have more than one system, and start to configure automatic synching between the systems so you have your actual data everywhere. again, it doesn't hurt you, ever.

and if it one day isn't? maybe a hot day, and the cooling isn't right, and it locks up, messing up it's boot files. what, then? (i have it disabled, i have a windows home server for those cases. you should, too)

why do you like to actively castrate and cripple your system?

 

He didnt ask you how to turn win7 into 97...

 

Yup post deleted, you quote me too quickly

 

Instead of the "best performance" thing, I do this: Control Panel -> Ease of Access Center -> "Make it easier to focus on tasks" -> "Turn off all unnecessary animations (when possible)". This turns off practically every animation in the OS, and in the apps that come with Windows (ie. Solitaire). Everything snaps. It doesn't disable Aero or anything static visually, only animations.

I also disable the "Start navigation" sound, since it's not only annoying, but Windows needs to periodically reload it and it likes to do so on a click, which can be perceived as a delay.

I don't tinker with services too much except where it's painfully obvious. As an example of a seemingly harmless service causing a problem: On Vista x64 (at least), with the print spooler disabled, a new install of IE8 will act weird, like tabs won't work right and the right-click tab area won't work. *NO* rational explanation for this. Enabling the print spooler fixes it. After the first time IE8 runs right, the print spooler can then be disabled with no ill effect. Very weird, and I reproduced it on a few machines.

If you go turning stuff off, at least be aware of what you disable. Like on my desktop, which is hard-wired, I disabled the Connect Now wireless thing which runs for no particular reason on a machine with no wireless card. I disable the print spooler since I don't own a printer, and I also disable the Media Sharing since I could care less about sharing media. I try to tread softly on the services since so many kind of interact with each other.

 

OK...Start>Control Panel>Performance And Tools>Adjust Visual Effects>Adjust For Best Performance>Apply>Right Click Desktop>Personalize>Aero Themes>Windows 7

I still prefer "let windows decide" Aero theme Windows 7