5 responses to “Windows tweaking and optimization”

1. 

   TomR August 15th, 2010 at 11:21

   I’m confused about one thing he said, which was (IIRC) “The only sure way to make Windows 7 run faster is to uninstall programs you won’t ever use.” Okay, this would free up hard-drive space, I see that, but how would it make Windows run faster? Because Windows doesn’t do anything with a program until it’s actually called during a session, right? Or does Windows always load a little chunk of every program that’s on the hard drive?

2. 

   rc primak August 15th, 2010 at 21:26

   Woody, I do not see in this article any mention of defragmenting.

   Readers, for an overview of the benefits of defragmenting your files and moving the most frequently used files to the “top end” of the drive, see Fred Langa’s recent column in Windows Secrets Newsletter, Paid Edition. Fred presents a compelling argument for continuing to defragment APPLICATION files, not the core OS files themselves.

   In fact, as I read this (Igor Leyko) article, he actually REINFORCES the idea that Application Files SHOULD be kept in a configuration on the disk where they are quick and easy to find. If Applications can account for 95% of resource usage (”slowness” in layman’s terms), then Fred Langa’s assertion that just one large, heavily fragmented Appication File (he refers to an Excel spreadsheet) can indeed cause a serious system performance hit, takes on even more significance. Multiply this file fragmentation by hundreds or thousands of Application Files, and things would seem to add up. I conclude that defragmenting and optimizing non-OS data files, may offer significant performance gains.

   I am on the fence about any benefits of using “System Cleaners” like CCleaner, but on one of my two laptops (the older, single-core one) there does seem to be some temporary benefit — and the cleanup process only costs me a few seconds of my time, and can save disk space and time when doing Deep Virus Scans and Image Backups.

   My favorite metric is a stopwatch. How long does it take to open a file, or Windows Explorer, or my Windows Desktop to the point where I can work with the current window’s contents? While this metric is oversimplistic for browser evaluation, it is a perfectly valid metric for Windows Launch, User Account Switching, and Application Launching. And file optimizing can make a significant difference in this metric. I can prove that to anyone whose computer “feels slow” in just a few minutes, plus the time it takes for a good disk optimizer to run.

   As for System Tweaks, I try to stay away from them, as one false move can really wreck any version of Windows. Especially when shutting down Windows Services or editing the Windows Registry. Black Vipre is a site which comes to mind when I think of dangerously misleading advice on “streamlining” Windows. There, the performance gains are minimal to none, and the risk is great.

   The best way to “speed up” Windows is (as stated in the article) to uninstall unused programs, and limit application Startups. This reduces always-running background processes and may help resolve application program conflicts. If this does not improve system “speed”, then driver conflicts or security permissions conflicts are the next thing to look at. Beyond these things, there’s not much a non-technical end-user can do to “speed up” a “slow computer” — unless there is a virus present.

   Am I missing something here?

3. 

   Rory August 17th, 2010 at 03:11

   Every time I update or install something, I run Norton Systemworks’s WinDoctor, which tidies up missing, changed, or disconnected pieces in my registry. It works great and was almost a daily staple back in Pentium I/ Win98 days. I misplaced my current disc once and used a Norton Utilities registry “optimizer” and all kinds of things disappeared, or simply stopped working (like my Palm T3 desktop program — grrr). Ed’s blog is right on the money — so save yours.

4. 

   EP August 18th, 2010 at 01:00

   I will say that if you already have a superfast computer (recent machines with Windows 7 installed on them), there’s really no need to use any Windows “tweaks” out there.

   However, if you have an old computer with an older OS (like this HP Pavilion PC I have back in 2001 which had WinME previously installed but I replaced it with WinXP SP3), using some tweaks such as defrag MAY help improve performance though not much.

5. 

   woody August 18th, 2010 at 08:28

   @TomR -

   The speed gains are marginal at best, and mostly have to do with programs that pre-load parts of themselves when Windows starts. There’s also tiny gains in reducing the size of hte list of available programs, things like that.