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{Turorial} – Ultimate Tutorial to SpeedUp Windows 7 | Make it Run faster than Light itself!!!

Hello everyone

Couple a weeks ago i made my tutorial to make your PC running lightning fast with some steps and 2 programs i gave you.
Which you can find here http://mastergenius.net/wordpress/2010/01/23/make-your-pc-running-at-full-speed-with-a-few-easy-steps/

This time i will concentrate just on Windows 7, the latest Operating System from Microsoft and Yeap! the best one so far. Windows 7 is the best, the least buggy and the fastest of all the OSes around in my opinion but why not give it a little more special boost and have our system running at its full capability ???
(let's clear something up, the previous tutorial i made is for all windows versions so for windows 7 too, some of the steps covered there are written here too just for completeness of this ultimate guide for Windows 7, and some of the steps here can be used in XP and Vista too)

Let's Begin the biggest and more covering guide/tutorial on making Windows 7 faster than it already is!
Good Luck folks

1)  Filtering the Start-Up Applications List

- Open the MSconfig tool:

Start -> type in search box "msconfig.exe"  without quotes and press ENTER

- Now click on the tab named Startup
- You can see now the applications that start when you open your PC. The more you have ticked, the more Apps will start, the more your PC will have slow boots.
- Just UNCHECK the Applications you don't want to start
- Now that you filtered out the startup apps click Apply (don't close msconfig since we are going to do some more work into it)

2) Configure MSconfig a tad bit more for optimum performance

- We have been to Startup tab so far so it's time to move on to the Boot tab
- Here you can change the timeout value on the right, i suggest something between 1-5 secs
- Now click Advanced Options
- Check the first box Number of Processors and in the dropdown box choose the number of CORES your Cpu has. (2 for dual cores etc)
- Now click OK and we are back to the Boot tab
- Check the box where it says "Make all boot settings permanent" and click OK

3) Ok we are done with step 2. Now we are going to edit the SERVICES running on our System.

This is one of the main reasons why our PCs are slowing down A LOT. A good optimization of the services and you are going as fast as a rocket in space.

Start –> type  “services.msc” without quotes in the search box and ENTER

- Now click the standard tab at the bottom
- Here you can see all services running on your system, some of them are automatic, others are manual and others are disabled. The point here is to have as less automatic as possible cause by being automatic they start when your PC goes on. So they slow it down making it a sluggish piece of machine!!!
- Here i provide you a link to a site with information for each service and how it’s recommended to be, i used this guide for my PCs too.
http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/servicecfg.htm
Reading through this takes time and yeah it’s time consuming indeed. But as i said before SERVICES are one of the main reasons why PCs are slow so when you have time pay attention to this STEP 3.

4) Now we move on to Uninstalling All the uneccesary Applications from Our System.

- This step is my favourite cause by completing it you earn apart from speed improvement, hard disk space too. For completing this step i again recommend you a program like no other (Please try my recommendations, i spent a LOT LOT of time trying programs and these are really good), anw the program i recommend for this step is YourUninstaller PRO 2008. Not only it removes programs but also eliminates all traces they leave behind them.
- Download it by clicking the link above and install it with the keygen inside or if you are more ethical man buy the program.
- After doing this open the application, you will see all the programs installed on your system. By doing a strict choice for what you want, uninstall all the others by clicking uninstall on each one of them (finish one and then moe on to another).
- BE CAREFUL at this point, at first the uninstaller of the program will start as ususal, after finishing it DO NOT restart even if it’s suggests you to do. Finish the uninstall and then you’ll see that YourUninstallerPro goes a step ahead and searches for all the traces left behind, after finding them click next and it will clean them all.
- DO this for all the programs you do not need instead of the windows built in uninstaller cause this way all traces are deleted.
- YourUninstaller PRO has some nice tools if you search it but they are optional for anyone who is curious

5) Edit the Visual Effects and boost Performance!

Start -> type "sysdm.cpl" without quotes in the search box and hit ENTER

- Go to the Advanced tab
- Click the Performance Settings
- Now in Visual effects choose what you want and don't want from the list. The less you have the more boost in performance you'll notice. You can leave only the following on if you want for better user experience at minimum resources

• Enable desktop composition (If you want to use Windows Aero theme)
• Enable transparent glass (If you want to use transparency in Windows)
• Show thumbnails instead of icons (If you want to show thumbnails in Explorer)
• Show window contents while dragging (If you want windows to show content while moving them)
• Smooth edges of screen fonts (If you want to show smooth fonts)
• Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop (If you want to show shadows under desktop icon labels)
• Use visual styles on windows and buttons (If you want to use Windows Aero or Basic theme.)
• Show transclucent selection rectangle (for having a rectangle when selecting multiple files)

- Now go the advanced tab and check the "Programs" in Adjust performance best for!
- OK and again OK to exit

6) Folder Options

Open Windows Explorer and go to Organize and then Folder and Search Options and choose the View tab

Now see the list and check the appropriates for your taste. I recommend having the following disabled though:

• Display file size information in folder tips
• Always show menus
• Display icons on thumbnails
  
• Hide extensions for known file types (i have this one enabled to recognise the files )
  
• Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color
• Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items

7) Move on to the Sounds

Start -> type in the search box "mmsys.cpl" without quotes and hit ENTER

- Now click the Sounds tab
- Choose from the schemes list No Sounds or try to disable the ones you don't want
- It's important to turn off the sounds for "Windows logon", "Windows logoff" and "Shutdown"

8 ) You don't do Search ? Then why not disabling it

If you are the kind of user that just explores and gets the file he wants and do not use search regularly then you can disable the Search Indexing Service.

Start -> type "services.msc" without quotes into the search box and hit ENTER

- Now find the service called Windows Search
- Right click it and choose Properties.
- From the dropdown menu choose Disabled
- OK and exit

By disabling the service we can still do search normally but the system will not eat up memory indexing our searches. If you are using the search feature a lot then this might not be good to disable. Try it and see the difference yourself.

9) AERO Theme - Performance Vs Graphics

The Windows 7 Aero theme adds eyecandy features all around the system, shadows, transparency, and many other user interface tidbits. If you have a not-so-latest hardware and just want performance over graphic interface then you can disable the aero theme and you will notice a MAJOR boost in performance.

- Right click on Desktop and click Personalize
- Click the Window Color and uncheck the Enable Transparency and click Save Changes
- Now choose a theme from the basic ones and you will be fast like 100m dasher

10) Turn off UAC (User Account Control) - Not for Newbies

Copy this into the adress bar of any of your explorer windows or go to it manually

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\User Accounts

- Change User Account Control Settings
- Slide the bar far bottom to Never Notify and click OK

Now you won't receive all those permission dialog boxes if you want to run the application etc.

11) Remove all the Windows features you do not use

- Click the START, then select Control Panel.
- Select Programs and Features.
- Select Turn Windows features on or off.

And check or uncheck the ones you want to have. Once finished click OK and wait for the windows to finish installing or uninstalling!

12) Disabling the Sidebar Widget

- Right Click on it and click Properties
- Uncheck the box where it says "Start sidebar when Windows Starts"

OK now there won't be any side bar!

13) Disable any screen saver and even wallpaper

If you want even more performance you can disable your screen saver and your wallpaper. Just use a solid color as background if you are in an aged pc.

14) Defragging and Registry Cleaning

You can use my previous tutorial for detailed information on this topic but i will copy some parts here, Defragging, Cleaning junk files and registry are important tasks you should do every week if you ask me if not daily in order to help your system maintain its stability and performance.

First of all DOWNLOAD Auslogics Boost Speed 4

- When you open Auslogics you see the welcome page. I want you to click on Computer Clean Up from the left panel. Here there are 4 tools.

Disk Cleaner
Registry Cleaner
Uninstall Manager
Startup Manager

We will use the first 2 tools mainly cause the later 2 are already covered in the steps above.
- Run DiskCleaner and RegistryCleaner about once a week and you will always be ok. When you click on them there will be some choices for you to check. I check all the checkboxes although it says for some that is dangerous and didn’t have any problems so far, in contrary it’s better for best results.
- Now we go a little further, click on Optimization on the left panel and do the first 3 tools.
disk defragment
registry defragment
internet optimizer
it’s easy to complete them so no more details on this one.
- Information and Control is our last stop in Auslogics for now. Click on it and open the Tweak Manager. This is a manager that handles a lot of tweaks (REALLY HELPFUL AND USABLE) not easily found within windows. Discover this yourself and optimize it your way.
- The rest of the tools are optional for anyone to try them. Good they make bad they don’t

15) Some registry tweaks for you by me!!!

First of all Download this Registry File - Tweaks for XP / VISTA / 7 (right click on it and choose SAVE AS )

This file contains some tweaks that will make your PC even faster and with some shortcuts too. Below are the tweaks detailed:

• Adds "Open Folder with CMD" and "Open File with CMD" so that you can easily open a folder or a file into the Command Prompt
• Adds "Copy To" and "Move To" options in files and folders context menu, so that you can easily copy and move them to other locations.
• Sets Windows to automatically end task of programs which are either hanged or taking longer time than expected to exit.
• Decreases menus show delay time to 0, it'll show the sub-menus fast when you select their parent menu.
• Disables the low disk space check so that you don't get the annoying low disk space notification in system tray.
• Sets Windows to not waste time in searching for a program which no longer exists in your system when you try to open its shortcut.
• Disables "search on Internet" prompt in "Open with" window so that it directly opens the program list.
• Speeds up the Explorer navigation.
• Adds "Take Ownership" option in files and folders context menu so that you can easily take ownership of files and folders in case you want to replace them for customization purpose.

Right click the file above and choose Save Target As(I.Explorer) or Save Link As (M.Firefox)
When the download is finished run it and click OK when it asks for your permission.

Restart and see the results!!!

Fewww that was another one big tutorial for you If you follow my guide step by step i am sure you will be amazed at how fast your PC actually is. The most important points you need to have in your mind if you want the hard work you did now to last and have one super douper PC are:
Defragmenting Hard Drive
Removing Junk Files
Cleaning up Registry
Derfagmenting Registry

You can do these with Auslogics Boost Speed 4 i gave you above but there are other tools too if you don't want to get my recommendation. The point is to do these things to be consistent.

Also for the non Windows 7 users many of these tricks can be done in XP and VISTA, try them and see yourself which one is good for your configuration!

Thank you all for reading my guide and i am looking forward your Comments with Your results.

Ultimate Tutorial / Guide to SpeedUp Windows 7 | make it faster than Light itself!!! by MasterGenius.NET (Lambros Petrou)