How To Speed Up Your Windows 7 OS
1. Turn off Aero Effects To Speed Up Windows
Go to the Control Panel’s Performance Information and Tools section, and choose Adjust Visual Effects. Here you’ll find a list of effects, but simply choosing “Adjust for best performance” will turn everything off. The appearance of the Windows environment will make you feel like you’ve stepped back to 1999, mind you – but everything will be a bit faster.
2. Trim Your Installed Programs
Uninstalling software you no longer use or need is a good idea to help keep your PC running smoothly. You can also uninstall any bloatware that came on your machine.
Head to Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a program and take the hatchet to anything, such as useless games, that you’ll never need. Many programs will load processes at boot-up and take up valuable RAM and CPU cycles. While you’re in here, you can also click “Turn Windows Features On or Off” and scan the list to see if there’s anything you don’t use. You might also try software like Revo Uninstaller Free.
3. Limit Startup Processes
In the Start button’s search box, type MSCONFIG, then head to the Startup tab. You’ll likely see a slew of apps, mostly for system support, but you’ll be able to identify some that clearly aren’t necessary. There’s absolutely no need to have QuickTime running all the time, for example. Don’t delete those that support your hardware or security, but anything blatantly non-productive can go. You may have to check the program names online with a website like processlibrary.com to see what they are – they may even be malware.
4. Clean Up Your Disk
From the Start menu, choose All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and Disk Cleanup. This finds unwanted junk and files such as temporary, offline web pages, and installer files on your PC and offers to delete them all at once. You may even find that your Recycle Bin is bulging at the seams: This will generally only have a noticeable effect on speed if your machine is getting close to full to the brim with files, however.
5. Turn Off Desktop Gadgets
Now we come to the tips that require shutting down some of the operating system’s bloatware. Windows 7 got rid of the actual visual sidebar of previous OS Windows Vista, but there’s still a sidebar process running. Turn it off by typing “gadgets” in the start menu search bar, choose “View list of running gadgets,” then select each in turn and click Remove to shut any gadgets you can live without.
6. Defragment Your Hard Disk Drive
Your disk stores data in chunks wherever there’s space on disk, regardless of whether the space is contiguous for one file. Defragging tidies everything up and groups a program’s bits together so that the reader heads don’t have to shuttle back and forth to read a whole executable or data file. While this is less of a problem with today’s huge hard drives and copious amounts of RAM, a slow system can still benefit from defragmenting the disk. Windows 7 comes with a built-in defragger that runs automatically at scheduled intervals. Just type “defrag” in the Windows Start Menu search bar, and click on “Disk Defragmenter.”
7. Don’t use a desktop background
This will free up extra RAM and therefore boost speed slightly. Right click on the desktop and choose Personalize, then Desktop Background at the bottom of the resulting dialog window. Set it to a solid color of your choice.
Video Of How To Speed Up Windows 7