Difficulty: Easy

Windows 7 is really very good but there’s always a few tweaks to be made, and some default behaviours are still inefficient or downright irritating if you have no need for them. Here’s what I like to do to tweak a Windows 7 install. This doesn’t yield a mind blowing speed increase but it is measurable and you’ll find the speed the OS does things becomes a lot more consistent. Employ or disregard any of the suggestions here as you please, they can all be done on their own for partial benefit.

So here we go. This a pretty long post and includes the following sections:

1. Disable content indexing of files
2. Disable system protection
3. Fix the swap file size
4. Disable User Account Control
5. Disable the Action Center notifications
6. Disable remote desktop access
7. Install Internet Explorer 9
8. Disable Automatically detect settings in Internet Explorer
9. Install 7-zip and associate it with all archives
10.Clear all files, folders and shortcuts off your desktop
11.Change the power plan to High performance
12.Install a Registry/Temp/Privacy cleaner

Some more things you can do:
Change to the Windows Classic interface
Change the System Failure write debugging to small memory dump
Turn off Windows Defender
Audit your tray icons
Use msconfig to inspect all your system services

1. Disable content indexing of files
Why? Having a background process go through the contents of every file on your hard drive has overhead. Especially when file contents change all the time and the indexing services has to go through them all again, and again. If I need to search for something, I find the file name is pretty much always going to be enough to locate it. And hey, this is what folders are for yeah? Putting things where you can find them.

How to disable content indexing of files:

1. Click Start->Computer

2. Right click on your hard drive and click “Properties”

You’ll see this:

3. Make sure “Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties” is unchecked like the picture. Then click OK

4. If it was checked previously it will pop up another windows asking if you’d like to apply this to just the root folder (C) or to every file and folder under it also, do it to every file.

5. Wait for ten minutes (or more, depends how much stuff you have) while windows goes through every file and folder and sets them not to have contents indexed. This will also be applied to any new files that go on the drive so it won’t need to be done again.

2. Disable system protection
Why? It’s a gimmick, and It doesn’t really work, the restoration of the state of your PC will still be broken, maybe in a different way. It slows down every operation that makes a change to your computer (like installing a new program or a Windows update which takes long enough as it is) and eats up a bunch of hard drive space to boot. It won’t help you if your hard drive fails and Windows has to be working for it to be able to restore the state of your PC (which it only does partially, it does not roll back everything). Disabling it makes a significant difference to how quickly your PC installs/uninstalls software and updates, and could free up an extra 10GB of disk space.

How to disable system protection:

1. Click Start, then right-click on Computer and click Properties

You’ll see this:

2. Click System protection over on the left.

You’ll see the window on the left:

3. Click on “Local Disk (C:)” and then click the Configure button

You’ll see the one on the right in the picture above.

4. Select “Turn off system protection”

5. Make sure the Max usage slider is all the way over to the left and click the Delete button at the bottom – this will free up all the space that’s previously been used up by system protection. Click OK, OK, OK, Yes, OK, Whatever, then you’re done.

3. Fix the swap file size
Why? Windows will occasionally resize a swap file (also known as Virtual Memory) while you’re working on your computer whether you like it or not, stealing your precious resources which you could be using for whatever it is you’re doing. To stop this from happening, set an exact size for the swap file which can’t be expanded or decreased, then this won’t happen and you’ll still have a swap file. If you have heaps of RAM (at least 8GB+ on a Win 7  machine) you can get rid of the swap file altogether but a lot of programs get confused when they don’t find one, so it’s best to have one and count on Windows not using it because everything fits nicely into RAM.

How to fix the swap file size:

1. Click Start, right click on Computer and select Properties

You’ll see this:

2. Click Advanced system settings over on the left

You’ll see this:

3. Where it says Performance at the top, click on the settings button

You’ll see this:

4. Click on the Advanced tab in the Performance Options window

You’ll see this:

5. Where it says Virtual Memory, note the size listed there e.g. 4094MB – the value windows already has it set to is often a good number to fix it at, click on the Change… button.

You’ll see this:

6. Uncheck “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”.

7. Click on C: so it’s highlighted, then select Custom size below and enter the same number in the initial size and maximum size(MB) fields.

8. Click Set, this will probably require a restart but you can opt to restart later and it will come into effect then, recommended if you want to keep making changes listed here. Click OK, OK, OK and you’re done.

4. Disable User Account Control
Why? If you’ve got UAC on you would have already been interrupted by a dimmed screen and a box asking you to confirm you want to perform the action. That’s really annoying and something that caused a lot of disgruntled Windows Vista users, it’s still there in Windows 7 as a security measure, but it’s akin to putting a speed hump on your driveway, far more irritating than any good it will do. Also, a lot of people’s PCs have a slight delay when the screen dims which makes it even worse.

How to do disable user account control:

1. Click on Start->Control panel->System and Security

You’ll see this:

2. Under Action Center, click Change User Account Control settings

You’ll see this:

3. Move the slider to the bottom – Never Notify and click OK. You will need to reboot but you can do this later and it will come into effect then.

5. Disable the Action Centre notifications
Why? The action centre is there to run constantly and pester you about a number of things including turning on automatic updates, installing virus protection and doing backups. You agree those things are pretty smart? Good! You no longer need the Action Centre.

How to disable action centre notifications:

1. Click on Start->Control Panel->System and Security

You’ll see this:

2. Click on the green title at the top that says Action Center

You’ll see this:

3. Over on the left click on Change Action Center settings

You’ll see this:

4. Uncheck every box so it looks like the picture and click OK, and you’re done. You won’t have the Action Center holding your hand anymore – but I’m sure you’ll do just fine without the interruptions.

6. Disable remote desktop access
Why? Did you know you can operate your Windows 7 computer remotely using a remote desktop connection? Have you done so recently? If you answered no to either of those you don’t need that thing listening on your network until you actually want to use it.

How to disable remote desktop:

1. Click Start, then right click on Computer and select Properties.

You’ll see this:

2. Click on Remote settings over on the left.

You’ll see this:

3. Uncheck “Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer”

4. Select “Don’t allow connections to this computer”

5. Click Apply, OK and you’re done.

7. Install Internet Explorer 9
Why? Windows 7 shipped with Internet Explorer 8, which wasn’t a good one for a couple reasons. Standards compliance, compatibility and rendering speed was the worst of the big three browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome) at the time and the user interface was not only pretty ugly, but for some reason it had to draw itself in so slowly when IE started up, that you could watch the toolbar, tabs and menus pop in. The upgrade to IE 9 is free and it’s better in absolutely every way. Most relevant to this guide is that it’s more stable, faster and manages memory usage better.

To check your Internet Explorer version:

1. Click the Tools menu  (Cog icon on the far right of the toolbar) in IE and select About Internet Explorer.

To upgrade Internet Explorer to the latest version:

Download it here, run the installer and follow the prompts. It’s also delivered via Windows Update.

8. Disable Automatically detect settings in Internet Explorer
Why? Unless your network uses a proxy that is best automatically discovered, your PC will get all the information it needs right away when it’s assigned an IP by a DHCP server (on most small networks this is usually the modem/router). Spending a couple seconds rediscovering what is already known on starting up the browser isn’t necessary. If it turns out your network does need that option on, you’ll see that the browser won’t open web pages after it is disabled and you can just switch it back on to get it working again.

How to disable automatically detect settings in Internet Explorer 9:

1. Open Internet Explorer and Click->Tools (Cog icon far right on the toolbar)->Internet Options:

You’ll see this:

2. Click the Connections tab, then click on the LAN settings button at the bottom of the window.

You’ll see this:

3. Make sure all boxes are unchecked, click OK, OK.

4. Close Internet Explorer, open it up again and go to a web page to check it’s working. If it isn’t go back in and check Automatically detect settings again.

9. Install 7-zip and associate it with all archives
Why? Windows built in file extraction does not work well at all. It only supports zip, and is painfully slow, without giving you any indication of how far along it is throughout the process. There’s a free open source program which is the perfect replacement called 7-zip and it’s pretty much the best compression program around. It will extract all the file formats you’re likely to encounter like RAR or gzip, and you’ll also be able to extract files from ISO files. Did I mention it’s free and open source? It will never try to sell you anything.

How to use 7-Zip instead of Windows compressed (zipped) folder:

1. You can download the latest version of 7-Zip here. You can download either the 32-bit or 64-bit version depending on your Windows edition. If you don’t know which one you have, the Computer Properties window will tell you.

2. Once you’ve installed it, go to Start->All Programs->7-Zip->7-Zip File Manager .

3. In the 7-Zip File Manager, go to Tools->Options in the menu.

You’ll see this:

4. Click Select all, then OK and that’s done.

When you right click on files or folders you’ll now have a 7-Zip menu option which you can use to compress and decompress things from here on:

10. Clear all files, folders and shortcuts off your desktop
Why? Windows operates on your desktop files and icons in the same manner it does folders viewed in the windows explorer. Often times it will look over all these files to ensure it’s presenting you with the correct icon and if there’s shortcuts there that they’re not broken. When this happens other triggers take place, many resident antivirus programs will real-time scan files for viruses when windows explorer presents them to you. Items on the desktop are presented to you a lot so they can trigger this extra processing repeatedly. They actually occupy some memory too while your computer is running. You can keep the desktop clear while keeping everything in easy reach, in fact you can reduce the time taken to open those items from two clicks on the desktop to one click on the task bar just by pinning them there instead of placing a shortcut on the desktop. It looks a lot neater too.

How to get everything off your desktop and open commonly used programs with one click:

1. So you don’t lose anything important you might have on the desktop while getting it off there, make a new folder called Desktop Icons in My Documents, select everything on your desktop except for the recycle bin and cut and paste it in there.

2. Pin programs you use all the time to the taskbar. Do this by navigating to them in the Start menu and right clicking on them. Select Pin to Taskbar and that icon will now be a permanent fixture on your taskbar for easy access. Unlike icons on the desktop, the taskbar never gets covered over by windows you have open, so it really does make them more accessible.

11. Change the power plan to High performance
Why? When trying to conserve energy, Windows will throttle the CPU to less than 100% speed and then push it back up when under load. Just because the PC is currently idle – does not necessarily mean you don’t want Word to open up as fast as possible when you click on it. With the CPU throttled, it won’t realise it needs to push it back up until after you’ve put a load on it – meaning the first half of that operation is slower than your CPU running at max speed. Also, the energy savings from this default behaviour are pretty insignficant – putting this in the speed-hump-on-your-driveway category. Conservative power schemes are effective on laptops however, and will usually extend running time on battery by an extra 20mins to an hour depending on the model. We’ll also stop it from powering down your hard drive and parking the heads, as spinning it back up when it’s next needed each time will wear the moving parts of the drive faster. You want your hard drive to last as long as possible, since you keep all your files on it.

How to change to a high performance power plan:

1. Click Start->Control Panel->Hardware and Sound

You’ll see this:

2. Click Choose a power plan

You’ll see this:

3. Select High performance. Then click Change plan settings to the right of that option.

You’ll see this:

4. Click Change advanced power settings. You’ll be presented with some more detailed power options.

5. Change the following (on a Desktop PC):

Require a password on wakeup: No (unless you want it to do that)
Hard disk:Turn off hard disk after: Never (use down arrow to change to zero)
Sleep: Sleep after: Never
Sleep: Hibernate after: Never
USB settings: USB selective suspend: Disabled
Power button action: Shut down
Sleep button action: Do nothing
Processor power management: High/Maximum performance (if there)
Display: Turn off display after: 15 Minutes

6. Click apply, OK. You’re done.

12. Install a Registry/Temp/Privacy cleaner
Why? The Windows registry gets messy over time, and the smaller and less bad or broken entries that are in it, the better. The privacy cleaning actually has some performance benefits as it will clear all your “recently accessed” lists, meaning they won’t need to be processed when you open the start menu or for populating file menus etc when you open programs. Running a decent janitorial program once a week will extend the time until you feel the need to do the ultimate cleanup, and reformat your hard drive. It will also delay the onset of a new Mac purchase.

A free program I use for this is Glary Utilities, which at the time of this writing is ranked #1 in the system utilities category on Download.com. You can get it here. It has a 1-click “clean everything” feature which makes things pretty easy. I’m not saying it’s the greatest thing ever or magic, but it works and is very safe.

Alternatively, you can try Comodo System Utilities which is basically the same but with more bugs, and it’s red.

You can also try PC Tools Registry Mechanic which is basically the same but with more bugs, and it’s blue, and costs about $50.

13. Defragment your hard drive

Now would be a good time to defragment your drive at Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter.

What’s been done so far is “enough” and fairly discrete. If you want to optimize things even more you can take these further steps depending on your usage case.

Change to the Windows Classic interface
Why? Aero glass looks brilliant and has little performance impact if you have a decent graphics card. If you’re using low end or onboard graphics or just have a low spec PC in general a switch back to the classic interface will reduce its burden. It’s also good if you’re feeling nostalgic or just think Windows should look like Windows and be more business-like. You can also go half way and switch to the Windows 7 Basic interface which just lacks transparency.

How to change Windows 7 to the classic interface:

1. Right click somewhere on an empty space of desktop and select Personalize.

You’ll see this:

2. Click on Windows Classic under Basic Themes, and it will change right away.

You’ll now be looking at this:

You can just close that window and the theme will stick.

Change the System Failure write debugging to small memory dump
Why? You may be unlucky enough to have a program crash pretty catastrophically on your PC. When this happens, the default behaviour is for Windows to dump the memory contents to disk and restart itself. That memory dump sits on your hard drive and won’t ever be reviewed by anybody. So why take the time to write it all to disk? Change it to the 256k small memory dump instead and you’ll be back up and running about a minute sooner when this happens.

How to change the System Failure settings:

1. Click Start, right click Computer and then select Properties.

You’ll see this:

2. Click Advanced system settings over on the left.

You’ll see this:

3. Click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery.

You’ll see this:

4. Change the selected value in the Write Debugging Information dropdown box to Small memory dump (256KB). Click OK, OK and you’re done.

Turn off Windows Defender
Why? If you already have an antivirus/antispyware program installed (which you’re crazy not to) Windows Defender is pretty redundant as your 3rd party program is already doing this better.

How to disable Windows Defender on Windows 7:

1. Click Start, type Defender into the search box and press Enter.

You’ll see this:

2. Click on Tools, then Options.

3. Click Administrator on the left hand side. Then uncheck “Use this program”. Click Save. Windows Defender will now be turned off.

Audit your tray icons
Why? If you want to find out what memory resident programs are running, occupying a little of your PC’s resources, look in the system tray. Identify what each of those do, if you don’t need it, uninstall the program or disable it.

Things are good if your tray icons look something like this:

What’s here, well there’s NOD32 Antivirus, the ATI Video card options, the action center which has no complaints because it’s all been switched off, the Razer Keyboard app and DynDNS updater. Not bad, 4 icons which aren’t Windows core and they all have a purpose. Use Customize to make icons you don’t need to see invisible until you click on the arrow. I like to hide everything except volume, network and antivirus.

Use msconfig to inspect all your system services
Why? There’s plenty of background services running that you can’t see. You can use msconfig to see which ones are running and if you’re so inclined, you can start Googling them to find out what they do.

How to use msconfig to disable services on Windows 7:

1. Click Start, type msconfig into the search box and press Enter.

2. Click the Startup tab to begin with, uncheck anything you don’t think needs to be running on startup (there’s usually some updaters in here that can go).

3. Go to the services tab, there will be a lot more stuff here, try sorting the list by the “Status” column, if they aren’t running they’re not a concern. Google the ones that don’t have obvious names and disable them if they don’t seem useful to you. Obviously if you disable something important, something important will stop working, so do your homework on them.