If you’ve been using Windows 7 for some time, you’ll be aware that it’s a totally different beast from previous versions of Microsoft Windows, such as Windows XP and Windows 2000.
As an operating system, Windows 7 offers many exciting performance and user interface enhancements and seeks to make you more productive, while ensuring security and reliability is maintained. The problem is, when Windows 7 was first released, many people had a problem adjusting to the new interface and some of the quirky behaviour the system had.
In this report, I’ll show you 50 of the best secrets for unlocking the power of Windows 7. Right now, Windows 7 may seem just like another difficult and unstable operating system from Microsoft – but if you pick up the stuff I’m about to show you, you’ll realize just how powerful Windows 7 can be.
So do read on and learn more, and before long, you’ll be a Windows 7 expert!
Tip #1: Allow more simultaneous downloads in Mozilla Firefox
By default, Firefox is like IE7 which defaults to only two persistent connections to a given server. Here's what you do:
• Open Firefox and type 'about:config' in the address bar.
• Scroll down to the entry called 'network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server'
• Now simply double-click that entry and change the value to anything from 4 to 10.
• Next, restart Firefox and enjoy.
Tip #2: Overcome Large File Copying Problems in Windows 7
There have been reports of users having problems with large file transfers over a network when using Windows 7. Windows 7 has a new feature called 'receive window auto-tuning' - which automatically scales the size of each data packet it requests and receives to suit the current bandwidth. The problem is, some older networking hardware may have issues with approach and slow down performance.
If you are experiencing problems with large file transfers or timeouts on your connections problems, it's probably a good idea to restrict or disable receive window auto-tuning.
Here's what you do:
• Open a command prompt window with administrative privileges
• Type 'netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=restricted' and press Enter. This restricts receive window auto-tuning.
• If you continue to have network problems, you can totally disable the feature by using 'netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled'.
Tip #3: Refresh shortcut for wireless network searching
If you use the 'searching for wireless networks' screen in Windows 7, you will know that it does not have a refresh button. This will cause some inconvenience to some folks. If you're an impatient user, you simply need to hit the F5 key to refresh the screen automatically.
Tip #4: How To Disable IPV6 In Windows 7
In case you're not aware, Windows 7 is the first operating system from Microsoft to feature IP Version 6 as a default networking protocol. The problem is that network interfaces tend to use the standard TCP/IP by default, rather than IPV6. It would thus be a good idea to disable the unnecessary IPV6 protocol.
Here's what you need to do:
• Start Regedit and navigate to the following key: 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tcpip6\Parameters\’
• Move to the right-hand pane, right click on an empty area and choose 'new\DWORD value'. Name the DWORD 'DisabledComponents' and give it the value '0xFF'
• Restart your computer for this to take effect.
Tip #5: Find Your Router's Homepage Easily
If you want to configure certain aspects of your network, add WEP keys, boost the speed, control access or open ports, you need to log on to your wireless router's homepage. This Web page is usually difficult to remember, and it's something like 192.168.0.1. You can instead find your router's home page easily using another approach.Here's what you do:
• Go to the Network and Sharing Center
• Click on View full map at the top right, then right-click your router or wireless access device.
• Select Go to Device Home Page.
Tip #6: How To Update Windows 7's DirectX To Achieve Better Game Compatibility
Some games require you to run the latest versions of DirectX (e.g. FEAR is one such game). To achieve compatibility for these games, you should download latest DirectX 11 re-distributable file from Microsoft.com, unzip the file and run the DXSETUP file. This will install the full DirectX 11 into your machine and allow you to run those games.
Tip #7: Disable Those Background Features For Faster Gaming
Windows 7 is known for its memory hogging features, especially in the user interface. One thing you can do to extract just a little more performance out of your games is to the game's executable files and disable some background desktop features.
Here's what you do:
• Locate the executable file for the game. This should usually be an ‘.exe’ file in game's subdirectory within ‘C:\Program Files’.
• Right click on the executable file and choose Properties.
• Click on the Compatibility tab and under the Settings heading, check Disable Visual Themes. Click OK.
This will disable the Windows 7 Aero desktop only for the game you just selected. That'll give you just a bit more performance the next time you run the game.
Tip #8: Use Windows XP Compatibility Mode For DirectX 9 Games
If you're running Windows 7, you might know that Windows 7 has compatibility issues with old applications and games designed for XP. To get around this, try enabling the XP compatibility mode for your older games.Here's what you do:
• Locate the executable file for the game. This should usually be an ‘.exe’ file in game's subdirectory within ‘C:\Program Files’.
• Right click on the executable file and choose Properties.
• Click on the Compatibility tab and just check the Run This Program In Compatibility Mode For ..: box
• Set the dropdown box underneath to Windows XP Service pack 2. Click OK.
Hopefully, this will help you run that older game under Windows XP compatibility mode and save you some headaches.
Tip #9: Play DirectX10 Games Under DirectX9
Ok, if you are playing some of the newer DirectX10 capable games (e.g. Crysis or Bioshock) - and are seeing poor performance, then here's something to try. You can run these games under DirectX9 instead. You will lose out on some nice visual 3D glory, but you will probably gain some improvements in frame rates.
Here's what you do:
• Go to the games folder under Start > Games and right click on the icon that starts your DirectX10 game.
• Select the Play DirectX 9 option.
Tip #10: Enable 3D Positional Audio
In Windows 7, 3D sound effects are handled differently. As a result, many old sound cards was unable to render hardware 3D sound effects. If you have a Creative Audigy or X-Fi sound card, you can enable that lovely 3D positional audio again.
Here's what you need to do:
• Creative Labs created a program called 'ALchemy' which fixes this problem in Windows 7. Ok, here's the catch - ALchemy is NOT free. I know this goes against the title of this report "Top 50 Tips For Boosting Your Computer's Performance For Free" - but this is such an important fix, I had to mention it here.
• If you're willing to pay for it, download the program from Creative Labs and enjoy that 3D positional audio again.Tip #11: Turn off User Account Control (UAC)
This has got to be one of the most requested tips in Windows 7. User Account Control (UAC) is newly introduced in Windows 7 and it prevents unauthorized changes to the Windows system settings by requiring a manual 'OK' from you. That's a confirmation required for EACH and EVERY change. I got annoyed and so did many other people.
So here's how you can disable UAC:
• Go to Start > Control Panel > User Accounts
• Click on Turn User Account Control on or off and select Continue when the UAC box appears.
• Uncheck the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer option.
• Click OK Restart Windows 7 and it's bye bye to irritating nag windows.
Tip #12: How To Shut Down Your Operating System Faster
If you're shutting down Windows 7, you could have noticed that it takes a long time to shut off. Windows 7 tries to shut down all running services - if any one of these services are engaged, Windows 7 will wait as long as 20 seconds forcing each to shut down. You need to lower this 20 second timeframe so your machine will shut down faster.
Here's what you do:
• Open the Start menu, type ‘regedit’ and hit Enter.
• Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control'
• Double click the WaitToKillServiceTimeout DWORD value to edit it. Just give a value between 5000 (5 seconds) and 12000.
Your computer should now shut down faster.
Tip #13: Set Power Options To High Performance
By default, Windows 7 does not use high performance power settings. It uses fairly conservative power settings instead. However, if you want to squeeze maximum speed and performance, you need to set power options to a "High Performance" setting. Virtually all power saving features will be disabled,Here's what you do:
• Go to the Start > Control panel
• Click on Classic View in the left hand pane and open Power Options.
• Select the High Performance power plan.
Tip #14: Disable Windows Defender Auto Scans
In Windows 7, there's a anti-spyware scanner called Windows Defender. This beast will kick-off daily in the background and impact your computer just like a full system file scan will. I prefer to disable the automatic scanning and perform only the occasional manual system scan.
Here's how you do it:
• Open the Start menu and type ‘defender’.
• Click the Tools icon at the top of the window, then the Options selection.
• Uncheck Automatically scan my computer, then click Save.
Tip #15: How To Boost External Hard Drive Performance
Here's an interesting one for those who regularly use a USB external hard drive to store large amounts of data.
By default, Windows 7 does not enable write caching on USB drives. Without this write caching, data you send to the USB drive is instantly transferred to the device - it is not written to a "buffer" between the hard drive and system memory.
With write caching, things speed up because your PC writes to the system memory cache and then sequentially transfer to the hard drive. This frees up the rest of your system to do other more important things. This tip benefits those with USB external hard disk more than those with small flash memory devices.
Here's what you do
• Plug in your external USB drive.
• Go to Start > Computer, then right click the external drive in the computer window and choose Properties.
• Click on the Hardware tab, highlight your external drive in the list and click the Properties button.
• Select the Policies tab and choose the option marked Optimize for performance. Click OK.Tip #16: Speed Up SATA Hard Drives In Windows 7
Windows 7 can also improve the performance of internal SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives. To understand this, note that Windows 7's write cache has two levels - a basic one (enabled by default) and an advanced one. What you want to do is to enable the ‘advanced disk performance' mode.
Note that this tip has some potential to damage your Windows 7 installation. When you enable write caching, you increase the risk of damaging your system files in the event of a crash. You will, however, get an increase in drive performance.
Here's what you do to enable advanced performance on a SATA drive:
• Go to Start > Compute.
• Right click the SATA drive in the computer window and choose Properties.
• Click on the Hardware tab, then highlight your SATA drive and click the Properties button.
• Select the Policies tab and select the Enable enhanced performance option. A warning comes up - just click OK.
Tip #17: Disable All Those Unnecessary Services
In Windows 7, there are a few services that are enabled by default and they take up a lot of system resources. They are also unlikely to be needed by a home user. So I'd recommend you disable these in order to gain some increase in system performance.
Here's what you do.
• Open the Start menu and type 'services' in the searchbar. Hit Enter.
• Locate any unneeded services and just disable them accordingly.
Tip #18: Upgrade To Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Beta
If you've been using Windows 7 and are experiencing performance problems, then it's a good idea to upgrade to Service Pack 1 Beta. This service pack provides various tweaks and fixes for issues that limit Windows 7 performance. This service pack is especially useful for users on lower end computers. Installing a service pack is not without its risks, but generally I'd install service packs rather than avoid them - simply because they do in fact address serious problems in the operating system.Tip #19: Make The Start Menu Open Faster
One of the problems with the Windows 7 user interface is that it can be sluggish on lower end systems. Here's a tip to help you boost the speed of the start menu.
Try doing the following to increase the speed of your Start Menu:
• Open the Start menu, type 'regedit' and hit Enter.
• Find the node 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop' in the registry.
• Double click on the MenuShowDelay value and change its value to something like 150.
Tip #20: Disable Superfetch If You Have Too Little RAM
One of the interesting features of Windows 7 is its Superfetch feature. Superfetch allows Windows 7 to learn your most commonly accessed file and applications, then pre-configure them in its memory on startup. This makes them much faster to access. However, there's a caveat - this feature only works well on computers with 2GB or more of RAM. If you have less then 2 GB of RAM, its best to turn it off because it will lead to hard disk thrashing instead.
Here's what you need to do to disable the Windows 7 Superfetch feature:
• Go to the Start menu and type 'services' in the search bar. Hit Enter.
• In the services window, scroll down until you reach the 'Superfetch' service.
• Right click and choose Properties. Simply select Disabled to disable the Superfetch service.
Tip #21: Enable The Windows Classic Desktop
I, for one, cannot get used to the look of the Windows 7 user interface. If you have the same problem, you might want to enable the Windows Classic interface, and get some speed improvements at the same time.
Here's what you need to do:
• Right click on the Start menu and click Properties.
• Select the Classic Start menu option and click OK.
• Right click on an empty area of the desktop and choose Personalize.
• Select the theme option and in the theme dropdown box, choose Windows Classic. Click OK.
And that's it - your classic Windows Classic desktop is now available.Tip #22: Disable Thumbnail Previews
Here's a tip that I implemented almost immediately in Windows 7. By default, Windows 7 renders almost every directory in thumbnails view. This causes performance to take a hit if you have a lot of files and little memory. To disable these automatic thumbnail previews, do the following:
• Go to Start > Computer.
• Open the Organize menu and choose Folder and search options.
• Choose the View tab and place a check next to the Always show icons, never thumbnails option at the top. Hit OK.
Tip #23: Disable That Windows 7 Sidebar
If you find no use for the Windows 7 sidebar, then it is definitely a good idea to disable it, since it does eat up system resources. Here's what you need to do:
• Right click on a blank area of the sidebar and choose Properties.
• Uncheck the Start sidebar when windows starts option. Hit OK.
• Next, right click on a blank area of the taskbar and choose Close sidebar.
Tip #24: Start The Task Manager Directly
Traditionally, the CTRL+ALT+DEL keyboard shortcut opens up the task manager screen directly. In Windows 7, this shortcut gives you a more general option menu. To still access the task manager screen directly, hit CTRL+SHIFT+ESC instead.
Tip #25: How To Run Sidebar Gadgets Without The Windows 7 Sidebar
Did you know that you can run Microsoft sidebar gadgets without the sidebar physically present? Simply click your favourite gadget, drag it out of the sidebar and then onto the desktop. Now close that sidebar and still keep the use of your favourite gadget. One caveat here - when you "close" the sidebar, it is still resident in system memory. This is required to keep your gadget running. If you totally "disable" the sidebar, then you will not be able to keep your favorite gadget on the desktop.
As an operating system, Windows 7 offers many exciting performance and user interface enhancements and seeks to make you more productive, while ensuring security and reliability is maintained. The problem is, when Windows 7 was first released, many people had a problem adjusting to the new interface and some of the quirky behaviour the system had.
In this report, I’ll show you 50 of the best secrets for unlocking the power of Windows 7. Right now, Windows 7 may seem just like another difficult and unstable operating system from Microsoft – but if you pick up the stuff I’m about to show you, you’ll realize just how powerful Windows 7 can be.
So do read on and learn more, and before long, you’ll be a Windows 7 expert!
Tip #1: Allow more simultaneous downloads in Mozilla Firefox
By default, Firefox is like IE7 which defaults to only two persistent connections to a given server. Here's what you do:
• Open Firefox and type 'about:config' in the address bar.
• Scroll down to the entry called 'network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server'
• Now simply double-click that entry and change the value to anything from 4 to 10.
• Next, restart Firefox and enjoy.
Tip #2: Overcome Large File Copying Problems in Windows 7
There have been reports of users having problems with large file transfers over a network when using Windows 7. Windows 7 has a new feature called 'receive window auto-tuning' - which automatically scales the size of each data packet it requests and receives to suit the current bandwidth. The problem is, some older networking hardware may have issues with approach and slow down performance.
If you are experiencing problems with large file transfers or timeouts on your connections problems, it's probably a good idea to restrict or disable receive window auto-tuning.
Here's what you do:
• Open a command prompt window with administrative privileges
• Type 'netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=restricted' and press Enter. This restricts receive window auto-tuning.
• If you continue to have network problems, you can totally disable the feature by using 'netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled'.
Tip #3: Refresh shortcut for wireless network searching
If you use the 'searching for wireless networks' screen in Windows 7, you will know that it does not have a refresh button. This will cause some inconvenience to some folks. If you're an impatient user, you simply need to hit the F5 key to refresh the screen automatically.
Tip #4: How To Disable IPV6 In Windows 7
In case you're not aware, Windows 7 is the first operating system from Microsoft to feature IP Version 6 as a default networking protocol. The problem is that network interfaces tend to use the standard TCP/IP by default, rather than IPV6. It would thus be a good idea to disable the unnecessary IPV6 protocol.
Here's what you need to do:
• Start Regedit and navigate to the following key: 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tcpip6\Parameters\’
• Move to the right-hand pane, right click on an empty area and choose 'new\DWORD value'. Name the DWORD 'DisabledComponents' and give it the value '0xFF'
• Restart your computer for this to take effect.
Tip #5: Find Your Router's Homepage Easily
If you want to configure certain aspects of your network, add WEP keys, boost the speed, control access or open ports, you need to log on to your wireless router's homepage. This Web page is usually difficult to remember, and it's something like 192.168.0.1. You can instead find your router's home page easily using another approach.Here's what you do:
• Go to the Network and Sharing Center
• Click on View full map at the top right, then right-click your router or wireless access device.
• Select Go to Device Home Page.
Tip #6: How To Update Windows 7's DirectX To Achieve Better Game Compatibility
Some games require you to run the latest versions of DirectX (e.g. FEAR is one such game). To achieve compatibility for these games, you should download latest DirectX 11 re-distributable file from Microsoft.com, unzip the file and run the DXSETUP file. This will install the full DirectX 11 into your machine and allow you to run those games.
Tip #7: Disable Those Background Features For Faster Gaming
Windows 7 is known for its memory hogging features, especially in the user interface. One thing you can do to extract just a little more performance out of your games is to the game's executable files and disable some background desktop features.
Here's what you do:
• Locate the executable file for the game. This should usually be an ‘.exe’ file in game's subdirectory within ‘C:\Program Files’.
• Right click on the executable file and choose Properties.
• Click on the Compatibility tab and under the Settings heading, check Disable Visual Themes. Click OK.
This will disable the Windows 7 Aero desktop only for the game you just selected. That'll give you just a bit more performance the next time you run the game.
Tip #8: Use Windows XP Compatibility Mode For DirectX 9 Games
If you're running Windows 7, you might know that Windows 7 has compatibility issues with old applications and games designed for XP. To get around this, try enabling the XP compatibility mode for your older games.Here's what you do:
• Locate the executable file for the game. This should usually be an ‘.exe’ file in game's subdirectory within ‘C:\Program Files’.
• Right click on the executable file and choose Properties.
• Click on the Compatibility tab and just check the Run This Program In Compatibility Mode For ..: box
• Set the dropdown box underneath to Windows XP Service pack 2. Click OK.
Hopefully, this will help you run that older game under Windows XP compatibility mode and save you some headaches.
Tip #9: Play DirectX10 Games Under DirectX9
Ok, if you are playing some of the newer DirectX10 capable games (e.g. Crysis or Bioshock) - and are seeing poor performance, then here's something to try. You can run these games under DirectX9 instead. You will lose out on some nice visual 3D glory, but you will probably gain some improvements in frame rates.
Here's what you do:
• Go to the games folder under Start > Games and right click on the icon that starts your DirectX10 game.
• Select the Play DirectX 9 option.
Tip #10: Enable 3D Positional Audio
In Windows 7, 3D sound effects are handled differently. As a result, many old sound cards was unable to render hardware 3D sound effects. If you have a Creative Audigy or X-Fi sound card, you can enable that lovely 3D positional audio again.
Here's what you need to do:
• Creative Labs created a program called 'ALchemy' which fixes this problem in Windows 7. Ok, here's the catch - ALchemy is NOT free. I know this goes against the title of this report "Top 50 Tips For Boosting Your Computer's Performance For Free" - but this is such an important fix, I had to mention it here.
• If you're willing to pay for it, download the program from Creative Labs and enjoy that 3D positional audio again.Tip #11: Turn off User Account Control (UAC)
This has got to be one of the most requested tips in Windows 7. User Account Control (UAC) is newly introduced in Windows 7 and it prevents unauthorized changes to the Windows system settings by requiring a manual 'OK' from you. That's a confirmation required for EACH and EVERY change. I got annoyed and so did many other people.
So here's how you can disable UAC:
• Go to Start > Control Panel > User Accounts
• Click on Turn User Account Control on or off and select Continue when the UAC box appears.
• Uncheck the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer option.
• Click OK Restart Windows 7 and it's bye bye to irritating nag windows.
Tip #12: How To Shut Down Your Operating System Faster
If you're shutting down Windows 7, you could have noticed that it takes a long time to shut off. Windows 7 tries to shut down all running services - if any one of these services are engaged, Windows 7 will wait as long as 20 seconds forcing each to shut down. You need to lower this 20 second timeframe so your machine will shut down faster.
Here's what you do:
• Open the Start menu, type ‘regedit’ and hit Enter.
• Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control'
• Double click the WaitToKillServiceTimeout DWORD value to edit it. Just give a value between 5000 (5 seconds) and 12000.
Your computer should now shut down faster.
Tip #13: Set Power Options To High Performance
By default, Windows 7 does not use high performance power settings. It uses fairly conservative power settings instead. However, if you want to squeeze maximum speed and performance, you need to set power options to a "High Performance" setting. Virtually all power saving features will be disabled,Here's what you do:
• Go to the Start > Control panel
• Click on Classic View in the left hand pane and open Power Options.
• Select the High Performance power plan.
Tip #14: Disable Windows Defender Auto Scans
In Windows 7, there's a anti-spyware scanner called Windows Defender. This beast will kick-off daily in the background and impact your computer just like a full system file scan will. I prefer to disable the automatic scanning and perform only the occasional manual system scan.
Here's how you do it:
• Open the Start menu and type ‘defender’.
• Click the Tools icon at the top of the window, then the Options selection.
• Uncheck Automatically scan my computer, then click Save.
Tip #15: How To Boost External Hard Drive Performance
Here's an interesting one for those who regularly use a USB external hard drive to store large amounts of data.
By default, Windows 7 does not enable write caching on USB drives. Without this write caching, data you send to the USB drive is instantly transferred to the device - it is not written to a "buffer" between the hard drive and system memory.
With write caching, things speed up because your PC writes to the system memory cache and then sequentially transfer to the hard drive. This frees up the rest of your system to do other more important things. This tip benefits those with USB external hard disk more than those with small flash memory devices.
Here's what you do
• Plug in your external USB drive.
• Go to Start > Computer, then right click the external drive in the computer window and choose Properties.
• Click on the Hardware tab, highlight your external drive in the list and click the Properties button.
• Select the Policies tab and choose the option marked Optimize for performance. Click OK.Tip #16: Speed Up SATA Hard Drives In Windows 7
Windows 7 can also improve the performance of internal SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives. To understand this, note that Windows 7's write cache has two levels - a basic one (enabled by default) and an advanced one. What you want to do is to enable the ‘advanced disk performance' mode.
Note that this tip has some potential to damage your Windows 7 installation. When you enable write caching, you increase the risk of damaging your system files in the event of a crash. You will, however, get an increase in drive performance.
Here's what you do to enable advanced performance on a SATA drive:
• Go to Start > Compute.
• Right click the SATA drive in the computer window and choose Properties.
• Click on the Hardware tab, then highlight your SATA drive and click the Properties button.
• Select the Policies tab and select the Enable enhanced performance option. A warning comes up - just click OK.
Tip #17: Disable All Those Unnecessary Services
In Windows 7, there are a few services that are enabled by default and they take up a lot of system resources. They are also unlikely to be needed by a home user. So I'd recommend you disable these in order to gain some increase in system performance.
Here's what you do.
• Open the Start menu and type 'services' in the searchbar. Hit Enter.
• Locate any unneeded services and just disable them accordingly.
Tip #18: Upgrade To Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Beta
If you've been using Windows 7 and are experiencing performance problems, then it's a good idea to upgrade to Service Pack 1 Beta. This service pack provides various tweaks and fixes for issues that limit Windows 7 performance. This service pack is especially useful for users on lower end computers. Installing a service pack is not without its risks, but generally I'd install service packs rather than avoid them - simply because they do in fact address serious problems in the operating system.Tip #19: Make The Start Menu Open Faster
One of the problems with the Windows 7 user interface is that it can be sluggish on lower end systems. Here's a tip to help you boost the speed of the start menu.
Try doing the following to increase the speed of your Start Menu:
• Open the Start menu, type 'regedit' and hit Enter.
• Find the node 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop' in the registry.
• Double click on the MenuShowDelay value and change its value to something like 150.
Tip #20: Disable Superfetch If You Have Too Little RAM
One of the interesting features of Windows 7 is its Superfetch feature. Superfetch allows Windows 7 to learn your most commonly accessed file and applications, then pre-configure them in its memory on startup. This makes them much faster to access. However, there's a caveat - this feature only works well on computers with 2GB or more of RAM. If you have less then 2 GB of RAM, its best to turn it off because it will lead to hard disk thrashing instead.
Here's what you need to do to disable the Windows 7 Superfetch feature:
• Go to the Start menu and type 'services' in the search bar. Hit Enter.
• In the services window, scroll down until you reach the 'Superfetch' service.
• Right click and choose Properties. Simply select Disabled to disable the Superfetch service.
Tip #21: Enable The Windows Classic Desktop
I, for one, cannot get used to the look of the Windows 7 user interface. If you have the same problem, you might want to enable the Windows Classic interface, and get some speed improvements at the same time.
Here's what you need to do:
• Right click on the Start menu and click Properties.
• Select the Classic Start menu option and click OK.
• Right click on an empty area of the desktop and choose Personalize.
• Select the theme option and in the theme dropdown box, choose Windows Classic. Click OK.
And that's it - your classic Windows Classic desktop is now available.Tip #22: Disable Thumbnail Previews
Here's a tip that I implemented almost immediately in Windows 7. By default, Windows 7 renders almost every directory in thumbnails view. This causes performance to take a hit if you have a lot of files and little memory. To disable these automatic thumbnail previews, do the following:
• Go to Start > Computer.
• Open the Organize menu and choose Folder and search options.
• Choose the View tab and place a check next to the Always show icons, never thumbnails option at the top. Hit OK.
Tip #23: Disable That Windows 7 Sidebar
If you find no use for the Windows 7 sidebar, then it is definitely a good idea to disable it, since it does eat up system resources. Here's what you need to do:
• Right click on a blank area of the sidebar and choose Properties.
• Uncheck the Start sidebar when windows starts option. Hit OK.
• Next, right click on a blank area of the taskbar and choose Close sidebar.
Tip #24: Start The Task Manager Directly
Traditionally, the CTRL+ALT+DEL keyboard shortcut opens up the task manager screen directly. In Windows 7, this shortcut gives you a more general option menu. To still access the task manager screen directly, hit CTRL+SHIFT+ESC instead.
Tip #25: How To Run Sidebar Gadgets Without The Windows 7 Sidebar
Did you know that you can run Microsoft sidebar gadgets without the sidebar physically present? Simply click your favourite gadget, drag it out of the sidebar and then onto the desktop. Now close that sidebar and still keep the use of your favourite gadget. One caveat here - when you "close" the sidebar, it is still resident in system memory. This is required to keep your gadget running. If you totally "disable" the sidebar, then you will not be able to keep your favorite gadget on the desktop.
