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Paring Down Windows 7 Safely?

S

sosolidshoe

n00b
Joined
Feb 2, 2010
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So, I just rebuilt my rig from the ground up, and I'm now running a 64bit quad-core and a DX11 graphics card, so I figured it's about time that I gave in and ditched XP for Windows 7. My old XP install was pretty heavily trimmed to increase performance, and I'm wondering if I need to do the same for 7.

Restoring from Sleep mode is just about instant, whereas it took twenty or so seconds even on my stripped OS before, but the system is using 1.3Gb of RAM with nothing running except Comodo, and that just feels wrong.

So, can anyone point me to a reliable and reputable guide on how to trim down 7's system use? There's tons of them floating around online, but some of the ones on the 'net for XP were horrendous and left you open to all sorts of nasties, and I don't want to end up doing something daft just because I'm not familiar with the new OS yet.

Cheers.
 
No need to change anything in win 7. It is not like XP in that way at all.
 
Do not change it

you need to look into SuperFetch, windows vista /7 actually USE your ram for a good thing, it isnt the OS so to speak alone using it,

DO NOT treat windows 7 as XP, it is NOT XP, treat it as a new OS and do not try to make Win 7 = X, otherwise just go back to XP.
 
As has been said, just leave it alone, especially on the hardware you mentioned, on this kind of hardware particularly with an SSD Windows 7 should freekin' run like a scaled dog in heat. I have a dozen Windows 7 systems of various types and I've not touched one of them at any deep level. The Atom devices I have will chug a little bit but everything else runs VERY well with no intervention on my part.
 
i usually kill off system restore (never used it, ever), and disable print spooler and wlan services on my desktop....

other than those super minor things, I disable window transitions, menu fades, and animated controls.... i keep everything else on, but I like seeing things happen instantaneously when I use the GUI

also, daily defrags on my physical HDD, tho if you have an SSD, not really required
 
Windows 7 will automatically setup a weekly scheduled task to defrag mechanical hard drives when installed. It's also smart enough to setup defrag scheduled tasks for mechanical hard drives added post-installation. You should never have to worry about defragging drives on Windows 7.

Personally I love System Restore. It's a great way to easily rollback program and driver installs if there's every a problem with uninstalling.
 
A someone who recently upgraded from XP to 7 to take advantage of a respectable rig just like you intend to, I can tell you that there isn't much to pare down anymore. Win 7 manages memory in a much different and better way. That 1.3 gigs of RAM that it appears to be hoarding will actually be parceled out dynamically and smartly used. It's reserved liberally so that the core of Windows always has enough memory for a variety of contingencies, but the OS will release memory to your games liberally as well.
 
Leave it alone.

It's not XP, it can take care of itself, so leave it alone. It doesn't require tweaking, at all, so leave it alone. As long as you leave it alone it will actually get more efficient and perform better as time goes by (say 2-3 weeks of daily regular usage so it can catch your usage and behavior patterns, seriously). Superfetch will cache the most commonly used apps, executables, and data files, and while someone that's "stuck" in the XP mentality will freak out to see anywhere from 550 to 1.5GB of RAM usage after booting the computer, it's designed that way on purpose - that's what Superfetch does.

Unused RAM in today's modern computers is wasted RAM, using energy and not providing any benefits from that energy so that's why Superfetch does what it does. If you need info, there's tons of articles explaining it. Superfetch != ReadyBoost (just for the record), they are two totally different things that basically have zero to do with each other and both accomplish entirely different goals. I mention ReadyBoost just to cover the point that it's something different - I know it hasn't been mentioned in the thread but, even so, just wanted that clarified up front.

Leave it alone and it'll work just fine. Tinker around with it (aside from potentially disabling System Restore if you have a decent backup policy in mind) and you won't get the benefits of the whole OS as designed. Seriously, install the OS, install your apps/games/whatever, leave it alone from the tinkering/tweaking standpoint, and use the computer - it will seriously take care of itself. And yes, do keep it updated from Windows Update, definitely. Do it manually if you must, check it maybe twice a week, etc, but don't leave Windows Update out in the cold - it can make a big difference with system stability if you're not up to speed.

"And that's all I have to say about that." :p
 
Wrong like a big amount or small amount. Comodo got like 20 services running plausibility back ground task. Probably Comodo doing a startup scan as well.
 
Joe Average said:
Leave it alone.

It's not XP, it can take care of itself, so leave it alone. It doesn't require tweaking, at all, so leave it alone. As long as you leave it alone it will actually get more efficient and perform better as time goes by (say 2-3 weeks of daily regular usage so it can catch your usage and behavior patterns, seriously). Superfetch will cache the most commonly used apps, executables, and data files, and while someone that's "stuck" in the XP mentality will freak out to see anywhere from 550 to 1.5GB of RAM usage after booting the computer, it's designed that way on purpose - that's what Superfetch does.

Unused RAM in today's modern computers is wasted RAM, using energy and not providing any benefits from that energy so that's why Superfetch does what it does. If you need info, there's tons of articles explaining it. Superfetch != ReadyBoost (just for the record), they are two totally different things that basically have zero to do with each other and both accomplish entirely different goals. I mention ReadyBoost just to cover the point that it's something different - I know it hasn't been mentioned in the thread but, even so, just wanted that clarified up front.

Leave it alone and it'll work just fine. Tinker around with it (aside from potentially disabling System Restore if you have a decent backup policy in mind) and you won't get the benefits of the whole OS as designed. Seriously, install the OS, install your apps/games/whatever, leave it alone from the tinkering/tweaking standpoint, and use the computer - it will seriously take care of itself. And yes, do keep it updated from Windows Update, definitely. Do it manually if you must, check it maybe twice a week, etc, but don't leave Windows Update out in the cold - it can make a big difference with system stability if you're not up to speed.

"And that's all I have to say about that." :p
Click to expand...

So you're trying to tell me I should leave it alone? :p

Message recieved and understood gents, thanks.
 
Even XP doesn't really need any tweaking. A clean install will run in 200MB of ram. What needs to be changed from that?
 
sosolidshoe said:
So you're trying to tell me I should leave it alone? :p

Message recieved and understood gents, thanks.
Click to expand...

LOL

I think we're just used to people popping in here and doing stupid things like disabling Aero (removing video hardware acceleration), removing the pagefile (stupid, no benefit, just causes problems), removing and tweaking services (even in XP this normally resulted in no better or worse performance in benchmarks), disabling Superfetch (way to go, slower computer!), etc. And then not listening when the folks here tell them they're doing it wrong.

If you're on an SSD and tight for space, you might want to consider making the pagefile smaller / static on the SSD and putting a dynamic windows-managed pagefile on a physical HDD. If you want you can disable Hibernate also to save some space if you don't need it. But those are more of an SSD space limitation workarounds than windows tweaking.
 
Ya, XP did need some tweaking here and there, more maintenance work in the end, blackviper service tweaks were all debunked and it was funny when he tried a windows vista and i beleive a win 7 one as well, telling people to disable everything that made windows faster.
 
Sometimes I think BlackViper must live inside something like Steve Jobs' infamous "Reality Distortion Field" 'cause he'll defend his guides till the end of time and back. As stated above, XP could benefit to some degree from specific tweaks and services being set to manual/disabled, but Vista and Windows 7 basically negated the need for his guides at that point.

Didn't stop him from continuing on, however. :D

If you really must use some kind of guide for potential goodies and maybe a few ease-of-use improvements here and there - just not the hardcore stuff like BlackViper and other's preach till they're blue in the face - this is the only one that I would recommend:

http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html

That guy is serious about what he does and he's been writing guides similar to the kind I've been posting when required over the years. No serious "OS gutting" maneuvers, but he is pretty good at what he does, and it's worth the read. I still find it a bit stupid that he's created a free guide and then a pay-for-play one (which really doesn't have much else to offer in terms of actual useful info, for some odd reason), but people gotta make money I suppose.
 
Spare-Flair said:
Trimming can help a GREAT deal if you are on an SSD and starved for space.
Click to expand...
Buy a bigger drive?

Photo%20Apr%2028%2C%205%2028%2028%20PM.jpg
 
Well I was going to post a response of the proper use of RAM that windows 7 employs in regards to superfetch, but the number of quality responses is great. Underutilized RAM is wasted RAM, a mentality that's really hard to explain to people who scream for large amounts of unused RAM. I have people in my computer science classes that lament the amount of RAM that windows 7 uses "Just to run the OS". I face palm every time.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Ya, XP did need some tweaking here and there, more maintenance work in the end, blackviper service tweaks were all debunked and it was funny when he tried a windows vista and i beleive a win 7 one as well, telling people to disable everything that made windows faster.
Click to expand...

If disabling a single service saves even 1 CPU cycle or 1 byte of memory then the act of disabling it was beneficial (assuming it caused no other operational disadvantages). Aside from that disabling unneeded services could help with security if one of those services has a vulnerability whether known or unknown. Even if it doesn't make a huge difference, a leaner list of running processes is always better as long as the processes disabled offered nothing useful.
 
You can use the autoruns utility to remove or prevent from loading on startup, anything. For compatibility, there are hundreds of .dll and .sys files that load everytime windows starts, even if you do not have those devices installed (IE: AMD CPU drivers loading on an Intel system)

I have done a few of these but it's a slow process for me as I go through device monitor and check that nothing loaded actually uses the files I want to disable. (Now if there was an automatic process for determing if hardware is not using a given file it would be an easier tweak.)
 
Oh, I havent done it yet but when I do reinstall (if ever) on my own PC, I will use the 7-Lite tools to customize (worked wonders for XP, should do just as good with Win-7).

There is also a v-lite for vista by the same guy.
 
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