Windows 7 Tweak List (Primarily for SSD users)

[defy]

Just installed Windows 7 Ultimate with an SSD boot drive (corsair p128), and came across a list of items that I found useful here (Credit to Cov of sevenforums)

This list includes performance tweaks both ssd and non-ssd related.

Windows 7 - Supercharged​

• How to modify UAC
Start › user accounts › change user account control settings › adjust slider

• How to disable Page File
Start › system › Advanced system settings › Performance › Settings › Advance › Virtual memory › Change › No paging file › Set › OK

• How to disable Hibernation
Start › cmd › type: powercfg -h off› enter

• How to disable System Restore
Start › System › System protection › Configure

• How to turn off Search Indexing
a) Start › services › windows search › disable
b) Start › computer › right click c drive › properties › untick: Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties
c) Start › Indexing options › modify › show all locations › double click users in summary of selected locations › uncheck users directory › double click start menu in the summary of selected locations › uncheck start menu directory › ok

• How to turn off Remote Differential Compression
Start › Control panel › programs › turn windows features on or off › uncheck Remote Differential Compression › ok

This makes file transfers (copy, move) faster by turning off “Remote Differential Compression” (RDC). Copying a 1.91 GB folder from the main HDD to a folder on an external USB drive resulting in ...

With RDC turned on: 3:23 - three minutes and 23 seconds (with a stopwatch).
With RDC turned off: 2:25 – two minutes and 25 seconds.

• How to turn off unneeded Windows features
Start › programs & features › turn Windows features on or off ›
uncheck

· How to remove the recycle bin
Right click desktop › Personalize › change desktop icons › untick recycle bin

· How to disable defragmentation & Superfetch
Start › Computer Management or Services › Disk Defragmentation › disable / Superfetch › disable

· How to change title text of Internet Explorer
Start › regedit › HKEY_CURRENT_USER › Software › Microsoft › Internet Explorer › Main

Look for “Window Title” Registry Key at the right pane. If it’s not there, create a String Value type of registry key and name it as “Window Title”.
Double click the “Window Title” registry key and enter the customized text that will appear in the IE window title.

· How to change border padding for windows
Right click the desktop › Personalize › Windows Color › Advanced Appearance Settings › select Border Padding › change size 4 (default) to a lower value.

• Windows uses 20% of your bandwidth, here's how to get it back
Start › Run › gpedit.msc (Local Group Policy Editor) › Local Computer Policy › Computer Configuration › Administrative Templates › Network › QOS Packet Scheduler › Limit Reservable Bandwidth › ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO › OK

• Disable unneeded start-up programs from loading
Start › msconfig or system configuration › services tab

• How to access the Disk Management Console Tool
Start › diskmgmt.msc

· How to display system information
Start › system information

• Turn off automatic update
Start › Windows update › change settings › never check for updates

· How to clean the HDD / SSD
Start › cleanmgr (or use CCleaner)

· How to access Resource Monitor
Start › Resource Monitor

Additional SSD tweaks:

• Temporary Internet Folder
Under Internet Explorer go to the “Tools”, then to which will bring up Internet Options, then go to Browser History and hit “Settings”, Go to Current Location and hit “Move Folder” then proceed to move the folder to your alternate location, IE secondary Drive or a None SSD or OS drive.

• Move the “Temp and Tmp” files:
Go to \My Computer\\Properties\\Advanced\\Environment Variables\, then highlight the "temp or tmp" depending on which one you’re working on, pick the variable, click edit, and Change the path to another hard drive if they are located on the Solid State with the “Variable Value Field”.

• PIO Mode:
Make sure the SSD is not running in PIO mode. To verify that go into the Device Manager, open IDE ATA / ATAPI controllers and double-click all Primary and Secondary IDE Channels. Verify that there are no signs of PIO Mode under the Current Transfer Mode entry in Advanced Settings. It should list Ultra DMA Mode 5 by default on there.

I just checked and it even says Ultra DMA Mode 6

 

[Joe Average]

Yes, Cov is a member here and basically posted pretty much the same list a few days ago here and most people just consider all that bullshit to be useless. If you're going to go through that much trouble, you may as well not even run Windows 7. People implementing all those "tweaks" are basically gutting Windows 7 of everything that makes it work the way it does, and in the long run you're not going to improve much if anything at all.

Leave it alone.

Words to live - and compute by with respect to Windows 7.

 

[defy]

Ah, didn't know he had posted that here. My mistake

 

[Arainach]

As Joe alluded to, DO NOT FOLLOW THIS LIST. The Pagefile does no harm. Hibernate is very useful, especially on Laptops. Search Indexing is absolutely key to system performance. Superfetch is also important. Leave UAC and System Restore alone. And for the love of God, LEAVE AUTOMATIC UPDATES ON. Seriously. Do you WANT your machine to become a botnet zombie?

 

[Raptor007]

I believe some of the changes are quite legitimate for SSD users concerned with limited writes. While I would never recommend running any Windows without a page file (you're asking for page faults there), it may be a good idea to move the page file and temporary directories to a standard hard disk if one is available.

And come on, Search Indexing is critical to system performance? ...Really?

I totally agree about Automatic Updates though, no reason to disable those entirely. If you're worried about bandwidth, set it to notify only, so you can decide when you're ready to start the actual file downloads.

And yeah, some of those tweaks are just dumb. I mean, hiding the Recycle Bin and renaming Internet Explorer's title bar? I remember when those were hip things to do in 1995, but now... eh, leave 'em alone.

 

[sphinx99]

Of that entire list, turning of Remote Differential Compression remains the only tweak I actually do in W7. (And only for non-domain computers that don't have offline file synchronization.)

 

[Arainach]

And come on, Search Indexing is critical to system performance? ...Really?

A LOT of stuff (even the Start Menu) depends on it.

 

[tesfaye]

What I've done (without the help of these XPish guides).

I reduced my pagefile to 1GB, because I don't need an 8GB file sitting around on a 60GB SSD. I'm not running that many apps requiring so much paging.

I turned off Hibernate because I sleep my machine ALOT and when Hybrid sleep is active, you're talking GBs of writes which are not needed. I have a UPS so if I lose power, I'll be fine. I save my work if I'm stepping away for a long period of time anyhow.

I moved the index files to a velociraptor volume. I don't do system wide searches for files, I keep my shit in only a few places and the search results are still fast.

I didn't change RDC on this install because until it was mentioned I never saw an issue with transfer rates. I move multi GB files regularly and the transfers are 70+GB/s to my WHS.

I would never consider moving Temporary Internet Files from the SSD. Why get an SSD and slow down the most used app on the system by putting it's temp files on a slow disk? Seems counter productive to me.

Please leave UAC alone. I wish this info were buried somewhere. In my opinion, if you need to turn it off for a program, you probably shouldn't be running it. Good job Microsoft on making UAC much, MUCH less annoying than it was in Vista. I rarely see it in Windows 7.

 

[GotNoRice]

I don't see why someone would move temporary files and the page file to another drive. I personally want these things on my SSD so that they are as fast as possible.

Intel says that the 80GB x25-m will last at least 5 years even with "much more than" 100GB of write-erase per day, which I doubt many even come close to. The MTBF is 1.2million hours, which is something like 137 years... At the very least, the drives come with 3-year warranties.

Or are some of the non-intel drives really just THAT bad to justify all the paranoia?

 

[pxc]

Flame on (again).

 

[Joe Average]

The only truly useful tweak for today's high powered systems that will honestly make them even faster - aside from a decent SSD and almost none of those so-called "speed tweaks" - is to use RAM for temporary files, etc. A RAMdisk is still the fastest way to boost performance of apps and the OS itself because the creation of temporary files is a foregone conclusion in Windows; they're created constantly and, by placing them on a RAMdisk, nothing is faster.

Hell, actually running some applications (in portable format) from the RAMdisk will make whatever "Godbox" you think you have seem like it's standing still.

But for all the stuff people are doing to Windows 7 systems just because they have an SSD in them... man, I'll just never figure it out.

 

[Putz]

all i do is kill my swap file and scheduled defrags, the rest is a waste of time imo

 

[Neb]

The only truly useful tweak for today's high powered systems that will honestly make them even faster - aside from a decent SSD and almost none of those so-called "speed tweaks" - is to use RAM for temporary files, etc. A RAMdisk is still the fastest way to boost performance of apps and the OS itself because the creation of temporary files is a foregone conclusion in Windows; they're created constantly and, by placing them on a RAMdisk, nothing is faster.

Hell, actually running some applications (in portable format) from the RAMdisk will make whatever "Godbox" you think you have seem like it's standing still.

But for all the stuff people are doing to Windows 7 systems just because they have an SSD in them... man, I'll just never figure it out.

Any good recommendations for ramdisk software? I haven't looked into it too much, but have heard it's good for performance.

I still don't understand why disabling automatic updates has anything to do with improving performance.

 

[bigdogchris]

Windows 7 - Supercharged​

lol no.

 

[Putz]

I still don't understand why disabling automatic updates has anything to do with improving performance.

maybe if they tried to apply during vantage or something, thats about it

 

[chinesepiratefood]

I installed portable Firefox on a ramdisk in the W7 RC, and had regular FF installed on my RAID 0 array. Both opened seemingly instantly, so I just ditched the ramdisk.

 

[Soujiro]

• PIO Mode:
Make sure the SSD is not running in PIO mode. To verify that go into the Device Manager, open IDE ATA / ATAPI controllers and double-click all Primary and Secondary IDE Channels. Verify that there are no signs of PIO Mode under the Current Transfer Mode entry in Advanced Settings. It should list Ultra DMA Mode 5 by default on there.

I think if your drive is on PIO mode, "optimizing" Windows is the least of your worries. Maybe a new computer, perhaps.

Also, for SSD users, you might want to read this about the default optimizations Windows already makes once it detects an SSD: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

 

[tesfaye]

I think if your drive is on PIO mode, "optimizing" Windows is the least of your worries. Maybe a new computer, perhaps.

I didn't want to be the one to say it. LOL. I can't remember the last time I saw that pop up in Device Manager.

 

[octoberasian]

• Windows uses 20% of your bandwidth, here's how to get it back
Start › Run › gpedit.msc (Local Group Policy Editor) › Local Computer Policy › Computer Configuration › Administrative Templates › Network › QOS Packet Scheduler › Limit Reservable Bandwidth › ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO › OK

Everything else I don't mind having turned on in Windows 7, but this got me curious.

Does Windows 7 actually use up 20% of your bandwidth?

And, does changing this option offer any speed improvements in network speeds to-and-from the Internet?

Other than that, I don't mind UAC, search index (then again I use Everything search now), and for god sakes, don't turn off Windows Update unless you want your computer to be compromised. I tell so many of my customers not to do that yet they come back wondering why their computer is infected or why their Windows installation is "broken."

 

[tesfaye]

I remember trying that Reservable Bandwidth tweak a year or so ago and not seeing any appreciable difference in speed.

 

[Soujiro]

Dunno if his still applies: In Vista the registry entry was in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile

The entry was NetworkThrottlingIndex and this controlled the percentage of bandwidth usable by Windows during media playback. The allowed decimal values were 1 to 70 and to disable it was hex 0xffffffff. I constantly listen to music on the computer and I use a gigabit network so I turned it off and got a good boost in transfers.

 

[Vermillion]

• Windows uses 20% of your bandwidth, here's how to get it back
Start › Run › gpedit.msc (Local Group Policy Editor) › Local Computer Policy › Computer Configuration › Administrative Templates › Network › QOS Packet Scheduler › Limit Reservable Bandwidth › ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO › OK

No OS has ever used 20% of your bandwidth. It was all FUD.

 

[novadude]

I tell so many of my customers not to do that yet they come back wondering why their computer is infected or why their Windows installation is "broken."

I've had XP just completely shit itself when it updates, so automatic updates aren't always win-win. Haven't had a single problem with Vista or 7 updating yet though, but all of my personal computers are set to notify only.

 

[Electrofreak]

No OS has ever used 20% of your bandwidth. It was all FUD.

QFT.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q316666

Clarification about the use of QoS in end computers that are running Windows XP
As in Windows 2000, programs can take advantage of QoS through the QoS APIs in Windows XP. One hundred percent of the network bandwidth is available to be shared by all programs unless a program specifically requests priority bandwidth. This "reserved" bandwidth is still available to other programs unless the requesting program is sending data. By default, programs can reserve up to an aggregate bandwidth of 20 percent of the underlying link speed on each interface on an end computer. If the program that reserved the bandwidth is not sending sufficient data to use it, the unused part of the reserved bandwidth is available for other data flows on the same host.

Honestly people, if you don't know exactly what your tweak is doing to your operating system, don't do it.

 

[bonsai]

I love it when all the apologists get their panties in a bunch when people talk about tweaking. "Oh noes, not the recycle bin!! Leave Windows alone!"

Honestly people, if you don't know exactly what your tweak is doing to your operating system, don't do it.

So how exactly does that negatively effect the system if you turn it off, or reduce the amount of reserved priority bandwidth? All that says to me is it gives Microsoft less bandwidth to reserve for it's own apps, which is fine by me. The only place I could even see that being advantageous is for very large Windows Updates, which happens like once every 2 years, so what's the point?

 

[Electrofreak]

I love it when all the apologists get their panties in a bunch when people talk about tweaking. "Oh noes, not the recycle bin!! Leave Windows alone!"



So how exactly does that negatively effect the system if you turn it off, or reduce the amount of reserved priority bandwidth? All that says to me is it gives Microsoft less bandwidth to reserve for it's own apps, which is fine by me. The only place I could even see that being advantageous is for very large Windows Updates, which happens like once every 2 years, so what's the point?

It's not Microsoft's apps, its whatever app requires priority bandwidth. This registry entry is for QoS Packet Scheduling for ALL programs. Read the text I quoted maybe?

Wiki QoS if you don't know what Quality of Service is?

 

[bonsai]

It's not Microsoft's apps, its whatever app requires priority bandwidth.

Only if they're using that specific API. Which I would guess is mostly only Microsoft apps at this point. I'm still curious how this negatively effects performance if you turn it off or reserve less bandwidth. I can't see how it would. Other application that it would be useful is streaming audio from an audio server, but I never do that, so why shouldn't I turn it off?

 

[Electrofreak]

Only if they're using that specific API. Which I would guess is mostly only Microsoft apps at this point. I'm still curious how this negatively effects performance if you turn it off or reserve less bandwidth. I can't see how it would. Other application that it would be useful is streaming audio from an audio server, but I never do that, so why shouldn't I turn it off?

Why wouldn't an application use the API for QoS if it has any kind of serious dependency on bandwidth? It's been in Windows since XP so obviously it's not like it's something new. And regardless, if no applications are asking for reserved bandwidth, other applications are allowed to use it. It's only reserved if a program is asking for it through QoS.

So why would you turn it off? What have you to lose other than having a program that specifically needs a large portion of your bandwidth be denied more than an equal share with other running applications? Assuming you're running well-written bandwidth-intensive applications, why would you want that?

 

[lodingi]

Any good recommendations for ramdisk software? I haven't looked into it too much, but have heard it's good for performance.

I still don't understand why disabling automatic updates has anything to do with improving performance.

Come on Joe. Help us out.

 

[bonsai]

So why would you turn it off?

If I'm doing a bandwidth intensive activity that isn't deemed priority such as watching a streaming movie online on Netflix, then Microsoft decides to take over with Automatic System Updating (as some here suggest) then I lose up to 20% of my bandwidth, causing skipping and stuttering in my movie. Or the same thing could happen while downloading the latest Ubuntu distro over torrent. That's a good enough reason for me.

Really what it boils down to is user control, some people like having it, others don't.

 

[Electrofreak]

If I'm doing a bandwidth intensive activity that isn't deemed priority such as watching a streaming movie online on Netflix, then Microsoft decides to take over with Automatic System Updating (as some here suggest) then I lose up to 20% of my bandwidth, causing skipping and stuttering in my movie. Or the same thing could happen while downloading the latest Ubuntu distro over torrent. That's a good enough reason for me.

Really what it boils down to is user control, some people like having it, others don't.

Somehow I doubt that a system update is going to be configured to use reserved bandwidth.

And if you were that concerned about it, you'd just manually download the updates, or schedule updates for when you're not in front of your computer. That's user control. Not allowing key applications to request priority bandwidth because a Microsoft app just *might* be one of them is silly. Well, TBH, other words come to mind...

But whatever... if you really think that turning off QoS reserved bandwidth is somehow stickin' it to Microsoft, you're entitled to your opinion (even if you're wrong )

 

[bonsai]

Somehow I doubt that a system update is going to be configured to use reserved bandwidth.

Knowing Mircosoft, I'd be really surprised if it wasn't.

And if you were that concerned about it, you'd just manually download the updates, or schedule updates for when you're not in front of your computer. That's user control.

And that's why Automatic Updates are turned off on my home PC. I prefer to know when and what things are being downloaded and installed on to my PC. As stated earlier there have been cases when "trusted" Microsoft updates have borked systems. If a "key" application needs more bandwidth, I'll give it to it. I don't need Microsoft deeming what has priority and what doesn't for me.

 

[Electrofreak]

Knowing Mircosoft, I'd be really surprised if it wasn't.



And that's why Automatic Updates are turned off on my home PC. I prefer to know when and what things are being downloaded and installed on to my PC. As stated earlier there have been cases when "trusted" Microsoft updates have borked systems. If a "key" application needs more bandwidth, I'll give it to it. I don't need Microsoft deeming what has priority and what doesn't for me.

Hey, power to yah then.

 

[Damar]

Keeping in mind that MS sets those preferences based on the "average" user who has no clue about "bandwidth", QoS", or reserving anything other than a dinner table at a restaurant.

If you know how to change them, how to fix it if it breaks something, and it makes you mentally happy, go for it.

The big problem is when people put posts like this up, and others, who have no real clue what it means but can follow directions pretty well, start messing with things they shouldn't and end up borking a system because of it.

Out of the box, Win7 needs no real tweaking to work very well under just about every situation, which in itself is a miracle when you consider how many variations there are in hardware out there.

If you want to get that e-peen maxed out to within 1% of it's life on your PC, start messing with it, but please don't tell the masses to do the same unless you want to support the problems that may crop up.

 

[Dallows]

Let me know when you find a way to let me have total control to my OS drive back.

 

[Gillette]

The big problem is when people put posts like this up, and others, who have no real clue what it means but can follow directions pretty well, start messing with things they shouldn't and end up borking a system because of it.

This is [H], these kind of "tweaks" are exactly what I'd expect (and want) to see here. Maybe a disclaimer of "Use at your own risk" but any information is good information regardless of whether or not it gets used.

I do agree with everything else in your post though

 

[Vermillion]

This is [H], these kind of "tweaks" are exactly what I'd expect (and want) to see here. Maybe a disclaimer of "Use at your own risk" but any information is good information regardless of whether or not it gets used.

I do agree with everything else in your post though

But some of these "tweaks" aren't valid tweaks. In fact of them of detrimental to the performance of the machine. That's the problem.

 

[Electrofreak]

Yeah, most of us are all for maxing out the potential of our machines, otherwise we wouldn't be here.

But if something is a bad idea, we're still going to pipe up about it.

 

[Ritorix]

It was worth following the link in the OP just to see how hard that guy got owned.

Save yourself the trouble and stop modifying the OS on a whim and you'll understand why some people didn't have to reinstall Windows since 2003 while others think it's like unrefrigerated meat and needs throwing away after 3 months.

I'm sure there are legit tweaks for SSD users. Page files have traditionally been set to a fixed size (not deleted, lol). Setting temp file locations was a good idea on Unix servers in 1987 but it isnt much help nowadays. And some of the settings recommended are dumb because...Win 7 already does them.

Windows 7 will disable disk defragmentation on SSD system drives. Because SSDs perform extremely well on random read operations, defragmenting files isn’t helpful enough to warrant the added disk writing defragmentation produces. The FAQ section below has some additional details.

By default, Windows 7 will disable Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching on SSDs with good random read, random write and flush performance. These technologies were all designed to improve performance on traditional HDDs, where random read performance could easily be a major bottleneck. See the FAQ section for more details.

Should the pagefile be placed on SSDs?
Yes. Most pagefile operations are small random reads or larger sequential writes, both of which are types of operations that SSDs handle well. In fact, given typical pagefile reference patterns and the favorable performance characteristics SSDs have on those patterns, there are few files better than the pagefile to place on an SSD.

Are there any concerns regarding the Hibernate file and SSDs?
No, hiberfile.sys is written to and read from sequentially and in large chunks, and thus can be placed on either HDDs or SSDs.

Original list fails on damn near every issue. Theres a point in tweaking...my netbook runs a very different list of services than my overpowered desktop. But at least know what you are doing and maybe do some reading beforehand. My desktop sucks power from the whole neighborhood, while the netbook is miserly and configured accordingly.

 

[Damar]

This is [H], these kind of "tweaks" are exactly what I'd expect (and want) to see here. Maybe a disclaimer of "Use at your own risk" but any information is good information regardless of whether or not it gets used.

I do agree with everything else in your post though

I understand your point, and agree with the [H] mentality.

The problem is, not everyone who comes here is [H]ard in their skills or knowledge. Many come here assuming that what they see is safe, good information, but which isn't true of every post. That old, "Well I saw it on the internet so it must be true.", mentality gets more people in trouble than anything. Just because "we" might know better, doesn't mean everyone does.

It's those poor bastards I worry about, (although I get plenty of billed hours off of them).