- May 11, 2013
- 1,687
Windows 7 has been developed with speed and usability in mind, however due to the many features it most of the time bogs down overtime.
Most gamers complain about the fact their low and midrange computers do not achieve the required results during their gaming sessions.
And the biggest reason for this is that they do not have enough funds to afford a high-end gaming box.
Some people might say N.NVT why windows 7, when windows 8.1 is already running?
Well that's simple most epic games do not run on windows 8 (specially the older ones) on top of that there are loads of gamers that refuse to upgrade to windows 8 for various reasons.
So this windows 7 guide will apply for many years to come.
You want gaming speed? Well then this guide is exactly the right piece of info you need to achieve maximum speed within Windows 7 without having to install third-party tools.
That being said let me give you a WARNING about the changes I will describe.
Windows has been developed with all options enabled and some of these options are needed for security.
And this guide will turn off some of these security related features.
I mentioned before this guide has been made with SPEED in mind.
If you follow this guide then you accept the full risk that your overall security of your system will decrease in favor of speed. Also you accept the fact that some functions will be disabled.
Which you can obviously turn back on at any time, and you can restore windows default security features at any time.
Before you continue I STRONGLY recommend that you update all your drivers, that you update all your software and that you back up your system.
I will do my best to make this guide as accurate as possible and I guarantee that if you follow it to the letter that your system will achieve exactly what the guide promises.
* Make sure you have admin rights before you continue.
1: The Search Indexing Service (SIS)
This feature is only useful if you perform frequent searches on your system.
Disable Search Indexing Service (SIS)
2: Aero Theme (AT)
This feature of Win 7 certainly looks pretty and eye catching, however it uses significant resources.
Disable Aero Theme (AT)
3: Extra Windows Effects (EWE)
You have turned off Aero in the previous menu however, there will still be many unwanted visual effects that you are not needing if you configure your OS for speed.
To disable extra effects:
Side note: You can enable and disable whichever features you like from the performance tab.
4: Disable Windows Services
Most services you are about to disable do have a function on your system for general use.
I do not recommend them to be turned off, if you are going to use your computer for your daily stuff.
But since this is a guide to get the most speed out of your Windows operating system so your gaming experience becomes better we are intending to disable those services anyway.
Application Experience
Now you can disable each of these services, in the same way as you disabled Windows Search.
But before you do so make sure that you write down each service you are going to change with their default state, so that when you want to undo the changes you have a back up record how to set them.
Now in the next section we are going to turn off some advanced features, and again this guide is made for speed and NOT security. So changing these features will result in a much decreased security, but generally if you run a Internet Security Suit you can get away with this.
Again I do not recommend this so only make the changes if you accept the risks.
5: Disable UAC
User Access Control is perhaps one of the most useful security features within Windows and again I do not recommend this to be turned off, however it can be rather annoying so we are going to turn it off.
•From the Control Panel open the ” User Accounts and Family Safety ” > User Account.
•Click the User Account Control settings link.
•Now just Drag the Slider towards “Never Notify”.
•Click “OK” and Reboot your system.
6: Turn off unused features
Please let me repeat my warnings do not play around here unless you know what you are doing.
For your reference which options to check/uncheck, the following should be checked. Everything else should unchecked.
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1
• Remote Differential Compression
• Windows Search
Make sure you write down what changes you are making.
Power settings in Windows in 7 are not automatically set for Max performance.
By default, its set for balanced, with increased energy consumption on your hardware.
Changing the power plan decreases the consumption for your hardware and gives you a small performance gain. (Make sure you are NOT going to make these changes if you intend to run on battery only.)
However let me be VERY clear the obtained speed has as a downside that you will see a decrease in security and usability.
That being said generally windows out of the box does not need tweaking.
But if you want to tweak for speed then this is by far the best and safest way IF and only IF you know what you are doing and you are willing to accept the risks.
Anyway I have made a proper attempt to squeeze as much speed out of your computer within reason.
Obviously I know much more tweaks but I will not publish those because of their dangerous side effects.
Most gamers complain about the fact their low and midrange computers do not achieve the required results during their gaming sessions.
And the biggest reason for this is that they do not have enough funds to afford a high-end gaming box.
Some people might say N.NVT why windows 7, when windows 8.1 is already running?
Well that's simple most epic games do not run on windows 8 (specially the older ones) on top of that there are loads of gamers that refuse to upgrade to windows 8 for various reasons.
So this windows 7 guide will apply for many years to come.
You want gaming speed? Well then this guide is exactly the right piece of info you need to achieve maximum speed within Windows 7 without having to install third-party tools.
That being said let me give you a WARNING about the changes I will describe.
Windows has been developed with all options enabled and some of these options are needed for security.
And this guide will turn off some of these security related features.
I mentioned before this guide has been made with SPEED in mind.
If you follow this guide then you accept the full risk that your overall security of your system will decrease in favor of speed. Also you accept the fact that some functions will be disabled.
Which you can obviously turn back on at any time, and you can restore windows default security features at any time.
Before you continue I STRONGLY recommend that you update all your drivers, that you update all your software and that you back up your system.
I will do my best to make this guide as accurate as possible and I guarantee that if you follow it to the letter that your system will achieve exactly what the guide promises.
* Make sure you have admin rights before you continue.
1: The Search Indexing Service (SIS)
This feature is only useful if you perform frequent searches on your system.
Disable Search Indexing Service (SIS)
- Right click the “My Computer” Icon on your desktop and select the option "MANAGE"
- On the left hand side of the windows, you will see a pane titled “Computer Management”. Click the plus symbol next to “Services and applications” in this window.
- Now click on “Services” and wait for the new pane to load.
- You will see a lot of services in this new pane. Scroll through and find “Windows Search”.
- Right click on the “Windows Search”, and choose “Properties”.
- A window called “Window Search Properties” should pop up. Where it says STARTUP type, click on the dropdown menu and choose “Disabled” Now click Apply, then OK and you are done.
2: Aero Theme (AT)
This feature of Win 7 certainly looks pretty and eye catching, however it uses significant resources.
Disable Aero Theme (AT)
- Right click on your desktop and select “Personalize”.
- In the new window you will your default themes. Scroll down to the bottom until you find “Basic and High Contrast Themes”
- Choose Windows Classic (Give your computer a few second to apply the new theme.)
3: Extra Windows Effects (EWE)
You have turned off Aero in the previous menu however, there will still be many unwanted visual effects that you are not needing if you configure your OS for speed.
To disable extra effects:
- Right Click on My Computer, either on your desktop or in your start menu and click Properties.
- Click on “Advanced System Settings” on the left side of this window to bring up the “System Properties” window.
- Choose the tab labeled “Advanced”. Now under “Performance” (it's at the top), click the “settings” button. Choose the option called “Custom”.
- Now the trick here to strip everything that the system really doesn't need. So that means unchecking every single box. The only boxes that should be checked are “Smooth Edges of Screen fonts”, “Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop” and "Use Visual Styles on Windows and Buttons”.
- Click “Apply” or “OK
Side note: You can enable and disable whichever features you like from the performance tab.
4: Disable Windows Services
Most services you are about to disable do have a function on your system for general use.
I do not recommend them to be turned off, if you are going to use your computer for your daily stuff.
But since this is a guide to get the most speed out of your Windows operating system so your gaming experience becomes better we are intending to disable those services anyway.
- Right click the “My Computer” Icon on your desktop and select the option called "MANAGE"
- On the left hand side of the windows, you will see a pane titled “Computer Management”.
- Click the plus symbol next to “Services and applications” in this window.
- Now click on “Services” and wait for the new pane to load.
Application Experience
- Computer Browser (If your PC does not connect to any network)
- Desktop Window Manager Session Manager (If you don’t want the aero effects)
- Diagnostic Policy Service
- Distributed Link Tracking Client
- IP Helper
- Offline Files
- Portable Device Enumerator Service
- Print*Spooler*(If you do not use a Printer)
- Protected Storage
- Remote Registry (You can safely disable it for more Security)
- Secondary Logon
- Security Center
- Server (If your computer is not connect with any network)
- Tablet PC Input Service
- TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
- Themes
- Windows Error Reporting Service
- Windows Media Center Service Launcher
- Windows Search (Has already been Disabled in the previous section remember?)
- Windows Time (If you do not want to synchronize system time with internet time automatically. This is recommended to be disabled, as it is only useful if your system battery is dying or your country is about to switch to DST).
Now you can disable each of these services, in the same way as you disabled Windows Search.
But before you do so make sure that you write down each service you are going to change with their default state, so that when you want to undo the changes you have a back up record how to set them.
- Right click on the “Specific Service listed above”, and choose “Properties”.
- A window should pop up. Where it says STARTUP type, click on the dropdown menu and choose “Disabled”
- After selecting Disabled you hit Ok and move on to the next service in the list and repeat the steps.
Now in the next section we are going to turn off some advanced features, and again this guide is made for speed and NOT security. So changing these features will result in a much decreased security, but generally if you run a Internet Security Suit you can get away with this.
Again I do not recommend this so only make the changes if you accept the risks.
5: Disable UAC
User Access Control is perhaps one of the most useful security features within Windows and again I do not recommend this to be turned off, however it can be rather annoying so we are going to turn it off.
•From the Control Panel open the ” User Accounts and Family Safety ” > User Account.
•Click the User Account Control settings link.
•Now just Drag the Slider towards “Never Notify”.
•Click “OK” and Reboot your system.
6: Turn off unused features
Please let me repeat my warnings do not play around here unless you know what you are doing.
For your reference which options to check/uncheck, the following should be checked. Everything else should unchecked.
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1
• Remote Differential Compression
• Windows Search
Make sure you write down what changes you are making.
- Open up ” Programs and Features ” from Control Panel.
- Click the ” Turn Windows features on or off ” from the left pane.
- Now uncheck all the Feature that you don’t use in Windows 7 and restart the system for the changes to take effect.
- Right click on the sidebar and select ” Properties “
- On the properties windows, un-check the check box showing ” Start sidebar when Windows Starts“.
- Reboot your system and sidebar will no longer start up.
Power settings in Windows in 7 are not automatically set for Max performance.
By default, its set for balanced, with increased energy consumption on your hardware.
Changing the power plan decreases the consumption for your hardware and gives you a small performance gain. (Make sure you are NOT going to make these changes if you intend to run on battery only.)
- Double click the ” Power Options ” in the Control panel.
- Click the down arrow showing ” Show Additional Plans ” to see the ” High Performance ” power plan
- Now just activate the ”High Performance” plan and that’s it.
- You may go for the advanced settings for further tweaking if you want.
- Press [Win] + R or take the RUN option from the start menu.
- Now type ”msconfig” in there and press Enter Key to open up the ”System Configuration Window”.
- Click on the ”Boot” tab in there.
- You will see a box called ”Time out”. This is the time (in sec) which the system waits for the user to select the operating system to boot to.
- You can safely set the value to 0.
- Tick the ”No GUI Boot” option too (Turns off the Windows 7 logo at boot-up).
- Click Apply and then on OK.
- Right click on Computer and select ”Properties” from the right click menu.
- Click on ”Advanced System Settings” from the left pane to open up the ”System Properties window”.
- Select the ”Advanced” tab from it. Then under Startup and ”Recovery click Settings”.
- Now uncheck box ”Time to display list of operating systems” and click OK.
However let me be VERY clear the obtained speed has as a downside that you will see a decrease in security and usability.
That being said generally windows out of the box does not need tweaking.
But if you want to tweak for speed then this is by far the best and safest way IF and only IF you know what you are doing and you are willing to accept the risks.
Anyway I have made a proper attempt to squeeze as much speed out of your computer within reason.
Obviously I know much more tweaks but I will not publish those because of their dangerous side effects.
