Speed ​​up Windows 7 performance. Disable Windows Aero and use the classic design. Video: review of the free version of CCleaner

It's not uncommon for problems in games to appear over time and literally appear out of nowhere. It also happens differently - the computer slows down even at the beginning, immediately after installing an application. There are reasons for everything, but both such cases have one thing in common - they interfere with enjoyment Windows user 7. To resolve this, you can try increasing your PC performance.

Why games slow down on Windows 7

First, the user needs to pay attention to the settings of the game itself, in particular the graphic ones. The thing is that players are trying to install and play such games, system requirements which do not correspond technical specifications devices. This is the simplest and most obvious problem that every PC or laptop owner may encounter. You can easily fix this problem - change graphic settings application you are using, set all values ​​to minimum.

Often, PC and laptop users simply forget to keep up with updates to video card drivers and other system components, which naturally has a negative impact on the optimization of the computer as a whole and leads to problems in games.

Laptop users, unlike those who sit at personal computers, may experience problems associated with strong heating devices. For laptops, this is very important, since most often they are not used as they should be. Surely it is unlikely that if you have such a device, you will put it on the table and sit at it the same way as at a desktop PC. Most likely, you will make yourself more comfortable, for example, lie down on a sofa or bed and put the laptop on top of you. In most models of such devices, the cooling system is located at the bottom or on the side. This means that when working on various soft surfaces, the device can “absorb” dust in large quantities, and this is extremely harmful to the cooling system and, as a result, to the entire device.

Stationary computers can also overheat, but usually this is due to other reasons - high performance of the central processor and other components and the lack of an effective cooling system - a cooler, which simply physically cannot generate all the heat coming from the CPU.

Optimizing your computer: how to increase performance

Operating system optimization in our time is available not only to highly qualified engineers, but also to absolutely ordinary users. It will allow you to achieve best performance the entire system as a whole and will improve the performance of games both on desktop computer, and on a laptop.

Working with the system registry

The registry is present in every computer. This is a kind of database that contains various types of information about the configuration of a personal computer or laptop, settings of the operating system used, and software parameters. It is quite natural that a fragmented and cluttered system registry can cause errors in the computer’s operation and a significant deterioration in PC performance. Information is written to the system registry every time software is installed and uninstalled, so unnecessary garbage can remain here. You can find problems in the registry using special programs, in particular CCleaner:

Remember that the registry of this operating system is subject to fragmentation, which is why the performance of computers on Windows 7 regularly deteriorates. System utilities, unfortunately, cannot work effectively with the system registry, so you will have to install an additional program, for example, Auslogics Registry Defrag.

Defragmentation and cleaning of the hard drive

To clean your hard drive and defragment it, you do not need any additional software. Everything can be done using traditional system tools Windows 7. To perform defragmentation, perform the following manipulations:

This procedure allows you not only to defragment to improve performance and optimize the entire system, but also to change the disk file system (usually NTFS is used).

The time it takes to complete defragmentation directly depends on the size of the selected disk, the amount of information on it and the degree of file fragmentation. Thus, the process can take from several minutes to several hours. It is advisable to stop using the computer at this time, as this will lead to a significant slowdown of the PC.

Cleaning and freeing RAM to speed up processes

The number of programs and applications running has a significant impact on performance. All of them have an impact on the computer's RAM, so before launching software that requires system resources, you should close everything you can.

First you need to close those programs that you do not currently need. As a rule, everything active applications appear in the task manager. You can open it with a simple combination Ctrl keys+ Alt + Del or click on the taskbar at the bottom and select “Task Manager”.

Launching Task Manager

A window will immediately appear with a list of all running applications. Select the one that you do not currently need and click on the “Cancel task” button.

We clean RAM by disabling unnecessary applications

Of course, in addition to active and visible applications, others participate in the operation of the computer, working in the so-called background. All these programs can be seen in the same task manager if you go to the “Processes” tab.

Disabling processes to free up memory

As a rule, some of them can have a significant impact on PC performance and optimization, but remember that disabling processes unknown to you can lead to data loss or deterioration of the computer (especially if you close system process). It is for this reason that it is advisable to disable only those processes that you know.

Optimizing visual effects

Windows 7 has an updated GUI- Aero, which consumes an impressive amount of system resources. Accordingly, it can affect system optimization, and disabling it will allow you to achieve the best performance. Problems with this interface usually only occur on weak computers and laptops with integrated or simply old video card

. In all other cases, changing the visual effects will practically not change anything.

Performance settings So here it will be presented full list

special visual effects. If you do not want to completely disable the Aero interface, you can uncheck only the following items: animated controls, fading, casting shadows, displaying them, displaying a rectangular selection.

Disabling interface visual effects Disabling these options will optimize the system and leave you with a pleasant experience. appearance

operating system interface. Of course, you can turn off other settings, but remember that in this case the effect will be much more noticeable.

BIOS setup BIOS is an integrated environment designed to change computer hardware settings. By tweaking the BIOS you can achieve the best performance of your PC or laptop

First, pay attention to the settings of the cooling system (depending on the BIOS version, the names of the items may change). For this:

Secondly, if your device has two video cards (integrated and discrete), then in the BIOS Advanced menu you can change the switchable graphics settings. To do this, select the VGA Mode SELECT item and in the list indicate what you need: dGPU Mode - the built-in video card is activated or Power Xpress Mode - the discrete video card is activated.

Switchable graphics settings in BIOS

Setting up the swap file

The paging file is a kind of addition to RAM. You could say that this is virtual memory, which the user can configure independently. The paging file is taken from a hard drive of a size specified by the user. As you know, the transfer speed of a hard drive is much lower than RAM, so it is impossible to say that the page file can completely replace RAM, but it has a beneficial effect on overall optimization. To change and configure the paging file:

A settings window will appear where you select the disk partition whose paging file you want to change, click on the “Specify size” button and set it. Remember that the page file essentially represents a specific area occupied on the hard drive. It is not recommended to set a large value, because the system will automatically place data about programs in this file, and access to it is much slower than to RAM, and accordingly, performance may drop. Optimal size is approximately 30% of the amount of RAM. The last step is to click the “Set” button and restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

Setting up the video card

Reduced performance on Windows 7 may be caused by incorrect graphics adapter settings. This problem is most relevant for laptops, since they have integrated and discrete video cards. It will be no secret that modern manufacturers regularly release not only drivers, but also system settings for their products. For example, for Nvidia - GeForce Experience, and for ATI video cards Radeon - Catalyst Control Center. With this software, you can change many settings, including optimizing the device as a whole.

So, if you have a discrete and integrated video card, then you need to change the options in the software you are using. For Nvidia video cards:

This way you can configure any application, and now after it is launched, all work will be redirected to the video card that you specified.

For video cards from ATI Radeon, everything is a little different:

Thus, the system will automatically launch the most powerful graphics adapter after activating a certain application.

ReadyBoost function

Few people know, but operating system Windows 7 provides the ability to use flash drives as additional device data caching. This way, users can significantly increase the speed of data reading and writing functions, accordingly, optimize their computer or laptop, and improve performance. You can activate ReadyBoost in the following way:

Everything is ready for use, it will be created on the flash drive special file, which will contain information about programs and applications. Remember that the flash drive should never be removed, at least until you finish working on the computer.

Using additional software

Most of the above manipulations can be performed using special software. In addition, such programs often have additional functionality and advanced settings that allow you to optimize the system in the best possible way.

Razer Game Booster

Razer Game Booster is one of the most popular applications which provides big set options for optimizing games and other programs installed on the computer. The utility is free and can be easily found on the Internet. To work, you will need to register on the developers’ website, which will not be difficult for anyone, and then log into the program interface using your username and password.

The setup is completed in a few clicks - just specify “ Game Mode", then system resources will be sent only to the game launched by the user:

Of course, everything would be fine, but the program works ideally only with powerful computers. Therefore, on older PCs it is better to use other optimization utilities.

This program appeared a long time ago and has a good reputation. It is used everywhere, as it has a pleasant and understandable interface, as well as all the necessary functionality to optimize the system. The program is distributed free of charge. Therefore, any user can easily find it on the Internet and download it. CCleaner allows you to analyze your system, including finding information that may be hidden in some applications. This information can be viewed after launching the Cleanup function. Also, using such a utility, you can scan the registry, as was mentioned a little earlier; accordingly, this tab is selected. This program has few disadvantages, in fact, that is why many PC users resort to using it. Perhaps the only thing that can be noted here is the ability to delete important data from the registry, but even here the user will be notified in a timely manner about the creation of a backup copy.

GameGain

GameGain is software that allows you to get the most out of your computer or laptop. It has a very pleasant and understandable interface, a minimum of settings, which means that almost no one will have any difficulties working with GameGain. This utility is also free and can be easily found on the Internet and downloaded. After launch, a window will appear asking you to select the operating system, as well as the type of processor. As you enter these details, move the slider until you get optimal performance. It should be said that computer operation on maximum parameters“overclocking”, and in the case of this program there will be just “overclocking”, leads to a decrease in the operating time of a computer or laptop. You risk losing your “iron friend” ahead of schedule.

System Care

System Care- a program designed to clean operating system system files from various debris. Unfortunately, the program is paid and does not have the ability to change the language, and for some Russian-speaking users this may be an obstacle. In addition, System Care has a rather complex interface, vaguely reminiscent of CCleaner, but unlike this program, users will have to figure out what and where it is. Unfortunately, this program is of no use. It spreads virally, fraudulently, and after the first scan of the computer, during which viruses and great amount unnecessary trash, you are given the opportunity to buy it.

Driver Booster

Driver Booster- a program that executes automatic mode search for the most fresh drivers for key elements of a personal computer or laptop. This utility will be useful to everyone, since you need to update drivers regularly, but searching for them every time for your model of components is a very boring task. This free software can be easily found on the Internet and installed on your computer. Driver Booster has a clear and simple interface, performs a quick and convenient check for updates and does not require constant user control. Unfortunately, batch updating drivers with this utility often takes a lot of time and regularly requires a system reboot. Nevertheless, it is a very convenient and good program.

What can I do to prevent games from slowing down again? How to keep the system in order?

To stop games from lagging, you should regularly maintain your computer or laptop in good condition. Try to avoid installing many unnecessary programs, make complete cleaning system from the software, and also do not forget about the system registry, which even after uninstallation may contain residual files and data. To do this, use CCleaner and make it yours " best friend" Once a month, defragment and analyze the system, then games on your computer will stop slowing down.

Performing these operations will allow each user, regardless of the configuration of the personal computer, to optimize the operation of the device, increase productivity both online and singles games. Regularly check for residual data and files and delete them, then your computer will work efficiently.

Good day! It would seem that they cost two identical computers, with the same software - one of them works fine, the second “slows down” in some games and applications. Why is this happening?

The fact is that very often the computer can slow down due to “non-optimal” settings of the OS, video card, page file, etc. What’s most interesting is that if you change these settings, the computer in some cases can start working much faster.

In this article, I want to look at these computer settings that will help you get the maximum performance out of it (overclocking the processor and video card will not be covered in this article)!

The article is focused primarily on Windows 7, 8, 10 (some points will also be useful for Windows XP).

1. Disable unnecessary services

The first thing I recommend doing when optimizing and configuring your computer is to disable unnecessary and unused services. For example, many users do not update their version of Windows, but almost everyone has the update service up and running. For what?!

The fact is that each service loads the PC. By the way, the same update service sometimes loads even computers with good characteristics so much that they begin to noticeably slow down.

To disable an unnecessary service, you need to go to " computer control" and select the " services " tab.

You can access computer management through the control panel or very quickly using the WIN + X keyboard shortcut, and then select the “computer management” tab.

Windows 8 - pressing the Win+X buttons opens such a window.

Windows 8. Computer management

This service is disabled (to enable it, click the start button, to stop it, click the stop button).
Service start type “manual” (this means that until you start the service, it will not work).

Services that can be disabled (without serious consequences*):

• Windows Search
• Offline files
• IP Ancillary Service
• Secondary login
• Print Manager (if you don't have a printer)
• Changed Link Tracking Client
• NetBIOS Support Module
• Application details
• Windows Time Service
• Diagnostic Policy Service
• Program Compatibility Assistant Service
• Windows Error Logging Service
• Remote registry
• Security Center

You can find out more about each service in this article:

2. Adjusting performance parameters, Aero effects

New Windows versions(such as Windows 7, 8) are not deprived of various visual effects, graphics, sounds, etc. If sounds do not go anywhere, then visual effects can significantly slow down the computer (this especially applies to “average” and “weak” PCs) . The same applies to Aero - this is a semi-transparent window effect that appeared in Windows Vista.

If we're talking about about maximum computer performance, then these effects need to be disabled.

How do I change performance settings?

1) First - go to the control panel and open the “ system and safety«.

3) In the left column there should be a tab “ Advanced System Settings" - we move along it.

5) In the performance settings you can configure all Windows visual effects - I recommend just checking the box next to “ provide best performance computer ". Then simply save the settings by clicking the “OK” button.

How to disable Aero?

The easiest way is to choose a classic theme. How to do it - .

3. Setting up Windows startup

Most users are dissatisfied with the speed of turning on the computer and loading Windows with all programs. The computer takes a long time to boot, most often due to large quantities programs that are loaded from startup when the PC is turned on. To speed up your computer boot, you need to disable some programs from startup.

How to do it?

Method No. 1

You can edit startup using Windows itself.

1) First you need to press a combination of buttons WIN+R(a small window will appear in the left corner of the screen) enter the command msconfig(see screenshot below), click on Enter.

For reference. Having Utorrent turned on greatly affects your computer's performance (especially if you have large collection files).

Method No. 2

You can edit startup using large number third party utilities. I'm in Lately actively use the complex. In this complex, changing startup is as easy as shelling pears (and generally optimizing Windows).

1) Launch the complex. In the system management section, open the ““ tab.

2) In the auto-run manager that opens, you can easily and quickly disable certain applications. And the most interesting thing is that the program provides you with statistics about which application and what percentage of users are disabled - very convenient!

By the way, and to remove an application from startup, you need to click the slider once (i.e., in 1 second you removed the application from startup).

4. Cleaning and defragmenting the hard drive

Of course it's new file system NTFS (which has replaced FAT32 on most PC users) is not as susceptible to fragmentation. Therefore, defragmentation can be done less frequently, and yet, this can also affect the speed of the PC.

In this subsection of the article, we will clean the disk of debris and then defragment it. By the way, this procedure needs to be carried out from time to time; then the computer will work noticeably faster.

A good alternative Glary Utilities is another set of utilities specifically for the hard drive: .

To clean the disk you need:

1) Launch the utility and click on the “ Search «;

2) After analyzing your system, the program will prompt you to check the boxes next to the items to delete, and all you have to do is click the “Clear” button. The program will immediately warn you how much space is available. Comfortable!

Windows 8. Cleaning the hard drive.

There is a separate tab in the same utility for defragmentation. By the way, it defragments the disk very quickly, for example, mine system disk 50 GB analyzed and defragmented in 10-15 minutes.

Defragmentation of the hard drive.

5. Setting up AMD/NVIDIA video card drivers + updating drivers

Video card drivers (NVIDIA or AMD (Radeon)) have a great influence on computer games. Sometimes, if you change the driver to an older/newer version, performance can increase by 10-15%! I haven’t noticed this with modern video cards, but on computers 7-10 years old, this is a fairly common occurrence...

In any case, before setting up your video card drivers, you need to update them. In general, I recommend updating drivers from the manufacturer’s official website. But, often, they stop updating older models of computers/laptops, and sometimes even stop supporting models older than 2-3 years. Therefore, I recommend using one of the utilities for updating drivers:

Personally I prefer Slim Drivers: The utility itself will scan your computer, then offer links where you can download updates. Works very fast!

Slim Drivers - update drivers in 2 clicks!

Now, regarding driver settings to get maximum performance in games.

1) Go to the driver control panel (right-click on the desktop and select the appropriate tab from the menu).

NVIDIA

1. Anisotropic filtering. Directly affects the quality of textures in games. Therefore it is recommended switch off.
2. V-Sync (Vertical Sync). A parameter that greatly affects the performance of the video card. For fps increase this option is recommended switch off.
3. Enable scalable textures. We put the point No.
4. Expansion limitation. Need to switch off.
5. Smoothing. Switch off.
6. Triple buffering. Necessary switch off.
7. Texture filtering (anisotropic optimization). This option allows you to increase performance using bilinear filtering. Need to turn on.
8. Texture filtering (quality). Here you set the parameter “ highest performance«.
9. Texture filtering (negative UD deviation). Turn on.
10. Texture filtering (three-line optimization). Turn on.

AMD

• SMOOTHING
  Anti-aliasing mode: Override application settings
  Sample smoothing: 2x
  Filter: Standard
  Smoothing Method: Multiple Sampling
  Morphological filtering: Off
• TEXTURE FILTRATION
  Anisotropic filtering mode: Override application settings
  Anisotropic filtering level: 2x
  Texture filtering quality: Performance
  Surface Format Optimization: On
• FRAME RATE CONTROL
  Wait for vertical update: Always off.
  OpenLG Triple Buffering: Off
• TESSELATION
  Tessellation Mode: AMD Optimized
  Maximum level Tessellation: AMD Optimized

For more information about video card settings, see the articles:

6. Check for viruses + remove antivirus

Viruses and antiviruses have a very significant impact on computer performance. Moreover, the latter are even larger than the former... Therefore, within the framework of this subsection of the article (and we are squeezing maximum performance out of the computer), I will recommend removing the antivirus and not using it.

Comment. The point of this subsection is not to advocate removing the antivirus and not using it. Simply, if the question is about maximum performance, then the antivirus is the program that has a very significant effect on it. Why does a person need an antivirus (which will load the system) if he checked the computer 1-2 times, and then calmly plays games without downloading or installing anything again...

And yet, there is no need to completely get rid of the antivirus. It is much more useful to follow a number of simple rules:

• regularly check your computer for viruses using portable versions (; ) ( portable versions- programs that do not need installation, launched, checked the computer and closed them);
• newly downloaded files before running in mandatory check for viruses (this applies to everything except music, movies and pictures);
• regularly check and update Windows OS (especially for critical patches and updates);
• disable autorun of inserted disks and flash drives (for this you can use hidden settings OS, here is an example of such settings: );
• When installing programs, patches, add-ons, always carefully monitor the checkboxes and never agree to install an unfamiliar program by default. Most often, various advertising modules are installed along with the program;
• make backup copies of important documents and files.

Everyone chooses their own balance: either the speed of the computer or its safety and security. It is unrealistic to achieve the maximum in both at the same time... By the way, not a single antivirus gives any guarantees, especially since now the most trouble is caused by various advertising Adware, built into many browsers and add-ons to them. Antiviruses, by the way, don’t see them.

In this subsection I would like to dwell on some little-used options for increasing computer performance. So…

1) Power settings

Many users turn on/off their computer every hour or two. Firstly, every time you turn on the computer, it creates a load similar to several hours of work. Therefore, if you plan to work on your computer in half an hour or an hour, it is better to put it into sleep mode ().

By the way, a very interesting mode is hibernation. Why turn on your computer from scratch every time and load the same programs, because you can save everything? running applications and work in them on the hard drive?! In general, if you turn off your computer through hibernation, you can significantly speed up its startup/shutdown!

Power settings are located at:

From time to time, especially when the computer starts to work unstably, reboot it. When you reboot, the computer's RAM will be cleared, faulty programs will be closed and you can start a new session without errors.

3) Utilities to speed up and improve PC performance

There are dozens of programs and utilities online to speed up your computer. Most of them are simply advertised “dummies”, along with which various advertising modules are also installed.

However, there are also normal utilities that can really speed up your computer somewhat. I wrote about them in this article: (see paragraph 8, at the end of the article).

4) Cleaning your computer from dust

It is important to pay attention to the temperature of the computer processor and hard drive. If the temperature is higher than usual, there is most likely a lot of dust accumulated in the case. You need to clean your computer from dust regularly (preferably a couple of times a year). Then it will work faster and will not overheat.

5) Cleaning the registry and defragmenting it

In my opinion, there is no need to clean the registry so often and it does not add much speed (like, say, deleting “junk files”). And yet, if you haven’t cleaned the registry of erroneous entries for a long time, I recommend reading this article:

That's all for me. In the article, we touched on most of the ways to speed up a PC and increase its performance without purchasing or replacing components. We did not touch upon the topic of overclocking a processor or video card - but this topic, firstly, is complex; and secondly, it is not safe - you can damage your PC.

All the best to everyone!

PC is complex electronic equipment. In order for everything to work at the desired level, you need to enter the necessary parameters into the system settings.

Exactly from incorrect settings, most often, the computer may work slowly or freeze. When installing different programs, it is important to carefully check whether additional applications are offered to you; they can also slow down the system.

When working at a computer, you want all transitions between folders and files to be carried out instantly, the same applies to the Internet. But it happens that for this you need to wait a few seconds, and when loading the program, even a few minutes. Let's figure out why this happens and what to do to normalize the computer's operation.

Why speed up your PC?

With a little effort, and once spending about an hour of time, you can significantly speed up your PC.

This will give you the opportunity to:

• have more time;
• do work earlier;
• be less nervous;
• work more efficiently.

By acceleration we mean:

• fast opening of folders;
• quick launch of programs;
• quick transitions between tabs in the browser, etc.

What accelerates the system?

If used Windows system 7, then the question of the advisability of acceleration is always relevant. Not all users adopt full set capabilities of this system.

Therefore, a rational step would be to speed up the system by turning off unused programs. At the same time, such acceleration allows you to free up system resources and transfer them to performing user tasks. As a result, it is possible to work more complex programs and a significant reduction in command processing time. This shift in priorities allows you to more accurately meet the goals of the computer owner.

Video: How to speed up your computer

Ways to speed up computer performance on Windows 7

Before speeding up your computer, you need to decide on the tasks it will perform. In this regard, you can choose several methods that will help improve productivity. All of them imply exemption from use unnecessary applications, services, gadgets and programs.

The most in effective ways are:

• disable GUI effects;
• removing unnecessary programs from startup;
• stopping unused services;
• removing unnecessary files from the desktop;
• disabling gadgets on the desktop;
• cleaning the registry.

Cleaning programs in autorun

To clear autorun and speed up the system, you need to:

Stop unused services.

For this operation, you need to enable those programs that you will constantly use ( text editor, player and others) in order to activate the necessary services.

This will allow you to highlight what is needed for work:

Cleaning the registry

This way to speed up performance Windows 7 is the simplest if used for this purpose special program. For example, the CCleaner program is suitable for this. It will allow you to part with painlessly unnecessary trash not only in system registry, but also in other places on the computer. The operation of this application is simple:

HDD defragmentation

This operation, roughly speaking, collects scattered files into one heap. After this, it is easier for the system to find them.

To start the defragmentation procedure you must:

In the window that appears, you first need to select an analysis, and then, based on its results, perform the necessary actions. Defragmentation must be done before speeding up startup Windows computer 7 other ways. It happens that this procedure can reduce for a long time inclusions.

Deleting files from the desktop

For fast work systems an important condition there will be a clean desktop. The fact is that Windows 7 constantly pays attention to files, folders and shortcuts that are directly located in this location. Basically, they are constantly present in the computer's memory as unnecessary ballast.

If there are large movies, folders with a large internal structure and other files on the desktop, then they need to be moved to a logical drive.

This method speeds up the work of an old computer that is cluttered with files.

Visual effects

Any colorful transitions and animations in the computer’s operation affect its speed. Therefore, it is worth finding a middle ground between beauty and productivity, or completely focusing on work.

To disable effects:

Slow computer boot when turning off/on, what to do To answer the question: how can speed up loading

computer, you need to pay attention to the swap file. Before shutting down, the system always deletes it and this takes a lot of time. Therefore, the drastic way would be to disable this operation.

To disable this feature you need to do the following:

The result was that we set 0 seconds to complete the file deletion operation. In fact, the file simply remains in place untouched.

In order to speed up the system boot, you need to perform the following operations:

Adding RAM to existing memory is an easy way to improve performance. The downside is that you have to spend money on the purchase.

This method globally increases the speed of not only the operating system, but also all programs in general. But if there were critical errors in Windows 7, then this method is unlikely to help. It should be used only when other methods have not given the desired result.

Selection of video card

There will be a noticeable improvement in performance when installing a more powerful video card. It will work faster and will not take up many resources from the system. You need to pay attention to the amount of internal memory in the video card; the more, the better.

It is also worth noting that powerful video cards require separate power. They consume an impressive amount of energy compared to a computer. Therefore, you need to make sure in advance that the power supply can withstand such a load.

Virus check

The most common problem with reduced computer performance is infection with viruses. They can enter the system mainly through the Internet, or through removable media information.

If you have a constant connection to the Internet, you need Full time job antivirus program. If it is not there, then you need to regularly check the system for viruses. On the Internet, which is fast, it is much easier for viruses to enter the system. That's why antivirus program must be on guard. This article should help you tune Windows 7 for maximum performance. Regardless of your computer settings, these tips will help ensure stable work. After taking the steps described above, there will be a guaranteed improvement in work speed.

When working on performance, it is worth keeping in mind the features of each computer build. When making changes to the registry, you need to be extremely careful not to delete data, without which the system will stop working.

As productive as possible. But over time, computers running this OS tend to slow down and require special measures to restore them to their former glory. In addition, some features of Windows 7 can, in principle, be used to improve system performance. In this article, I'll share ten ways to optimize Windows 7 performance.

1. Disable unnecessary services

Not all services running by default in Windows 7 are really needed. Some can be disabled altogether or configured to run only when needed. In this case, unnecessary services will not consume system resources, and the system will not waste time starting them.

2. Reduce the number of programs in startup

Windows 7 eventually begins to suffer under the load of installed software. Many programs install a lot unnecessary components, including auxiliary utilities that are needed only to speed up the launch of the main program or facilitate interaction with related services and devices (for example, the iTunesHelper application). In addition, new programs often add a persistent component to the system tray when installed, even if this component is not vital for everyday use systems (Steam gaming service client, for example).

It is worth looking through all the programs installed on your computer and removing unnecessary ones. But in some cases it makes sense to leave the application and simply prevent it from starting every time the system starts. This and much more can be done using MSconfig utilities, a long-standing Windows component. It allows you to selectively disable programs at startup, as well as optimize system performance in other respects.

To launch MSconfig, open the Start menu and type "MSconfig" (without quotes) in the search bar. On the Startup tab (Fig. A), you can disable individual programs. Just be more careful in your choice.

Figure A: Disable startup programs to improve system performance.

3. Remove unnecessary programs from the manufacturer

I have long had the impression that Microsoft's OEM partners sometimes deliberately try to ruin the reputation of the Redmond giant. This is especially evident when it comes to a set of pre-installed software garbage. In the never-ending race for low prices manufacturers are trying to increase the profitability of cheap computers by installing all sorts of nonsense on them - short-term trial versions programs and other similar garbage. This brings them only a couple of extra dollars from each sale, and the performance of the computer is seriously affected by such garbage. Frankly, this is one of the reasons why I think the announcement of the Microsoft Surface, Microsoft's own device, is a significant event. The company needs to start with a clean slate.

If you also have a bunch of proprietary junk installed on your computer, remove everything unnecessary. To do this, go to “Start | Control Panel | Programs and components" (Start | Control Panel| Programs And Features, fig. B) and uninstall programs that you do not intend to use. If junk applications are also added to startup, removing them will help speed up your computer startup and generally improve performance.

Figure B. Use Programs and Features to remove unnecessary software.

4. Protect your system from viruses and spyware

For Windows protection An antivirus is absolutely required for viruses and spyware. Nothing slows down system performance more than a bunch of spyware. My favorite (and free!) antivirus tool is Microsoft Security Essentials. In my experience, it does an excellent job of protecting against malware without overloading the operating system itself.

5. Check your RAM

6. Switch to solid-state drives

Solid State Drives are all the rage these days, and for good reason, because they're fast! More and more laptops and even desktop computers translated into new technology due to significant performance gains. Solid-state drives are used to store memory cells from which data can be read very quickly, in contrast to the relatively slow rotating drives, which include traditional hard disks. Installing an SSD brings Windows 7 to life new life, and give yourself a completely new user experience.

True, solid-state drives are quite expensive, so you need to approach their use wisely.

7. Optimize your power settings for better performance

Everything is simple here. Configure Windows 7 to prioritize performance over energy savings when connecting to a power outlet. By choosing a high-performance power plan, you can improve Windows 7 performance in many (though not all) situations. It all depends on how you work on your computer and how often it is idle.

You can select a power plan in the “Start | Control Panel | Power" (Start | Control Panel | Power Options, Fig. C).

Figure C: Look in the Power Options section to change settings. Windows power supply 7.

8. Defragment your disk regularly (if you didn't follow tip 6)

If you have a traditional spinning disk installed in your computer, get the system to maximum efficiency possible by regularly defragmenting it. But if you installed solid state drive, it is not necessary. Firstly, performance will not increase from this, and secondly, you will significantly reduce the service life of an expensive SSD.

By default, disk defragmentation occurs once a week, but these settings can be changed in the Start | All programs | Standard | Service | Disk Defragmenter" (Start | All programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmenter, Fig. D). Here you can not only adjust the schedule, but also start defragmentation manually. Defragmentation can also be performed from command line rather than from the GUI.

Figure D You can change the defragmentation schedule in the Disk Defragmenter window.

9. Turn off search indexing or reduce search intensity

Search in Windows 7 is a good thing, but it can negatively affect system performance. If you require maximum performance, indexing can be completely disabled or its intensity reduced depending on your own needs in order to reduce the load on system resources ( cm.).

10. Use ReadyBoost

You may not be ready to switch to solid-state drives right now, but in general, you wouldn't give up the benefits that flash storage can provide. In this case, you can use ReadyBoost function, which allows you to improve the performance of Windows 7 just using a USB flash drive.

ReadyBoost gives the system the ability to use high-speed storage as a cache, increasing overall performance. The flash drive for ReadyBoost must match certain parameters installed by Microsoft:

Capacity of at least 256 MB, free space of at least 64 KB.
The reading speed of random blocks of 4 KB is at least 2.5 MB/s.
The writing speed of random blocks of 1 MB is at least 1.75 MB/s.

Figure E. ReadyBoost is not useful for this system.

Over time, the computer operating system undergoes wear and tear, which affects both the performance of the device and our nerves. This is especially noticeable when working on weak computers. However, this is far from a reason for premature Windows reinstallation, and you shouldn’t rush to create an installation flash drive and remember which key starts the transition to the BIOS. Taking advantage of several in simple ways, we will not only return crystalline virginity to our system, but also speed it up, in some places making it run faster than the new one.

Why does my computer slow down?

Most often, the slowdown of the operating system is associated with its inept use: incorrect deletion programs, cluttered hard drive and lack of timely measures to clean it. At the very same Windows installation 7, few people change the standard system configurations, which are far from optimal.

Hardware acceleration: unloading the processor

Hardware acceleration is the redistribution of some system functions from the main processor to Hardware to increase overall computer performance.

In other words, this is shifting part of the CPU work to the video card, if it is able to handle it faster.

The hardware acceleration feature is enabled in all builds of Windows 7 by default. You can check this using the following path:

1. Right-click on the desktop and select “Screen Resolution”.

   Select “Screen Resolution”

2. Now go to “Advanced options”.
   

   In the window that opens, select “Advanced settings” On the “Diagnostics” tab, select “Change settings”

If this button is inactive, there is no need to panic: hardware acceleration you have it turned on, and the caring developers of the video adapter foresaw what could get you here, and removed changing the settings away from the wrong hands.

The required button is “Change settings”. If it is inactive, acceleration is already enabled

Visual Effects: Maximum System Performance

Nice graphic Windows interface 7 puts a very noticeable load on the computer hardware, which cannot but affect its performance. Visual design, of course, serves as a good addition to the operating system, but when it begins to noticeably affect its performance, it is better to sacrifice beauty for the sake of optimization.

1. Right-click on the “Computer” icon and go to “Properties”.

   Click on “Advanced system settings”

Now we need to get to “Advanced system settings”. Select the “Advanced” tab and in the first section “Performance” open “Settings”.

Select “Options” in the “Performance” section

2. In the “Visual Effects” tab, check the “Ensure the best performance” value and click “Apply”.
   

   Our choice - "Best performance"

3. These settings disable all visual effects and provide maximum performance, however, the system begins to look rather unsightly. If the resulting style makes you disgusted and sad and gives you nightmares about Windows 95, return the checkboxes to some menu items:
   • “Enable desktop composition”;
   • “Using display styles for windows and buttons”;
   • "Show thumbnails instead of icons";
   • “Smooth out jagged screen fonts.”
4. We agree by clicking the “OK” button.

Hard drive: memory cleaning and defragmentation

All files that are written to the hard drive are divided into many sequential fragments in order to reduce the space used. As a result, in order to read the file, the computer is forced to put them back together. And the presence of various debris in its path increases the reading time, which slows down the system and causes delays of varying lengths when opening or changing files. At the same time, the speed of work, of course, drops.

The simplest solution to this problem is regular cleaning of the hard drive from junk and equally regular defragmentation. Systematically removing extra files

and programs from your PC, you can greatly increase its speed. First, you should clean up the space you use: remove unnecessary music, watched movies, setup files , hundreds of new Microsoft documents

Word and other delights of human presence.

It is worth getting rid of unused programs. Let's start with this.

1. How to increase performance: cleaning the hard drive

   To begin, select “Control Panel” from the Start menu.

2. Select “Control Panel”
   
3. Go to “Uninstall a program”.
   

   We carefully study the list, find an outdated or unnecessary program, right-click on it and delete it.

4. Right-click on the unnecessary program and select “Uninstall” Now let's get rid of system garbage. Combination Windows keys
   

   (flag on the keyboard) + R call the “Run” command, enter %temp% and click “OK”. This way we will quickly move to the location where the “junk” temporary files are stored, and we won’t have to spend a long and tedious time trying to find them in the system.

5. Go to the "Temp" folder Everything that is in the called folder is temporary files. At the same time - system garbage
   

   which is to be deleted. Using the key combination Ctrl + A, select everything and delete it.

6. Select all files in the folder and delete them If some files stubbornly refuse to be deleted, there is nothing wrong with that. Most likely, they are being used right now by some active programs
   

   If some files do not want to be deleted, skip them

7. Now you can move on to the next step of cleaning your hard drive from system debris. Going to “Computer”, right-click on “Local Disk (C:)” and click “Properties”.
   

   The item we need is “Properties”

8. Going to the “General” tab, select “Disk Cleanup”.
   

   Select the “Disk Cleanup” button

9. When the system analyzes the estimated amount of garbage that can be removed, the disk cleanup menu will open. In this menu, in the list of files available for deletion, check all the boxes, click “OK” and confirm deleting the files.
   

   Select the files that the system will delete

10. After cleaning, uncheck the box “Allow the contents of files on this disk to be indexed in addition to file properties” and click “OK”. In the window that opens, do not change anything and click “OK” again. If the “Access Denied” window pops up, click “Continue”, and “Error changing attributes” - click “Skip all”.

If there are several system disks on the computer, we clean them all in the same way.

Disk defragmentation: how to speed up your PC

After completion, repeat the procedure with the remaining disks.

How to work with CCleaner: PC cleaning program

For next step we will need the CCleaner utility, which allows us to clean up all the system junk that we were unable to remove using Windows tools. The program is free, and you can download it from the official website http://ccleaner.org.ua/. This is not the only one and not even best utility, which helps clean and speed up the system, but CCleaner is simpler and more accessible than anything else.

1. Having launched the installed program, go to the Applications tab, where we uncheck everything that is still dear to your heart (for example, browser history), and then click Run Cleaner.

   The button we need is Run Cleaner

2. After cleaning, go to the Registry section and click Scan for Issues. After completing the analysis, click Fix selected issues.
   

   We find problems and errors in the registry and fix them: the Scan for issues and Fix selected items buttons, respectively

3. Now let's move on to Tools section and select the Startup tab. Listed here are all the programs that start automatically when you turn on Windows. Select all unnecessary ones and click Disable. This way we will disable their autorun and reduce the load on RAM.

   We remove all unnecessary programs from autorun using the Disable button

Page file: speeding up RAM

The paging file, also known as virtual memory, is a separate space on the hard drive that serves as an intermediate link in the exchange of information between the RAM and the hard drive.

Windows 7 by default makes the page file 50% larger than the amount of RAM, but sometimes this size is too small. This leads to frequent overwriting of the file or direct access to the main sectors of the hard drive, which negatively affects the performance of the system.

1. First you need to determine the amount of RAM. To do this, go to the “Start” menu, right-click on “Computer” and go to the “Properties” option.

   First, go to computer properties

2. Here we look closely at the volume installed memory(RAM), and if it is more than 4 GB, then nothing should be changed. Otherwise, go to “Advanced system settings”.
   

   If you need to increase the paging file, go to “Advanced system settings”

3. Here, on the “Advanced” tab, in the “Performance” section, click on the “Options” button.
   

   We need a “Change” button in the “Virtual Memory” section

4. First, uncheck the “Automatically select paging file size” checkbox. After that, mark the “Specify size” marker and set the values ​​larger. The optimal option is 5120 MB for original size and 7680 MB for maximum. Now click the “Set” button and confirm by clicking the “OK” button in all the windows we have opened.
   

   Enter new values ​​in the marked fields, click “Set” and “OK”

MSconfig: increasing speed

Some of installed programs have a bad habit of working in the background, which not only loads precious RAM, but also hides from our sensitive gaze. The volume they occupy individually is, as a rule, not particularly large, but together they take up quite a lot of resources, and by closing the pests, you can significantly relieve the load on RAM.

1. Using the Windows + R key combination, call the “Run” service, enter the msconfig command in the field and click “OK”.

   Using the corresponding request, we find msconfig

2. In the window that opens, go to the “Services” tab. All processes that are running in the background are marked here. To begin with, in order not to disrupt the operation of the system, put a checkmark on “Do not display Microsoft services" After that, with peace of mind, we remove the checkmarks from all remaining items. Confirm the changes by clicking the “OK” button.
   

   Uncheck all services except system ones (and important ones, like antivirus)

3. Don't forget to uncheck all the boxes in the "Startup" tab. Essentially, this is copying the actions that we have already carried out previously using CCleaner; but, if for some reason you were unable to turn off autoloading then, now is the time.
   

   Uncheck all startup programs and click OK

Overclocking the CPU: video instructions

Nothing worked, and all other methods of increasing performance did not help? In this case, you can take extreme measures: for example, overclocking the processor. By overclocking it, that is, increasing the clock frequency, you can increase performance several times and equalize the characteristics of your processor with more powerful line(however, this will require some effort and cooling costs). You can learn how to do this from the video below.

Overclocking the video adapter: instructions with video

If the performance of the processor is quite satisfactory for you, but you are a gamer and have problems with graphics, we have something for you good news: You can overclock not only the CPU! The video below is dedicated to overclocking a video card. Speeding up an existing video adapter will certainly be cheaper than buying a new one, spending a decent amount. True, here you also need to take care of cooling.

But don’t forget: overclocking a computer is one thing, but making sure it doesn’t burn out after that is quite another. So approach such things responsibly and take care of your equipment.

So we've done everything possible procedures to speed up Windows 7, and now our system runs as fast as possible. Other ways that are guaranteed to raise overall performance, unfortunately, does not exist: well, perhaps, changing components for your PC. Be happy and don't forget to defragment.