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Top 10 tweaks you profited the most from?


GrofLuigi

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OK, my idea is to share in this topic the experiences from "classic" tweaking (mostly from reg entries), excluding complicated "tracing" like in wonderful MagicAndre's guides, but others might share their experiences with that too, if it is the most notable thing that made the difference for them. So it would be like top 10 list (both more and less items are allowed :yes: ), because a poll is useles in this case.

In the sense of this topic and my belief, "tweaking" is doing something to make Windows work better, either by changing the "safe default" to something that utilizes the hardware more, turning some component on or, most frequently, turning some unwanted component off and or/deleting files/reg entries.

In my opinion, to "tame" Windows 7/Vista is a job order (or two) of magnitude greater than with previous OS-es. While with OS-es up to XP I could get the job (of clean install + updates+ installing few most needed programs + calming down) done in 3 days, with 7 I'm satisfied and confident in the OS installation only after 3 weeks or more. Of course, that time will go down with experience, but it will never approach the time XP requires.

So here goes my list, from best to "less best, but still pretty good":

1. Install SSD - OK, I break my criterium with the first item, but I think it absolutely made most difference - on a 5400 laptop HDD, Windows 7 was unbearable, but even on a crappy first gen SSD it can be lived with. Other tweaks help, but this is the biggest quantum leap.

2. Use "Install Wim Tweak" / "DISM remove components" (Also pre-install "liters", of which I use Windows 7 Toolkit) - a great help to speed up cleaning, but of course, even though some dependencies are mapped, we're still a long way from a "safe" preset or list for everyone.

3. Turn off "Startup Event Trace Sessions" in "Computer Management -> performance -> Data Collector Sets" - The speeedup is noticeable immediately (OK, after reboot), at the expense of losing functionality that might or might not be needed. :whistle:

4. Remove unneeded foreign language fonts - yeah, it still makes a big difference.

5. With the help of Sysinternals Autoruns and/or Nirsoft's ActiveXHelper, FileTypesMan, MimeView, RegDllView, ShellExtensionsView remove unnecessary things (Now you know why it takes me weeks to complete this. :whistle: )

6. Tweak services, of course.

7 Turn off IPv6 protocols (they are still not widely used today, but it might be needed someday). I noticed some speedup (maybe it's all in my head?).

8. Take ownership of files/reg keys - not a tweak in itself , but a skill that every Win7 tweaker must learn. :)

9. Plain old Reg tweaks - I can't really single out one or few that is/are most important and made most of the difference because there are simply too many of them (my XP tweaks folder is 300 KB, the new one for 7 is addidional 150 KB on top of that - many of the old ones still apply).

10 Boot tracing with Process Monitor - it's not the tracing that is important, it's deciphering and hunting for the undocumented registry entries that's fun for me. I strongly believe that it's better to "tell" windows what you want - leaving registry entries unpopulated is simply not an option for me. Of course, you have to find the default, which is not always easy to do or obvious, but it is still rewarding IMO.

So, that's it. I hope this will bring some useful discussion.

GL

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  • 11 months later...

11. (but should be between 4 and 5 according to its usefullness to me): bcdedit /set useplatformclock true

Instructs Windows to use HPET as its only timer (clock), increasing snappiness for me. Some report the opposite. Can also be useful when changing FSB/BCLK from within Windows and the state is not synchronized with what Windows had seen at boot.

GL

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 weeks later...

3. Turn off "Startup Event Trace Sessions" in "Computer Management -> performance -> Data Collector Sets" - The speeedup is noticeable immediately (OK, after reboot), at the expense of losing functionality that might or might not be needed. :whistle:

Do you disable all of them without problems? It's my understanding that disabling these three can be problematic:

K7tGFktL.png

I fully agree on 1. , SSDs are the next best thing since sliced bread.

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  • 1 month later...

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