Making a fast windows 7?

[kobe]

I installed W7 in a Core 2 Duo 2GHz and 2GB of RAM and Im surprised on how slow it is. Since I had no choice I decided to isntall a nlited Windows XP Sp3 with an updatepack and the result is a fast system.

 

Then I was wondering if it is possible to create a fast Windows 7, but being still usable for the average home user (internet, office, games). I tried ntlite but its just not enough. In fact, instead of not enough is the reverse thing. Windows XP with removed components and added updates grows nothing, its about 1GB installed and fast as hell. W7 with all the updates and removed components grows from 6GB to 10GB and its even slower.

 

So, anyone can provide a list of services that can be safely disabled? A list of components of ntlite would be perfect too, since I dont have the knowledge necessary to do that.

 

I also was thinking in using maybe an alternative system like embedded windows, though the problems may be the same.

 

Thanks

[alacran]

If you want Win7, install Win7 x86 for your 2 GB of RAM do not install Win7 x64 if you don't have 4GB of RAM or more.

 

alacran

[Kelsenellenelvian]

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/smart-a-utility-for-tweaking-windows-7-vista-xp-services

This will help you a ton

[kobe]

Im trying the smart utility but I dont want to use the "moderate" settings since it says for advanced users. Im testing what to install in the laptop i said, with a hdd at 5.400rpm and so far every windows I have tried (7 x64 nlite, 7 x64 and posready 7 x32) are all above 400mb of ram. The main problem is that it has to load all of this at start and makes it very slow. I still have to try 7 x32 with ntlite and the smart utility though I have not much faith. I think I will have to stick to windows xp... Though I would like a solution to use windows 7. Ill post the results of the virtual box installations I have done.

[netbookdelgob]

What about windows 8.1? In a core 2 duo e4500 and 1gb ram is fast.

[kobe]

These are the results of RAM usage in virtualbox:

- POSready 7 x32: 403 MB

- POSready 7 SMART moderate x32: 368 MB

- 7x32: 336 MB

- 7x32 ntlited: 340 MB

- 7x32 ntlited SMART moderate; 344 MB

- 7x64: 428 MB

- 7x64 ntlited updates: 435 MB

- 7x64 ntlited updates SMART moderate; 346 MB

 

I removed only safe things with ntlite, so it could explain why there is no significant difference with the normal version. All Windows 7 are the Home Premium edition. Updates means integrating all updates from WHDownloader (general, hotfixes and security), it makes the installation to increase by about 5GB and the installation takes way more time.

 

Conclusion:

- Its actually surprising that the POSready 7 uses more RAM than the normal version.

- The x32 is slighlty better over the x64 to computers with low resources.

- The x64 version gets a huge 100 MB boost using the SMART utility, opposed at the about 10 MB boost from the x32 version (maybe influenced by the updates, not sure though).

 

Still, 300 MB is too much for the computer where I want to install it. Not because of the processor or the RAM, but because the laptop HDD is VERY VERY slow, its not like a desktop one, and has to load, not just the 300 MB but more things during the start. At this point I consider Windows updates (the service and downloading) disposable, it would only hinder the performance by a lot.

So… I would appreciate help in the matter, if its even possible. If it isnt, then I will have to install Windows XP, though I would like to avoid that.

 

Thanks for reading

[kobe]

What about windows 8.1? In a core 2 duo e4500 and 1gb ram is fast.

 

I will try but I have doubts. Is windows 8.1 overall faster than 7?

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Im trying the smart utility but I dont want to use the "moderate" settings since it says for advanced users. Im testing what to install in the laptop i said, with a hdd at 5.400rpm and so far every windows I have tried (7 x64 nlite, 7 x64 and posready 7 x32) are all above 400mb of ram. The main problem is that it has to load all of this at start and makes it very slow. I still have to try 7 x32 with ntlite and the smart utility though I have not much faith. I think I will have to stick to windows xp... Though I would like a solution to use windows 7. Ill post the results of the virtual box installations I have done.

I use moderate settings all the time. Please note that you can have it set a restore point too

[kobe]

Im trying Windows 8.1 and it actually consumes low RAM, something like Windows 7. Maybe with several tweaks I can make it consume even less. However the SMART utility you posted isnt designed for windows 8. Do you know a similar utility like this for Win 8?

 

And also a question. The tiles in windows 8, even if you use the normal desktop, do they consume resources for being at the background? If so, can you link me a tutorial to disable them?

 

Many thanks

Edited October 11, 2015 by kobe

[netbookdelgob]

Try disabling some services.

 

About the tiles check this http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5255-apps-turn-live-tiles-off-windows-8-a.html

(I dont know if they are open even if you use the normal desktop)

[vinifera]

win 7 uses RAM as it needs, you can't affect that

you can only lower the ISO size (wim)

and installed size

 

that all comes with few glitches

but speed mostly comes from less files to access

disabled indexer

disabled search

disabled volume shadow copies

disabled sys restore

removed natural language

removed sxs backup folder

disabled defragmenter

disabled superfetch

disabled and/or removed .net 3.5

disabled hibernation

disabled page file

 

then you need bunch of reg tweaks that would run while installation is finishing but before user logons to desktop

now you have foundation for lighter seven

Edited October 15, 2015 by vinifera

[NoelC]

I STRONGLY suggest you get an SSD if you don't already have one, and make it your system drive.  They're not terribly expensive and you'll never want to use an HDD-equipped system again.  Reducing system drive seek time (latency) to near zero is the single best thing you can do to make a computer much more responsive.

 

As vinifera suggests, disable indexing.  That's not a trivial process to do right, but it can be done:

 

Disable the indexing service:

• Click Start and type the word services in the search box.
• When Services (with little gears) comes up, click it.
• Scroll down to the Windows Search service.
• Right-click it and choose Properties.
• Change the Startup type to Disabled.
• Click [ Stop ] to stop the service.

Delete the existing index:

• Click Start and type the word index in the search box.
• When Indexing options comes up, click it.
• Click the [ Advanced ] button.
• Click the [ Rebuild ] button to delete the index.

So that you're not nagged by Windows to reenable indexing:

• Click Start and type folder options in the search box.
• In the Folder Options dialog, click the Search tab.
• Enable setting Don't use the index when searching in file folders for system files (searches might take longer).

Ensure Library features don't try to use Indexing:

• Click Start and type group policy into the search box. **
• In the Local Group Policy Editor, navigate into:

> User Configuration

    > Administrative Templates

        > Windows Components

            > Windows Explorer

• Enable setting Turn off Windows Libraries features that rely on indexed file data.

Note:  If you do not have gpedit.msc, the following registry value is created by the above.  Delete this value to return to default behavior:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Explorer]

DisableIndexedLibraryExperience   REG_DWORD   1

To ensure you can search in the Start Menu:

• Right-click on the Start orb and choose Properties.
• Click the [Customize...] button at the upper-right.
• Scroll down to Search other files and libraries and choose the Search with public folders option.
• Reboot after completing all of the above.

 

-Noel

Edited October 18, 2015 by NoelC

[alacran]

And additionally you can also download SwiftSearch (Free): http://sourceforge.net/projects/swiftsearch/

 

 

Description

SwiftSearch is a lightweight program whose purpose is to help you quickly find the files you need on your Windows machine without ever requiring you to index your drives. Most search utilities that achieve similar speeds do so by indexing drives while the computer is idle, but because idleness detection is so difficult to get right, in practice they end up slowing down the whole system just to speed up search. SwiftSearch works differently: given administrator privileges, it completely bypasses the file system (only NTFS supported) and reads the file table directly every time, which speeds up search by many orders of magnitude. Typically searches yield full results in ~10 seconds or less, a significant speedup for many users. As a bonus, this program also supports path-based search (for example, you can search for "*Program*\Windows*"), regular expressions (just start the search name with '>' character), and full directory sizes. Its goal is to be simple, swift, and intuitive to use.

 

alacran