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5 Tips To Make Windows Faster And More Reliable

by Chris Pirillo on March 26, 2008 at 12:44 pm · Comments
Categorized by Feedback, Tips / Related Information

Bulgarian Gnomie Nik writes:

Hello, Chris. My name is Nik (aka K915 on YouTube and in the chat room). I would like to present my top five things to do to make Windows faster and more reliable. I know there are a lot of videos and materials about this out there (you probably even have a video covering this topic), but still I decided to share my little experience with you and the people on YouTube.

  1. Increase the virtual RAM. It’s also called the paging file — and believe me, it plays a big role. It acts like RAM for applications, including games and programs. You can expand it to whatever size you want, but it also depends on the size of your hard drive. I use a 40 GB hard (yes, I’m looking forward to upgrading it) and I’ve set up the maximum for the paging file: 1900 MB. I’ve tested the Windows performance lots of times with little virtual RAM and with the maximum capacity, and there is a big difference in a very good way.

  2. Windows visual effects must go! Switch off all the visual effects, dragging windows with contents, mouse shade, and so on. These take RAM and slow down the process of other programs. This is very useful for Windows XP and Vista.
  3. If you are an experienced user, you can edit the registry entries to make things faster. There are delays for minimizing windows, program starting, and even the Start menu. For example, did you notice that you have to wait some time to bring up the Start menu? Yes, you have. It’s a matter of milliseconds, but when you edit most of the stuff to work without delay you can see good results.
  4. Keep the registry clean! A messy registry with unnecessary and useless keys is a very bad thing! Cleaning it up and sorting it can prove to be very effective. But be careful — registry entries are not to be played with, so this tip is recommended for medium-level users. There are also a lot of programs on the Web to do that for you.
  5. Disable the Windows sounds! Sure you can listen to music, but Windows Startup, Shutoff, and Logon sounds take time to load and play. My advice is to get all the Windows sounds disabled. That way the sound doesn’t play before you start and program, and there’s no delay.
  6. Bonus: Always use CPU-friendly programs. For example, don’t run many chat clients separately; they take a lot of CPU. Why have WLM , Yahoo! Messenger, and ICQ all started when you can have Miranda and use them all in one program? Switch off unnecessary programs that you don’t use at the moment.

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What are your thoughts?

cerberus - March 26, 2008 @ 8:41 pm

Helpful tips! Thanks, Nik.

leftystrat - March 28, 2008 @ 10:26 am

Good tips.

Your virtual mem tip runs counter to most advice I’ve read (not that I’m disputing your results).

You make a tremendous point about shutting down graphics. The reason Windows is so slow in general is graphics. Don’t forget - it was built on top of DOS. Vista is a nightmare because of graphics (and hiding).

Some other ways to speed up:
1. don’t use a ton of desktop shortcuts
2. don’t use fancy wallpaper, pictures or web pages for your desktop
3. clean up junk regularly (Ccleaner)
4. Revo Uninstaller removes the program and the assorted junk it leaves behind
5. Opera and K-Meleon are fast, small browsers. Firefox3 is faster than Firefox2. There are few, if any, reasons to use IE.
6. Microsoft’s TweakUI can slim down any version of Windows

Windows is known for eating every resource you throw at it. I mention this because I can run Windows as a virtual machine under linux, with limited resources, and it’s much better behaved.

McKenzie - March 28, 2008 @ 12:29 pm

Good tips Nik however here’s a few little things I’ve discovered working with computers over the years to also consider. 1st regarding VirtualRAM or PageFile I’ve always found for best performance (assuming you’ve got enough RAM which you should if you’re running XP or Vista) your PageFile size should be equal to 1 1/2 times your actual RAM. Also this value should be the same in both initial and maximum values. Further I’ve also found that by creating a small hard disc partition (slightly larger than the size of your PageFile) which I’ll usually assign as drive “V” (for virtual memory) and I’ll usually name it something like “PageFile” then create a PageFile on this partition and eliminate all other PageFiles (check every drive installed on your machine as you don’t need more than 1.) If you like you can also do the same thing for your “Temp” files. Just create another partition assigned as “T” and name it temp, however if you do so just remember to edit your Environment Variables to reflect this change. In doing so you will find a great deal less drive fragmentation and this is very similar to the way Linux/Unix systems handle Virtual Memory or PageFiles. Now regarding your recommendations for the Registry you are right on the money however you failed to offer any solutions, of which my personal favorite at this time is the free program C Cleaner which does a pretty good job of general drive/registry maintenance (just remember to uncheck the little box when installing as you really don’t need the “Toolbar” it likes to install.) Last, while I’ve never used “Miranda” and in no way saying there’s anything wrong with this program I just wanted to mention another great program I’ve been using for years now called “Trillian” from Cerulean Studios. They offer both a very capable “free” version and a very reasonably priced “pro” version with additional audio/video capability. Anyway hopes this might be of help to some Lockernomies out there. Peace.

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