10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows 7

The original post in my ’10 Simple Ways’ (XP, Vista) series was written 3.5 years ago and is still the most popular post on this site.  For the last two years I’ve been running Windows 7 News, the leading site for Windows 7, so it’s time to share 10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows 7.

Windows 7 is fast, but you can always have more speed, right? These Windows 7 tweaks are suitable for all levels of users, but, if you’re looking for more advanced tweaks then check out the Windows 7 Forum.  Don’t have Windows 7 yet?  Then click here to pre-order and save 50%.

Faster Window Switching

Disabling the Minimise-Maximise animation can make your PC run a lot faster.  Disabling is easy:

• Go to Start and type in ‘SystemPropertiesPerformance‘
• Go the Visual Effects tab
• Uncheck ‘Animate windows when minimizing and maximising‘ and click OK

Speedup Windows 7 Boot Times

Windows 7 only uses one core to boot out of the box.  By increasing the number of cores used you can decrease the boot time:

1. Click on Start and then ‘Run’
   
2. Search for Run and type ‘msconfig’
3. Click on the tab ‘Boot’ and click on ‘Advanced options…’
4. Check ‘Number of processors’ and enter how many your PC has (usually 2,4 or 8)
5. Click ‘OK’ and ‘Apply’
6. Reboot
   

Remove Unwanted Fonts

Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.

• Open Control Panel
• Open Fonts folder
• Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.

SpeedUp Windows 7 Shutdown Time

Windows 7 shutdowns a lot faster than Vista or XP, but it can be improved further by making this registry change which reduced the time Windows waits to kill processes:

• Click on Start and type in regedit and hit Enter
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControl
• Right-click on WaitToKillServiceTimeOut and change and lower the value
• The default is 12000 (12 seconds) but you can lower this to any number
  
• Click ok and restart PC