Speed up your Windows 7

Want to speed up your new Windows operating system? Check out our tips on how to speed up Windows 7.

Microsoft’s new operating system (OS) has been getting rave reviews since it was in the infancy of its beta form. If you’re loving your new Windows 7 OS but wish it was just a little bit speedier, you’re in luck. Here are some tips to speed up this already light and speedy new OS.

Meet the Minimum. First things first, make sure you’re meeting the minimum hardware requirements to run Windows 7. You should have at least 1GHz processor (32 or 64-bit), 1GB of main memory, 16GB available disk space, support for the Aero interface (DX9 graphics support with 128MB of memory), and a DVD-R/W drive.

Cut Unwanted Programs. Cutting down on the amount of programs running is always a good idea. To figure out and cut down on programs running in the background you can use msconfig or just install software that will identify those programs secretly running. Some programs will open automatically, so try this:

• Go to Start and enter ‘msconfig’
• Click on the startup tab and uncheck anything you don’t need

Disable Min-Max Animation. By disabling the Minimize-Maximize animation you’ll speed up your window switching and make your Windows 7 PC run faster. To disable:

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

Forget the Fonts. Removing unwanted fonts—especially TrueType fonts—will also speed up Windows 7. Keep the ones you need and use, and then remove the rest—but put those unwanted fonts in a temporary directory just in case you want them some day. To do this:

• Open Control Panel
• Open Fonts folder
• Move fonts temporary space

Turn Off System Sounds. This is a basic for speeding things up—and it will definitely free up some resources. To do this:

• Go To Start and type in mmsys.cpl
• Click on the Sounds tab and choose ‘No Sounds‘ in the sound scheme drop down

Disable Aero. If you really need the extra speed then yes, you can disable Windows 7 Aero. To do this:

• Right-click on your desktop and select ‘Personalize‘ and click the ‘Window Color‘ tab
• Uncheck the ‘Enable Transparency’ box
• Click on ‘Open classic appearance properties for more color options’
• Choose a Standard or Basic theme from the popup that appears