How do I ensure windows is fast, fluid and responsive all the time?

[slicksilver]

I'm on Win7 Ultimate and would like to hear your thoughts, suggestions and tips on how to ensure that windows is fast, fluid and responsive like how it is when the OS is newly installed. My config is listed below and I dont think its responsive for the slow down after installation of MS Office and the usual programs.

Intel Q6600
4GB RAM
64GB Vertex 2 SSD

Any inputs would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[lxskllr]

A clean install is faster because it's clean. Adding software inevitably slows it down some. Nothing you can really do about it.

 

[LagunaX]

Run ccleaner (not registry but general cleaner) every once in a while, and disable unnecessary startup programs under tools.

I used to use 7smoker Pro but find it unnecessary anymore with newer programs.

A nice paid cleaner is
CleanMyPC™ Registry Cleaner

but it is not free.


Iobit's

Advanced SystemCare Free 5

might be the thing you are looking for - a free suite to clean crap, defrag the registry, and optimize settings:
http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcareper.html


I found out about it after using Iobit's Smart Defrag but you won't need that for a SSD.

Actually you might not need much of anything with a SSD.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Other than have enough RAM, and a fast enough SSD, and not too many programs running in the background (some printer drivers are real hogs!), then there isn't much else to do.

Edit: I would get a heatsink, and OC that Q6600 to at least around 3.0-3.2 Ghz. It should be capable of that, most are. (Some can get to 3.6, but that puts out a LOT of heat. Even with a monster-sized Tuniq Tower 120, mine hits 95C under Linpack.)

 

[bononos]

Is defragging too passe nowadays with SSD reinstall times? What about changing the default vm setting to use a separate partition for swap space? Is the swap file too fragmented and all over the place.

 

[Nothinman]

I'm on Win7 Ultimate and would like to hear your thoughts, suggestions and tips on how to ensure that windows is fast, fluid and responsive like how it is when the OS is newly installed. My config is listed below and I dont think its responsive for the slow down after installation of MS Office and the usual programs.

Intel Q6600
4GB RAM
64GB Vertex 2 SSD

Any inputs would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Installing things inevitably has an affect on performance, you just have to be careful. I've been using the same Win7 install in a VM for like 3 years now and it runs just as it did back then.

Is defragging too passe nowadays with SSD reinstall times? What about changing the default vm setting to use a separate partition for swap space? Is the swap file too fragmented and all over the place.

Defragging has almost always had questionable benefits, but back when drive seek times were higher and we had less memory for caching the affect could be measured in some circumstances. Now Windows will take care of it for you if necessary when idle and it's never necessary for an SSD, despite what defrag software developers may say.

Putting the pagefile on a separate volume gains you very little because if you're short enough on memory that the pagefile is being used, there's going to be lots of paging happening on the OS volume and any other volumes from which you have data in use. And the pagefile isn't generally accessed contiguously so its fragmentation should have little to no affect on performance. Also largely in part to my previous statement. If you're to the point where paging is affecting performance no amount of tweaking the pagefile will make an appreciable difference.

 

[sm625]

There is no registry cleaner that seems to actually clean the registry. I could uninstall every single program and run all the best registry cleaners and my registry will still be twice the size it was when I first installed windows.

It currently takes 35 seconds to search my registry for the word "qwert12345" and report no results. Two years ago it took 19-20 seconds. 3 years ago after fresh install it took only about 10 seconds.

I dont know why we cant remove this bloat... but mine is xp and 7 is even more bloated.

 

[Nothinman]

There is no registry cleaner that seems to actually clean the registry. I could uninstall every single program and run all the best registry cleaners and my registry will still be twice the size it was when I first installed windows.

It currently takes 35 seconds to search my registry for the word "qwert12345" and report no results. Two years ago it took 19-20 seconds. 3 years ago after fresh install it took only about 10 seconds.

I dont know why we cant remove this bloat... but mine is xp and 7 is even more bloated.

Those are moot statistics since most apps don't search the registry during normal usage. They know which keys they're interested and query them directly.

 

[Zaap]

Whenever you install any applications, always always always look for a custom install option and then uncheck all the bloatware.

Many people think this only applies to shareware, but fail to notice that even brand name applications install all kinds of extra junk from an automatic install. Ditto driver packages for peripherals you use.

Uncheck things like automatic updaters, task tray monitors, unneeded 'helper' apps, toolbars, daemons, add-ons, etc. etc. All of these things combined start dragging a system down, and most of it is totally unnecessary. Just a couple of applications (say, Office, a disk burning suite, iTunes, and antivirus) installed on autopilot can totally pollute a machine.

I like to keep my machines running lean and clean. To me, an application should run only when I need it, and afterwards closed and not using system resources. If an application really needs a system process constantly running, then I'd really have to weigh my need for it on my system.

So keep an eye on what gets installed, and check the taskmanager for what manages to slip by.

 

[her209]

If you want that fresh computer smell to never go away, after reinstalling all your apps, install software that will revert any changes to the file system and registry on reboot. You'll just have to keep documents on a separate drive.

 

[JackMDS]

Do a clean install and do not connect anything to the network port (or switch Off the Wireless if there is one).

In other words, in today's type of usage there is No way to ensure fast, fluid and responsive all the time computer.

 

[Nothinman]

Do a clean install and do not connect anything to the network port (or switch Off the Wireless if there is one).

In other words, in today's type of usage there is No way to ensure fast, fluid and responsive all the time computer.

Not to like real-time levels of continual responsiveness, but keeping your PC running very close to pristine performance levels isn't difficult at all.

 

[JackMDS]

Not to like real-time levels of continual responsiveness, but keeping your PC running very close to pristine performance levels isn't difficult at all.

This very true providing that the user understand that it is Not an issue of "throwing" more money on fancy hardware but a need to invest some mental energy to look once a week on the StartUps, and Running Processes, and deal with what is not needed to run in background.

These might help.

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

 

[Nothinman]

This very true providing that the user understand that it is Not an issue of "throwing" more money on fancy hardware but a need to invest some mental energy to look once a week on the StartUps, and Running Processes, and deal with what is not needed to run in background.

These might help.

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

That's not even required if you don't install crap software. As I said, I'm using a 3+ year old Win7 VM for work and I don't do anything special, I just install what I need/want and it works. Obviously you have to be careful with some installers so that you don't get the Ask toolbar and shit, but that's about it. Once in a while I'll run MalwareBytes or SuperAntiSpyware to see if it picks anything but there's never anything more than a few cookies.

 

[xgsound]

This very true providing that the user understand that it is Not an issue of "throwing" more money on fancy hardware but a need to invest some mental energy to look once a week on the StartUps, and Running Processes, and deal with what is not needed to run in background.

These might help.

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

JackMDS is a contributor that is always consise, brief, and helpful. He has just suggested THE program (Startup.exe) that is small, nonintrusive, and has been as more help to me than any other single program.

My advice (which is worth what you are paying for it) is to listen to JackMDS and get Startup.exe and use it.

Jim

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have an X6 1045T CPU (hex-core), at 3.51Ghz. A 240GB Mushkin Chronos Deluxe SSD. 16GB of RAM. Running Win7 64-bit SP1.

And guess what? The simple act of web browsing in Firefox, STILL sometimes causes my internet radio to skip out. It seems unbelievable to me. The same thing used to happen when using a laptop with a 1.4-1.8Ghz single-core CPU.

I actually somewhat think that the problem has something to do with Firefox and threading and the Flash Player plugin.

But just because you have a "beefy" machine, doesn't ensure that everything will run smoothly.

 

[Zaap]

Firefox can be an unbearable resource pig. It always brings my wife's laptop to its knees, and yet she won't get rid of it for Chrome. I've stopped using it.