Windows 7 is a very light and fast operating system. The Windows 7 team has given special attention for making Windows 7 faster than the previous operating systems. However, many people are still not satisfied with it’s performance. Installing Windows 7 on a PC with low resources won’t be as soothing as Windows XP. Even PC’s with the latest hardware experience low performance with Windows 7.

Tweaking your PC can help you get the best possible performance from your operating system. Following are a few tweaks that can help you speed up Windows 7 considerably.

1. Disable unwanted startup programs

Many programs that you install on your PC, automatically configure themselves to start each time you log into windows. Some of these programs are extremely essential whereas some are unnecessary. They tend to waste a lot of system resources. Disabling a few of the unnecessary programs can optimize your Windows performance.

i. Press Windows key (the key with the windows logo) + R to open the run window. In the “Open” text box type “msconfig” and hit OK. The”System Configuration” window will open.

ii. In the “General tab” choose “Selective Startup”. Choosing this enables you to configure which items should be loaded at startup.

iii. Now go to the “Startup” tab to select which programs you would like to load at start up. De-select the applications or programs that you do not want to load as soon as windows starts up. If you are unsure of which programs to uncheck, leave all Microsoft Corporation startup items selected.

2. Disable Search Indexing Feature

The search indexing feature keeps track of the files and folders on your computer for faster searching. But, this feature uses a lot of system resources thereby slowing down your PC. Disabling this feature can help improve your computer’s performance.

i. Right click the “Computer” icon on the desktop and choose “Manage”. The “Computer Management” window will open.

ii. In the “Computer Management” window click on “Services and Applications” and then click on “Services”. A list of services will appear.

iii. Locate the “Windows Search” service. Right click on it and select “Properties”. In the “Startup Type” select “Disabled”. This disables the search indexing feature.

iv. Click on “Apply” and then click “OK”. Close the “Computer Management” window.

3. Clean up Temporary Internet Files

Whenever you visit a web site, Internet Explorer stores the web pages and other multimedia content such as audio and video files in the Temporary Internet Files. This allows the web sites to load more quickly the next time you visit them. As these files begin to build up on your PC, they not only slow down the PC but also take up a lot of hard disk space. Cleaning these files can help you regain some speed.

i. Open the “Control Panel” from the Start Menu and goto “Network and Internet”.

ii. Then, click on “Internet Options”. The “Internet Properties” window will open.

iii. In the “General” tab, locate “Browsing and History” sub-heading and click on the “Delete” button. The “Delete Browsing History” window will open. Tick the ones you want to remove and hit the delete button. All your Temporary Internet Files will be removed.

If you want to delete these files every time you exit the Internet Explorer, then tick the “Delete browsing history on exit” under the “Browsing History sub-heading.

4. Change Power Plan to high performance

By default, the power plan in Windows 7 is set to Balanced Performance which automatically balances performance and energy consumption. To get the optimal performance from Windows 7, you need to set the power plan to high performance mode.

i. Open the “Control Panel” from the Start Menu and goto “System and Security”. Click on “Power Options”.

ii. In the Power Options window, click on the down arrow indicating “Show Additional Plans”.

iii. Now, activate the “High Performance” option. The high performance option favors maximum performance.

5. Run a Disk Cleanup

The built-in disk cleanup in Windows 7 can help you erase the temporary files, downloaded program files, error report files etc. that are stored on your hard disk. Erasing the files can help you regain some disk space, thereby increasing your Windows’ performance.

i. In the Start Menu, goto All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup. Disk Cleanup will analyze the files on your PC that can be deleted.

ii. Once Disk Cleanup analyzes the files, the Disk Cleanup windows lists the files that can be deleted.

iii. Select the files you want to delete and then Click OK. Disk Cleanup will start erasing the files.

6. Defragmenting the Hard Drive

Defragmenting your hard drive moves your files to a different location on your hard disk and attempts to arrange them in a contiguous manner. This optimizes the time taken to read or write data to/from the hard disk.

i. In the Start Menu, goto All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.

ii. In the Disk Defragment window you can find two main options. “Analyze disk” analyzes your hard disk and gives you a quick overview as to how much space can be saved on defragmenting. The “Defragment Disk” option starts the disk defragmenting process.

The Defragmenting process can take a lot of time. It may even take several hours. Defragmenting your PC and working simultaneously is not a good option as the PC will lag a lot. Hence, it is better to start the defragmenting process and leave it for a few hours.

7. Uninstall unused programs and turn off Windows features

There are certain programs that you install on your PC but never use them. Uninstalling these programs can free up some disk space and also speed up your computer slightly.

i. Open the “Control Panel” from the Start Menu and goto “Programs”. Select “Programs and Features”. The Program and Features window displaying the list of programs installed on your PC will open. Uninstall the programs that you have not used from a long time.

ii. Click on “Turn Windows Features on or off” on the left side. The Windows features window displaying the list of windows programs will open. Uncheck the ones you don’t use. This can save you a lot of disk space.

Using the above mentioned methods cannot make your Windows lightning fast. However, they can optimize your Windows to the maximum possible extent.