Question

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Which windows tweaks do you use and they actually work?

One per answer please (to allow for voting).

What single free/inexpensive thing can someone do to improve Windows performance for a typical user.

Ideally I'm thinking config/install/uninstall based rather than hardware.

Answer 1

Disable unnecessary memory resident / start-up programs. De-fragment disk. Free up disk space (delete files) if less than 10-15% of your disk is free. Helps swap file performance.

Ultimately more memory is the best solution but that costs money.

Answer 2

Turn off unnecessary services (and more RAM).

Answer 3

Cleaning out startup items/processes.

Answer 4

Money

And by money, I mean hardware. More RAM and faster processors are the easiest way to improve the performance of any OS.

See Hardware is Cheap, Programmers are Expensive, where Jeff Atwood says:

For example, I just bought two very powerful servers for Stack Overflow. Even after accounting for a third backup server and spare hard drives for the RAID arrays, my total outlay is around $5,000. These servers, compared to the ones we're on now, offer:

• roughly 50% more CPU speed
• 2 to 6 times the memory capacity
• almost twice the disk space (and it's a faster RAID 10 array)

Under this new hardware regime, we can expect average page response times to improve by about half. All that for less than one month of an average programmer's salary.

I know this is a drastic example, but it really does show that a bit more RAM and CPU power really can improve performance drastically

Answer 5

Uninstall all applications, which you didn't using.

Answer 6

Duplicate Here.

Answer 7

ccleaner.

more ram.

Answer 8

Keep drivers up to date.

http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/02/server-speed-tests/