Windows 7 is one of the best operating system which is introduced by Microsoft and is known to provide good speed, look and performance than the previous versions which is that of the Windows Vista. However, this statement of mine may not be true for most occasions depending on various factors and there are also certain section of computer users who would be expecting some more speedy performance out of their Windows 7 based computer. Therefore, in such a case we are left with only three options which is to either upgrade the system configurations, wait for yet another new release of the Windows operating system or perform various tweaks so as to improve the performance of the existing system. So, in this article we will focus on the various tweaks and procedures which can be opted for improving the performance and speed of the system.

There is a saying that 'For Everything You Gain, You Lose Something Else' and this is very much true when you go for tweaking and optimizing the system in order to get the optimal performance. We can say this because such steps are always concerned with the approach to disable various features within the system which if left intact may consume a lot of resources. Hence, it becomes essential to configure the system according to what suits best for one's own purpose and an example for this would be that of an old computer which has Windows 7 installed but does not have enough capabilities to handle the various features offered by the OS. Therefore without wasting much time, let us now proceed through the various steps and procedures which can be followed to speed up Windows 7 performance for old computers as well as upgraded systems.



If you are concerned with how to speed up Windows 7, then you may consider the various tweaks which we will mention in our post below. Before doing that, you may however need to ensure that your system meets atleast the minimum system requirements which is required to install and run Windows 7 in the computer. These requirements includes a 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM along with a free disk space of 16GB. If your system is able to fulfill them, then you may proceed with the rest of the steps to optimize your system for smooth and fast performance.


The Aero Theme is intended for enhancing the appearance of the system and hence turns out to be a resource hog. It uses a lot of resources and tries to get the maximum performance out of the graphics card and other components. Therefore, disabling it can free a lot of resources to be used for your regular computing task and hence improve the performance of the system by simply sacrificing the eye-candy interface which does not add much value to the user experience in the practical sense. You can disable the Aero Theme in Windows 7 as follows:-

• Go to Personalize by right-clicking on the Desktop and then head towards Window Color Tab.
• You will notice a checkbox for enabling transparency. Consider to remove the tick mark from it.
• Now, go to the 'Open classic appearance properties for more color options” and select and standard theme which is available there.

You may also consider disabling most of the other visual effects which are offered in Windows 7. You may find these settings under the Performance option in the Control panel where there will be another option to select 'Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows'. In the list that follows, you may opt for the option which reads as 'Adjust for best performance' or otherwise you may also make use of the custom settings based on your preference and requirements.


Most of the users have the habit of keeping many installed programs in the system but never used them while just thinking about that they might be helpful sometimes. But this approach is not an ideal one and affects the system by causing slowdowns. If you consider that those programs might be useful sometimes in the future, then you may rather copy it into the removable flash drives or any optical media so that you can install it whenever it is needed. You may also considering disabling various options listed under 'Turn Windows features on or off' in the Programs under Control Panel which you are not likely to use. To remove the unwanted programs and applications, it is also recommended to use some designated Uninstaller software such as YourUninstaller! and other such products to remove the programs as the default uninstaller has the tendency to leave behind various crap files and related registry entries.


These two are the most important tasks that needs to be done on ever Windows computer irrespective of its editions. Regular usage of the computer causes a lot of fragmentations and junk files which if not defragmented or removed may seriously degrade the performance of the system. Consider using a software like CCleaner tool to perform the disk cleanup operation while the default Disk Defragmenter tool of Windows 7 is sufficient to deal with the fragmentation.


The Windows registries are the most important components which assist in the proper functioning of various programs and features within the system. Hence, these registries are constantly being used while working with various features and performing the regular computing tasks. This causes fragmentation in the registries and may slow it down. So, it is ideal approach to optimize or compress the registry entries at regular intervals. There are also various obsolete registry entries and other faults which causes instability of the system or other crash to occur. Therefore, scanning the registry and fixing the detected errors can significantly boost the systems performance and stability. Consider using various programs like PC Tools Registry Mechanic to scan, optimize and fix the registries in Windows 7.


When the Windows operating system is active, then a lot of services are triggered to activate themselves which are intended for various purpose. You may need to sort out the various useless services and then disable them to free up some resources out of the computer. You can have access to a list of these services by typing 'services.msc' in the Search Box of the Windows Menu. Another important step is to manage the startup programs to speed up the startup of Windows 7. To do so, you can type 'msconfig' in Run mode and navigate to the Startup tab. You can then uncheck whatever unnecessary programs are allowed to activate on startup and then restart the computer after saving your preference to make the changes effective.


In addition to all the above steps mentioned here, you can also work with many other optimization tweaks such as disabling the sidebar icons, using the High Performance power option, Disable the Thumbnail Preview Feature and so on. You can also utilize the Ready Boost feature using any compatible flash drive to enhance the performance of the system to a significant extent. Also, using an effective antivirus which at the same time is light on resources can help to keep the system in good health to perform well. There are many more ways that can help to speed up the Windows 7 performance which we will discuss in another post very soon. If you have any ideal solution which worked well for you to improve the speed and performance of Windows 7, then do share it with us and all our readers here.