Speed up Windows 11/10

This was the first post I wrote on WinVistaClub.com several years back – and was very popular, having received over 5000 Stumbles – in those days. I decided to update it and post it here, to make it applicable for Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 – and Windows in general. For a regular user, the first few points are usually more than sufficient to tune-up Windows. The remaining are some more, which a tweak enthusiast may wish to consider to improve Windows 11 performance. I suggest you create a system restore point first before tweaking your system. I also suggest you do not make too many changes at one time or in a single day. Also, see if the particular tweak applies to your version of Windows.

Make Windows 11/10 Run Faster

While you can carry out the tweaks manually, using freeware like Ultimate Windows Tweaker may make things that much easier for you. You can speed up Windows 11/10 by carrying out the following suggestions:

1] Restrict the number of start-ups

Why have programs starting up when you don’t use them. Even those you need can always be started manually by clicking on the program’s icon. I prefer not to have ANY startups – except my antivirus software running. So decide for yourself which ones you need to start-up every time your Windows boots. You may use MSConfig in Windows 8/7 or Task Manager in Windows 11/10 to manage startup programs. You can also delay Startup Programs or control the order in which they load when Windows boots.

2] Remove pre-installed Crapware

Remove any crapware which may have come pre-installed on your new Windows PC, as many a time it’s this crapware that causes a machine to crawl!

3] Turn on Fast Startup

In Windows 11/10/8.1, you can select the Turn on Fast Startup option. You will see this setting in Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do > Shutdown settings.

4] Reduce Visual Effects

Open Control Panel and search for Visual Effects. Under Performance Options, you can Adjust for best performance or select or unselect the options manually. This will tweak visual effects and remove a lot of eye-candy. You may, however, want to check the Smooth edges of screen fonts, and therefore go in for a Custom selection.

Disabling all can actually negate the purpose of ‘eye-friendly’ Windows 11/10/8/7, and make it look and feel ‘bland’ – so use your discretion and chose your options wisely.

5] Delete Junk Files, Clean Registry & optimize Windows

While deleting junk and temporary files may not exactly make your Windows faster, it is more a matter of good housekeeping. You may use the built-in Disk Cleanup Utility or freeware like CCleaner to do the same. Whether one should use a free Registry Cleaner to clean up the Windows Registry occasionally is a matter of debate, so you may take a call on it. However, I do use it once a month to remove left-over registry keys. Compacting the Registry occasionally is a good idea too. These beginner tips to optimize Windows for better performance will also interest you.

6] Use High-Performance Power Plan

The default Power Setting in the “Power Saver” plan limits the CPU to 50 percent in Windows OS. Open the Power Options Control Panel and change it to “High Performance” Power Plan to give your CPU full throttle.

7] Restart PC regularly

One small and simple tip! Restart your PC at least once a week, especially if you use it a lot. Restarting a PC is a good way to clear out its memory and ensuring that any errant processes and services that started running get shut down.

8] Use a Solid State Drive

If possible, use an SSD! It will definitely make your Windows 10 start, run and shut down faster! As I said, The above should be enough to speed up Windows 10. Just in case you are a tweak enthusiast, you may go through the following tips. See which apply to your Windows version – Windows 10, Windows 8 or Windows 7.

Read: Make Windows ignore external USB HDD during boot for faster startup Defragment Drives Defragment your Drives regularly. Of course, nowadays, you don’t really need to do it manually as the built-in Windows defragmenter does a good job at defragmenting files in the background whenever your system is idle. But if you wish you may use a third-party free defragmentation software too. Check Hard Disk for errors From time to time, it is a good practice to check your hard disk drive for errors using a tool built into Windows called CHKDSK (for Check Disk). In Windows 10/8, Microsoft has redesigned CHKDSK utility. The disk is periodically checked for file system errors, bad sectors, lost clusters, etc., during Automatic Maintenance and you now no longer need to go and run it. Change System startup options You may change the time to display the list of operating systems via System Properties and shave off maybe even 10 seconds off the boot time. Processor Scheduling

Depending on the usage of your Windows computer, you can configure processor scheduling, so that it gives you the best performance while using Programs or for Background Processes. Read: How to find out Startup programs slowing down Windows Boot Windows Boot Performance Diagnostics You can also use the inbuilt Windows Boot Performance Diagnostics to detect Windows Boot Performance problems and attempt to determine their root causes. Disable or delay loading of Windows Services Windows has over 130 services installed! Disable the services you are sure you do not require. For example, if your PC is a stand-alone one, there may be several services which you can disable or switch over to manual mode. Auto-starting and closing down of services take time & resources. These can be saved. BlackViper’s Service Configurations is an excellent guide to follow. Based on BlackViper’s recommendations, we have created SMART, a utility to tweak Windows Services in Windows 10/8/7, Vista, XP Services. Personal preferences will dictate which you should consider disabling. But there are a few Automatic services you could consider setting to Manual:

If you don’t use a printer, disable the “Print Spooler” service.If you’re not running a Tablet PC, disable the “Tablet PC Input” service.If you don’t connect cameras, webcams, or scanners to your PC, then disable the “Windows Image Acquisition” Service.

I wouldn’t disable the “ReadyBoost” service even if you don’t use it as “ReadyBoost” is integrated into this service so setting this service to manual or disable with slow down your boot time. You can also delay the loading of specific Services. Disable Search Indexer If you do not use Search regularly, you may want to consider disabling Search Indexing. To do so, open Control Panel\System and Maintenance\Performance Information and Tools. On the LHS you will see options to Adjust Indexing Options, Visual Effects, Power Settings, etc. Untick files to index under “Indexing Options” in the Control Panel. However, the complete way to disable indexing would also involve going into your hard disk’s properties and unticking the option “Index this drive for faster searching”. Then you must go into Services.msc, disable and stop the “Windows Search” Service. Do note that the Search Indexer only runs when the computer is idle, so you need not turn off this very powerful feature in Windows 10/8/7. Disable Transient Multimon Manager (TMM) The Transient Multimon Manager (TMM) is a Microsoft Windows operating system feature targeted at improving the user experience of connecting and disconnecting displays, particularly for the mobile user. When you start Windows 10/8/7/Vista, you see a 2-3 sec delay followed by a blank black screen. This is the time Windows searches for external monitors. So if you don’t use an external monitor, you could always safely turn this off! To disable TMM, click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Task Scheduler. On LHS, expand “Task Scheduler Library” then expand “Microsoft”, then expand “Windows” and finally click “MobilePC”. You will see a task called “TMM”. Rt-Click on it, and select “Disable”. Boot Defragmentation Ensure that boot defragmentation is enabled so that files used during start-up are clubbed together. To check this, start Regedit and navigate to the following key: Select Enable from the list on the right. Right-click on it and select Modify. Change the value to Y to enable and N to disable. Reboot. Disable Clear page file on shutdown If you have set your Page file to be cleared on every shutdown for security reasons, it will take some time. Cleaning the page-file on every shutdown means overwriting the data by zeros, and it takes time. To change this setting, open Registry Editor and navigate to the following registry key: Modify (and if not present, right-click in open space and create) the Value Data Type/s and Value Name/s:

Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value]Value Name: ClearPageFileAtShutdownSetting for Value Data: [0 = Clear Page File Disabled | 1 = Clear Page File Enabled]

Exit Registry and Reboot. You could also use this Microsoft Fix It or our Ultimate Windows Tweaker to do it easily. TIP: See this post if your Desktops icons are slow to load. Other Miscellaneous Tips

  1. Generally, people also recommend emptying the Prefetch directory once in a while. But Windows uses this directory to speed up launching applications. It analyzes the files you use during startup and the applications you launch, and it creates an index to where those files and applications are located on your hard disk. Using this index, Windows can launch files and applications faster. Utilities like CCleaner too, have the option to clear the prefetcher. Should you choose to use this option of ‘clearing prefetcher’, be ready to run a ‘un-optimized’ Windows for a little while. The Prefetcher is best left alone! In any case, Windows cleans it at 128 entries down to the 32 most used application’s prefetch files.
  2. During boot time, enter the BIOS settings, by pressing Del key during boot-up, and disable ‘Seek floppy drive’ option. This saves time for those who do not use floppy drives. There are also some BIOS hacks like Enabling Quick Post, Disabling Boot Delay, etc., but best to refrain from these.
  3. Change Boot-Order Sequence. Normally, the BIOS is set to boot from floppy first, then CD and then Hard Disk. Changing the Boot-Order to be: Hard Disk first, then maybe CD/Floppy, could possibly “shave” a second.
  4. Disable Windows startup/shutdown/logon/logoff sounds. Open Control Panel > Sounds & Audio devices > Sound tab. In Program Events select ‘No sound’ for these events.
  5. Disable the Screen Saver if you don’t need it. Right-click on your Windows 8 Desktop > Personalize > ScreenSaver > None > OK.
  6. Fonts take time to load. Removing some can save on resources. But one must be careful in deciding which fonts to remove. If you delete some system fonts, you may be in for trouble.
  7. To really reduce your shutdown time, open Regedit and navigate to the following key: Click on the “Control” Folder. Select “WaitToKillServiceTimeout” Right-click on it and select Modify. The default value is, I think, 20000. Setting it to a lower four-digit value, (say 5000) will make your PC shutdown faster, but you could end up losing data or cause possible disk corruption, so use this tweak judiciously. Remember, Windows does not, in any case, recognize a 3-digit numeral here.
  8. Uninstall some extra built-in programs Windows installs, that you do not use. You may not be using some like Games, Meeting Space, Fax, etc. To do so, open Control Panel\ Programs\ Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features On or Off and do the needful. But wait, before you rush, exercise a little caution here! For instance, you may want to turn off “Tablet PC Components, etc.” – but then get set to miss the Snipping Tool too! 
  9. Disabling Aero will NOT really improve performance in Windows 7.
  10. Windows may take time to start or shutdown soon after its installation due to ‘OOBE’ (Out Of Box Experience), but that should go away after a few restarts. Also, do remember that your Windows machine will tend to run a little faster, after the first few weeks, after the OS is installed, thanks to its new feature called SuperFetch, which basically studies the programs that the user frequently runs and loads them into memory automatically.
  11. You can also check out Soluto, which makes Windows boot faster.
  12. Microsoft has released a Fix It for slow Windows computers. It will automatically diagnose and fix causes of poor system performance, such as the power saver setting, multiple anti-virus programs running, multiple startup programs running, and too many users logged on to the computer. Ryan Wieser, a performance enthusiast, from the USA, has added a few more of his own here: Disable 8.3 filename creation The NFTS file system is set to automatically create a “short filename” for any file considered a “long filename” in Windows. This is done, so files are compatible with old 16bit legacy applications. Microsoft admits the creation of 8.3 filenames can degrade your file system performance. To disable 8.3 filenames for future files, you will need to open “Regedit” and navigate to: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ FileSystem” and find the DWORD “NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation” and set its value to 1. To disable 8.3 filenames for existing files, you will need to open a command prompt and type “fsutil.exe behavior set disable8dot3 1”. Source Microsoft. Stop ehtray.exe When you use Windows Media Center in Windows Vista, for the first time it will automatically add a background process to the startup called “ehtray.exe”. This startup entry cannot be simply unticked in MSConfig or deleted and expected to never appear again. Once you start Media Center again, it will create a duplicate entry regardless if the existing entry has been disabled or deleted. “ehtray.exe” is supposed to be a tray icon process for easy access to the “Digital Media Manager.” This process is completely useless to me and uses memory. To prevent ehtray from running, you can rename the file itself or delete it altogether, which will not hamper Media Center functionality. To rename or delete this system file, you must first take ownership and full control by simply adding this context menu extension. The file is found under the C:\Windows\ehome directory. Simply rename it to ehtray.old or delete it after taking ownership. Enable Direct Read and Write Cache Purely from a tweaker’s point of view, you can squeeze a little more performance out of your SATA hard disk drive by enabling write caching. But there is an increased risk of data corruption or loss, should you experience a power loss! Click on the Start Button, write Device Manager and click Enter. Then expand the Disk Drives. Now Right-click on the hard disk drive and select Properties. Here, on Policies, check on Enable Advanced Performance. Click OK. By default, Windows will write data to disk and then store the data in cache for better performance. You can change this behavior for even better performance by allowing your hard disk to skip writing data directly to your hard drive and rather just throw the data straight into the cache. This will result in even better performance, but there is a small risk. If your power goes out suddenly, you will lose the data that had been written to cache, and since the data has not been written to disk, you may end up with lost files or even a corrupted Windows installation depending on what kind of data the hard disk had in the cache. If you have a UPS, then it should be perfectly safe to enable this setting. I do not have a UPS, but the risk isn’t big enough for me, so I enable this setting. To do so, simply go into the Device Manager, look under your hard drive properties, click the Policy tab, and tick “Enable advanced performance”. Change your DNS servers Right now, you are probably using your ISP’s DNS servers to translate web addresses, which in most cases are slow. OpenDNS claims to have high-speed DNS servers which in most cases are much more responsive than your ISP’s servers. Try it out and see if you notice an improvement. Adjust your Page File The Page File is virtual memory stored on your hard disk and is constantly in use regardless of how much RAM you have. Disabling it is not a good idea unless you have 3-4GB of RAM in which case you can experiment. If you have two hard drives, you can store the Page File on a separate disk away from your Windows installation which will improve performance. If your second drive is slower than the root drive, then I would recommend keeping your Page File on the root drive. It is important to set your Page File large enough and make it a fixed size to prevent it from expanding which can cause performance loss. So it is important to set the “initial” and “maximum” size of the Page File the same and allow yourself to have more than enough room for paging.RAM: Initial and max size of Page File-

1GB: 2048-2048MB2GB: 1024-1024MB3-4GB: 512-512MB or none if you want to experimentAnd so on.

You can resize the Page File as necessary. It doesn’t matter how large it is. The only downside of a larger Page File is less disk space. Just be sure to keep it at a large fixed size. Improve general Explorer performance This one is pretty self-explanatory. Go into your root drive, click Organize, point to Layout, and untick the “Details Pane”. The details pane seems to really slow down window responsiveness. Under the Organize button click “Folder and Search Options”. Under the “View” tab untick “Display file size information in folder tips” and “Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items”. Then click “Apply to all folders” at the top of the Folder Options window to get rid of the Details pane on all folders. Make various menu’s in Windows appear faster This was a popular tweak in Windows XP to do away with the slow start menu delay. Since Windows Vista and later have a different start menu this tweak would no longer apply, but it still works on other various menus in Windows that otherwise have a long delay when pausing over them. Open Regedit and navigate to: Change the “MenuShowDelay” string to a value of “20”. You can set it as low as you want but I find “20” to be a good value. Happy Tweaking!