The Secrets of Windows 7

Windows 7 Secrets

Until Windows 8 hits the market, we are still tied down to our trusty Win7, and a still a lot of people, to Win XP. Therefore, in order to get the most out of these OS systems, we need to know how and when to give them a well deserved thorough clean, defragmentation and some other fixes that will speed them up and make them more enjoyable to use.

The current guide focuses mostly on the fixes and speed up techniques that will affect Win7, but some of them are also intended for XP and Vista. Select the ones that make the most sense to you and also, take into consideration the platform that you use to run the OS on. You can't expect to have the same increase in speed from a measly Atom Processor driven netbook, but instead you could very well make it more responsive.

So, in order to get our guide going and make it interesting for a wide range of users, we have split it into a few sections: hardware and software fixes. To get you on top of the bits and pieces that could potentially speed your machine up and software fixes, we will be discussing software packages that are great for windows speed-ups and do-it-yourself fixes, manual fixes that are available to you without any further software installs.

Hardware fixes that speed up Windows :

Many forget that their OS runs on hardware and that sometimes, even the most fresh of windows installs will not run properly if the hardware is not adequate. Depending on the machine you use, you may or may not have all of the following tips at your disposal, so pick the ones that make the most sense in your particular case:

Upgrade your HDD to an SSD drive : A solid-state drive will generally give you an incredible boost in boot-up speed and also in applications. The prices have fallen quite a lot, and while the standard HDD available are no longer so cheap, if you planned an upgrade you should consider SSDs. You don't need a very large capacity drive. As long as it will have space for your OS install and for the most used applications, it should be enough. Use your SSD for windows booting and a classic drive for general storage the speed difference will be tremendous.

RAM upgrades : RAM modules have become ultra affordable, and therefore, you should always consider at least a total capacity of 4GB for a desktop and at least 2GB for mobile PCs. There are options for each type of machine, make sure you select the one that makes most sense to you. Windows will simply have more space to allocate to every application you use and while the boot up time is not affected, the applications will be snappier and more responsive. With an investment of no more than a few tens of dollars, sometimes even 20, or less, you can speed up an aging machine quite a lot.

These would be the most affordable upgrades, and the most effective. While they are not very demanding, you could very well do the upgrades yourself, with a minimum of effort and expertise. Otherwise, use a PC specialized service and get the upgrades installed for you. They truly are worth it. Software packages that speed up Windows.