Friday, October 16, 2009

Speed Up SSDs (Solid State Drives) Easily

SSD's are a then newest storage medium available today. With much much higher read/ write speeds than the normal hard disks. Though they are not available in sizes as the normal hard drives sizes like 500GB, 1TB some people still prefer them due to their performance gain over the normal hard disks. SSDs are gaining momentum. They will go at a faster rate wen the prices starts to fall. When you utilize them you will be looking to get the maximum speed from them. Here is a way to Speed Up SSDs.

A small utility called FlashFire can speed up the SSDs easily in Windows Xp, Vista and Windows 7.
FlashFire uses the computer memory to speed up the read and write speeds of the SSDs. It is not clearly explained by the software manufacturer how it does so.
But Flash Fire really works. It can speed up your SSDs and give a considerable amount of performance gain.

Speed Up SSDs (Solid State Drives) EasilyThe program has slightly small limitations. FlashFire needs to be started with certain command line parameters.

The command for starting FlashFire is flashfire.exe on to turn it on or flashfire n (n is the drive letter which FlashFire should speed up here it is the SSD).

If you are using flashfire.exe on command line, you need to ensure that a SSD is the configured drive in the Windows Registry. You can Go to The Windows Registry and browse to

HK_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ffire\Enum

and verify the drive number of the SSD (Solid State Drive).

Also go to

HK_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ffire\Parameters

and verify that drive number is the value of the Disknum key.

Using flashfire.exe off command line can shut down the program.
You can notice the speed improvement on your SSDs after its installation and a reboot.
Download FlashFire

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Friday, June 5, 2009

Speed Up Windows 7 - Ultimate Guide To Make Windows 7 Blazing Fast!!!

Here is the Guide to Speed Up Windows 7 - Ultimate Guide To Make Windows 7 Blazing Fast!!!
Windows 7 is Engineered for speed. Special attention has been given by the Windows 7 team for making Windows 7 faster than the previous operating systems. Windows 7 is much faster than Windows Vista, but even then most of us don't get satisfied with it. There are many who still have their old PC. Installing Windows 7 on them wont be as soothing as they work with with XP and Even with latest hardware's installed some users still long for more performance. At least if we don't make it lightning fast we can optimize Windows 7 to the maximum possible extent and enjoy the maximum performance we could squeeze out from it. So for all the extra performance lovers, let me present you wit this Ultimate Guide To Speed Up Windows 7.

Speed Up Windows 7 - The Ultimate Guide To  Make Windows 7 Blazing FastI guarantee you that after following this guide and implementing the recommendations on your PC, you will really get the performance gain.

The bare Minimum Requirements You need To Run Windows 7

1) 1GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
2) 1GB of main memory
3) 16GB of available disk space
4) Support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface)
5) A DVD - R/W drive

Even if you don't have the DX 9 graphics card there is no problem because our target is performance not the " Eyecandy " . Of course if you need the aero experience you need a powerful graphics card for sure.

So lets startThe Ultimate Guide to Speed up Windows 7

  1. Speed Up the Windows 7 Boot Speed


  2. A simple tweak will help you to decrease the boot time of windows 7. You will be benified by this tweak only if you have a multiple core processor. These days most of the computers have a dual core or quad core or something better than that CPU's.

    • Press [Win] + R or take the RUN option from the start menu.

    • Now type msconfig in there and press Enter Key to open up the System Configuration Window. Click on the Boot tab in there.
      You will see a box called Time out. This is the time (in sec) which the system waits for the user to select the operating system to boot to.

    • If you use only a single operating system (don't dual boot) you can safely set the value to 0.

    • But if you have more than one operating system installed then set it to 3 or more (which ever is convenient).


    • Now after doing the above step click the " Advanced Options " button. The Boot Advanced Options Window will then pop up.

    • Tick the check box saying "Number of Processors". Now click on the drop down box and select the maximum number of processor cores (might be 2 or more).

    • Press " OK " and also tick the " No GUI Boot " option too.
    • Click " Apply "and then on " OK " and thats it.


  3. Disable the Aero Theme on Windows 7



  4. The aero user interface certainly adds some " Eyecandy " to Windows 7 but certainly is a resource hog especially when, what you expect from windows 7 is more performance juice. Aero user interface squeezes your graphics or video card to its maximum. So why cant we just avoid the Windows 7 aero? if we care more about speed and performance in Windows 7. So Disabling the Aero in Windows 7 certainly adds an extra speed boost to it.

    Speed Up Windows 7 by disabling the aero user interface
    • Right Click on your Desktop and select " Personalize " click the Window Color Tab.

    • Uncheck the Box saying " Enable Transparency " and then click on " Open classic appearance properties for more color options".

    • Then a window will open up. Apply a Standard or Basic theme from it. The Standard Windows 7 theme is more preferred.


    Disabling the aero theme alone in Windows 7 will really speed things up.

  5. Disabling the Unwanted Visual Effects in Windows 7 to Speed Up more


  6. Even though we have tuned off the aero effects in Windows 7 still there are many unwanted visual effects that can be safely disabled to speed up windows 7 even more.

    Speeding Up Windows 7 by removing unwanted visual effects
    • For this right click on " Computer" and select "Properties" from the right click menu.

    • Click on " Advanced System Settings " from the left pane to open up the " System Properties " window.

    • Select the "Advanced" tab from it. Then Under " Performance " click " Settings ". Choose " Custom: " Options From it.

    • Now untick all the options and select only the last four options (actually three only needed; you can untick the second option from the last four). See the screen shot if you have any doubt.

    • Now just logoff your system and turn logon.


    You will now notice the speed difference now.

  7. Disabling the Unwanted Services to Speed up Windows 7



  8. There are many services in windows 7 that we dont require for our daily use. There are some exceptional cases though. Services such as "print spooler" is only needed when we use a printer. If we use a printer only occasionally we can safely turn off that service in Windows 7 and turn it on only when we need to take a print.

    I have previously prepared a List of services in Windows 7 that can be safely set to manual / disabled.

    Disabling the unneeded services in Windows 7 can really speed up the system boot time.

  9. Disable the User account control (UAC) Feature in Windows 7



  10. The User account control (UAC) feature in Windows 7 is very annoying though it says it can protect your computer from harmful virus activity etc. But if you are a daily user of your computer this windows 7 feature will be a total nuisance to you.

    To Disable and Turnoff UAC in Windows 7

    Speed UP Windows 7 by disabling User Account Control(UAC)
    • From the Control Panel open the " User Accounts and Family Safety " > User Account.

    • Click the User Account Control settings link.

    • Now just Drag the Slider towards "Never Notify".

    • Click "OK" and Reboot your system.


    Disabling UAC is for advanced users only i dont recommend doing it if not.

  11. Disabling the Search Indexing Feature in Windows 7


  12. Most of the Windows 7 users do less searches in there system. The Search Indexing service in Windows 7 will index keeps track of the files so that they can be found quickly when asked at some other time. This feature is useful only if you perform frequent searches on your system.
    For occasional file searchers the Search Indexing service in Windows 7 is a total resource hog. It unwontedly eats up your system resources. What you need from windows 7 is maximum performance from it then i would certainly recommend you to disable this resource hogging Windows 7 Search Indexing Feature.

    To Disable the Search Indexing Feature in Windows 7

    Disable the Search Indexing Feature in Windows 7 to Speed up Windows 7
    • Right Click the "Computer" Icon in the desktop and select "Manage".

    • Click "Services and Applications" in the "Computer Management" window.

    • Click on "Services".

    • You can see a lot of services listed there. Look for "Windows Search" in that.

    • Right Click on "Windows Search" from the list and choose "Properties".

    • The "Windows Search Properties Window" will open up. From "Startup type" click on the drop down menu and choose "Disabled".

    • Click "Apply" then "OK" and thats it. The Windows 7 Serch Indexing Feature is now disabled.


    If you want to completely disable the search indexing feature in Windows 7 you can set the Search Indexing Service to Manual (See the above method about disabling unwanted services).

  13. SetUp the Windows 7 Ready Boost Service for an Extra Speed Boost



  14. The ready boost feature in Windows 7 will help you to use your flash drive or pendrive or USB drive as Ram there by improving the performance and speed of windows 7 greatly. You can certainly experience it when launching bulky applications such as Adobe Photoshop etc.

    Speed Up Windows 7 with Ready Boost
    • To configure the Ready Boost Feature in Windows 7 you need to have a High Speed Flash/USB or Pendrive with you which is ready boost compatible.

    • After plugging you pendrive, open "Computer" > Right-click the on USB Drive/Pendrive > select "Ready Boost" tab > tick the "Use this device" checkbox.

    • You can configure how much space on your USB drive/ Pendrive to be used as Ram.


  15. Turn off Unused Windows 7 Features



  16. There are many feature in windows 7 that we often dont use. Disabling these unused features in Windows 7 will really help in speeding things up.

    • Open up " Programs and Features " from Control Panel.

    • Click the " Turn Windows features on or off " from the left pane.

    • Now uncheck all the Feature that you don't use in Windows 7 and restart the system for the changes to take effect.


  17. Disable the Windows 7 Sidebar (Actually the Gadgets)



  18. Disabling the window 7 sidebar is defenitely help you to to gain a few seconds during start up time. There are many useful utilities such as the RocketDock etc. which are good application launchers.

    To Disable the Sidebar in Windows 7,
    • Right click on the sidebar and select " Properties ".

    • On the properties windows untick the check box showing " Start sidebar when Windows Starts "

    • From now on windows sidebar won't start when windows 7 start up.


  19. Disable the Aero Peek and Aero Snap features in Windows 7



  20. Aero Snap will help you to maximize, minimize and resize the windows just by dragging and dropping it into the screen corners.

    To disable Aero Snap Feature in Windows 7,
    • Open the Windows 7 " Control Panel " and double-click on " Ease of Access Center " icon.

    • Now click on the " Make it easier to focus on tasks " seen at the bottom in there

    • Now untick the check box saying " Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen " .


    That will now disable the Aero Snap in Windows 7.

    Now To Disable the Aero Peek feature in Windows 7

    The Aero Peek feature in Windows 7 helps you to peek through all open windows by hiding all other windows and showing only the outlines of all windows. Aero Peek is similar to the " Show Desktop " Feature in XP and Vista.

    If you have followed step 3 then Aero Peek will be automatically disabled. If not,
    • Right click on the Windows 7 taskbar and select " Properties ".

    • Now untick the " Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop " option from there.


    The aero peek feature will now be disabled in windows 7.

  21. Change the Power Plan To Maximum Performance



  22. The Power settings in Windows 7 is not automatically set for maximum performance. By default the power plan in Windows 7 is set for a balanced performance with energy consumption on hardware. So you may not get the optimal performance from windows 7 if this is the case. So we need to change the power plan to High Performance Mode.

    Setting the Power Plan in Windows 7 To High Performance Mode
    • Double click the " Power Options " in the Control panel.

    • Click the down arrow showing " Show Additional Plans " to see the " High Performance " power plan
    • .
    • Now just activate the " High Performance " plan and thats it.

    • You may go for the advanced settings for further tweaking if you want.


  23. Disable the Thumbnail Preview Feature to speed up File browsing in Windows 7



  24. The thumbnail preview feature in Windows 7 will show the small thumbnails of the contents of a folder instead of showing it's icon. But this feature really do take up some system resources. So by disabling the Thumbnail Preview feature in Windows 7 the file browsing in Windows 7 explorer can be speed up.

    Speed up widows 7 by disabling thumbnail previewsFor disabling thumbnails in Windows 7,
    • Double Click on " Computer " >click on the "Organize" drop-down menu and select the "Folder and Search options"

    • Under ‘Files and Folders’ section, go to the "View" tab and tick the check box showing "Always show icons, never thumbnails" checkbox.


  25. Most Essential Softwares To Speed Up Windows 7



  26. In order to maintain your Windows 7 Performance and keep it up in Top Shape there are some very essential software's that can help us to Speed Windows 7. I will list some of them here. You can download these utilities. But i remind you that you need to run these utilities at least once in a week. Only if you do it regularly your Windows 7 will be in top shape every day.



    You can read this post which i have prepared earlier about the Top 5 Tools To Speed Up Your PC.
    http://www.computingunleashed.com/2009/05/top-5-tools-to-speed-up-your-pc-to.html There you can know more about these software i mentioned now.

  27. Registry Tweaks to Speed Up Windows 7



  28. Here are some registry teaks that can be used to speed up windows 7 even more. I have complied only the safest tweaks that can be applied to your PC. Apart from speeding up windows 7 they will also add some functionalities in windows like adding Copy to / Move to in right click context menu to speed up your daily tasks.

    http://www.computingunleashed.com/2009/01/registrytweaks-for-speeding-up-windows.html

    If you have the complete version of Tune Up Utilities software with you then it is the best one to keep your Windows 7 in top shape.

  29. Turn OFF Windows 7 Password Protection To save a few More Seconds!!!


  30. If you have set a password for accessing your user account in windows 7, then you need to enter it each and every time you logon to windows. Logging into windows automatically without entering any password will save you a few seconds more. If you are the only person who use your computer then i would recommend to turn this off. If that is not the case you can skip this step.

    How to Automatically Logon to Windows 7 without entering any username or password

  31. Turn OFF Windows 7 Screen Saver and Wallpaper



  32. In order to display the wallpaper and screen saver the system needs some memory. So by disabling those two we can save a few Mega Bytes of memory.

    To Disable The Screen Saver and Wallpaper in Windows 7,
    • Right click on desktop and choose "Personalize".

    • Click the Screen Saver link " From the Screen Saver drop down menu, Set it to "None" and click "Apply" and then "OK".

    • Now click on "Desktop Background" link.

    • From the "Location" drop down menu select "Solid Colors" and pick one color and click "OK".


  33. Disable Unwanted Start Up Items and Speed Up Windows 7 Start Up


  34. This really matters when you have installed a lot of softwares on your PC. Many software such as AcdSee will run services such as device detector etc during the system start up. These are of no use actually for most windows users. So preventing such services from starting up during the start up of windows 7 can result in quicker start Ups. This will actually save some seconds during windows 7 start up.

    • Type " msconfig " in the "RUN" option from start menu press [Enter] to open up the System Configuration Utility.

    • Now navigate to the "StartUp" tab.

    • Untick the Entries which are not needed


  35. Disable Unwanted System Sounds in Windows 7


  36. In order to play the sounds you hear in windows 7, system resources are being utilized. So if you can disable these sound effects you can gain some speed and also free some system resources too.

    To disable the system sounds in Windows 7,
    disabling unwanted sounds in Windows 7 to Speed Up
    • Type mmsys.cpl in RUN From the Windows 7 Startmenu search box and press [Enter].

    • Navigate to the "Sounds" tab.

    • Now from under "Sound Scheme:" select "No Sounds" > Click "Apply" > "OK".

    • You can keep some of your favorite sounds turned on if you want, but sounds played during the Windows 7 start up, shutdown, Logon, logoff, start navigation etc should be set to none if you want some real speed boost.


Thats it following all these steps will certainly boost the speed and performance of your windows 7 operating system.

Do you know any more ways to Speed Up Windows 7? Comment them below. I will include them in the post.

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Friday, May 1, 2009

Top 5 Excellent Tools To Speed Up Your PC to the Maximum

Top 5 Excellent Tools To Speed Up your PC to Maximum
You might have come across many junk utilities that claim that they will Speed up your PC. Except a few all others affirmation are not true. You need to look for some tool that really helps to tune your PC as per your needs and Speed Up your PC to the maximum. A good tuning tool is the one which repairs windows problems, frees some hard disk space for you and provides you some extra utilities that makes working with windows a lot more easier. Here are some of the best tools that can really speed up your windows pc to the maximum........

1) The Best Registry Cleaner (Clean Up the Registry for a Faster and Error Free Windows)


These days we install a lot of software’s on our pc. We uninstall the unnecessary ones often. But remember uninstalling software won’t remove it completely. It leaves a lot of registry entries in the Windows Registry. These unwanted or unused registry entries get piled up in the Windows Registry and it is a major causes for registry errors. What’s more these unused registry entries will really slow the performance of Windows too! So it is very necessary that you need to remove these unused entries to speed up windows and also make it error free.
Wise Registry Cleaner is an excellent freeware utility that will do the job of cleaning up your Windows Registry. It scans the Windows Registry for orphaned or bad Registry keys, and shows you the name and values for each. It additionally lets you adjudge which entries to delete, and which to keep. For additional Safety it can up your Registry before a scan, so that you can restore it, if any problem occurs.

After doing a scan just press the ‘Repair’ button to clean up the unwanted registry entries. You can now forget about the registry errors and windows will not lose its speed because of them. Remember run this utility at least once in a week. There is a professional version of Wise Registry Cleaner which is not free. But the free version has all the features that we need to suit our needs.

Speed Up your PC to Maximum with wise registry cleaner

Download Wise Registry Cleaner

2)Best Tool to Clean Up the Hard Disk (Clean the Hard Disk the Safest way)


As in the above case installing programs will leave some unwanted files too along with those registry entries. As time passes, these additional junk will eat up you Hard Drive’s space. So you need to do a disk cleanup.
CCleaner is the best tool that will restore your Hard Disk Space to the Maximum. The Striking Feature of this utility is that it is Free, Fast and Robust. CCleaner will clean the temporary internet Files, clipboard, browser history files (Internet Explorer, safari, Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome) and other junk files left in your hard disk.

Speed Up your PC to Maximum using CCleaner

You can select what you need to be cleaned. If you need some files e.g. Browser cookies, you just only need UN tick the cookies option that’s all. You can also Include or Exclude custom folders along with the default ones to be cleaned. In general CCleaner is a must have free ware utility for windows users.

Download CCleaner

3)The Best Tool to Speed Up Internet Connection


Speeding up your PC includes Speeding Up the internet connection too. There is no use in paying for the ISP (Internet Service Provider) if you don’t get the speed for which the type of connection you pay for. For e.g. what’s the use in paying for a 2 Mbps broadband connection and getting only 200Kbps speed when you test internet speed? Windows will not optimize the settings for your internet connection by default: what ever be the type of connection used. If you can adjust the settings to suit your type of connection you will get the maximum possible speed from your internet connection. So here is a great tool that can optimize and Speed up the Internet to the Maximum.
TCP Optimizer is one such great free tool that will do this tiresome job very easily. The interface of the program Is easy to understand for a standard computer user.
Before going with just run a speed test at www.speedguide.net/speedtest to test internet speed available.

How to optimize/accelerate the internet using TCP optimizer

  • You only need to move the pointer towards the speed of your connection (it may be 2000 or above for broadband users and 56 for dial up) give it as per your connection.
  • Now if you are not an expert user just select the optimal settings seen at bottom. If you are an expert user you can take the custom option and adjust the TCP/IP values, MTU, Qos, RWIN etc.
  • After this just tick the “Modify all Network Adapters” option.
  •  Now click “Apply Changes” and restart your PC for the changes to take effect.
  •  There are many other options in TCP Optimizer for Advanced users. The Latency tab will help you to determine how much data packets are lost. After completing these steps you can run a speed test at www.speedguide.net/speedtest.
You might not get the maximum speed at the very first time you configure the program. I am using this program and I have tested it. I am using a BSNL broadband 2 Mbps connection and I have been getting around 250 kbps speed before using TCP optimizer. After I have configured my settings correctly using TCP optimizer I am now getting around 1.7 Mbps+ speed.
I have got this speed after playing with the program for many times. You need to try by adjusting the settings many times to get the maximum speed.
You also need to understand that speed of your internet connection depends on how far away you are from the internet connection office, and the quality of the cable used etc.
Speed Up your Internet Connection to Maximum using TCP Optimizer

You can also visit www.home-network-help.com/tcp-optimizer-to-improve-internet-speed.html for step by step instructions for tuning up your internet connection.

Download TCP Optimizer

4) Using the Flash Drive as Ram for an extra Speed Boost


Accessing data from the RAM is blazingly faster than accessing data from your Hard Disk. These days most of us have a USB flash Drive or Pendrive and the amount of RAM installed on most recent computers are 1 GB or more than that since the prices of RAM is very cheap now a days. So we get more value for money, since we get more performance for less money. eBoostr is a great utility that takes advantage of this. It caches the commonly used system files and application files and makes it possible to launch your commonly used programs in the blink of an eye. You may ask doesn’t this is similar to the Ready Boost feature in Windows Vista? The answer is NO. In Vista you can use only the USB flash Drives or pendrives for accelerating the Windows and Applications. But what makes eBoostr far more superior than vista is that, you can use your System RAM too apart from the Pendrives or USB Flash drives. This makes things real fast.
Before starting with, you need to set the RAM or external storage devices (pendrives / flash drives) as the cache memory and set the size as per your need. Since the amount of cache depends on the amount of ram installed on your system, you will be really benefited if have 2 GB or more ram on your PC. eBoostr keeps a note on the frequently accessed programs and keep their files in the cache, so when you launch the programs again it is accessed in a split second!
Unfortunately this program is not a freeware. But you can enjoy it. The free program works only for 4 hours after each system boot.

Speed Up your PC to Maximum using eBoostr

In spite of this small limitation this is a great utility that can speed up windows to a great extend especially for windows users who have a large amount of ram installed on their computers. Most of the daily computer users will be more benefited from this program.

Download eBoostr

5)Best Tool to increase the File Copying Speed in Windows


We know the default file copying utility in Windows Explorer lacks many features. Some times the file copy process get terminated by half the way due to some errors etc. this will be really frustrating. Forget those days of painful file copying process in windows and here is a great utility.
TeraCopy is a great freeware utility that can copy files in windows with ease. What makes TeraCopy different from Windows default file copying utility is that, TeraCopy supports Stopping and Resuming file copying process. It is blazingly fast and also adds copying options (Copy to and Move to) in the right click context menu of windows. If the software encounters some error during the copying process it will skip that corrupted portion and continues its work.
You can also set TeraCopy as the default file copying utility and replace the default windows file copying utility (Under Options in TeraCopy’s main window, just select the option “Use TeraCopy as the default copy handler”) if needed.

Speed Up your PC to Maximum using teracopy

Download TeraCopy

All the above mentioned utilities offer great value and will surely help to Speed up our PC.

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