Tips & Tricks to Speed up Windows 7 (your own build)

[johnp126]

I thought it might be interesting to put all suggestions to speed improvements in Windows 7 in one area.

I have Windows 7 64 bit on W700 Quadcore w 4gb ram, 320gb 7200RPM drive.
I have these benchmarks:
Boot AFTER "starting windows" is 36 seconds (to fingerprint login )
Shutdown 23 seconds
Suspend & Resume 10 Seconds

I installed 7 clean. Windows Updates, Minimal Lenovo drivers & power management no r&r.
Installed all my apps. Latest Win 7 Bios.

Ran what's running to remove all but essential startup programs (itunes, etc load things in startup you don't need).

Would like to get more info on the Phoenix bios PC3 updates. Am guessing you need different bios chipset todo what they show on video of 1 sec bios boot to Windows screens. Also anyone else's tips on what services can be "delay start" etc.

Thanks hope it helps everyone. We did also side by side tests in a t61p Vista 64 vs Win 7 64 and the differences are amazing in speed enhancements with 7.

[CHood]

I got .5 second by changing the boot in msconfig to use 2 cpu core.

[Marin85]

I got .5 second by changing the boot in msconfig to use 2 cpu core.

I have hard time to believe that checking this option in the configuration utility has anything to do with boot speed improvement, for the simple reason that per default Windows 7 (just like Windows Vista and Windows XP) uses as much cores/cpus as available when booting up. IN other words, this option in msconfig is given for troubleshooting purposes, providing the possibility to disable some of the cores/cpus, not the other way around!

@johnp126: I wonder what is taking so long 23 sec for your system to shut down (if you are running RAID, that may explain it though). Also, what program are you using to measure those times? I would be interested to compare some results (measured the same way). BTW, could you post a link to this video you mention about the Phoenix BIOS? Thanks

[mattbiernat]

its a placebo effect, its only used for troubleshooting.

[johnp126]

Link to the Phoenix Bios Video:

http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget ... 645/2.033/

I thought this was very interesting except it appears that it is a new PC3 bios (not sure what that means). They mention briefly that they "replaced" the bios on the 2 systems they have there.

I do have RAID controller but don't use it.

For timing in the video they show microsoft velocity program but i looked and it doesn't seem like its what they are talking about and doesn't support win 7.

I used a simple stop watch to do the timing as I didn't have anything more exotic.

[Marin85]

Thanks for the link! This looks very promising, but I bet those 2 laptops are using SSDs Anyways, I´m looking forward to those BIOS updates (I hope they will consider older models).

[mattbiernat]

Thanks for the link! This looks very promising, but I bet those 2 laptops are using SSDs Anyways, I´m looking forward to those BIOS updates (I hope they will consider older models).

i honestly don't see a point of this. it takes them 5 seconds to boot the laptop while it takes me about 25 seconds to boot mine. i guess this is for people who don't know how to speed up their laptop and remove bloatware.

[Marin85]

Uhm, not everyone is using a SSD in his laptop So, such a BIOS improvement would be nice for all of the mortal us who are still using HDs. Especially on older machines with slower hardware and especially for those who need and use their "bloatware"... Not to mention that windows (this is less valid for windows 7) has been well-known for its crappy boot times...

@johnp126:If you want to get a more realistic picture of your boot time, I think you should count the login and what happens afterwards as well, because some programs can delay windows startup. From a productivity standpoint, I always try to measure the time from power-on to 'usable desktop'.

[CHood]

I have hard time to believe that checking this option in the configuration utility has anything to do with boot speed improvement, for the simple reason that per default Windows 7 (just like Windows Vista and Windows XP) uses as much cores/cpus as available when booting up. IN other words, this option in msconfig is given for troubleshooting purposes, providing the possibility to disable some of the cores/cpus, not the other way around!

That's weird. I wonder why I got the faster time? .5 second is nothing anyways so who cares.

[Marin85]

I don´t even know how you measured that difference of half of second

[CHood]

good point. I did it a few times though. If it is under 10 seconds difference it is not worth the effort.

[mattbiernat]

good point. I did it a few times though. If it is under 10 seconds difference it is not worth the effort.

there is no hack in XP or Vista or 7 that will singlehandedly give you a 10 second speed up in boot time. you need to do several customizations with .5 second speed improvements to make a difference, in this case the two core start up option is a myth. but going down from 40 seconds to 30 seconds for a start up makes a huge difference especially when you are like me and always in a hurry and frustrated when loosing time.

[mgo]

I thought it might be interesting to put all suggestions to speed improvements in Windows 7 in one area..

Here's my tip: Not everyone wants to spend the large bucks for a solid state hard drive for the big speed increase, but here's an article that offers a less costly speed boost:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=686&u ... l+Blogs%29

I tried this on a R52 running Windows 7, using a 320gig HDD, and my Experience Index for the drive went from 4.3 (the old 80 gig drive) to 5.9 for the new, larger drive.

Whether the numbers are accurate or not, (might be just bogus Microsoft hoo-hah), the machine really does seem more "snappy".

[adrianaitken]

But isn't this just because the manufacturer gets the cheapest disk (4200RPM) and the bigger disks are just plain faster because they run at 5600/7200 RPM. It's nothing to do with size (as I tell the girlfriend ).

[K0LO]

In this case size really does matter. See the article referenced in mgo's post above.

[Colonel O'Neill]

I read disabling devices in Device Manager would speed up boot times... Although I don't really see significant or consistent improvements.

[mattbiernat]

disabling services and managing start up has the biggest effect. it can make a difference between starting up in 1 minute with lenovo bloatware to starting up with 25 seconds without the bloatware and after disabling like 20 services that you don't use.