Windows 7 Tips & Tweaks

[Ratbuster]

As I thought about this, Microsoft had to make other considerations when developing Embedded Windows because that typically runs off flash memory as well. So the Embedded Write Filter (EWF) section applies.

Please reference MSDN from microsft.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff794096(v=WinEmbedded.1001).aspx

 

I found 2 more items to disable.

Disable Last Access Time Stamps and Change the Location of the Event Log.

 

Additionally, Microsoft has a document that discusses pros and cons of having superfetch.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/6/2/862977E5-8D21-4A1C-8DC9-C2289244C14C/Improving%20Performance%20in%20Windows%20Embedded%20Standard%207.pdf

 

Again, this was developed for embedded systems.

 

Hopefully this helps.

[KrzyMoke]

I am seeing there is a lot of questions from confused users that do not understand the moderators. I will say that I have been using TweakGuides.net for all the peeps who are a light on the workings of their computers. Additionally BlackViper.com lists all the Windows Services and explains them out. I hate to plug other sites but I see a few here are getting irate because they don't have all the information about how their software works and the best avenues to take to remedy that. If I offend any Administrators out there, I apologize. Please Read those sites and your education of your computer will allow you to properly interact with the Moderators here and allow you to make EDUCATED judgements!

 

My Humble Apologies :praise:

[reidar84]

Hi!!

 

i tried this but have many problems after, my ie firefox and battlelog bf3 dont seem to be working as they should... are there any easy set back to old configuration?

[FoLmEr]

There's a utility called SSD Tweaker which allows you to quickly apply/undo the "SSD tweaks" from a centralized location instead of having to dig around for the individual settings in Windows.

 

I haven't tried it myself, but I imagine it will be able to undo the things you've changed as well quite easily.

[Sduibek]

What if the SSD is your only drive (e.g. laptop) thus the program files and 'net browser files must be on the SSD?

[nameisuser]

I am a Win 7 expert (true, no exaggeration) and a corsair ssd user.

 

There is much utter nonsense in this thread.

 

Leave your Win 7 settings alone. Win 7 has taken into account that you have a ssd.

 

I know that there are those who will disagree with me. To you, I say: Ignorance is bliss.

 

I will not respond to any comments and wish you tinkerers well.

[dwl99]

Troll alert

[qcx2987]

my internal SSD drive is the only one in my system. if that's the case, than what would this mean for me to do. tks in advance

[parsec]

my internal SSD drive is the only one in my system. if that's the case, than what would this mean for me to do. tks in advance

 

That's just one example of the side effects (FUD) that all these SSD tweaks have on many people. They get the impression that these modifications to the standard OS settings are a necessity, and that not performing them will lead to the premature failure of a SSD. That is simply not true. Minimizing the writes to a SSD has almost become a PC enthusiast hobby on its own.

 

qcx, in the early days of SSDs in the mainstream PC marketplace, all of three or four years ago, manufactures were a bit nervous about the lifespan of their products. So they made some suggestions to reduce the amount of writing that is done by a OS (really Windows) for that reason. There were also procedures that were standard for hard disk drives (ie, defragmenting) that are unnecessary and not optimal with SSDs. Also, certain features of Windows that were created to overcome the limitations of standard HDDs (Prefetch, etc) were unnecessary with SSDs. Windows also added features to compensate for PCs that simply had hardware limitations (insufficient RAM, etc.) Those things became combined into "SSD Optimization", along with the PC enthusiast oriented web sites blowing this "issue" out of proportion to make themselves look knowledgeable, and increase traffic on their sites, which is really about $.

 

The perception of all of this to most PC users was that all these things were injurious to their SSDs, rather than for the most part simply unnecessary.

 

Consider PCs like a MacBook Air, that can only use a SSD. Are they doomed to fail since all the optimizations cannot be performed on them? No, and many of the optimizations can be done on them anyway.

 

It's also been found that the amount of writing a SSD can endure is more than the manufactures seemed to imply they could, and is in the hundreds of Terabytes. IMO, another factor contributing to the fear of writing on a SSD, is that we have rarely if ever been told by a manufacture that there is a limit in the amount of usage of a device. Many parts of a HDD will wear out over time and fail, but we aren't told that it's motor will only last X hours, or the bits can be re-magnetized only X times.

[parsec]

I am a Win 7 expert (true, no exaggeration) and a corsair ssd user.

 

There is much utter nonsense in this thread.

 

Leave your Win 7 settings alone. Win 7 has taken into account that you have a ssd.

 

I know that there are those who will disagree with me. To you, I say: Ignorance is bliss.

 

I will not respond to any comments and wish you tinkerers well.

 

Oh yes, that's why two major manufactures of SSDs, that also produce and sell the NAND chips used in SSDs, as well as make their own SSD controllers, both have OS tuning options in their SSD support programs, that turn off Windows services like Defragmenter and Superfetch, among other things.

 

If I have SSDs in a simple RAID 0 volume, Windows does not recognize the individual disks in Device Manager, Disk Management, or anywhere. So Disk Defragmenter was still enabled, and scheduled.

 

Many third party hardware information programs detect and display all the information about the individual SSDs in the RAID volume, including firmware version, things I cannot see in Windows.

 

That ignorance is certainly not bliss.

[qcx2987]

Oh yes, that's why two major manufactures of SSDs, that also produce and sell the NAND chips used in SSDs, as well as make their own SSD controllers, both have OS tuning options in their SSD support programs, that turn off Windows services like Defragmenter and Superfetch, among other things.

 

If I have SSDs in a simple RAID 0 volume, Windows does not recognize the individual disks in Device Manager, Disk Management, or anywhere. So Disk Defragmenter was still enabled, and scheduled.

 

Many third party hardware information programs detect and display all the information about the individual SSDs in the RAID volume, including firmware version, things I cannot see in Windows.

 

That ignorance is certainly not bliss.

 

as this is my 1st ssd, (so alot of ignorance on my part) i did defrag my ssd drive one time, did i cause bad effects on my install and back up image by doing so? the only prob that i'm having is that if i turn my puter off at night. when i start it up every (yes every morning since i installed it) i get a system crash at boot up (even id 41 kernal power with detail ref some BugcheckParameter) so now i just leave it on 24/7 and dont have the problem) so i though that maybe my defrag cause the problem because i did it right after i finished installing the operating system and all my software

 

many thanks for all your insite

[Humbug]

Agree with everything parsec said. For the majority of users, i.e. those using a modern SSD with Windows 7 in a non-raid environment all they really need to know is

-When installing OS don't do a full format, just a quick format

-When you're done installing everything (including drivers) run the windows experience index, this is how Windows learns how fast your drive is and correspondingly turns off unnecessary services

[parsec]

The one odd thing is MS does not tell users to run their performance check, WEI, although I believe it runs automatically at some point. They further never state that is how SSDs are detected, that I have ever seen.

 

It seems the full format option in Windows does not use the SATA secure erase command. That is a shame, since doing so with SSDs that have smart firmware (should be all by now) would be a nice, simple "secure erase" (reset) of a SSD done in the Windows environment, without the need to boot into Parted Magic to do so, for example.

[parsec]

as this is my 1st ssd, (so alot of ignorance on my part) i did defrag my ssd drive one time, did i cause bad effects on my install and back up image by doing so? the only prob that i'm having is that if i turn my puter off at night. when i start it up every (yes every morning since i installed it) i get a system crash at boot up (even id 41 kernal power with detail ref some BugcheckParameter) so now i just leave it on 24/7 and dont have the problem) so i though that maybe my defrag cause the problem because i did it right after i finished installing the operating system and all my software

 

many thanks for all your insite

 

A difficult question to answer. Besides the obvious (and temporary) ruining of the SSDs wear leveling, what else happens is something I've never seen analyzed. This also makes me wonder why would Windows run a defrag on a drive it "knows" is a SSD. Obviously, the defrag program is not aware of a drives type.

 

You should try inserting and booting from your Windows installation disk, etc, and run a Repair on your installation, which might solve your boot issue. Whether or not the defrag of your SSD even caused this issue, I can't say is the case.

[Humbug]

qcx2987, I think it's very unlikely that defragmenting caused the boot issue. Since you did it soon after installing OS, windows probably did not see much fragmentation anyway...

 

I don't think the OS really has much control over how the data is mapped onto the actual flash. Windows may see it as defraged but the drive's controller is actually deciding where to physically write the data based on it's wear levelling algorithm- and that data is not reported to the OS. So I'm not even sure that it would defeat the wear levelling, although it definitely would be pointless and a waste...

[Serville]

After doing tweaking for so many years, I have to admit that Microsoft settings is still the best for most users under many different kinds of environment.

Sure, it is not the most optimal for a certain user under his specific usage pattern of the OS, but Microsoft has to "think ahead" that their setting will not cause problem under specific software requirements.

 

Problem is, tweakers can not guarantee that the tweaks will never present a problem tomorrow , or 6 months later when you install software X, Y or Z. So, a little compromise (loose optimization setting) might have to be done to guarantee long term stability & realiability, especially for most users with so many different kinds of hardware/software combination. Too aggresive tweaking will present more problem in the future, especially when the users just pick up the tweaks on the net and they do not realize the long term effects which actually reduces the software tolerances of the OS itself.

 

6 months later, we suddenly become puzzled why software X, Y or Z can not work or always cause a crash. And we do not realize that the problem might be caused by a combination of tweakings we have done previously. We have forgotten them, and we don't know how to return to the original state of the OS because the tweaks are too aggresive & spread out everywhere in the OS. You lose track of them, and the user finally have to reinstall everything from scratch to solve the problem.

For ex: People say if you have 8/16GB of memory, you can safely turn off the pagefile completely. Well, some software & games seems to require a pagefile no matter how much memory you have......or crash !!!

 

This is what Microsoft tend to avoid. I've been too experienced with this situation as part of my lesson. Currently, I'm just doing very limited tweakings, and I TRACK ALL THE CHANGES I'VE MADE FROM THE DEFAULTS. I even have a copy of the original status of every services I have enabled/disabled. As a result of my "wisdom" , I haven't done OS reinstallation since 2 years ago. And I keep several Acronis backups of the OS partition upto a year ago (once every 2-3 months) with A BASELINE IMAGE where the OS still retains all of its original settings as a reference. This proves to be very useful.

 

So, my suggestion is simple:

Just do the most necessary tweaking only. TAKE NOTE all the changes you've made.

You don't have to be super optimized in everything, because there is always a price to pay when you narrow down the OS tolerance towards different kinds of software needs. The less optimized Microsoft default settings just works fine & more reliable in the long run, and is still the most recommended one for ordinary users. Just my opinion.

[x509]

effects which actually reduces the software tolerances of the OS itself.

 

.....

 

... Currently, I'm just doing very limited tweakings, and I TRACK ALL THE CHANGES I'VE MADE FROM THE DEFAULTS. I even have a copy of the original status of every services I have enabled/disabled. As a result of my "wisdom" , I haven't done OS reinstallation since 2 years ago. And I keep several Acronis backups of the OS partition upto a year ago (once every 2-3 months) with A BASELINE IMAGE where the OS still retains all of its original settings as a reference. This proves to be very useful.

 

 

Serville,

 

I was wondering about how you accomplish the above. Do you manually log or record all changes? Every last one of them, no matter how insignificant it seems at the moment? Or, do you use some tools that track changes to the registry?

 

I would love to have a tool that captures all changes to a default Windows install. That way, when I bring up a new system, I could get most/almost all the tweaks done with one *.reg file.

 

x509

[Serville]

Serville,

 

I was wondering about how you accomplish the above. Do you manually log or record all changes? Every last one of them, no matter how insignificant it seems at the moment? Or, do you use some tools that track changes to the registry?

 

I would love to have a tool that captures all changes to a default Windows install. That way, when I bring up a new system, I could get most/almost all the tweaks done with one *.reg file.

 

x509

 

Actually I take note every changes manually done to the registry like this:

Tweak: Prefetch Disabled

Reg: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

Key : EnablePrefetcher = 0 (default: 3)

 

I also export the original reg, so I can easily restore it by importing.

 

Since I don't do lots of manual registry tweaking (8-10 at the most), it's easy to maintain them in a simple note.

 

As for the services, I simply took a snapshot of the original status with screen grabber just for comparison.

I also bought Rollback RX, where I can easily switch to several OS snapshot by simply a reboot. Rollback RX is fantastic if you ask me. Rolling back to previous OS snapshot is incredibly fast (took only 10-15 secs to do a complete restore on a snapshot) & you're back in business.

And for the most part, it saves SSD life , because it only writes around 1GB to the SSD to do a complete restore on any snapshot. Using Acronis, it would mean writing full size OS back to the SSD which means 28-30 GB in my case. It has saved me several times when I experimented with my Win7 and created a mess. :D:

But I still keep full Acronis backup as the last resort when everything fails.

 

Note: Rollback is a little tricky though. So, make sure you understand how it works

[x509]

Actually I take note every changes manually done to the registry like this:

Tweak: Prefetch Disabled

Reg: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

Key : EnablePrefetcher = 0 (default: 3)

 

I also export the original reg, so I can easily restore it by importing.

 

Since I don't do lots of manual registry tweaking (8-10 at the most), it's easy to maintain them in a simple note.

 

 

I don't do much, if any manual tweaking of the registry, but I sure use different control panel applets to tweak my setup, and then I often tweak applications. Plus I set up all these different network shares.

 

All of that taken together, is what I would like to capture in a *.reg file, at the same time ignoring things like the MRU lists, window sizes and positions, etc, etc.

 

 

As for the services, I simply took a snapshot of the original status with screen grabber just for comparison.

I also bought Rollback RX, where I can easily switch to several OS snapshot by simply a reboot. Rollback RX is fantastic if you ask me. Rolling back to previous OS snapshot is incredibly fast (took only 10-15 secs to do a complete restore on a snapshot) & you're back in business.

 

Pretty nice.

 

And for the most part, it saves SSD life , because it only writes around 1GB to the SSD to do a complete restore on any snapshot. Using Acronis, it would mean writing full size OS back to the SSD which means 28-30 GB in my case. It has saved me several times when I experimented with my Win7 and created a mess. :D:

But I still keep full Acronis backup as the last resort when everything fails.

 

Note: Rollback is a little tricky though. So, make sure you understand how it works

 

Well, I went over to their website, and sheesh, it's not cheap :eek: if you have say 4 or 5 systems in your home LAN.

[Serville]

Check out their site quite often.

Every year they offer huge discount on certain date (upto 50% - 65%).

I bought it for about $30 with 65% discount.

This is when most people buy it, otherwise it is too expensive.

[taltamir]

This thread apparently still draws the attention of people, I have seen it linked elsewhere too and the OPs suggestions are followed. Here is my take on them:

 

Looking through his tips:

1. Move IE temp files - wrong, those should stay on the SSD for max performance; irrelevant for lifespan.

2. Move system temp files - wrong, those should stay on the SSD for max performance; irrelevant for lifespan.

3. Decrease pagefile to 1-2GB - correct

4. Disable system restore (optional) - he doesn't explain why you would want to or not, just that its optional. Assuming he is doing it merely to free up space then its not a bad thing to do but its not actually necessary either; its just a personal taste kind of thing. I do it myself because I hate system restore (gets full of viruses and doesn't work properly when you need it, better to do a reinstall)

5. Disable disk defrag service - wrong, defrag service will automatically only defrag HDDs and will exclude SSDs. By disabling it you make your HDDs not get defragged while not helping your SSD at all.

6. Disable superfetch service - WRONG!. This is going to significantly reduce your systems performance, there is absolutely no reason to do this. Superfetch is the most impressive piece of software ever made by MS and has no downsides.

7. Disable windows indexing service - wrong.

 

#1,2,&7 are wrong for modern SSDs. The very first SSDs using a jmicron gen1 controller back many years ago (IIRC the first ever SSD from corsair used that controller) had random write performance that is approximately one hundred times slower the speed of a HDD's random writes. Thus it made sense to disable indexing, and moving temp files to other drives (also to move page file which isn't mentioned by op, he only says to decrease its size).

Modern SSDs are actually about one hundred times faster then HDDs in random writes and as such it is recommended those things reside on the SSD.

Windows 7 actually does #7 for you by default which is wrong of them (since such gen1 SSDs are rare nowadays)

 

How do properly configure your SSD:

1. Enable AHCI in BIOS (this should be done for HDDs as well actually, it improves speed on both SSD and HDD)

2. Install windows 7.

that's it.

 

Now, if you are short on space, you could free some up by tweaking the size of / disabling:

1. System restore

2. Page file

3. Hibernate

 

Personally I just bought a bigger SSD.

[RAM GUY]

taltamir,

You do realize this was posted almost three years ago right? And yes you are correct with any current SSD Force 2 or newer just let Windows 7 take care of everything for you.

[eozen81]

I am confused after reading above messages of @taltamir.

 

I am an user of Corsair 60 GB Force Series 3 SATA III. In my case should I apply the first message rules completely on my Wind7 or should I stay as what @taltamir advises here?

[RAM GUY]

Well its hard to say what you got from this but in a nut shell this information originally posted was from three years ago and pertained to first generation SSD's. Now that being said Current SSD Technology is third generation and O.S. and Driver/Bios support has greatly been improved so most of this is just not applicable but some of whats stated is noteworthy but with Windows 7 none of this is needed as Windows 7 supports SSD's and will disable settings it does not need. So for 99% of us just install Windows 7 and use the default format and let Windows do what it is supposed to and if you do run into an issue let us know we will do our best to help you.

[eozen81]

@RAM GUY Thank you