Windows 7 Optimization Guide

Many times friends and colleagues ask me why his/her laptop is very slow at boot and when work. I have hear friends to tell me that his pc take 15 minutes to boot and login. It’s a nightmare when you need to do a work and you don’t have time.
For better performance pc or laptop must be maintenance once a month or 2 months, unless it’s sure that you will have performance issue.
I’m not fan of third part software’s that improve your performance of the PC for a lot of reasons.
Find below a guide that you can follow without need to call any technician to do this task.
 
1. Delete programs that you never use.
Many PC manufacturers pack new computers with programs which may not want. The most of them are in trial mode and after a month ask to activate by pay. If your pc or laptop is new it’s not difficult to find these programs and uninstall from your pc.
 
How to uninstall a software follow the steps.
a. Go Start - -> My Computer and click Uninstall or change a program
 
 
 
b. Find the software that you want and click Uninstall.
 
 
2. Check the program in your start up.
Most of the programs when you will setup add by default to start up automatically when windows startup. This cause to increase the time that need Windows to finish starting up.
But how can check what programs automatically run on start up? Sometimes it’s very easy because you can find an icon in the right side of taskbar as you can see in print screen. Point to each icon to see the program name. Be sure to click in the Show hidden icons button so you don’t miss any program. 
 
If you find any program that you don’t want to start on windows startup , Right click on the icon , find the properties and base on the software you will find the option to disable the program to start up on windows start up.
Even after check the taskbar icons, you might still some programs that run automatically at startup.  To find a complete list of all programs at start up follow the steps.
 
a. Click Start - >Run and type msconfig
b. Go in Tab Start up and you can find a full list of software’s at start up
Uncheck the tick for any software that you don’t want to start at windows start up.
 
Note: Be careful don’t uncheck any software that you aren’t sure because you cause more problems.
 
c. Click OK and you will prompt to do a restart or Exit Without Restart.
 
When you restart the Windows programs that you have uncheck will not start at windows start up.
 
3. Defragment your disk
It’s very important to defrag your disk once a month or in 2 months. When you defragment your disk hard disk can work most efficiently. By default in Windows 7 runs on a schedule but you can run manually because maybe schedule time your pc is close or decrease your performance when you have work to do.
 
To run the defragment manuall follow the steps. Before start it’s better to know that when you run defragment the performance of your pc decrease. So it’s better to start the defragment when you aren’t work in your PC. So leave it 1 hour to do the defragment.
 
a. Go Start - - > My Computer 
b. Right Click your hard disk 
 
c. Go in Tab Tools and click in button Defragment Now.
 
 
d. When click Defragment you will open a new window. You can see the schedule that add by default. You can change the schedule time or disable and run defragment only when you want.
 
 
e. Click on (C:) and click the button Defragment disk.  Then you can see some details in the Progress as analyze(30%) and after defragment (10%). This is the prograss of the defragment that you can watch until finish.
 
 
 
4. Turn off Visual effects
Sometimes I fyou don’t have lot of memory in your PC or laptop (>=2GB) you can disable some visual effects from Windows 7 to speed it up. 
To adjust visual effects for best performance 
 
a. Click the Start button and Right Click in Computer.
b. Click Properties, in the Left Side choose Advance System Settings.
 
c. Go in Tab Advanced and Click in button Settings.
 
 
d. Stay in Tab Visual Effects and choose Adjust for better performance.
 
 
Click OK and OK.
Now you can see the appearance of your Windows in a basic Style like the printcreen.
 
 
 
 
 
5. Check for Viruses and Spyware
Most of the times if your pc is very slow and has strange behaviors you have infected with virus. Before you worry for a virus that you have infected check your PC or Laptop regularly for Viruses.
A common symptom of a Virus is a much slower than normal pc performance and strange behaviors than normal. This is not means if your PC is more slower that 100% infected of Virus.
 
So the best way to be protected is to run an antivirus software and keep up to date. You can find a lot of free antivirus software in the Internet if you don’t to buy one as AVG, Microsoft Security Essentials and more
 
If you try all the above and your PC still be very slow that means that you need a new PC or a hardware upgrade like new RAM or hard disk.