7 Ways To Maximize The Power Of Windows 7

Windows 7 is feature-packed and has significant performance and power management enhancements over Windows Vista, that oh-so-forgettable operating system that probably will go down in the annals of technology history as the 21st century's version of Windows Me.

Although the performance of Windows 7 left us in the CRN Test Center impressed right from the start, using it with default settings intact we found seven ways to squeeze maximum performance out of Windows 7 for a truly awesome user experience.

1. Upgrade From Vista SP1, Plus Our Take On Hardware Specifications

Based on testing conducted in the CRN Test Center, Windows 7 has no issues in being upgraded from Vista SP 1 on newer PCs. "Newer" in this case means at least a Pentium 4 processor and a minimum of 2 GB RAM on a 32-bit-based PC. If opting for 64-bit, 4 GB of RAM will give you great performance. Note: These requirements are based on our testing and not on Microsoft's published minimum hardware requirements.

Other hardware requirements would be 16 GB of free hard drive space for the 32-bit install and 20 GB for the 64-bit version.

However, the most optimal install method would be to follow the above hardware requirements and do a clean install of Windows 7. Toss out any notions of upgrading from XP.

2. Turn Off Or Modify System Protection

By default, Windows 7 enables System Protection on the NTFS drive that Windows is installed on. System Protection keeps copies of system settings and previous versions of files that can be restored in case of a system problem or accidental file deletion.

Windows 7 created restore points before significant system events such as a program or driver install. Restore points also are created once every seven days if no other restore points were created in the previous seven.

This restore point creation can conceivably contribute to resource overhead and a possible detriment in system performance. In a corporate IT environment, where there should already be a backup system in place, it makes sense to disable System Protection on end user's machines. Home users can turn it off as well, as long as they too are backing up files. After all, in case of a system failure, it's a lot easier to do a reinstall of Windows 7 and then restore files. Disabling System Protection means you are not sacrificing any performance while restore points are being created.

If users still want to use System Protection, they can disable it, and then enable it when they want to create manual restore points. Windows 7 however, does not have a scheduler for creating these restore points, so a user will have to be vigilant about retaining a set schedule.

3. Utilize The Windows Experience Index

The Windows Experience Index assesses various system components on a scale of 1.0 to 7.9. It assigns subscores to the following: the processor's calculations per second, the RAM memory operations per second, the Aero desktop performance, 3-D graphics performance and the hard disk drive data transfer rate. All of these subscores are then tallied to make the total base score.

Although some argue about the validity of these scores, the index does provide a baseline performance gauge that can be used when upgrading memory, graphics cards and other components.

It is best practice to take note of the base score and subscores before doing any component upgrades, and then after an upgrade, rerunning the assessment within Performance Information and Tools in the Control Panel to calculate new scores.

A score of 2 is the minimum level of sufficiency to perform the most basic computer tasks. For more graphics-intensive tasks, you want to see a score of at least 3.

Next: Tweak Visual Settings