Great Write up OP, I took from your tweaking tips .. disabling my OS timeout made my bootup time less than 25 seconds (i timed it!) thank you raid 0!
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Regards to the Win7 using a lot memory at idle times
(task manager > performance)..
Okay, see how it idles at 20%+ usage? This is on purpose and it is not caused by system task like in vista
the design behind this is-
The OS is design to only uses and caches memory that is AVAILABLE, meaning, if it is not being used, the OS will cache it
Why?
The concept of using the available cache memory is, when memory is cached and being used, it is able to spread to those that need it more, much faster than if it was not being use.
The difference is only a few milliseconds at first(seconds for some) but as more and more programs open, the transfer time increases..
Used cached memory is better then dead or unused memory..
the OS doesn't require this much memory, it is just a function vista and win7 have which is why it is consider faster than xp.. (except vista... that was a trial and error OS... yay)
to put this in better words ...
Think of the OS as a weapon, a gun..
you have a Gun that has the bullet chambered and the hammer cocked (windows 7)
I have a gun what has NO bullet in the chamber and the hammer against the pin (XP)
the other person doesn't know what a gun is (vista)
So you (windows 7) will be able to fire that gun faster than i would (xp) because you already have the gun cocked and loaded where I still need to pull the slide back, pull the hammer back and fire... assuming its not a double action
So for those who say XP is faster because when idle, your memory is at 1% usage whereas windows 7 has the memory showing 20% usage at idle, think again .