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The Ultimate guide to speeding up win 7 on low/mid range systems ready for TOR!


renegadeimp

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How to streamline your system ready for SWTOR.

 

Important please read:

This guide is intended for Windows 7 users. It covers beginner, intermediate and advanced features to clean your PC, streamline it, and remove any unwanted services that Windows may choose to start up by itself.

 

The guide is aimed at the low-mid ranged system, although people with high end systems are reporting performance increases as well.

 

All usage of this guide is undertaken purely by the user at his/her own discretion. I will not be held liable for any errors or failure to boot scenarios that may occur as a result of following this guide.

 

 

 

 

Preface:

 

Win 7 is Engineered for speed. It might not seem like it to some people, but believe it or not, considerable attention has been given by Microsoft to making Win 7 faster than any other Microsoft OS. It is faster than Vista, and MUCH faster than Win xp, but on a basic install and day to day use, most people dont see it.

 

This guide is designed for you to achieve faster Boot times, faster read/write times, and generally to give you a much faster and smoother experience with Windows 7, allowing your system to use the extra resources to power your games.

 

I can personally guarantee that if you follow this and implement the recommendations on your PC, you will see a performance gain. Before you do however, please read the guide in full and make sure you understand it before you attempt any configuration changes.

 

All information in this guide is devised from the Microsoft developers network (MSDN) and support Knowledgebase and from my own experience. Any resemblance to any other guides is purely coincidental. For more information, feel free to check out Microsofts Support for yourself :)

 

 

Min requirements for Win 7

 

  • 1GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
  • 1GB of main memory
  • 16GB of available disk space
  • Support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface)
  • A DVD – R/W drive

 

Notice how it states a DX 9 Graphics card.. Please note that you dont need a DX9 or above card for this guide, as our aim is to achieve performance, and not the sparkly effects. Also note, that after you complete the implementations in this guide, you can always turn on the effects you like, but at a performance loss.

 

 

 

Index

 

[JUMPTO=anchor1]Disable Search Feature[/JUMPTO]

[JUMPTO=anchor2]Disable Aero Theme[/JUMPTO]

[JUMPTO=anchor3]Disable Extra Effects[/JUMPTO]

[JUMPTO=anchor4]Disable Extra Services[/JUMPTO]

[JUMPTO=anchor5]Disable User Account Control[/JUMPTO]

[JUMPTO=anchor7]Disable Unused Features[/JUMPTO]

[JUMPTO=anchor8]Disable Sidebar/Gadgets[/JUMPTO]

[JUMPTO=anchor9]Changing the Power Plan[/JUMPTO]

[JUMPTO=anchor0]Recommended Software[/JUMPTO]

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS TWEAKS

 

[JUMPTO=boottime]Speed up System Boot time[/JUMPTO]

[JUMPTO=procatboot]Troubleshooting : Change no. of processors used at boot.[/JUMPTO]

[JUMPTO=alpha]Speed up the Menu Show Delay time[/JUMPTO]

[JUMPTO=bravo] Speed up system shutdown[/JUMPTO]

 

 

 

 

Important: Before you perform any of the steps in this guide, please make sure you create a system restore point; so if you get any negative results, you can easily 'rewind' your computer to how it was before.

 

 

Now on with the guide!

 

 

[aname=anchor1]Disabling the Search Indexing Feature in win7[/aname]

The majority of win 7 users do a very low amount of searches in their system. The Search Indexing Service (SIS) keeps track of files, so that you can find them quickly when you perform a query on your system.

 

This feature is only useful if you perform frequent searches on your system.

 

For people who rarely or dont use the search feature, the SIS is a HUGE resource eater. It still uses resources on your machine, even if you are not using it.

 

To disable this feature:

  • Right click the “My Computer” Icon on your desktop and select the option called "MANAGE"
  • On the left hand side of the windows, you will see a pane titled “Computer Management”. Click the plus symbol next to “Services and applications” in this window.
  • Now click on “Services” and wait for the new pane to load.
  • You will see a lot of services that windows uses in this new pane. Scroll through these services, until you come to a service called “Windows Search
  • Right click on the “Windows Search” Service in the list, and choose “Properties”.
  • A window called “Window Search Properties” should pop up. Where it says STARTUP type, click on the dropdown menu and choose “Disabled

Now click Apply, then OK and youre done. The SIS is now disabled.

 

 

[aname=anchor2]Disabling the Aero Theme[/aname]

 

Oh boy. While this feature of Win 7 certainly looks pretty and eye catching, it is a major resource hog, both in terms of base system resources and on your Graphics card. For those on low power systems, or if youre like me, you just want a blazing fast PC, it is a VERY good idea to disable it. If you are unsure, just check the memory consumption when it is turned off and on.

 

To disable Aero:

 

  • Right click on any blank space on your desktop and select “Personalize”.
  • In the new window you will see a lot of themes. Scroll down to the bottom until you reach “Basic and High Contrast Themes
  • Choose Windows Classic, and wait for your system to be updated to the new theme.

 

 

You can now close this window. Aero is turned off and you have the fastest theme on your system.

Edited by renegadeimp
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[aname=anchor3]Disabling extra effects in win 7 to gain more free resources.[/aname]

 

So now you have turned off Aero, there will still be many unwanted visual effects that eat up your system memory, such as sliding menu effects, or sliding window effects.

 

To disable extra effects:

 

  • Right Click on My Computer, either on your desktop or in your start menu and click Properties.
  • Click on “Advanced System Settings” on the left side of this window to bring up the “System Properties” window.
  • Choose the tab labelled “Advanced”. Now under “Performace” (it's at the top), click the “settings” button. Choose the option called “Custom”.
  • Now the trick here to to strip everything that the system really doesnt need. So that means unchecking every single box. The only boxes that should be checked are “Smooth Edges of Screen fonts”, “Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop” and "Use Visual Styles on Windows and Buttons”.
  • Click “Apply” or “OK

 

To make sure these settings stick, simply log out of your user account and log back in, or restart your system.

 

Sidenote: You can enable and disable whichever features you like from the performance tab. My recommendations simply give you the fastest performance.

 

You should already notice a bit of a speed difference compared to before.

 

 

 

 

[aname=anchor4]

Here comes the big one![/aname]

 

Disabling every extra service in Windows 7 that you do not need.

 

This part of the guide alone should free up a good majority of your tied system resources. One good side effect of this is it will speed up your system boot time, and thats always a good thing.

 

Many services that run in windows 7 are simply not needed by the average user. There are some exceptional cases, such as the Service called “Print Spooler”. It is only needed when you use a printer. If you use a printer occasionaly, or never at all, you can turn it off and turn it back on only when you need to print something.

 

Warning: Some of these services MIGHT have an adverse effect on your system. Disable at your own risk.

 

Lets do this!

 

 

  • Right click the “My Computer” Icon on your desktop and select the option called "MANAGE"
  • On the left hand side of the windows, you will see a pane titled “Computer Management”. Click the plus symbol next to “Services and applications” in this window.
  • Now click on “Services” and wait for the new pane to load.
     

You will see a lot of services that windows uses in this new pane. Scroll through these services, until you come to each of the services listed below. As you did before with the “SIS” service, repeat what you did, and disable the following services.

 

 

 

  • Application Experience
  • Computer Browser*(If your PC does not connect to any network)
  • Desktop*Window Manager Session Manager*(If you don’t want the aero effects)
  • Diagnostic Policy Service
  • Distributed Link Tracking Client
  • IP Helper
  • Offline Files
  • Portable Device Enumerator Service
  • Print*Spooler*(If you do not use a Printer)
  • Protected Storage
  • Remote Registry*(You can safely disable it for more Security)
  • Secondary Logon
  • Security Center
  • Server*(If*your*computer*is not connect with any network)
  • Tablet PC Input Service
  • TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
  • Themes
  • Windows Error*Reporting*Service
  • Windows Media Center Service Launcher
  • Windows*Search*(If you rarely use Windows Search feature )
  • Windows Time*(If you do not want to synchronize system time with*internet*time automatically. This is recommended to be disabled, as it is only useful if your system battery is dying or your country is about to switch to DST).

 

After you have disabled each of these, click apply/OK, then restart your computer.

Edited by renegadeimp
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[aname=anchor5]Disable the User Account Control feature (UAC)[/aname]

 

The UAC can be annoying, even though it says it is a security feature. However, if you use a firewall and anti-virus (Which you should be doing), this feature will annoy you more than being a help.

 

PLEASE NOTE: This is an advanced feature. If you are unsure of your system or AV/firewall, please keep this enabled.

 

To disable UAC:

 

  • From the Control Panel open the ” User Accounts and Family Safety ” > User Account.
  • Click the*User*Account*Control settings link.
  • Now just Drag the Slider towards “Never Notify”.
  • Click “OK” and Reboot your system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aname=anchor7]Turn off unused Win7 Features

[/aname]

There are some features in win 7 that we usually do not use. Disabling these can help to speed win7 up.

 

PLEASE NOTE: This is an advanced feature. Only peform this part of the guide if you are confident in what you are doing.

 

Open up ” Programs and Features ” from Control Panel.

Click the ” Turn Windows features on or off ” from the left pane.

Now uncheck all the Feature that you don’t use in Windows 7 and restart the system for the changes to take effect.

 

As a guide to which options to check/uncheck, the following are what I have checked. Everything else is unchecked.

 

  • Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1
  • Remote Differential Compression
  • Windows Search

 

You can check/uncheck what you like, but my previous warnings apply.

 

 

 

 

[aname=anchor8]Disable the sidebar/Gadgets

[/aname]

Windows Sidebar actually takes up a good chunk of resources and increases your system boot time. I always disable this on any installation I have as I find this feature completely unnecessary.

 

To disable Sidebar/Gadgets

  • Right click on the sidebar and select ” Properties “.
  • On the properties windows, untick the check box showing ” Start sidebar when Windows Starts

Reboot your system and sidebar will no longer start up.

Edited by renegadeimp
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[aname=anchor9]Change the Power Plan.[/aname]

 

By default, the power settings in win 7 are not automatically set for Max performance. By default, its set for balanced, with increased energy consumption on your hardware. Changing the power plan decreases the consumption for your hardware and gives you a small performance gain.

 

  • Double click the ” Power Options ” in the Control panel.
  • Click the down arrow showing ” Show Additional Plans ” to see the ” High Performance ” power plan
  • Now just activate the ”*High*Performance*” plan and that’s it.
  • You may go for the advanced settings for further tweaking if you want.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aname=anchor0]And finally![/aname]

 

My recommended Software to speed up windows 7

 

Wise registry Cleaner

Ccleaner

TCP Optimizer (Very Advanced users only)

TeraCopy (Replaces default windows copy utility and is much faster)

 

 

There are many more tweaks you can use, but they are only a very minor saving on resources. The above are the biggest savers.

Edited by renegadeimp
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Miscellaneous Tweaks

 

The Tweaks below are purely optional as they have a minor impact on peformance. However, coupled with the above guide, it can give you a good finish to your system.

 

 

[aname=boottime]Speed Up the Windows 7 Bootup Time[/aname]

 

Note: This is a moderate/advanced user option. Failure to follow this guide exactly could render your system unable to boot.

 

  • Press [Win] + R or take the RUN option from the start menu.
  • Now type msconfig in there and press Enter Key to open up the System Configuration Window. Click on the Boot tab in there.
  • You will see a box called Time out. This is the time (in sec) which the system waits for the user to select the operating system to boot to.
  • You can safely set the value to 0.
  • Tick the "No GUI Boot" option too [turns off the Windows 7 logo at boot-up].
  • Click Apply and then on OK.

 

 

 

Alternatively to change "Time out" only:

  • Right click on Computer and select Properties from the right click menu.
  • Click on Advanced System Settings from the left pane to open up the System Properties window.
  • Select the Advanced tab from it. Then under Startup and Recovery click Settings.
  • Now uncheck box "Time to display list of operating systems" and click OK.

 

 

 

 

 

[aname=procatboot]Change the Number of Processors Used at Boot Up[/aname]

 

Important notice:

This option is for advanced users only. Use of it is completely at your own discretion and risk.

 

 

Information:

If you have a multiple core CPU (e.g. Intel Core Duo or Quad CPU) or multiple CPUs, then this will show you how to change the Number of Processors that will be used during boot up for troubleshooting and debugging purposes to be able to determine if there is a problem with a single processor/core, or for a programmer to test their code against a single core while running on their multi-core system.

 

Note:

Windows 7 will use all your processors by default at boot up without this Number of Processors setting box checked. Using all of your available processors (cores or CPUs) during boot allows the computer to boot faster only because a multiple core CPU or multiple CPUs can handle and do more at once than a single core or CPU. Multiple cores do not actually increase the speed, but only increase the number of processor cores working on the job which in turn has the job finish quicker. If you do not have much running at startup, then you may not notice much improvement in how long it takes to startup.

 

Instructions:

  • Click the Advanced Options button. The Boot Advanced Options Window will then pop up.
  • Tick the check box saying Number of Processors. Now click on the drop down box and select the maximum number of processor cores (might be 2 or more).

[ According to some sources this setting doesn't speed up boot time. However i have included it for relevance]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aname=alpha]

Speed up the Menu Show Delay Time

[/aname]

Note: This is a moderate/advanced user option, although beginners can use it as long as they follow the instructions exactly.

 

 

Information: This will show you how to change the amount of time it takes for a menu in Windows 7 to pop, fade, or slide open when you run the mouse pointer over it.

 

Instructions:

  • Press [Win] + R or take the RUN option from the start menu.
  • Now type regedit there and press Enter Key to open up the Registry Editor Window.
  • In regedit navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop in the left pane.
  • In the right pane, right click on MenuShowDelay and click on Modify
  • In the value box, type in a number between 0 to 4000 [400 is default, I use 1] for how many milliseconds you want the Menu to wait before it opens.
  • Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply the changes.

 

Note: The lower the number, the faster the response time. If you use an entry of 0, there is no menu display delay. However it is not recommended to use 0 though since the menus may be hard to navigate through at that speed.

 

 

 

 

 

[aname=bravo]Speed Up the Shut Down Time[/aname]

 

Information: This will show you how to set the "Wait to Kill" time Windows 7 waits for programs to save data and close before shutting down.

 

Instructions:

  • Press [Win] + R or take the RUN option from the start menu.
  • Now type regedit there and press Enter Key to open up the Registry Editor Window.
  • In regedit navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control in the left pane
  • In the right pane, right click on WaitToKillServiceTimeout and click on Modify.
  • Type in a number between 1000 to 20000 [1-20 seconds] [12000 is default, I use 1000]

 

 

Note: If you have problems with programs from your computer shutting down to quickly, then repeat the above steps and increase the time a bit.

 

 

 

Edited by renegadeimp
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Windows 7 uses less resources and performs a LOT better than xp on pretty much any system.

 

Cool Story.

 

:edit:

 

Not claiming XP>7 for a moment here. But for those like myself with lower system memory, the lower OS overhead (which I really can't see how you can dispute) alone makes a lot of difference.

Edited by Kamnine
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[aname=anchor6]Ready Boost

[/aname]

Win 7 has a pretty good feature which allows you to use a USB flash drive as extra memory, should you only be using 2 GB or so of RAM. It's no substitute but it can make your system run faster.

 

 

 

How to setup the Ready Boost Feature.

 

To configure the Ready Boost Feature in Windows 7 you need to have a High Speed Flash/USB or Pendrive with you which is ready boost compatible.

 

  • After plugging in your flashdrive or pendrive, Open “Computer” > Right-click on the USB Drive/Pendrive > select “Ready Boost” tab > tick the “Use this device” checkbox.
  • You can configure how much space on your USB drive/ Pendrive to be used as Ram.

 

It's a very easy feature to configure, which can give you extra speed on low spec systems. AS I mentioned earlier, it's no substitute for real Memory Hardware, but it works, and it can work very well.

 

 

 

/Sigh... another user that has NO idea what Readyboost is.

 

Readyboost IS NOT RAM ... Nor a SUBSTITUE FOR RAM ... Readyboost HELPS YOUR HARD DRIVE...

 

Readyboost caches DISK CONTENT to the FLASH DRIVE. On certain operations this can be 80-100x faster than using your Hard Drive.

 

Readyboost will give you a performance boost based on your HDD speed NOT RAM.

 

Most laptops run a 5400rpm HDD. Even high end systems you can see as much as a 10% performance gain. This gain gets smaller the faster the HDD speed is (I.E. 7200rpm, 10,000rpm) and gets disabled with a SSD.

 

Your SD card or USB Stick should be at LEAST twice the size of the ram. You should format the drive as exFAT so Windows can use the entire size of the memory device.

 

Windows 7 can recognize up to 256GB of memory this way and up to 8 different sources at the same time.

 

I recommend at least a Class 10 device, but the minimum specs are below:

 

The device must have an access time of 1 ms or less.

 

The device must be capable of 2.5 MB/s read speeds for 4 KB random reads spread uniformly across the entire device, and 1.75 MB/s write speeds for 512 KB random writes spread uniformly across the device.

 

Windows Vista and Windows 7 include a command-line utility called "winsat" to test the performance of random read and write speeds. The Command Prompt must be run with administrative privileges; otherwise test results will not be visible after testing.

 

To test random reads (4096 for 4 KB):

 

winsat disk -read -ran -ransize 4096 -drive driveletter

 

For random writes (524288 for 512 KB):

 

winsat disk -write -ran -ransize 524288 -drive driveletter

 

Please... next time... do your homework.

Edited by Nex_Seraphim
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[aname=anchor6]Ready Boost

[/aname]

Win 7 has a pretty good feature which allows you to use a USB flash drive as extra memory, should you only be using 2 GB or so of RAM. It's no substitute but it can make your system run faster.

 

 

 

How to setup the Ready Boost Feature.

 

To configure the Ready Boost Feature in Windows 7 you need to have a High Speed Flash/USB or Pendrive with you which is ready boost compatible.

 

  • After plugging in your flashdrive or pendrive, Open “Computer” > Right-click on the USB Drive/Pendrive > select “Ready Boost” tab > tick the “Use this device” checkbox.
  • You can configure how much space on your USB drive/ Pendrive to be used as Ram.

 

It's a very easy feature to configure, which can give you extra speed on low spec systems. AS I mentioned earlier, it's no substitute for real Memory Hardware, but it works, and it can work very well.

 

 

 

...sigh... another user that has NO idea what Readyboost is.

 

Readyboost IS NOT RAM ... Nor a SUBSTITUE FOR RAM ... Readyboost HELPS YOUR HARD DRIVE...

 

Readyboost caches DISK CONTENT to the FLASH DRIVE. On certain operations this can be 80-100x faster than using your Hard Drive.

 

Readyboost will give you a performance boost based on your HDD speed NOT RAM.

 

Most laptops run a 5400rpm HD. Even high end systems you can see as much as a 10% performance gain. This gain gets smaller the faster the HDD speed is (I.E. 7200rpm, 10,000rpm) and gets disabled with a SSD.

 

Your SD card or USB Stick should be at LEAST twice the size of the ram. You should format the drive as exFAT so Windows can use the entire size of the memory device.

 

Windows 7 can recognize up to 256GB of memory this way and up to 8 different sources at the same time.

 

I recommend at least a Class 10 device, but the minimum specs are below:

 

The device must have an access time of 1 ms or less.

 

The device must be capable of 2.5 MB/s read speeds for 4 KB random reads spread uniformly across the entire device, and 1.75 MB/s write speeds for 512 KB random writes spread uniformly across the device.

 

Windows Vista and Windows 7 include a command-line utility called "winsat" to test the performance of random read and write speeds. The Command Prompt must be run with administrative privileges; otherwise test results will not be visible after testing.

 

To test random reads (4096 for 4 KB):

 

winsat disk -read -ran -ransize 4096 -drive driveletter

 

For random writes (524288 for 512 KB):

 

winsat disk -write -ran -ransize 524288 -drive driveletter

 

Please... next time... do your homework.

 

I know. I posted the old version of this guide. Im in the middle of updating it.

Edited by renegadeimp
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Just a heads up, you can make most of these changes on a temporary basis before starting your game.

 

You can kill process and services from the command line or better, make a batch file to do this, then simply run the batch file using elevated permissions.

 

Example of how to stop a service. The following would end the Search Indexer Service:

Net Stop SearchIndexer

 

Example of how to stop a process. The following would end the Windows Media Player:

Taskkill /im wmplayer.exe /f

 

Here's a link to an article on the topic.

 

You can also temporarily set the game to run with Windows Aero turned off, when you exit the game it starts again. Simply right click the shortcut to run the game and select properties, from the compatibility tab, check Disable Visual Themes and Deskop Composition.

 

This way you are not making permanent changes to your system. Just adjusting it a bit when playing the game to get better performance.

Edited by NuanceNW
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Just a heads up, you can make most of these changes on a temporary basis before starting your game.

 

You can kill process and services from the command line or better, make a batch file to do this, then simply run the batch file using elevated permissions.

 

Example of how to stop a service. The following would end the Search Indexer Service:

Net Stop SearchIndexer

 

Example of how to stop a process. The following would end the Windows Media Player:

Taskkill /im wmplayer.exe /f

 

Here's a link to an article on the topic.

 

You can also temporarily set the game to run with Windows Aero turned off, when you exit the game it starts again. Simply right click the shortcut to run the game and select properties, from the compatibility tab, check Disable Visual Themes and Deskop Composition.

 

This way you are not making permanent changes to your system. Just adjusting it a bit when playing the game to get better performance.

 

Yep. This was discussed in the beta version of this thread. However, the majority of people that used this said they preferred to have the performance 100% of the time, ingame and out. Not just when playing.

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do not disable or uninstall .net

 

too many things depend on it, for instance ATI users have to have it for their full driver package to install.

 

do not disable random services, especially without knowing what might need them. search is well explained here, the rest are not. leave them on.

 

disabling screen font smoothing, etc, is pointless on current gen PCs, these features are not an impact on any processor newer than a pentium 4.

 

many of the ideas in this guide are simply holdovers from 10 years of trying to make gaming faster.

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This looks to be a great guide. I'm wondering, and I know I'll get some flak for this, is there anything like this for....Vista....I know the dreaded vista. I don't have the money at the moment to go out and upgrade to another OS so I'm wondering how many of these options will work for me.

 

Thanks in advance.

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I hope we will get some patches and driver updates soon, my rig (nothing super powerful - Q6600, 4GB ram and GTX 460) runs Battlefield 3 perfectly (almost everything on high) and I get about 35+ fps in SWTOR. If I switch on the shadows it is barely playable, mouse lag feels terrible.

 

I could try to switch off the vsync, but screen tearing would drive me mad :]

 

What I'm trying to say is not to worry too much if you have to keep your settings low or you experience fps drops, I bet it will be fixed. This game cannot be more demanding than BF3!

Edited by Loginus
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