There is a price to be paid for fancy effects and other visual features in Windows: a reduction in performance. Nevertheless, by switching off the knobs and whistles you can make Windows run that little bit faster.
To choose which visual features to disable, you need to open the 'System Properties' dialogue. To do this either right-click on 'My Computer' on your Desktop and select 'Properties' from the menu that opens, or hold down the Windows key and press the Pause/Break key. Once you have 'System Properties' open, go to the 'Advanced' tab, and click on the 'Settings' button in the 'Performance' section.
This will open up the 'Performance Options' dialogue box. Make sure you have the first tab selected: 'Visual Effects'. On this page you will see a set of four options at the top. By default it is set to 'Let Windows choose what's best for your computer' but you can also choose to have it select settings for 'best appearance' (where all effects switched on) and 'best performance' (where all effects are switched off). The fourth option lets you decide which effects you want to have activated and which ones you do not. You can have a play around switching these off and on and clicking the 'Apply' button to see how they affect Windows. When you are happy click 'OK'
Monday, 2 June 2008
How to make Windows quicker: lose the fancy look
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8 comments:
i didn't even know the shadow of the mouse pointer exists until you made this post. haha!
For Windows Vista, I turned down all the graphics, and even went back to Windows Classic Theme Bar and since then its run a bit faster. I really don't care about the eye candy. I just want things to run smooth.
Glad to have been of help.
I am also gratified that this tip worked for Vista, I am still using XP and have to hope that my advice applies to Vista. So any feedback from users of that operating system are always warmly received here at BC!HQ.
K
yes this can really increase the speed of RMB options , especially when you have to go through three or four options to navigate
I've been using this for a long time. It's too bad I didn't think to write about it on my blog!
Thanks for the tip.
Cheers,
The Tech Juice
I must admit that since I got rid of all the "extras" from Windows about 5 months ago I'm surprised at how I could have worked any other way.
Now when I go on other computers I see how sluggish they are with all the fluffy bits.
oh yes and great site too, some really helpful tips. "bravo"
n: Thanks for the comment... btw what are RMG options?
s: well.. you could link to my post, or alternatively wait a few months and write your own... as long as you don't plagiarise mine I won't complain...
m: thanks for the kind words...
Cheers
K
Nice to know your blog. It's full of information.
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