Squeezing out that extra bit of performance
Now that Windows 10 has gone public and is making its way to consumers, we thought it would be a good time to provide some tips that will help speed up your Windows 10 experience. Some of these are new and some are already well known. So, whether you're new to Windows 10 or an old hat already, you can keep these tweaks (listed here with instructions on how to access them in Windows 10) handy. More tips will be added as they're discovered.
Disable Transparency Effects
Transparency effects can often add unnecessary effects to things just for the sake of special effects. If you want that classic solid look, turn off the transparency effects, and get a decent increase in responsiveness.
1. Right-click the desktop and choose Personalize
2. Choose Colors
3. Turn off “Make Start, taskbar, and action center transparent”
Disable Programs at Startup
Startup is a great place to poke around to see what kind of programs have wedged themselves in there, slowing boot-to-desktop times and loading up unnecessary CPU cycles. You'll often find things you don't actually want automatically turned on. Programs should launch when we ask them to, not because they think they're privileged!
1. Right-click the Start button
2. Click Task Manager
3. Click Startup
4. Highlight a program and click Disable
Disable Unnecessary Services
Services are very much like programs in Startup, except they can be much more crucial to the overall operation of Windows. There are lots of Microsoft-specific features that are enabled, but there are some that most people don't need. Have a look through the Services tab and read the description of each one. You can stop a service to see if it impacts anything, and reenable it if necessary. You can also permanently disable a service from starting at all.
1. Right-click the Start button
2. Click Task Manager
3. Click Services
4. Right-click a specific service and choose “Stop”
Shut off Shadows, Animations
Again, special effects can be largely useless. Animations can slow down your system. Shadows can be a nice touch, but all these things add up to CPU cycles, which by today's standards aren't really a big deal. But still, when you want everything to be swift, disable the fluff.
1. Right-click the Start button
2. Choose System
3. Click “Advanced system settings” on the left
4. Click the Advanced tab
5. Click the Settings button under Performance
6. Click “Adjust for best performance” or manually disable each effect
7. Note: there’s also a switch in Settings / Ease of Access / Other Options that turn off animations
Enable Fast Startup
1. Right-click the Start button
2. Choose Control Panel
3. Click System and Security
4. Click Power Options
5. On the left, click “choose what the power buttons do”
6. At the bottom, click “Turn on fast startup” under Shutdown settings
7. Click “Save changes”
Uninstall Unused Programs
This one is self explanatory! Remove stuff you don't use!
1. Right-click the Start button
2. Click Programs and Features
3. Select the unwanted software and click “Uninstall/Change”
Defragment Your C: Drive
Defragmenting C: drive is more applicable if you're still booting off a spinning disk hard drive and not a SSD. SSDs don't need defragmentation, and unless you're using a more advanced file system format like EXT4, you're going to need to do some defragmentation.
1. Click the Start button, then click the File Explorer link
2. Right-click Local Disk C: and choose Properties
3. Click the Tools tab
4. Click “Optimize and Defragment Drive”
Perform Disk Cleanup
The built-in Disk Cleanup tool in Windows actually does a decent job of removing unnecessary files. If you want to go further though, like finding duplicates, you'll need a third-party tool.
1. Click the Start button, thenclick the File Explorer link
2. Right-click Local Disk C: and choose Properties
3. Under the General tab, click the Disk Cleanup button
4. Click "unnecessary files (temporary internet files, etc.)," then click OK
5. Note there’s a “Clean up system files” button for advanced users
