November 30th, 2009
admin
The annoying message from User Account Control (UAC) is one of the major complain about Windows Vista. Whenever you make any type of system-level change or install a program, the interruption will come.
Microsoft actually designed UAC for the security purpose in Windows. It is able to prevent the installation of program or changes of system settings. However, Microsoft claimed that the malware infection in Windows Vista is 60% lesser than Windows XP SP2. In Windows Vista, you can actually disable the UAC but it doesn’t stop the chorus of disapproval.
Windows7 User Account Control
In Windows 7, Microsoft aims to reduce the number of action that pop up the annoying dialogs and provide proper control over what triggers them. The new UAC setting panel, there are slider with four different levels with Always Notify and Never Notify at the both end. These don’t complete solve the annoyance from UAC, but it provides more control rather than ‘on’ or ‘off’. In Windows 7, the interruption is also reduced with the “Auto-Elevate” list. The list is actually a white list for certain application which is allowed to bypass the UAC confirmation.
Posted in Security
November 28th, 2009
admin
Windows 7 is quick enough, but you can always make it even fast with some simple tweaks. Now, I am going to show you the 7 simple tweaks which able to speedup Windows7 which suitable for all levels of users.
1.Reduce Windows 7 Shutdown Time
The time required for Windows 7 to shut down is faster than Vista or XP. The shut down time can be even short if you are doing some registry change. These registry changes can reduce the time Windows waits to kill processes:
- Click on Start and type in regedit and hit Enter
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControl
- Right-click on WaitToKillServiceTimeOut and change and lower the value
- The default is 12 seconds but you can change it to any number
- Click ok and restart PC
2. Remove Unwanted Fonts
In order to reach optimum performance, you should trim down fonts to those you use regularly or required by your application since TrueType fonts will use some of the system resources.
- Go to Control Panel
- Open the Fonts folder
- You should move fonts that you don’t really need into a backup folder. I don’t really recommend you to delete it as you might need it in the future. So, it’s better to create a backup directory.
3. Faster Window Switching
Some of you may think that window Maximise-Minimise animation has no concern regarding the speed of your PC. Actually, your PC can run even faster by disabling the animation. You will know the different after you make the changes.
- Go to Start & type in ‘SystemPropertiesPerformance‘
- Go the Visual Effects tab
- Uncheck ‘Animate windows when minimizing and maximising‘ and click OK
4. Speedup Boot Times
In Windows 7, it uses one singe core to boot out of the box. Therefore, you may reduce the boot time by using more number of cores.
- Click on Start and then ‘Run’
- Search for Run and type ‘msconfig’
- Click on the tab ‘Boot’ and click on ‘Advanced options…’
- Check ‘Number of processors’ and enter number of your PC has (usually 2,4 or
- Click ‘OK’ and ‘Apply’
- Reboot
Windows 7: Speedup Boot Times
5. Turn Off System Sounds
Sometime, system sounds is really annoying. So, we can actually disable the system sounds to free up some resources.
- Go To Start and type in mmsys.cpl
- Click on the Sounds tab and choose ‘No Sounds‘ in the sound scheme drop down
6. Remove Unwanted Startup Programs
Many programs start automatically or start components with Windows, which will slow your bootup times and use unnecessary resources. These include programs like Acrobat, Quicktime, iTunes, Java etc. To stop these programs autostarting:
- Go to Start and enter ‘msconfig’
- Click on the startup tab and uncheck anything you are certain you don’t need e.g. don’t untick your AV program
7. Disable Windows Aero
If the look of Windows 7 is not major concern to you, I would like advise you to disable Windows 7 Aero theme. You will definitely feel the speed as Windows 7 Aero Theme is a burden to PC too.
- Right-click on your desktop & select ‘Personalise‘ and click ‘Window Color‘ tab
- Uncheck the ‘Enable Transparency’ box
- Click on ‘Open classic appearance properties for more color options’
- Choose a Standard or Basic theme from the popup that appears
Posted in Tweaks
