Some good registry performance tweaks?

[F6-]

Hi all, I am awar certian settings will allow better performance by editing the registry files.

I use Windows 7 32 Pro

Does anyone know any good performance enhancing edits? If so, could you list them? Thank you!

 

[F6-]

I'll tell you the ones I know.

1. Speed up Windows’ Menus

Want to make Windows’ menus display more quickly? You can do this by enabling this Registry tweak that removes the slight delay that is normally present between clicking a menu and Windows displaying that menu.

To perform this tweak, follow these steps:
1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop key.
3. Right-click the MenuShowDelay item and select Modify.
4. In the Edit String dialog box, change the current value (typically 400) to something a bit lower – something around 100 typically works well.
5. Click OK.

Caution: If you set the MenuShowDelay value too low, menus will open if you merely move your mouse over them. You need a value somewhere above 0; otherwise, it will make Windows difficult to use.

2. Disabling Low Disk Checking

Windows constantly checks to see whether there’s enough free space on your hard drive. If there isn’t, it displays a low disk space warning. The problem is, all this disk space checking uses a number of system resources, and you probably know if your disk space is low, anyway. You can speed up your PC by turning off this low disk space checking. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies key.
3. If the Explorer key exists, select it. If not, right-click in the rightmost pane and select New, Key. Name this new key Explorer, and then select it.
4. Right-click in the rightmost pane and select New, DWORD (32-bit) Value.
5. Name the new DWORD NoLowDiskSpaceChecks.
6. Right-click the new NoLowDiskSpaceChecks item and select Modify.
7. In the Edit DWORD dialog box, change the value to 1.
8. Click OK.

Note: A DWORD is a special type of data value used for some Registry entries.

3. Moving the Windows Kernel into Memory

Anything that runs in system memory runs faster than if it runs from your hard disk. To that end, you can speed up Windows itself by moving the Windows kernel into RAM, by executing this Registry tweak:

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
3. CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management key.
4. Right-click the DisablePagingExecutive item and select Modify.
5. In the Edit DWORD dialog box, change the value to 1.
6. Click OK.

You must reboot your system for this tweak to take effect.

4. Enable L2 Cache

This will let you use all of your cache on your producers L2 cache

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
3. CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management key.
4. Right-click the SecondLevelDataCache item and select Modify.
5. Play around with it till it matches your cache number, mine is set to 400 (1024)
6. Click OK.

You must reboot your system for this tweak to take effect.

5. Enable Large Cache

This helps speed up hard drive performance.

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
3. CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management key.
4. Right-click the LargeSystemCache item and select Modify.
5. In the Edit DWORD dialog box, change the value to 1.
6. Click OK.

You must reboot your system for this tweak to take effect.

 

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

Greetings F6-,
I was going to suggest Tweek UI, but after researching...MS has bit (edit; uh <that should say "not") released a version for Win7 (yet?)
There are aftermarket versions of TweekUI but I don't know how reliable they are..The tweeks you posted sound real good,too bad My free one ran out and I went back to XP.
Someday I will run Win7,In the mean time I'm having fun with XP

 

[Enablingwolf]

I'll tell you the ones I know.

1. Speed up Windows’ Menus

Want to make Windows’ menus display more quickly? You can do this by enabling this Registry tweak that removes the slight delay that is normally present between clicking a menu and Windows displaying that menu.

To perform this tweak, follow these steps:
1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop key.
3. Right-click the MenuShowDelay item and select Modify.
4. In the Edit String dialog box, change the current value (typically 400) to something a bit lower – something around 100 typically works well.
5. Click OK.

Caution: If you set the MenuShowDelay value too low, menus will open if you merely move your mouse over them. You need a value somewhere above 0; otherwise, it will make Windows difficult to use.

This tweak is not needed as much as it used to be. The menus / previews for 7 are mostly clicky clicky now, or are just right for normal usage. Speeding it up a little does make some happy.. Any of the Start menu history / preview panes that do pop out, are best done, manually clicking anyways.
Having a really fast hover preview can get annoying pretty fast. I used to use this speed tweak and turned it back down. I even tried 700, to slow it up. 300 - 500 is the sweet spot it seems.
It is a good tweak to know, for those who like menus and hover previews sped up. Or slowed down as the user wants.

400= 1 full second

To get the benefit of this tweak on the Start Menu. You would need to customize the default how the menus are displayed. Making them show as a menu, instead of display as a link.
This tweak is most beneficial with hovering previews, I found with Windows 7 Aero.

 

[Acidburn]

Good idea for a post in my opinion

I just would like to mention no one doing such things without backing up the registry first.

 

[redduc900]

Without the need to edit the registry manually, check out Ultimate Windows Tweaker, a Tweak UI for Win7 & Vista...

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-v2-a-tweak-ui-for-windows-7-vista

 

[F6-]

Tools & tricks to make your PC run at its best (Windows 7)

Things you will need:
RivaTuner
Gamebooster
Smart Defrag
Tweak UI
Latest Nvidia Drivers
or
Latest ATI Drivers

Optional:
High Performance USB Thumb Drive 4GB+

_____________________________________

I am going to tell you all a few tricks I know to squeeze out the most of the performance from your PC.

First I would like to say, please be sure to backup your registry files, and important settings. Though the chance of screwing something up is unlikely.

Lets begin. First thing you could do, is install the programs listed above, keep in mind to install the drivers that match your graphics. Lets start out with small tweaks.

Click 'Start', right click on 'Computer', and select 'Properties'.
Then go to 'Advanced System Settings'. Open the 'Hardware' tab and select 'Device Manager'. Expand 'Disk drives', and Right click on your hard drive you want to optimize. Select 'Properties'.
Select the tab 'Policies'.
You should have something like this:

Be sure that 'Write-caching Policy' has the box for 'Enable Write Caching'; ticked. You may also have a area that allows you to select 'Better Performance', make sure that is enabled. If you don't have that area, don't fear, it may already be optimized.

Next, I would like you to go back to 'Device Manager', and select 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers'; right click and open 'Properties' for ATA Channel 0, ATA Channel 0, ATA Channel, and ATA Channel 1, (They repeat on mine, maybe not yours.); and make sure in 'Advanced Settings' that 'Enable DMA' is ticked - For all ATA Channels. Go back to 'Device Manager' and Open 'Ports (COM & LPT) double click, right click, and go to 'Properties' for 'Communications Port (COM1)' and be sure under 'Port Settings' that 'Bits Per Second' is at its highest value. You are done with Device Manager for now.

Next, I would like you to go TO 'Start', and type in the search box: regedit
Run the program as an administrator.

1. Speed up Windows’ Menus

Want to make Windows’ menus display more quickly? You can do this by enabling this Registry tweak that removes the slight delay that is normally present between clicking a menu and Windows displaying that menu.

To perform this tweak, follow these steps:
1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop key.
3. Right-click the MenuShowDelay item and select Modify.
4. In the Edit String dialog box, change the current value (typically 400) to something a bit lower – something around 100 typically works well.
5. Click OK.

Caution: If you set the MenuShowDelay value too low, menus will open if you merely move your mouse over them. You need a value somewhere above 0; otherwise, it will make Windows difficult to use.

2. Disabling Low Disk Checking

Windows constantly checks to see whether there’s enough free space on your hard drive. If there isn’t, it displays a low disk space warning. The problem is, all this disk space checking uses a number of system resources, and you probably know if your disk space is low, anyway. You can speed up your PC by turning off this low disk space checking. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies key.
3. If the Explorer key exists, select it. If not, right-click in the rightmost pane and select New, Key. Name this new key Explorer, and then select it.
4. Right-click in the rightmost pane and select New, DWORD (32-bit) Value.
5. Name the new DWORD NoLowDiskSpaceChecks.
6. Right-click the new NoLowDiskSpaceChecks item and select Modify.
7. In the Edit DWORD dialog box, change the value to 1.
8. Click OK.

Note: A DWORD is a special type of data value used for some Registry entries.

3. Moving the Windows Kernel into Memory

Anything that runs in system memory runs faster than if it runs from your hard disk. To that end, you can speed up Windows itself by moving the Windows kernel into RAM, by executing this Registry tweak:

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
3. CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management key.
4. Right-click the DisablePagingExecutive item and select Modify.
5. In the Edit DWORD dialog box, change the value to 1.
6. Click OK.

4. Enable L2 Cache

This will let you use all of your cache on your processors L2 cache.

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
3. CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management key.
4. Right-click the SecondLevelDataCache item and select Modify.
5. Play around with it till it matches your cache number, mine is set to 400 (1024)
6. Click OK.

5. Enable Large Cache

This helps speed up hard drive performance.

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
3. CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management key.
4. Right-click the LargeSystemCache item and select Modify.
5. In the Edit DWORD dialog box, change the value to 1.
6. Click OK.

Next, I you should run 'Tweak UI'.
You may do as you wish for most settings, but for 'Network Tweaks', you should set it for 'High Bandwidth'.
And for 'Additional Tweaks', I would advise to have something similar to this:


You must reboot your system for these tweaks to take effect.

_____________________________________

Lets fire up Riva Tuner now.
Open the tab for 'Power User'.

Find the section as you see here:

Enter a 1 for each row as I have it so it looks similar to the screenshot.
Click 'Apply' and you are done.

_____________________________________

Now If you have a USB flash drive, I will tell you how to put it to good use. Insert the flashdrive. After a few seconds, right click on it and select 'Properties'. Select the 'ReadyBoost' tab and dedicate the device, like so:

Apply and close.
Now you can jump back into 'Device Manager', and open 'Disk drives' and select your flashdrive profile, open 'Properties, and make sure it is set for 'Better Performance' under the 'Policies' tab.

Now I ask you to restart your PC, and enter the bios. For some it is F8, F2, in my case its Delete. It should say. Press your systems bios button until you enter the bios, and find 'Integrated Peripherals', open it, and select 'USB', and it should have a setting for 'High Speed' (480mb/s) or 'Full Speed' (12mb/s). Enable 'High Speed. Save by pressing F10, and continue your start up.

_____________________________________

If everything is working good, you should defragment now with 'Smart Defrag'. When done, restart.

Now you only have one last step to achieve performance when gaming.
Run 'Game Booster, and set it up the way you wish, and place your games exe in the game box. Then you can just open the game box on your desktop and run the game. It simply stops unnecessary programs for gaming. When you exit the game, it sets you back to 'Normal Mode'.
Just don't put any internet browser or programs that can hand out viruses in the game box.

This pretty much sums it all up. You can go play your games and run Windows programs quite a bit faster. I hope this helped you and I wish you luck with your system. If you have any questions, please ask.

Regards,
F6

 

[redduc900]

I merged your two threads, since both are related to exactly the same subject matter.

And can you provide proof in the way of a benchmark that shows any performance related benefits to modifying the NoLowDiskSpaceChecks (Disabling Low Disk Checking), DisablePagingExecutive (Moving the Windows Kernel into Memory), SecondLevelDataCache (Enable L2 Cache), and LargeSystemCache (Enable Large Cache) DWORD values in Win7?

 

[jordon]

And can you provide proof in the way of a benchmark that shows any performance related benefits to modifying the NoLowDiskSpaceChecks (Disabling Low Disk Checking), DisablePagingExecutive (Moving the Windows Kernel into Memory), SecondLevelDataCache (Enable L2 Cache), and LargeSystemCache (Enable Large Cache) DWORD values in Win7?

Bump ^

I would like to know this as well.

 

[c627627]

Beware of tweaks which used to be somewhat useful back in the day of Windows 98/Me and machines from that time.

Running Windows 7 on modern machines and still using old tweaks may not yield noticeable benefits.


I would not blindly run a tweak without knowing exactly what it does and especially without being able to measure or feel actual real life improvements. Blindly editing registry values is risky business which may lead to the opposite effect: creating problems where there were none.

 

[janas19]

Very informative info here.