Servicing your Windows Operating System!

Today's IT (Information Technology) and IT enabled services are integral part of our daily lives. We are so much dependent on them that we can't imagine our self without them. Well, my agenda is not about computer and our daily lives, but it is about the times when we are in hurry to get aways with our (computer) system related works as quickly as possible, and these are the times when we notice that our system is not working the way we want it to, i.e. Windows is taking longer time to startup, applications too are taking longer time to start and close, etc.
To sum-up, its time to fine-tune your Operating System (with reference to Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7). So in this blog we will see different ways to reduce Windows startup time and increasing system's performance as a whole.


Check point #1 - Reducing Windows startup time
Click Start, go to Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
System Configuration Utility window will pop-up.

 

Now go to Startup tab, from the list available you can check/uncheck the services/programs, you want to be started when Windows start, a system restart is required after you apply new settings.

Note that, you can uncheck all the programs, leaving your Antivirus program checked, it will significantly boost your Windows startup time.

Check point #2 - Deleting the temporary files permanently
Click Start, go to Run, type %temp% and press Enter.
It will direct you to a new window, herein select all the files and hit Shift + Del keys from your Keyboard, it will permanently delete these unnecessary files from your system.

Note that, some files will not delete, skip them. Following this check point once in a week is recommended.

Check point #3 - Stopping unwanted services
Every time when Windows starts, it starts with approximately 130 services! We don't need all of these services to be working at the same time, even we don't need some of them to be working at all.
While tweaking some of them you may find it bit technical, so will we take some of general services which we can stop very easily.
Click Start, go to Run, type services.msc and press Enter.
Services window will pop-up.

From the list, find:

1. Smart Card, double-click on it, corresponding window will pop-up. Under General tab, find Startup type; from the drop-down menu select Disabled, then click Apply and OK.  
2. Windows Error Reporting Service (Error Reporting Service, in case you are using Windows XP), double-click on it, corresponding window will pop-up. Under General tab, find Startup type; from the drop-down menu select Disabled, then click Apply and OK. 
3. Windows Update (Automatic Updates, in case you are using Windows XP), double-click on it, corresponding window will pop-up. Under General tab, find Startup type; from the drop-down menu select Disabled, then click Apply and OK.  
4. Terminal Services (only for Windows XP users), double-click on it, corresponding window will pop-up. Under General tab, find Startup type; from the drop-down menu select Disabled, then click Apply and OK.

Try these tips and tricks for yourself and see the difference in performance of your system!