How to make Vista and Windows7 faster (1 Viewer)

scotjimland

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Saw this tip on an other thread, thanks Wivvy's dad , and thought it worthy of a fresh post .. it's from another forum so I've copy pasted verbatim.....


Did you know that by default windows 7 and vista don't use all your Cores. What I mean is they don't use the dual core system that you payed $700 for or the 2G you put into a quad core and most of the time your only using one. Well here is a tutorial to change that!


First you need to click the start menu button

Now type in msconfig in the Search Program and Files Search bar, and press Enter, or click on the msconfig button.

msconfig.jpg


Now an msconfig dialog box will pop up and then click on the boot Tab
and you will see this.

Systemconfig.jpg


Now Left click the Advanced options... button and you will see something like this:

advancedoptions.jpg


Check the box next to Number of processors: then Left click the arrow thats on the right of the 1 and select either 2 or 4 cores. depends on what you have for a system I have quad so I am going to go all the way to 4. Like this:

step2odao.jpg


Click OK and apply.. A re boot is required to apply settings ..
 

Pat4Neil

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Thanks

Great tip.

Another good tip is to have a look at the start up list in MSCONFIG. This shows a list of programs that your computer activates during its start up and then runs them in the background, slowing everything down.

You will probably see names of prgrams you rarely use, by unchecking these and rebooting it all goes abit faster.

However, be careful some of the programs ( Usually at the top of the list ) are operating ones so only un check the ones you can identify.

If you do un check an essential one then its no great problem you simply go back into MSCONFIG and re check it then reboot.

Hope this helps

Neil

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moandick

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Yes, thanks ScotJim. I am usually very shy of touching anything technical simply because I do not generally know what I am doing - and prefer to leave it to the experts. However in this case - a picture is really worth a thousand words so I did it and it seems to have worked.

Maybe one small dumb question, though.

I have a Dell Inspiron - on the front of the box it says "Core 2 - quad"

Now I took that to mean 4 processors (quad) and therefore set that figure in the box. As I said - all appears to be working and maybe a bit faster - BUT from the previous paragraph - should I have set the computer as a dual processor (Core 2) or as a quad processor - or does it not really matter?

I presume being as it was originally set to one processor - that it will only use whatever processors are available?

Dick
 
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scotjimland

scotjimland

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Yes, thanks ScotJim. I am usually very shy of touching anything technical simply because I do not generally know what I am doing - and prefer to leave it to the experts. However in this case - a picture is really worth a thousand words so I did it and it seems to have worked.

Maybe one small dumb question, though.

I have a Dell Inspiron - on the front of the box it says "Core 2 - quad"

Now I took that to mean 4 processors (quad) and therefore set that figure in the box. As I said - all appears to be working and maybe a bit faster - BUT from the previous paragraph - should I have set the computer as a dual processor (Core 2) or as a quad processor - or does it not really matter?

I presume being as it was originally set to one processor - that it will only use whatever processors are available?

Dick

Hi Dick

In the setup it will only show the number of cores available, in my case it showed 2 , no option to select more , so yours must be 2 x dual core processors ... selecting four would be correct .. is that what you meant ?
 

wivvy's dad

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Thanks ScotJim.

I wasn't able - at work - to copy that out, which is why I posted the link, little realising that it needed signing up to the site in order to view it.

A good tip though, it's nice to have 4 cylinders working instead of 1, when all 4 should be up and running.

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G4GMO

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Checked my dual core useage

Thanks for that useful information Jim. Had never considered that the operating system might not be utilising both cores. As I am running Linux it meant finding how to check under Linux, if anyone is using Linux Mint/Ubuntu, then open a terminal and type top return in the terminal then 1. It will show cpu0 and cpu1 in the third and fourth lines of text in the terminal window.
 
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Geo

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Got 3/4 of the way through was struggling with finding the same panes as shown in the pics before I realised I aint got Vista or 7 on this pooter:Doh:
Any tips for making mechanics faster, apart from paying them more:RollEyes:

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scotjimland

scotjimland

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Got 3/4 of the way through was struggling with finding the same panes as shown in the pics before I realised I aint got Vista or 7 on this pooter:Doh:
Any tips for making mechanics faster, apart from paying them more:RollEyes:

Used to work for me ... just whisper 'job and knock' in their lug hole ... or ' piece work rate ' :roflmto:
 

wivvy's dad

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Got 3/4 of the way through was struggling with finding the same panes as shown in the pics before I realised I aint got Vista or 7 on this pooter:Doh:
Any tips for making mechanics faster, apart from paying them more:RollEyes:

May I assume you have XP?

If so,
press START button
type msconfig in the RUN box
click BOOT.INI tab
click ADVANCED OPTIONS tab
in drop down box to right of /NUMPROC click the drop down arrow
change number from 1 to whatever max you are offered i.e., 2 or 4
click all the OK's to exit and re-boot
 

GJH

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Thanks very much wivvy's dad and Jim.

We've applied the change on two XP machines and a Vista laptop and it certainly does the job. Very strange that the default isn't to make full use of the processing power - or at least give the option in initial set-up.

As far as mechanics go the only way to produce acceleration is to use Newton's second law of motion and apply a force to the mass - a ruddy great boot up the ar*e :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

Graham

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Munchie

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Yep, thanks from me too. Mind you on my new lappie it has the i7 processor, in system information it shows as quad core, but 8 are available when I go into msconfig???:Smile:
 

Geo

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May I assume you have XP?

If so,
press START button
type msconfig in the RUN box
click BOOT.INI tab
click ADVANCED OPTIONS tab
in drop down box to right of /NUMPROC click the drop down arrow
change number from 1 to whatever max you are offered i.e., 2 or 4
click all the OK's to exit and re-boot
Well what a disapointment
Offered 1 or Sod off:Doh:
When I bought it 18 years ago they said it was top of the range:Doh:
Thank for the tip Mr Wivvy:thumb:
Will have a play wiv me windows 7 machine to night Jim:thumb:
 
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Yep, thanks from me too. Mind you on my new lappie it has the i7 processor, in system information it shows as quad core, but 8 are available when I go into msconfig???:Smile:

It might be getting confused - the i7 uses hyperthreading (like in the old Pentium 4) to make 4 processors look like 8.

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pappajohn

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Got 3/4 of the way through was struggling with finding the same panes as shown in the pics before I realised I aint got Vista or 7 on this pooter:Doh:
Any tips for making mechanics faster, apart from paying them more:RollEyes:

same mistake here geo :Doh:

May I assume you have XP?

If so,
press START button
type msconfig in the RUN box
click BOOT.INI tab
click ADVANCED OPTIONS tab
in drop down box to right of /NUMPROC click the drop down arrow
change number from 1 to whatever max you are offered i.e., 2 or 4
click all the OK's to exit and re-boot

tried that and the tight buggers have only installed one core in my lappy :cry:

but it is about 5 years old. ::bigsmile:
 

Tommy_harry

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Another tip to speed up your pc is to run 'startuplite' a program from malwarebytes - it checks all of the programmes that auto-start on your pc and advises which ones you actually need....
 

Munchie

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Seemed great but found my desktop does not like it. Kept getting "blue screen" then the thing would shut down. :Angry: Put it back to 1 core and all seems ok now. :thumb:
 

wivvy's dad

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Seemed great but found my desktop does not like it. Kept getting "blue screen" then the thing would shut down. :Angry: Put it back to 1 core and all seems ok now. :thumb:

That sounds more like a power supply unable to handle the extra BHP. Try a bigger power supply.

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GJH

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Seemed great but found my desktop does not like it. Kept getting "blue screen" then the thing would shut down. :Angry: Put it back to 1 core and all seems ok now. :thumb:
That sounds more like a power supply unable to handle the extra BHP. Try a bigger power supply.

Natural Scots tendency to save the bawbees if it looks like too much of that new-fangled electricity is being used? ::bigsmile:
 

JockandRita

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Natural Scots tendency to save the bawbees if it looks like too much of that new-fangled electricity is being used? ::bigsmile:
:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

The MH XP lappy only has one processor, so no speed upgrade there, but the new Windows 7 lappy will get a tweak when I get home.

Thanks to Jim and Wivvy's Dad for the info.

Cheers,

Jock.

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