When I make a house or office call during the week to work on a computer, I almost always run through a few quick tweaks to make Windows perform just a little bit better. No matter how new a computer may be, it can’t be too fast. Try these tweaks on your computer to see if you can eek out a little more performance.
Disable Visual Effects
Starting with Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft added visual effects to menus and windows that do nothing but make us wait a little longer to perform our computing tasks. To cut down on these visual effects, do the following:
1. RIGHT Click on a blank part of the desktop
2. Click Properties from the menu
3. Click the Appearance tab
4. Click the Effects button
5. UN-check the first box describing ‘transition effects for menus’
6. Click OK
Disable Personalized Menus
This ‘feature’ really irritates me. Software manufacturers thought that by hiding our menu options from us and only showing the ‘most used’ items, it would increase productivity. Not in my mind. Here’s how to disable them.
1. In Microsoft Office products; Click View from the menus
2. Click Toolbars —> Customize
3. Click the Options tab
4. Uncheck the “show full menus after a short delay” box
5. Check the box that says “Always show full menus”
6. Click Apply and OK
Startup Menu
Lastly, I always check the Startup group found under Start then Programs. RIGHT click and delete any items from this list that you don’t absolutely need. Keep in mind that deleting these items will not remove them from your computer, they will just stop them from starting automatically.
You can also use some of our MSCONFIG tips (see archive) to further eek out more performance from Windows.
