Ways to Speed Up Your Computer Using Regedit

Speed up your Windows 7 computer by using regedit to tweak some of the operating system's default settings. In an attempt to make Windows 7 more intuitive, programmers at Microsoft set up numerous non-critical and unnecessary popups and conditions, such as balloon notifications, menu delays and hung application processing. These can all be disabled through regedit.

Disable Notification Balloons

• Notification balloons pop up on your desktop any time something non-critical happens within an application. To disable these notifications, open regedit and navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER," "Software," "Microsoft," "Windows," "CurrentVersion," "Explorer" and "Advanced." Right-click the right pane, open the "New" sub-menu and click on "DWORD." Type "EnableBalloonTips" into the box and press enter. Double-click "EnableBalloonTips," type 0 into the box and click "OK."

Speed Up Hung Apps

• Every now and again, an application malfunctions and becomes "hung." When this occurs, Windows 7 takes a moment to analyze the application before it purges it from memory. Adjusting the time the Windows operating system takes to complete this purge can significantly decrease the amount of time the system takes to recover from a hung application. Adjust this time by opening regedit; navigating to "KEY_CURRENT_USER," "Control Panel" and "Desktop;" double-clicking "HungAppTimeout" from the right pane; changing its value to 1000 and clicking "OK."

Disable Paging Executive

• Core system files known as "kernel-mode drivers" sit on your local disk, but your operating system would run faster if they were loaded into memory. This can be accomplished by disabling paging executive. Open regedit, navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE," "SYSTEM," "CurrentControlSet," "Control," "Session Manager" and "Memory Management." Double-click "DisablePaging Executive" from the right pane, adjust its value to 1 and click "OK."

Adjust Start Menu Delay

• A slight delay occurs every time you access a cascading menu within the "Start" menu. You can adjust this delay by adjusting the "MenuShowDelay" property in Windows 7. Open regedit, navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER," "Control Panel" and "Desktop." Double-click "MenuShowDelay," change its value to 100 and click "OK." Instead of having to deal with delays, you will now encounter near-instant menu appearances.

Posted in: Tricks, Tutorial