Lee Ferree

A while back I wrote about tweaking Windows 7 to gain better performance from your hardware. With the official Windows 7 release just a couple months away and the overwhelming popularity of low performance netbooks, I thought it’s a good time to update my list. The following list contains the services I’ve disabled in Windows 7. These tweaks work great for me, but your mileage may vary. Proceed with caution, as I’m in no way responsible for your computer “blowing up”!

The following list was compiled from Windows 7 Ultimate 32-Bit.

I’m assuming you’re using up-to-date virus/spyware protection and behind a firewall. If not, you may want to leave the following options enabled.

Security Center
Windows Defender
Windows Firewall

Here’s what I disable. I’m also not utilizing the built-in Media Center and eyecandy.

ActiveX Installer (AxInstSV)
Adaptive Brightness
Application Layer Gateway Service
BitLocker Drive Encryption Service
Bluetooth Support Service
BranchCache
Certificate Propagation
Credential Manager
Desktop Window Manager Session Manager
Diagnostic Policy Service
Diagnostic Service Host
Diagnostic System Host
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Encrypting File System (EFS)
Fax
Function Discovery Provider Host
Function Discovery Resource Publication
Health Key and Certificate Management
HomeGroup Listener
HomeGroup Provider
Human Interface Device Access
Interactive Services Detection
Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
IP Helper
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service
Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service
Netlogon
Network Access Protection Agent
Offline Files
Parental Controls
Peer Name Resolution Protocol
Peer Networking Grouping
Peer Networking Identity Manager
PnP-X IP Bus Enumerator
PNRP Machine Name Publication Service
Portable Device Enumerator Service
Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel Support
Program Compatibility Assistant Service
Remote Desktop Configuration
Remote Desktop Services
Remote Desktop Services UserMode Port Redirector
Remote Registry RemoteRegistry
RIP Listener
Routing and Remote Access
Secondary Logon
Security Center
Smart Card
Smart Card Removal Policy
SNMP Trap
Superfetch
Tablet PC Input Service
WebClient
Windows Biometric Service
Windows CardSpace
Windows Color System
Windows Connect Now – Config Registrar
Windows Defender
Windows Error Reporting Service
Windows Firewall
Windows Media Center Receiver Service
Windows Media Center Scheduler Service
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
Windows Remote Management (WS-Management)
Windows Search
WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service

To modify whether Superfetch is enabled or disabled, you can perform the following steps:
1. Click the Start orb and type REGEDIT in the Start Search area.

2. Open the Registry Editor.

3. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then SYSTEM
then CurrentControlSet
then Control
then Session Manager
then MemoryManagement
then click PrefetchParameters

4. On the right side, double-click on EnableSuperfetch

5. Give it one of the following values:

0 to disable Superfetch
1 to enable prefetching when program is launched
2 to enable boot prefetching
3 to enable prefectching of every thing

Click OK.

6. Close the Registry Editor.

Change default Windows 7 Codecs with
Preferred DirectShow Filter Tweaker for Windows 7

Change Desktop Icon Size to Look Like XP
The default desktop icon size in Windows 7 is rather large, to make them look like they did in XP, simply right-click an open area on your desktop and click on Small icons under View.

Installed & Working Apps

Audacity
Autoruns
avast! Antivirus
Boxee
Core Temp
Digsby
Everything
Firefox 3.5.2
Free Extended Task Manager (run using XP SP3 Compatibility Mode)
Gizmo5 (Installed using XP SP3 Compatibility Mode)
Google Chrome 3 Beta
Hamachi
ImgBurn
iTunes (Switchless Installer)
Java jre 6u15
Jave jre 6u16
K-Lite Mega Codec Pack
Last.FM
Nero 9 FREE
Office 2003
Opera 10 Beta 3
Paint Shop Pro 7
Paint.NET
Photoshop CS4
PowerDVD 9 Ultra
PowerISO
ProcessExplorer
Quake Live
Quicktime Alternative
Safari
Skype
SumatraPDF
Swiff Player
TeamViewer 4
uTorrent 1.8.3
uTorrent 2.0 Beta
VLC
WinAVI Video Converter 9
WinRAR
WinSCP
xVM VirtualBox (no networking)

Installed & Working Games

2Moons (copied from XP installation / portable)
Cabal Online
Doom 3 + Resurrection of Evil Expansion
Plants vs Zombies
Quake 4
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Wolfenstein (2009)
Wolfenstein – Enemy Territory

To get 1920×1080 in Doom 3 + Expansion you need to edit the cfg files to reflect the following settings:

seta r_customHeight “1080″
seta r_customWidth “1920″
seta r_fullscreen “1″
seta r_mode “-1″

Not Working

Adobe Photoshop CS3

That’s all I have for now. Please let me know if this was helpful or you have any discrepancies with your version of Windows 7. I’ll update this post as new info is made available.