New windows 7 PC what should I tweak?

So I have this snazzy new PC that came with Windows 7 x64 and I’m trying to figure out what tweaks I need to do to make have it run even more smooth then it already is.

The only thing it came preloaded with was trend AV which I nuked as soon as I could and I am installing Microsoft Secuirty Essentials now. So what should I be on the look out for? I’ve never run 7 before and I am pretty much just coming straight from XP so no real vista usage either.

Probably nothing, except ClearType tuning to your visual preference.

Tuning Windows was a good idea up to and including XP, but after that you’re more likely to hose your performance than make it better if you go mucking around in the registry or try to be clever about shutting down “unnecessary” services, etc.

Relatively few things, mostly preferences and aesthetics. Don’t forget windowskey-tab, the coolest task switcher ever made!

How do I turn off the multiple key press thing that activates keyboard help? Like when you click a key 5x fast or a bunch it starts a … urgh my brain shut down.

So it turns out I was doing the windows key + tab thing and I didn’t even know it. I guess I thought I was pressing alt + tab but I guess not! Did the cleartype set up and it works great.

The first time that pops up you should get a checkbox or something to disable it.

Otherwise, I believe you find it in the control panel. One of the nice things about Win7 is that the start menu search now smartly searches control panel things. If you type “sticky keys” or something in the start menu search I bet it’ll pop up the control panel you’re looking for in the results.

Holy crap! I have been mousing over to the little bar on the right side of the task bar to get to the desktop in Windows 7, when I have a lot of windows open, missing my Show Desktop icon, when I discovered just now Windowskey+D immediately takes you to the desktop. Cool! Wonder how many other things I’m doing the hard way, LOL!

Windows+D has been there since at least WinXP.

Here’s one that’s not a decade old – Windows key + left or right arrow to do the “half screen window snap” via keyboard. This is especially useful on multimon setups where the mouse version doesn’t work between screens.

Shortcuts for Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Internet Explorer 8:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Keyboard-shortcuts
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/Windows7/Keyboard-shortcuts
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Internet-Explorer-8-keyboard-shortcuts

Thanks Jason, got it.

Ironically, JeffL - I just discovered that a couple days ago myself as I was frustrated I couldn’t find my show desktop icon I used so often.

I have to say, I was happy with XP, didn’t like Vista (on my wife’s PC) and upgraded to Win 7 with some hesitation and trepidation. But I like it. I really like it.

turn on checkboxes, unhide hidden folders, make explorer windows run each one in their own process is what i usually do first.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

You can also win-shift-left/right to jump monitors (without toggling between intermediate states).

And check http://insentient.net/ if you want a nice Expose clone for Windows.

I was annoyed by the lack of a desktop icon also, but then someone on this forum told me about that little space next to the clock on the bottom right corner, there is your desktop icon.

Yeah, and it’s a hover button, too. No clicking required!

Windows-Space will also show your desktop…

Well I found something I did have to tweak.

http://kastang.com/blog/2009/08/reduce-wow-latency-in-windows-7/

•Open Regedit
•Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
•Find the interface folder that is currently in use. It will be the one that has an IPAddress and the most fields.
•Right click on the interface and choose New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it: “TcpAckFrequency”
•Right click on TcpAckFrequency, select modify and change the “0″ value to “1″.
•Right click on the interface and choose New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it: “TCPNoDelay”
•Right click on TCPNoDelay, select modify and change the “0″ value to “1″.

Went from 280 ms ping to 75 ms.

My networking is rusty, but I don’t think it does what you think it does.

TCP ACK Freq states default is wait 2 cycles of 200 ms with outstanding ACK’s before it asks for another one. This just changes it to being a very pushy windows machine that keeps asking for status updates much more often, but the end result it gonna be the same… except you get a pretty ping graph.