Comments on: 5 Windows Tweaks That Do NOT Work

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:11:53 +0000

The users who claim a performance improvement with these mythical tweaks can NEVER provide documented reproducible evidence. I have yet to have single person in six years prove any of these improve performance.

By: Tweaks 4 PC

Tweaks 4 PC — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:14:14 +0000

Thanks for the heads-up about some of these tweaks. Though some users may argue that some of them do in fact make some difference in the performance of a PC, I mostly agree with your comments.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:48:04 +0000

Some corrections to the comments:

1. System Restore cannot reinfect your system so long as the Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware application that cleaned the infection is running when a restore is attempted that includes a backed up infected file.

2. Registry Cleaners have absolutely NO effect on system performance.

3. Memory Management Programs AKA RAM Optimizers actually REDUCE performance.

4. The Prefetch folder is NOT a cache. The age of the folder and files in it is absolutely irrelevant. The number of files in the folder has only one effect and that is on disk space but since the folder is auto-cleaned at 128 files this is never an issue and the folder rarely gets over 5-10mb. Old or uninstalled applications that have a prefetch trace file in the folder do absolutely nothing since these files are not even accessed unless the application the file is related to is launched. These files are NOT preload or cached ANYWHERE. They are REFERENCE files.

Say I install 100 applications and uninstall 99. Those 99 Prefetch files related to the uninstalled applications do absolutely nothing but take up a small amount of disk space and will eventually be deleted when the folder reaches 128 files. Nothing gets stale in the folder or can it negatively effect performance.

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[...] | GHacks trackback ¿Recomendarías este post? Más noticias sobre: Windows, Truco, Sistemas [...]

By: 5 tweaks per Windows che NON migliorano le prestazioni - Geekissimo

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By: A Few Useful Tweaks

A Few Useful Tweaks — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:23:03 +0000

[...] this is a subject we have touched on a couple of times recently I decided to share a a few useful registry tweaks. These apply to Windows [...]

By: Bruno

Bruno — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:12:55 +0000

it’s very interresting, thx Martin and Liz

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:06:38 +0000

Xp Myths

http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/XPMyths.html

By: mjc

mjc — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:07:38 +0000

The Prefetch folder is like any other system cache. It aids performance when it is ‘fresh’ and does little or nothing when ’stale’. Yes, emptying it hinders performance, for a short while. But, there may be occasions where it may possibly be advisable to empty it. About the only one I can think of, that makes any sense is when installing/uninstalling a large number of programs…maybe after updating something that has a version number attached to the file name. This would be especially relevant if there are less than the 128 max files. It is not something that needs to, or even should, be done on any kind of regular basis.

As for the Sys-restore…another reason to disable it would be if one makes regular, full image backups of the install. It is just as easy to restore the full image, as it is to run the restore and in my experience, more reliable (seen one too many WinUpdates that bork the SysRestore…). Also, if one is running a system that doesn’t have much installing (maybe regular updates), then the SysRestore can be tamed/turned to minimal settings without totally disabling it.

#3…Unload DLLs, like a number of other ‘tweaks’ that are still found, is one that has survived long past its ‘use by’ date. Yes, at one time it had some value, but no longer.

#5 is something that I do, but not to gain ‘bandwidth’, but rather my router didn’t support QoS, so it was something that was ‘on’ that I didn’t need. Yes, leaving it on without the hardware to use it doesn’t really do anything, but it is something that I think is bass-ackwards. It should have been off by default and then turned on if needed/supported.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:25:21 +0000

I would never disable system restore… it has saved my data many many times.

By: Ceridan

Ceridan — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:46:32 +0000

Actually, I find turning off system restore on ‘older’ machines (pentium 4 1.6Ghz etc) does actually have a significant effect on system performance, on newer machines (AMDX2’s and Core2 Duos) it has next to no effect at all as the cpu’s have so much overhead that it hardly matters. Also it does somewhat depend on how many device drivers it has loaded and file IO operations the said machine performs.

here is some more ones though:

1. Registry Cleaner Programs (The Majority of)
Have little effect on system performance in most cases, Also have a nasty tendancy to delete totally legit keys, and thus wreck program installs.

2. Memory Management Programs (WinXP and Vista) they have next to no effect on the system performance, in most cases they actually will slow your machine down, the memory manager built into xp and vista are quite good already, loading another program to do the same job… ironically.. uses more memory, and causes more interupts.

err.. thats all I can think of for now :)

By: Jojo

Jojo — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:32:28 +0000

I agree w/Martin. If you have cleaned your system, then it simply makes sense to also delete all your system restore points prior to rebooting.

A list like this is good. You should make it something that is added to and available through some link on the sidebar.

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:15:34 +0000

Scikotic yes that’s a reason but I thought of tweaks more in the performance sector. But it’s probably better to simply clean the system restore files and keep it enabled instead of disabling it completely because of this.

By: Scikotic

Scikotic — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:04:10 +0000

Item number 4 may be correct with regard to performance but it is wrong when it states “The only reason to disable System Restore would be lack of hard disk space”. Malware, spyware, and viruses routinely use System Restore in order to return after being cleaned by anti-virus software. I have seen this on MANY occasions. The computer gets scanned and, after a reboot, the virus returns. It might not be a performance issue but it is definitely a security issue.