The reasons for doing this involve the Windows Experience Index API. The API in the WEI is used to enable the functionality of various programs. If the score is low, there will be impaired functionality of some sectors of a given program or the program could be completely disabled. This obviously can pose some problems. Basically this hack tricks your operating system to enable you to use features.

The XML File Hack

This method is a little advanced, as it does require at least basic knowledge of XML files. Just stick to these instructions and you will make it through. Before proceeding, please create a System Restore point.

Begin by navigating to C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore.

Open a file ending with Formal.Assessment (Initial).WinSAT. There may be more than one file like this. If so, check the file dates and use the most current file. Right-click the file and select edit to open the file in the notepad. Click on the Edit menu and then click find in the dropdown menu. A dialog box will open. Type ‹WinSPR› in the dialog box. Click “Find Next”.

Notepad highlights where the code starts. This is the code that will be edited. Any WEI values can be edited. The following list shows what tags edit certain values. For this demonstration, the tags you are looking for are the ones that follow the WinSPR tag.

• SystemScore tags change the overall rating
• MemoryScroe tags change the Memory rating
• CpuScore tags change the Processor rating
• GraphicsScore tags change the Graphics rating
• GamingScore tags change the Gaming Graphics rating
• DiskScore tags change the Primary hard disk rating

Feel free to change any of the given values. The next step is to save the file without renaming it. Save it to the Desktop. Cut the file from the desktop and paste it in the following location:
C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore. Select Move and Replace in the window.

You will then be prompted for administrator permission. Click “Continue” and you will be prompted to provide a password if you are not already logged on as the administrator. Now go back to the Windows Experience Index and notice the changes.

This method is somewhat advanced. There is a free program available that will do this work for you. It is called WEI editor and you can download it from this link:

http://www.jtechsoftwares.in/windows-rating-changer.html

Download and install the program. You will need Admin privileges to run the program. After installation, a simple GUI is presented

All you have to do is enter the numbers as you see fit. The range is from 1 to 7.9. Change one or more of the values. You can change all of them if you wish, keeping in mind that the overall system rating is based on the lowest score. To make changes in the future, the program can be found in the Downloads folder in Windows 7 and will be titled “experience_index_editor.exe.

To reset WEI true values, open WEI and click “Re-run the assessment”. This may seem like it would improve system performance, but it will not. All this will do is enable additional functionality.

Click on your start menu and type the words “ease of use” into the search box, and then press return. You will find a section called Ease of Access Center. In this area scroll all the way down to the bottom and find a section called “Make it easier to focus on Tasks”. Click on this you’ll be taken a new screen. Go to the bottom of this screen and find the section called “Make it easier to manage windows”. Uncheck the box that prevents windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge. This will give you a small increase in performance.

Please note that you cannot move windows to the edge of the screen anymore to automatically arrange them afterwards.

Now go to your start menu again and type, “turn off features” into the search box. This will give you a search result called “Turn Windows features on or off”. Click on this and this will take you to an area that will enable or disable certain windows features. Disable anything you don’t need, such as games. It’s really up to you what you need and don’t need, so go down the list and decide what you use. If unsure, leave it enabled. Chances are you’ll find a few things to turn off, and that will free up resources in Windows.

Go back to your search from the start menu and type “uac”. This will enable you to change user account control settings. There will be a sliding bar that controls how often you are notified about changes to your computer. If you’re not worried about messages and are happy to let your computer manage itself, slide the bar all the way to “never notify”. This means you’ll get fewer messages, it will be less annoying, and you’ll boost your performance slightly.

Now go to your start menu and right-click on “Computer”. You’ll get a sub-menu where you can then click on “manage”. In here, click on “services and applications”, and then on “services”. In services you have a number of different things, which can be turned on and off automatically on startup. Most things in here should be left alone, but one feature called “windows search” can take up a lot of resources. This is the indexing feature of windows. You can double click on this and choose “disabled” from the drop down list. This will help improve your computer’s performance, because Windows won’t be indexing every file from now on. Of course, you can always turn it back on again if you wish later.

These are just a few things you can do to help boost your computer’s performance with very little effort.

Update:

In response to the comments regarding 4 ways to increase performance

The article above was written with enhancing performance in mind. It offers a few suggestions on how, by freeing up resources and turning off unwanted Windows 7 features, small gains in performance can be achieved.

Naturally, different people use their computers in different ways, and some users have varying levels of technical expertise. It’s always advised that if you are unsure about changing settings then you should leave well enough alone. This is no “one size fits all” when it comes to settings customization. You should enable or disable services and features dependent on what you feel is right for you. For example, turning off indexing will certainly increase performance – but if you need indexing, don’t turn it off.

Many experienced users don’t need some of the features mentioned above and can safely disable them, and that’s why they are specifically mentioned. Disabling services and turning off unused features will always increase performance, however little that performance gain may be. You may decide that some of these gains are undetectable on very fast computers.

In addition, many users have third-party security software that renders certain security features of Windows 7 redundant, so in those cases some of these tips will still be relevant

Update 2: Disabling UAC is something that only experienced users should do, as it can impact the system’s security.

The basic idea behind Ashampoo’s Core Tuner 2 is to give Windows users the tools at hand to distribute the computing power in an optimal fashion.

Ashampoo Core Tuner 2 Review

Ashampoo Core Tuner 2 uses a clean interface. It displays all program modules in the left sidebar, and the corresponding information in the main area of the program window.

When you start the program, you see a list of all processes that are currently running on your system. Each process is listed with its name and description, the cpu and memory usage, the process priority and use of cpu cores.

One of the main features of the program is to change process priorities and cpu core use. The menu icons at the top of the window or the right-click context menu display the options to change those settings. It is furthermore possible to terminate a process right from that window.

All processes that are customized this way are listed under Rules. One interesting option is the ability to import and export rules, handy if you run Ashampoo Core Tuner 2 on multiple computer systems. Rules can be modified right in the rules menu as well.

The Profiles feature is an advanced feature. Profiles basically bundle multiple actions, like stopping system services or terminating processes. A gaming profile ships with the software, which terminates web browser windows, program update tools and several system services to improve gaming performance on the system.

Profiles can then be run with a right-click on the system tray icon and the selection of the profile in the context menu. It is possible to add additional profiles, for instance for video rendering, photo editing or any other task on the PC that taxes the system.

Sometimes though you can make changes to the system that are permanent in nature. For instance by removing programs from autostart or services that are not really needed for operating the computer.

That’s why Ashampoo Core Tuner 2 comes with an auto-start and Services module. The auto-start module lists all programs that are started automatically with the system.

One interesting feature is the rating system that displays user ratings of startup programs.

The Services module makes use of ratings as well. Some services are blocked from being disabled which makes sense as they are required to run Windows at all.

Installation

Ashampoo Core Tuner 2 installation should not be problematic at all. Users should however pay attention to the installation dialog as the default installation tries to install a toolbar and make changes to the homepage and search provider of the web browser.

A ten-day trial version is provided at the Ashampoo website.

Verdict

Windows users who are experiencing lags and performance drops when they run multiple tasks on their system at the same time will benefit the most from Ashampoo Core Tuner 2, provided that they configure the process priorities, profiles and rules accordingly.

Users with high performance systems on the other hand may not see a difference at all, or only a slight difference that may not make a huge difference.

Ashampoo Core Tuner 2 Giveaway

Ashampoo were nice enough to give us 24 Ashampoo Core Tuner 2 licenses to give away. To enter the drawing for a license, tell me why you’d like the program.

I will draw the winners randomly from all users who have commented here. Winners will be announced in a week’s time here in this review.

Update: The winners are: Efthimios, MerleOne, Paul(us), Mike, Jordan Humberto de Souza, Midnight, kn0w, e1scd, SubgeniusD, Lee, jSwann0, Andrei, Michael Brazil, Jake, vhick, Mongoplus, Stefan Julian, G Rajesh, JAIME, VladM, RAGAGH, zoras, StingRay, alro

Many applications are writing to the hard drive perpetually. By excluding the files and folders they are writing to or reading from, assuming they are assuredly trusted and safe, you will speed up PC processes and still have sufficient antivirus protection. Which files to exclude?

• Subversion / TortiseSVN Folders
• Virtual Machine Directories
• Personal Photo/Video folders
• Windows Update Folders
• Connected Mobile Devices

These are just some examples. You may choose anything appropriate to your configurations. It is difficult to specify what files and folders to exclude for any given PC, considering the myriad configurations, software combinations, and uses that PCs will have. It will be a different scenario for everyone, but the approach is basic. This will work with any antivirus software program. In the examples below, Microsoft Security Essentials is being used. Other software versions may be appropriate for users. This is just an easier way to show how to work with antivirus software exclusions settings in general:

2. Here you can browse all files and locations and include them, once identified, by clicking “Add.” This is a one by one process, but its simplicity and tedium should not be taken for granted. This approach helps you ensure that you do not include files that may be unsafe. There are a variety of ways to use exclusions for each different antivirus software type and all involve going to a Settings option. You may be given a scroll list to choose from once you have built a significant list of exclusions and this will allow you to change any of those exclusions as necessitated. With Microsoft Security Essentials, you can click the Advanced option and gain more generalized options for situations that may require broad, more generalized exclusions.

It is always best to create a System Restore point before making changes to any software, but especially antivirus software. Also take steps to backup the files that you are planning on excluding. There are no guarantees from software to software and system to system. With a set restore point, you can always go back and undo something undesirable. Secure your settings and files first, and then alter your security.

Enter SlimComputer, a free program that aids everyone in improving the performance of the Windows operating system. The program concentrates on removing software and disabling services to improve performance. Software in this regard includes trials and toolbars among others.

The program displays its main screen on startup. Here you can select the items that you want scanned on your computer. All are pre-selected by default and all you need to do is to click on the Run Scan button to scan the PC.

The results are displayed in a tabbed interface. Available for selection are Applications, Toolbars, Startup Items and Shortcuts, but only if items have been found during the scan that may be removed.

It is here that users come into contact with the program’s rating system. All users are allowed to rate programs on their computers. These ratings are accumulated and used in the program’s scan of the computer.

Ratings range from unwanted (red) to good (green). This plays right into the scanner threshold that users need to configure on first startup. It is always possible to change the threshold in the settings.

Applications, toolbars, startup items and shortcuts can be selected for removal. This triggers the default Windows uninstaller in the case of installed software.

SlimComputer creates restore points for uninstalled programs and changes that are made to the system so that they can be restored at a later point in time.

The program displayed three Security Updates for Microsoft .NET under Applications which should not be removed, obviously. Not sure if it is an oversight or one of the negative sides of a user based rating system.

The second feature of the program is its Optimizer. It uses the same rating system for all startup items so that it is relatively easy to optimize Windows based on the suggestions. It is still necessary to look at each item before it is removed, considering that what others may not want in their startup may be what you need after system start.

Services, strangely, are not making use of ratings. Two buttons are provided in the menu to restore the original settings and to super charge the services. There is no information on screen that explains what super charging the services does. It is likely that it will disable services that are not needed by the majority of users. A third button is available to undo the optimizations.

The third feature is an uninstaller. It taps into the standard Windows Uninstaller but displays ratings for all items on screen, which can be very helpful for users to determine if an application is unwanted by the majority of users.

All items have a more info button next to them which displays an items popularity, ratings in detail, description, comments and company or developer. These more info links are available in all listings.

There is also a Windows Tools section that links directly to Windows system tools like System Restore, Security, Hard Disk Manager or the Registry Editor.

It is possible to add a public VirusTotal API key to the program which then enables a virus scanning feature.

SlimComputer’s biggest advantage is the rating system which aids users in the decision making process. It is on the other hand not enough to rely on that solely, considering that it is user based and may offer suggestions that are erroneous at worst.

The PC optimizer is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. Additional information and downloads are offered at the developer website.

The program is developed by the same company that has created the driver updater Slimdrivers and the PC maintenance software SlimCleaner.

Quite a few PC boosting applications have been released in the recent past, among them Game Booster, GMA Gaming Accelerator or IOBit Game Booster which all use the same concept that GBoost uses as well.

GBoost promises to “temporarily strip down your slowing PC to its bare essentials for gaming”. While gaming is mentioned it may also benefit other resource heavy applications. Performance increases can mostly be seen in the following two scenarios:

• Users on low end systems can benefit from the software as it frees up ram and cpu cycles for the game or application.
• Users who run a lot of “stuff” in the background, from Instant Messengers to music players, Bittorrent clients and backup software.

Users won’t see much of a difference on PCs with enough ram and power to run the game fine.

A click on the red button in the middle of the interface runs the optimization (which is temporary). The program will perform various operations, from killing processes and services to terminating open applications. Experienced users should check the advanced mode option to see what the program closes on run. Among the programs are instant messengers, music players, internet browsers and download apps. It is possible to use a slider next to each listing to either add it to the list of apps that are closed on optimization or to the list of save applications. If you want to listen to music you for instance need to set the music players slider to no to block their termination.

Is it working? That depends largely on the PC, how it is used and what program the user wants to run. It is definitely worth a try. PC users can download the Windows software from the GBoost homepage.

Defragmenting the Registry with Regdefrag (via Genbeta) would reduce the size from 28904 Kilobyte to 27160 Kilobyte, a reduction of more than 6%. A smaller Registry tends to increase performance on the system and even decrease the time it takes to boot a system. I remember that the Registry on my old computer had a size of 55 Megabytes, that’s twice the size of the current Registry.

The process or defragmentation works exactly the same way as the defragmentation of a hard drive by removing gaps, fragments and wasted space in Windows Registry files.

Analysis and Defragmentation did only take a matter of seconds on my computer, it probably will take longer on slower computers with a larger Registry.

With RegCleaner you can remove obsolete software references, clean your startup list, uninstall or remove entries from the software uninstall window, remove file type associations, clean the new file type menu and edit shell extensions. It gives you the option to do this manually or suggest entries that can be removed. Everything is backed up, easy to undo errors this way.