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You don’t have to live with a Windows 7 machine that’s becoming unbearably slow. Here are 10 basic steps that will optimize system performance.
With Windows 7, Microsoft did a really good job making the system perform well. However, over time, Windows 7 systems can slow down and need some care and feeding to regain their former glory. Further, some Windows 7 features can be leveraged to improve overall system performance. In this article, we will outline 10 steps you can take to boost the performance of your Windows 7 systems.
Not every system service that is running on a stock Windows 7 machine is necessary. A number of services can either be disabled or modified to run only when needed. Once you make these changes, the service no longer has to consume system resources and the system no longer has to spend time starting the service.
Windows 7 systems eventually begin to suffer under the weight of software that is installed in the normal course of business. Many software titles install more than is necessary and include helper applications designed solely to make the software start up more quickly or facilitate other communication (e.g., iTunes helper). And new software installations might add a permanent presence to the system tray, even if it’s not absolutely necessary for the system to function (Steam games, for example).
You could go through your system tool by tool and remove the offending software, but you might want to keep the underlying tool around and just prevent the helper from loading. This and more can be accomplished through the use of MSconfig, a tool that has long been a part of Windows. MSconfig allows you to selectively disable startup items and take other steps toward improving overall system performance.
To use MSconfig, go to Start and in the search box, type MSconfig. From the Startup tab (Figure A), you can disable items. Just be careful about what you choose.
Microsoft’s OEMs sometimes actively work against the Redmond behemoth and sully the company’s name. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of what has become known as “bloatware.” In the never-ending race to the bottom of the PC market, lower cost PCs have had their profit margins bolstered by OEMs through the inclusion of mostly junk software – short-term trials and the like — that does nothing but add a few dollars of profit while bringing performance to a crawl. Frankly, this is one of the reasons that I believe that Microsoft’s Surface announcement, in which Microsoft noted that it would make its own device, is brilliant. The company needs to start with a clean slate in some ways (no pun intended).
If your PC shipped with a bunch of stuff you’ll never use, get rid of that software. Generally, you can go to Start | Control Panel | Programs And Features (Figure B) and remove software you no longer plan to use. If the software adds items to the startup process, getting rid of it will make the PC start faster and, ultimately, perform better overall.
If you’re running Windows, you need to be running an anti-malware program to keep viruses and spyware off your system. Nothing will ruin good performance like a boatload of spyware. Our personal favorite (and free!) tool for combating malware is Microsoft Security Essentials. In my experience, it’s been successful in catching bad stuff while not significantly degrading system performance itself.
How much RAM do you have? Is your system consuming all or most of your RAM? Does the system page out to disk? If so, you’re suffering a massive performance hit, which can be solved by adding more memory to your PC.
Solid state is all the rage these days, and with good reason. It’s fast! More and more laptops and even desktops are moving to the technology because of the performance benefits. Solid state disks use memory cells from which data can be read very quickly, as opposed to the relatively plodding nature of rotational storage. By moving to SSD, you can give your Windows 7 system renewed life — and give yourself a whole new user experience.
This one is easy! When you’re plugged in, configure Windows 7’s power plans to favor performance over power savings. When you choose to use Windows 7′ high performance power plan, you might increase the computer’s performance in some (but not all) circumstances. It really depends on the kind of work you’re doing and how often you allow the computer to sit idle.
To change power plans, go to Start | Control Panel | Power Options and choose your power plan settings (Figure C).
If you’re using a traditional spinning disk in your Windows 7 system, you can keep your system operating at peak efficiency by periodically defragmenting the hard drive. If, however, you’ve opted to go with SSD-based storage, don’t do this. First, you won’t get any performance benefit and second, you’ll significantly reduce the life of that expensive SSD.
Disk defragmentation is scheduled to take place once per week, but you can change this by going to Start | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmenter (Figure D). In addition to changing the schedule, you can run an on-demand defrag from here. You can also run a defrag from the command line instead of from a GUI.
Windows 7’s search is good, but it can also affect system performance. If you really need to run a tool at full tilt, you can disable indexing altogether. Or you can tune the indexer to meet your specific needs, possibly reducing its overall impact on system performance.
Perhaps you don’t want to jump into the solid-state game right away but would like some of the benefit that can be had from flash-based storage. Using nothing more than a USB stick, you can do so through a Windows 7 feature known as ReadyBoost. (Note that if you’re already using an SSD as your system drive, ReadyBoost won’t be available, since there would be no performance gain.)
ReadyBoost allows the system to make use of one of these speedy storage devices as a cache, improving overall performance of the system. The flash storage device that you choose to use for ReadyBoost should meet the following specifications set by Microsoft:
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The command line is often the best place to resolve Windows 7 desktop problems. These basic commands will help speed your troubleshooting tasks.
PC troubleshooting is becoming less common in larger organizations, but consultants and techs in smaller shops still have to get their hands dirty identifying and fixing desktop problems. Oftentimes, troubleshooting Windows 7 means delving into the command line. Here are 10 fundamental Windows 7 commands you might find helpful.
Malicious software will often attempt to replace core system files with modified versions in an effort to take control of the system. The System File Checker can be used to verify the integrity of the Windows system files. If any of the files are found to be missing or corrupt, they will be replaced. You can run the System File Checker by using this command:
sfc /scannow
One way to verify the integrity of a system is to make sure that all the system files are digitally signed. You can accomplish this with the File Signature Verification tool. This tool is launched from the command line but uses a GUI interface. It will tell you which system files are signed and which aren’t. As a rule, all the system files should be digitally signed, although some hardware vendors don’t sign driver files. The command used to launch the File Signature Verification tool is:
sigverif
Incorrect device drivers can lead to any number of system problems. If you want to see which drivers are installed on a Windows 7 system, you can do so by running the driverquery tool. This simple command-line tool provides information about each driver that is being used. The command is:
driverquery
If you need a bit more information, you can append the -v switch. Another option is to append the -si switch, which causes the tool to display signature information for the drivers. Here’s how they look:
driverquery -v
driverquery -si
The nslookup tool can help you to verify that DNS name resolution is working correctly. When you run nslookup against a host name, the tool will show you how the name was resolved, as well as which DNS server was used during the lookup. This tool can be extremely helpful when troubleshooting problems related to legacy DNS records that still exist but that are no longer correct.
To use this tool, just enter the nslookup command, followed by the name of the host you want to resolve. For example:
nslookup dc1.contoso.com
Ping is probably the simplest of all diagnostic commands. It’s used to verify basic TCP/IP connectivity to a network host. To use it, simply enter the command, followed by the name or IP address of the host you want to test. For example:
ping 192.168.1.1
Keep in mind that this command will work only if Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) traffic is allowed to pass between the two machines. If at any point a firewall is blocking ICMP traffic, the ping will fail.
Ping does a good job of telling you whether two machines can communicate with one another over TCP/IP, but if a ping does fail, you won’t receive any information regarding the nature of the failure. This is where the pathping utility comes in.
Pathping is designed for environments in which one or more routers exist between hosts. It sends a series of packets to each router that’s in the path to the destination host in an effort to determine whether the router is performing slowly or dropping packets. At its simplest, the syntax for pathping is identical to that of the ping command (although there are some optional switches you can use). The command looks like this:
pathping 192.168.1.1
The ipconfig command is used to view or modify a computer’s IP addresses. For example, if you wanted to view a Windows 7 system’s full IP configuration, you could use the following command:
ipconfig /all
Assuming that the system has acquired its IP address from a DHCP server, you can use the ipconfig command to release and then renew the IP address. Doing so involves using the following commands:
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
Another handy thing you can do with ipconfig is flush the DNS resolver cache. This can be helpful when a system is resolving DNS addresses incorrectly. You can flush the DNS cache by using this command:
ipconfig /flushdns
If a drive that is encrypted with BitLocker has problems, you can sometimes recover the data using a utility called repair-bde. To use this command, you will need a destination drive to which the recovered data can be written, as well as your BitLocker recovery key or recovery password. The basic syntax for this command is:
repair-bde <source> <destination> -rk | rp <source>
You must specify the source drive, the destination drive, and either the rk (recovery key) or the rp (recovery password) switch, along with the path to the recovery key or the recovery password. Here are two examples of how to use this utility:
repair-bde c: d: -rk e:\recovery.bek
repair-bde c: d: -rp 111111-111111-111111-111111-111111-111111
The tasklist command is designed to provide information about the tasks that are running on a Windows 7 system. At its most basic, you can enter the following command:
tasklist
The tasklist command has numerous optional switches, but there are a couple I want to mention. One is the -m switch, which causes tasklist to display all the DLL modules associated with a task. The other is the -svc switch, which lists the services that support each task. Here’s how they look:
tasklist -m
tasklist -svc
The taskkill command terminates a task, either by name (which is referred to as the image name) or by process ID. The syntax for this command is simple. You must follow the taskkill command with -pid (process ID) or -im (image name) and the name or process ID of the task that you want to terminate. Here are two examples of how this command works:
taskkill -pid 4104
taskkill -im iexplore.exe
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If you’re one of the many business users who has not upgraded their computer to Windows 10, there are still resources to boost your experience. Here are 10 tips for getting the most out of the OS.
Windows 10 faced a controversial roll-out, with privacy concerns, bugs, and other issues plaguing many users. And as of August 2016, just 1% of business machines had upgraded to Windows 10, according to a study from Softchoice. Instead, 91% of the machines were operating with Windows 7—an 18% increase over the same period of time in 2015.
“It seems businesses don’t see an urgent need to move operating systems, so long as their cloud-based applications are still running fine on Windows 7,” Softchoice’s Microsoft director Craig McQueen wrote in a press release at the time. “In addition to the security benefits, I think once organizations grasp the user benefits—such as touch and Cortana—we will start to see a boost in adoption.”
While experts predict Windows 10 deployments will pick up this year, it’s important for those still using Windows 7 for business to get the most out of their machines. Here are 10 articles with Windows 7 tips that will help enterprise users operate the machines more effectively.
While Windows 7 generally performs well, over time, the system can slow down and require some care to get it back up to speed. The OS also contains certain features that users can take advantage of to improve overall performance. Here, we outline 10 steps business users can take to enhance the performance of your Windows 7 system.
Windows 7 allows users to connect to a remote computer and utilize the local system’s multiple monitors. Here is a step by step advice on how to configure and operate multiple monitors using Windows 7’s Remote Desktop Connection, as well as how to connect to and from Windows versions that do not support this feature.
The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) cache is an important part of IP networking on any OS, as it links Ethernet addressing to hardware addressing. Newly mapped addresses are saved in an ARP cache, which is usually fine, but can sometimes cause issues with internet connections and web page loading times. Here, are the necessary steps to clear the ARP cache, and how to manage it going forward.
While every version of Windows includes a core set of system services, business users can disable some that are not necessary in order to improve performance and security. In this article, we highlight 13 services that users can disable if they so choose on Windows 7 systems that will likely not have any impact on business operations, including IP Helper, offline files, and Network Access Protection.
IT staff who troubleshoot Windows 7 problems often have to dive into the command line. Here, are 10 fundamental Windows 7 commands that are useful for IT administrators, including System File Checker, File Signature Verification, and Driverquery.
In Windows Vista and later versions of Windows, the bootloader was moved from boot.ini to a utility called BCDEdit. This article walks users through how to modify the boot config data using this tool.
Changing and customizing the Windows 7 Logon screen wallpaper is easy once you know the steps, as Microsoft built the ability to change the wallpaper right into the OS, as opposed to needing any third-party software. Here, we offer a tutorial on doing so.
Most applications have been designed for multi-core processors, and work with an OS to distribute their operations evenly across cores to enhance performance. However, you can sometimes achieve better overall performance from certain applications by configuring them to run on different processor cores, which Windows 7 allows via the Processor Affinity setting. In this article, we explain two ways to change the Processor Affinity setting in Windows 7.
Experiencing a slow Windows 7 boot time? You can use Windows 7’s Event View to investigate the source of the problem. The Event Viewer includes a category of event logs called Applications and Services Logs, which track key elements of the OS. Here, we explain how it is possible to find out how long it took to boot up your system every time, since the day Windows 7 was first installed, along with instances where boot time slowed down, all through these logs.
This article, walks users through how to tag files to make them searchable via the Search filters built into Windows Explorer’s Search box in Windows 7. It’s possible to do this easily from many applications while saving a file. The ability to more easily find files is a boon for business users who want to enhance their productivity.
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In Windows 7 you can connect to a remote computer and take full advantage of your local system’s multiple monitors. Here’s how.
If you’re using multiple monitors on your system setup and you regularly connect to other systems via Remote Desktop, you know how frustrating it is to go from a multiple-monitor display to a single-monitor display for your remote connection. If so, you’ll definitely want to learn how you can take advantage of multiple monitors in Microsoft Windows 7’s Remote Desktop Connection.
However, before going any further it is important to understand right off the bat that multiple-monitors support in Windows 7’s Remote Desktop is available only on Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise. (It is also available in Windows Server 2008 R2.) Furthermore, both the local and remote systems must be running one of the supported versions. For example, Windows 7 Ultimate is running on the local and Windows 7 Enterprise is running on the remote.
As long as you have the proper configuration, Windows 7 provides you with real multiple-monitor support as opposed to the monitor-spanning feature that was introduced in the previous version of Remote Desktop Connection. This means that in Windows 7 you can use this feature to connect to a remote computer and take full advantage of your local system’s multiple monitors on your remote system.
In this edition of the Windows Desktop Report, we’ll describe Windows 7’s Remote Desktop support for multiple monitors and show you how to configure it for connecting to other Windows 7 systems. we’ll also show you how to use Remote Desktop’s monitor-spanning feature when connecting to, and from, Windows versions that do not support the multiple-monitors feature.
Before we get started, let’s take a moment to discuss the different types of Remote Desktop monitor configurations you can have when using a system with multiple monitors. In the standard type of connection, Remote Desktop displays the remote system in a window on one monitor. In a connection configured with the monitor-spanning feature, Remote Desktop displays the remote system in a window on one monitor but allows you to drag or span that window across multiple monitors. In a connection configured with the multiple-monitors feature, Remote Desktop makes the remote system behave as if it were physically connected to multiple monitors. Each of these configurations is illustrated in Figure A.
If you have the proper setup, configuring Windows 7’s Remote Desktop multiple-monitor feature is easy. To begin, Launch Remote Desktop Connection and select the system you want to connect to with multiple-monitor support from the Computer drop-down list. Then, click the Options button to expand the Remote Desktop Connection window so that you can see all the tabs. Next, choose the Display tab and select the Use All My Monitors for the Remote Session check box, as shown in Figure B. To complete the procedure, return to the General tab and click the Save button.
When you connect to the remote system, the remote system’s monitor will instantly fill your multiple monitors, just as if it were physically connected to the monitors.
As mentioned, in a connection configured with the monitor-spanning feature, Remote Desktop allows you to drag or span the window across multiple monitors. However, there are a couple of caveats. First your multiple monitors must have the same screen resolution. Second, the monitors must be aligned, or positioned, side-by-side. Third, the combined screen resolution of your multiple monitors must be under 4096 x 2048.
To launch Remote Desktop Connection with monitor-spanning support, just click the Start button and type the following command in the Start Search box. (Alternatively, you can open a Command Prompt window and type the same command.)
Mstsc /span
When you do, you’ll see the standard Remote Desktop Connection dialog box, and you can launch the connection as you normally would. As soon as you make a connection, you’ll immediately see the desktop of the remote system spread across your multiple monitors. If you need to have access to both the local and remote desktops, you can reduce the size of the remote system’s desktop to only one monitor by clicking the Restore Down button on the Remote Desktop window. As a shortcut, you can also use the keystroke: [Ctrl][Alt][Break].
Once the window is on one monitor, you use click and drag to resize the window to completely cover a single monitor. Keep in mind that when you reduce the size of a spanned remote widow, it will display both horizontal and vertical scroll bars, as shown in Figure C, that you’ll have to use to see the entire screen. However, you can instantly span the window by clicking the Maximize button.
Of course, using a command line to launch your Remote Desktop connection isn’t the most convenient way to use the monitor-spanning feature. Chances are that you already have a Remote Desktop Connection RDP file saved on your desktop. If so, you can create a standard Windows shortcut that will incorporate both the special command line and your RDP file.
To begin, right-click anywhere on the desktop and then select New | Shortcut from the context menu. When you see the Create Shortcut wizard, just type mstsc /span and the path to the RDP file in the text box, as shown in Figure D. Be sure that you enclose the path to the RDP file in double quotes if the path has spaces in it. To continue, click Next and give the shortcut an appropriate name, such as Saturn – Remote Spanning, and then click Finish.
You can now use this shortcut to launch your remote desktop connection and span the Remote Desktop window across all the available space on your multiple monitors. Of course, the spanned desktop won’t exactly behave like a multiple-monitor setup when you open multiple windows. As such you’ll have to use a little creative click-and-drag resizing to reposition the windows on the spanned desktop.
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Microsoft has released emergency out-of-band (OOB) updates to address multiple issues caused by Windows Updates issued during the January 2022 Patch Tuesday.
This update addresses issues related to VPN connectivity, Windows Server Domain Controllers restarting, Virtual Machines start failures, and ReFS-formatted removable media failing to mount.
All OOB updates released are available for download on the Microsoft Update Catalog, and some of them can also be installed directly through Windows Update as optional updates. You will have to manually check for updates if you want to install the emergency fixes through Windows Update because they are optional updates and will not install automatically.
Option 1: Run Windows Update, KB5010793 will appear under optional download.
Option 2: Download the patch from there: Microsoft Update Catalog
Please download the matching Windows 10 Version.
Option 1: Run Windows Update, KB5010795 will appear under optional download. Select and install.
Option 2: Download the patch from there: Microsoft Update Catalog
Don’t expect your money anytime soon, however.
DVD drives may be a thing of the past, but the past could pay you $10 via a proposed settlement from a class-action suit.
If you purchased a DVD-ROM, DVD-RW or combination drive between April, 2003 and December 31, 2008, a collection of DVD drive manufacturers have tentatively agreed to pay you $10 per drive, whether you purchased the drive as part of a PC or by itself. You’ll simply need to visit the claim site and testify (under penalty of perjury) that you indeed purchased those drives within the given time period, and live in one of the 23 states (plus the District of Columbia) covered by the suit. The deadline to file is July 1.
Why this matters: Though the optical drive market continues to decrease—“the physical disk format is somewhat obsolete in the era of content streaming,” IDC wrote last year—that wasn’t the case fourteen years ago, when virtually all software was distributed via DVD-ROM. Fortunately, the settlement site isn’t asking for proof of purchase yet, but it reserves the right to do so. Filing a claim can take literally seconds, but don’t hold your breath—you’ll probably receive compensation, but there’s no guarantee.
Simply put, a group of 23 plaintiffs sued virtually every DVD drive manufacturer, alleging that they collectively conspired to keep drive prices higher than they normally would be, in violation of antitrust laws. Though the defendants denied they did anything wrong, several—Hitachi-LG, Panasonic, NEC, and Sony—settled and agreed to pay a collective total of $124.5 million into four separate settlement funds.
(Note that only DVD drives for PCs are covered; a DVD player, such as the one gathering dust in your living room, isn’t.)
If you do submit a claim, however, the chances of receiving your settlement soon are slim. That’s because seventeen more defendants, including various subsidiaries of BenQ, Philips, Samsung, TEAC, and Pioneer, have yet to settle, and the suit will continue until all of the claims are resolved.
“Because other defendants remain in this litigation, the plaintiffs are proposing that distribution of the settlement funds not occur at this time,” the settlement site reads. “This is to save the expenses associated with distribution.”
In fact, the settlement hearing to finally approve the Hitachi-LG-Panasonic-NEC-Sony agreement will be held on December 8. After that, payments may begin—which means that you’ll probably receive your $10 or less a year from now. Yes, less: Payments will be “up to” $10 per drive, according to the claims site.
You should probably treat the settlement like one of those “print out your own rebate” slips from the turn of the century. Even under the best of circumstances, chances are you’ll have totally forgotten about your $10 windfall by the time the check arrives.
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The Windows 10 Anniversary Update that was released to Home users in the summer is now available under the Current Branch for Business servicing option.
The Windows 10 Anniversary Update that was released to Home users in the summer is now available for widespread enterprise deployments.
The Anniversary release, version 1607, has been designated as available to Windows 10 machines that receive updates under the Current Branch for Business (CBB) servicing option.
Apart from the Home version of Windows 10, most other flavors of the OS can be set to receive updates under the CBB. A PC on the CBB path will be updated about four months after the Home version of Windows 10, allowing additional time to validate an update’s quality and application compatibility.
This delay to allow bugs to be fixed would seem to be particularly important in the case of the Anniversary Update, which triggered complaints about frozen systems and broken web cams among home users. A group of Windows 10 Home users have previously petitioned Microsoft to allow them to delay updates.
Describing the Anniversary Update’s availability under the CBB, Michael Niehaus, director of product marketing at Microsoft, said in a blog post: “This is an important milestone and signifies that this version has been validated by customers, OEMs and partners giving organizations the confidence to further accelerate deployments at scale.”
The release addresses 1,000 items of feedback from home users and enterprises performing pilot deployments.
The Anniversary Update can be downloaded to PCs on the CBB and will be available to CBB machines via Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) in January. Unlike machines that use Windows Update, computers that are managed using WSUS or System Center Configuration Manager, will require IT admins to choose when to apply the update.
The other version of Windows 10 designated as a supported CBB release is 1511, released in November last year. The launch version of Windows 10, 1507, won’t be patched or updated after March next year.
Niehaus says there has been a 3x increase in deployments of Windows 10 by enterprise over the past six months, but doesn’t reveal the size of these deployments or the number. Businesses rolling out Windows 10 include the Australian Department of Human Services, Hendrick Motorsports and Crystal Group of Companies.
However, some third-party figures on Windows 10 roll-outs have been less rosy, with an audit of more than 400,000 business PCs in North America finding that 99 percent of had not been upgraded to Windows 10.
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A few weeks ago, Microsoft released a public preview for Attack Simulator for Office 365 Threat Intelligence. On April 17th Microsoft announced that Attack Simulator is now generally available. Attack Simulator for Office 365 Threat Intelligence is available to all Office 365 E5 or Office 365 Threat Intelligence customers.
With Attack Simulator, customers can launch simulated attacks on their end users, determine how end users behave in the event of an attack, and update policies and ensure that appropriate security tools are in place to protect the organization from threats. The GA of Attack Simulator adds a new HTML editor so realistic looking HTML emails can be sent in simulations of spear-phishing. Also, two spear-phishing templates are available for immediate use in the spear phishing simulation.
Display Name Spear Phishing Attack: Phishing is the generic term for socially engineered attacks designed to harvest credentials or personally identifiable information (PII). Spear phishing is a subset of this phishing and is more targeted, often aimed at a specific group, individual, or organization. These attacks are customized and tend to leverage a sender name that generates trust with the recipient.
Password Spray Attack: To prevent bad actors from constantly guessing the passwords of user accounts, often there are account lockout policies. For example, an account will lockout after a certain number of bad passwords are guessed for a user. However, if you were to take a single password and try it against every single account in an organization, it would not trigger any lockouts. The password spray attack leverages commonly used passwords and targets many accounts in an organization with the hope that one of the account holder uses a common password that allows a hacker to enter the account and take control of it. From this compromised account, a hacker can launch more attacks by assuming the identity of account holder.
Brute Force Password Attack: This type of attack consists of a hacker trying many passwords or passphrases with the hope of eventually guessing correctly. The attacker systematically checks all possible passwords and passphrases until the correct one is found.
This video demonstrates how Attack Simulator can help organizations educate users to become more secure from cyber threats. With Attack Simulator, admins can train all their end users, and especially those who are attacked most often. This proactive training is a powerful way to ensure that your organization can prevent the impact from advanced threats. Over the coming months, more threat simulations will be added to Attack Simulator so organizations can simulate the most prevalent threat types from the modern threat landscape.
Experience the benefits of Attack Simulator for Office 365 Threat Intelligence by beginning an Office 365 E5 trial today. Also, learn more about how Microsoft leverages threat intelligence and the value of threat intelligence.
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