A lot of notebooks pass through my hands, both professionally and privately. When I buy a portable computer, there are a number of things that I always immediately adjust about the operating system. I would like to briefly introduce three of them today.
Completely uninstall unnecessary programs
As soon as Windows is set up, my first route takes me to the start menu. There I take a close look at what the manufacturer or Microsoft has pre-installed. As a rule, I find a whole range of tools and programs,that I don't want to have.
To get rid of all this stuff, many of you will now go to the OS control panel and start the installation routine there, just like Microsoft does. However, almost every uninstallation process remainsEntries in the operating system registry. The more residue there is, the slower the entire system will eventually become.
Over time a lot accumulates. There is nowthree optionshow you can deal with the problem:
- You use a registry cleaner at regular intervals.
- You use an uninstaller tool that cleans up leftovers immediately after uninstallation.
- You search the registry manually.
VonPoint 1I'm not a fan, countless entries are often displayed during a cleaning process and not all of them should necessarily be deleted. In addition, such tools usually cannot find everything. Although it sounds cool to simply run a program and the registry is clean again, in practice, in my experience, this usually doesn't work.
Instead, I've ruined one or two installations because I blindly trusted the tool. Hence my advice:When using a cleaner, always manually check each individual entry before deleting it.
An uninstaller like inPoint 2described, I would like to use it. My recommendation here would be thisGeek Uninstaller, which costs nothing in the basic version and whose range of functions is completely sufficient. Practically, you can also use it to directly use Windows apps such asCards, mail or calendar
delete if you don't need them. This can also be done using the command prompt, but it is much more convenient.
But my personal favorite is thisNumber 3. Using the registry's search function, you can enter exactly what you want to search for.But ATTENTION: Only delete an entry if you are 100 percent sure what you are doing! If you just blindly delete it, you will destroy your Windows installation.If you are unsure, it is better to use the uninstaller.
I have now adopted a radical method. The first thing you get with every new notebook is acomplete reinstallationcarried out. I can recommend this step if you notice after initial startup that there is a lot of bloatware on your computer.
Then please also onecorrect reinstallationand no recovery. With the latter, you have all the unwanted junk right back on your hard drive.
If the mouse cursor goes away during your Windows 11 installation, this might be the articleof interest to you.
Swap file yes or no?
Since Windows has been around, the swap file has always been an issue among enthusiasts. It's actually used so that when your computer runs out of RAM, data from the RAM is written to the hard drive/SSD. However, the swap file dates back to a time whenwhen 8GB RAM was a luxury.
Today areusually 16GB standard, but for many of you it's probably 32 or even 64 GB by now. Personally, I have been disabling the swap file for years when I have a computer with at least 16 GB of RAM and have never had any problems with it.
Disabling the swap file results in Windowsno more data is moved from RAM to the hard drive, which can reduce the write load on your SSD. At least that's the theory, but in reality Windows is always moving data back and forth between RAM and the hard drive. With the swap file deactivated there are just fewer.
But here too a clear warning:If you work a lot with image, video editing or similar, a lot of RAM will be required. If it can no longer be swapped out, the program or even Windows will crash and your work may be lost.
If your system is used productively, i.e. it is your work computer, security comes first. In this case, leave the swap file enabled!
Should you do this with your PC?only
To play, you can use the swap filedeactivate as a test. If you run out of RAM while gaming, the game will crash, but after reactivation everything will work as before.
You can find the settings for the swap file as follows:
- Right-click on the Windows logo in the taskbar
- System
- Advanced system settings
- Advanced
- Visual Effects, Processor Scheduling, Memory Usage & Virtual Memory - Settings
- Advanced
- Virtual Memory - Change
Here you can not only deactivate the swap file (No swap file), but also adjust its size individually (Custom size) or move it to another hard drive / SSD.
Adjust visual effects
Speaking of paging files, customizing Windows visual effects is just a few clicks away. I like the interface of my Windows as much as possibleclean and fast.
Effects when opening and closing windows or a mouse shadowAt least I don't need it. Apart from that, these effects make the system seem somewhat sluggish even with powerful hardware and eat up RAM unnecessarily.
You can find the necessary settings here:
- Right-click on the Windows logo in the taskbar
- System
- Advanced system settings
- Advanced
- Visual effects, processor scheduling, memory usage & virtual memory
In the list that appears there you canchoose at will, which effects are important to you and what you can do without. All I have enabled is transparent background for icon captions, refine edges of screen fonts, and thumbnails instead of icons.
In addition to the manual setting, Windows 11 also gives you the option of the following threePresetsto choose:
- Automatically select optimal setting
- Adjust for optimal viewing
- Adjust for optimal performance
Ultimately, you can experiment with activating or deactivating visual effects without fearcannot damage your system.
Do you use tools to uninstall programs or do you rely entirely on Windows?
