Windows 7 Tweaks and Visual effect Customization

This section is divided into two parts The first part is mainly focused on Windows disk space tweaks for people with low System Specs.The Second portion consists of visual enhancements Which would require systems with higher specs.So before starting with first section i would like to give an Overview of what and why i was up to it.


Overview

For the first time when i had a a chance to grab a copy of Windows 7, Only few hours where involved before i could warm up myself with this new release from Microsoft.So i decided to customize my windows the way i wanted.First of all the most important thing to consider is if you want to deploy or upgrade your PC with Windows 7 is to take look at your system specification.The minimum system requirements which you can see at Microsoft website.
When i started to use Windows 7 it was my Refurbished Dell optiplex Gx270 ,a 8 Year old PC equipped with unsupported 96MB Integrated Graphics and 512MB of Memory which was insufficient to handle Capabilities such as Aero transparency and visual Effects, applications like Windows Movie Maker Live.Therefore i really suggest you should have at least A 2.0Ghz pentium 4 Processor , 1GB of Memory, Atleast 128MB pixel shader 2.0 supported Builtin Graphics Chip and 60 -160Gb Hard drive depending on your Need.
Nowadays Prices are too low you can get a refurbished desktop version of Pc rather than building up your customized PC ,with configuration like
dual core processor 80GB Hard drive and 1Gb of RAM around 7000 to 12000 Rs depending on brand.But if you are hardcore Gamer you can build your own Customized Unbranded PC.

Lets take a look at some Tweaks for improving performance and changes we can do for extra look and feel.Before doing anything with your windows you should always backup your system restore point using system restore.


Create System restore Point: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/create-a-restore-point-for-windows-vistas-system-restore/

Restore System to previous State : http://www.windows7news.com/2009/09/25/how-to-use-windows-7-system-restore/

System Tweaks:


I will begin with safest and simplest form of tweaks for increasing space and performance which you don't need any additional program or extra windows feature to installed separately



1.Disable windows Hibernating Feature

if you have hard drive with less than 80GB of space your windows alone will occupy around 10 -13 Gb of space depending on your installation so if you are too worried about space .disable it.

goto Start menu in search Box type command prompt in search results above right click Command Prompt and click on run as administrator (if it asks you for password you have a admin password.) Type the following in command prompt powercfg.exe /hibernate off.

you will see you have some extra space probably equal to your installed RAM is free now.



2.Remove or Turn off unwanted Windows Programs

You may not want Windows Built-in Features such as Windows Media center and Dvd maker unless and until you have hardware that is capable of handling these features or you want to consider using them in future.

Goto Start then click Control Panel and then Program and Features click on turn Windows features on and off and expand Media Feature uncheck Windows DVD maker and Window Media Center.You can also uncheck Tablet PC component unless if you dont have Hardware capable of doing stuff like for it such as touch screen.



3.Set the paging File in Windows

Paging is Managed by windows itself on all drives pre configured windows 7 default configuration.to set your windows paging file and use it on single partition.

click on Start menu and then right click on Computer then click on Properties click on advanced System Setting in the Advanced Tab you will see Performance field click on settings and than in Advanced tab under Virtual Memory field click Change uncheck Automatically Manage paging file size for all drives and then click on C: drive and click on Custom Size radio button and set initial size(MB): 512 and write in Maximum size (MB): 1024. and click on Set and OK , Restart windows.
This option is not recommended by Microsoft if you have Hard drive with least 120GB because performance will be degraded but you will probably have Free space on other partitions.

These are just few glimpse of what you can do to free up space and reduce windows 7 size from 7 to 5 GB if you are more smart in googling and a computer GEEK!!.





VISUAL Enhancements and Addons For Windows 7:

Although it is not supported or recommended to add more visual enhancement to your windows unless and until you have more than 1GB of RAM and Powerfull 256MB or 512 MB graphics card that supports WDM (WINDOW DRIVER MODEL) and Pixel shader 2.0 feature.

you have to download these each Addons and then do things you want, you will need to create restore point before doing anything.



1.Add a new Start Menu Animation

Download the File from following link:

http://oo-mrhigh-oo.deviantart.com/art/Startmenu-Animation-2-149024877

use 7zip program to unzip downloaded file it and run program startmenu Animation.exe

(note) After changing screen resolution or sometimes it happens you will not get animation you have to delete the cache folder inside the folder you installed the program.
you have to do this every time you change your screen resolution which is unlikely to happen in some situations.



2.Windows 7 Start Button (orb) Changer

Download the file called W7SBC.zip from following link:

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-7-start-button-changer-released

unzip and run Windows 7 Start Button Changer v 2.6.exe and change the orb by clicking on select and change start button orb in program and select the desired button.

to download more ORB buttons..you can search on google or visit following link



3.Make your Desktop Background ALIVE (Dreamscene)

Download the Dreamscene file from following link:

http://www.techknowl.com/use-dream-scene-in-windows-7-and-all.html

After downloading unzip files in folder run the windows 7 Dreamscene activator patch and it will install and update the registry files.

just right click on wmv or mpg Video files and in context menu click on set as desktop background.

Note: have to do is to download (.mpg) and (.wmv) extensions for video files that dreamscene currently supports.you have to also consider the video resolution when downloading file that your monitor supports .otherwise some part of the background will go out from screen ,hence you will be unable to view complete background video.



4.Extra visual effects for Windows.

Stardock WindowsFX 4 is a windows utility software that lets you add extra windows visual effects such as minimize ,maximize ,close and restore. It also provides with more extra special effects such as blur of background desktop and dark circling of background when you open a window to move your focus towards active window rather than inactive window.

as you can see in image below ,the background is blurred and dark circled , shows how it focused on active window


The downside is its not free.but its worth to see your windows with new visual effects and use it for 30 day trial.after that you might will to purchase the full version.

STARDOCK website also has designed utilities to do the above mentioned windows enhancing techniques some of STARDOCK softwares can do more than these.Only because they are not free and that is why this makes it not FOR FREE!.






Thats it ! your done.

There are many other utility software designed to give you extra things.such as windows performance tweaks, look and feel.Some of them freeware and some of them not.some of them include all the required things you need others will include specific products each of which will only be dedicated to customize the part of operating system.