Ways to improve your computer's performance
Performance Information and Tools, the Windows Experience
Index, and ReadyBoost all offer ways to help improve the
performance of your computer.
Tasks that can help improve performance
Tasks in the left pane of Performance Information and
Tools can help you improve your computer's
performance.
To open Performance Information and Tools
-
Open Performance Information and Tools by
clicking the Start button  ,
and then clicking Control
Panel. In the search box, type Performance
Information and Tools, and then, in
the list of results, click Performance
Information and Tools.
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Task
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Description
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Adjust visual effects
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Optimize performance by changing how
menus and windows appear.
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Adjust indexing options
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Indexing options can help you find
what you're looking for quickly and
easily on your computer.
You can search more efficiently by
narrowing your search to focus on
those files and folders that you
commonly use. For more information,
see
Improve Windows searches using the
index: frequently asked questions.
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Adjust power settings
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Change power-related settings so that
your computer resumes from
power-saving settings more
efficiently, and adjust battery usage
for portable computers.
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Open Disk Cleanup
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This tool deletes unnecessary or
temporary files on your hard disk so
you can increase the amount of storage
space you have. For more information,
see Delete
files using Disk Cleanup.
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Advanced tools
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Access advanced system tools, such as
Event Viewer, Disk Defragmenter, and
System Information, that system
administrators and IT professionals
often use to solve problems. You can
also view notifications about
performance-related issues and what to
do about them. For example, if
Windows detects
that a driver is reducing performance,
click the notification to learn which
driver is causing the problem and view
help on how to update the driver.
Issues listed at the beginning of the
list are impacting the system more
than issues listed further down the
list.
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View details about your computer's capability
The Windows Experience
Index measures the capability of your computer's
hardware and software configuration and expresses this
measurement as a number called a base
score. A higher base score generally means that
your computer will perform better and faster than a
computer with a lower base score, especially when
performing more advanced and resource-intensive tasks.
To view your computer's base score
-
Open Performance Information and Tools by
clicking the Start button ,
and then clicking Control
Panel. In the search box, type Performance
Information and Tools, and then, in
the list of results, click Performance
Information and Tools.
The Windows Experience
Index base score and sub-scores for your
computer are displayed on this page. If
you don't see sub-scores and a base score,
click Rate
this computer.  If
you're prompted for an administrator
password or confirmation, type the
password or provide confirmation. If
you recently upgraded your hardware and
want to find out if your score has
changed, click Re-run
the assessment. If
you're prompted for an administrator
password or confirmation, type the
password or provide confirmation.
The Windows Experience
Index is used by other software makers, so you can buy
programs that are matched to your computer's base
score. For more information, see
What is the Windows Experience Index?
To view detailed information about the hardware on
your computer, such as processor speed, the amount of
random access memory (RAM) installed, and hard disk
size, click
View and print detailed performance and system
information.
Speed up your computer with ReadyBoost
ReadyBoost can speed up your computer by using storage
space on most USB flash drives and flash memory cards.
When you plug a ReadyBoost-compatible storage device
into your computer, the AutoPlay dialog box gives you
the option to use ReadyBoost. If you select this
option, you can choose how much memory on the device
to use for this purpose.
For more information, see Turn
ReadyBoost on or off for a storage device.
Try a troubleshooter
Windows includes
two troubleshooting programs that you can use to
automatically fix some common problems with your
computer's performance or with maintenance of your
system.
-
Open the Performance troubleshooter by clicking
the Start button ,
and then clicking Control
Panel. In the search box, type troubleshooter,
and then click
Troubleshooting. Under System
and Security, click Check
for performance issues.
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Open the Maintenance troubleshooter by clicking
the Start button ,
and then clicking Control
Panel. In the search box, type troubleshooter,
and then click
Troubleshooting. Under System
and Security, click Run
maintenance tasks.
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