Windows 7: How to Adjust Visual Effects for Best Performance

Okay. So Windows 7 Aero’s nice. But for some power users like me, we’d rather think of it as bloatware and eye candy. It also eats up some computing power too. Since I prefer to have my other apps use that computing power, I often tweak my visual settings to get optimum performance.

This can simply be done by switching user experiences like using the old Windows Classic interface would give you the barebones computing look reminiscent of Windows 98. But if you want to be really nitpicky with the visual stuff you want running, you can fine-tune your visual effects.

To do this, do the following:

1. Access Control Panel -> System and Security
2. Click System. At the left pane, click Performance Information and Tools
3. Click “Adjust visual effects.” This will bring up the Performance Options dialog box
4. In this dialog, under the Visual Effects tab, you’d find all generic settings and the specific options that you can select/deselect

Here’s a description of each of the settings:

• Let Windows choose what’s best for my computer – Depending on your computer’s hardware, Windows will adjust your settings accordingly. For newer computers, the settings will be similar to adjust for best appearance
• Adjust for best appearance – Makes full use of computer hardware and enables use of all visual effects
• Adjust for best performance – All visual effects are disabled
• Custom – Allows user to select/ deseleect specific visual effects options

5. Click OK to finish tweaking and apply the settings.

Related posts:

1. Windows 7: How to Configure User Account Control
2. Windows 7: How to Set Up Speech Recognition
3. Windows 7: How to View Computer Information
4. Windows 7: How to Upgrade from XP, Vista
5. Windows 7: How to Find Out How Hot Your PC is Running