Your OS drives your whole PC experience, so it's your job
as an enthusiast to keep it in a high state of tune. Here's how to do
just that with Windows 7.
After installing a new OS, most people just jump right in and start
driving it through all their favorite applications and games. Makes
sense, right? The operating system, after all, should be a background
player in the computing experience-a means to an end, with the end being
web surfing, content editing, and wanton destruction in the
first-person shooter of one's choice.
The problem, however, is that most people, even a lot of
self-described power users, never take the time to really tune the new
OS, exploring its menus and setting up the interface for the fastest,
most convenient operation based on personal preferences. And as
operating systems offer more and more user controls, it's the curious,
performance-minded enthusiast who has the most to gain from tuning an OS
to his or her liking.
It's been about six months since Windows 7 hit the market, so we
figure most of our readers have made their upgrades. For those who've
made that jump, we present a bottle of our favorite Windows 7 tips, each
designed to help you extract the very last bits of convenience and
GUI-navigating performance from your own personal dream machine. And if
you haven't yet upgraded to Win7, we trust you will after reading this
article, as its core features-let alone its actual Lab-benchmarked
performance-kicks Vista and XP ass.
We close out our tuning session with a tip designed to supercharge
the process of installing the OS. By loading Windows 7 onto a USB key,
and making that key a bootable drive, you can do an end-run around slow
optical-drive technology and install your OS in (pardon the pun) a
flash.
It's time to get started. Park your computer, but don't shut down.
This is one PC tune-up that can only be done with your engine running.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Committed Mouse Abolitionists
Let's kick off this power-user party with keyboard shortcuts-tricks
every enthusiast should memorize when mastering a new OS. We're
confident the following time-saving keystrokes will save you precious
neural processing cycles, and make your mouse jealous with neglect.
Alt + P