Huge Windows Performance Tip! - Ajarn Forum

dexter · 10th May 2008, 13:27

After using the following procedure and either removing, or uninstalling approximately 100 old drivers (*all* the ones which were greyed out) off of my year-and-a-half old window's OS system, the PC's startup time has cut in half.

Loved this heads-up, worth it's weight in gold.

Enjoy

,

"Remove Old Drivers

If you are experiencing weird issues after upgrading your hardware, or you've just upgraded to the latest hardware device and aren't seeing the performance you'd like, you might want to remove the old drivers which are still installed for the old hardware, even though you can't normally see them in device manager.

What you have to do is set a less-known flag to allow you to see non-present devices, and then launch device manager. You'll then see the old devices in the list, and can uninstall the drivers for them.

In Windows Vista, or XP, the first thing you'll need to do is open a command prompt in administrator mode. Type cmd into the start menu search box, and then use Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open in administrator mode. (You can also right-click on the command prompt and choose Run as Administrator)
Now paste in the following line:

SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1

Then type in devmgmt.msc to start up Device Manager from the administrator command prompt:

Once you are in Device Manager, go to the View menu and choose Show Hidden Devices, which will show all the device drivers including things that aren't currently installed in your computer.

Notice how I have 6 mice in the list, even though I only have two installed (and my drawing tablet). The other 3 mice are old mice that I've used until they died…. the Geek
tends to wear through input devices very quickly since he never leaves the computer…

You can right-click on the driver and then choose Uninstall from the menu to remove the drivers for that old hardware.
I've found that this can resolve a lot of weird issues, and even increase performance on some machines where you've upgraded a ton of times. This isn't necessarily going to increase performance, but it's nice to have a tidy computer nonetheless.
This tip also works the same in Windows XP."

Remove Old Drivers After Upgrading to New Hardware :: the How-To Geek

theanimaster · 10th May 2008, 13:48

Oh my...

How's this for efficiency: I install a USB mouse and its driver right? From one USB port in teh Windoze computer.

THEN

I unplug the mouse, use it elsewhere

BUT

when I plug it back in, albeit in a different USB port Windoze is all "Hey welcome back same mouse... sorry but you're in a different USB port so I gotta re-install the drivers for you".

I mean, how STUPID is that!? Why can't, in the year 2008, Windoze be smart enough to cover all ports with just ONE instance of the driver? And so are you gonna tell me this fucker is going to repetitively install the same driver for each port that a device is used in??

Or is it just my generic-branded USB mouse at fault?

dexter · 10th May 2008, 14:03

Reckon that one mouse driver would cover all the ports.

Nothing's as efficient as a Mac though is it? Even considering buying one myself.

Cost the best part of 70 grand though, to purchase a 15" notebook.

theanimaster · 10th May 2008, 14:30

Would welcome you with arms wide open.

dexter · 10th May 2008, 14:45

Know it's off topic, but here are the Mac's specs anyhow:

MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.4GHz

15-inch widescreen display
2GB memory
1400X900 pixels
160GB hard drive
8x double-layer SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256 SD Ram

Cost: 67,900

Would prefer the 17-inch with larger HD though, but it jumps to 99,900 grand.

What's your opinion on this 15-inch? Could it bought cheaper elswhere in BKK?
That's from iShop at iT SQUARE.

zehner · 10th May 2008, 14:56

i got the old macbook pro....2.2ghz for 60k

they're all sold out now though

dexter · 10th May 2008, 15:02

^ What're the specs mate?

zehner · 10th May 2008, 15:07

2.2ghz
120gb hdd
2gb ram
15" screen
1400 x 900 pixels
8x superdrive
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128 SD Ram

dexter · 10th May 2008, 15:13

^ Mmm..2ghz and 60gb extra for 8Gs. Must be able to get a lower price.

theanimaster · 10th May 2008, 22:01

You can only get the special discounted prices when a new model's out and they're selling off the older stock.

However there is this site â¦É³Ò¢Í§Á×ÍÊÍ§ «×éÍ¢ÒÂÊÔ¹¤éÒÁ×ÍÊÍ§ â·ÃÈÑ¾·ìÁ×Í¶×Í Ã¶Â¹µì ºéÒ¹ Á×Í2 (all in thai though) where you can get really sweet deals. I've seen 24" Intel iMacs going for half the price of my old 20" G5 iMac!

I'll be picking up the 15" MBP after school starts -- probably the second month after, unless sensibility kicks in and makes me wait till the newer ones come out which either means I get more for the same price or the same for a lower price. Since there are 3.06Ghz BTO iMacs available now, there should be 2.8Ghz standard (3.06Ghz BTO) macbook pros soon.

Whitey · 11th May 2008, 02:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by dexter

Reckon that one mouse driver would cover all the ports.

Nothing's as efficient as a Mac though is it? Even considering buying one myself.

Cost the best part of 70 grand though, to purchase a 15" notebook.

Ubuntu, my friend, Ubuntu. Plug the mouse in and it works. Plug anything in and it stands a good chance of working. I can't remember the last time I had to worry about a driver.

dexter · 11th May 2008, 08:58

^Cheers. I'll do a bit of research on the pros and cons of Ubuntu.

hvc · 11th May 2008, 09:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by dexter

"This tip also works the same in Windows XP."

This 'tip' works in XP w/o going into cmd.

Dexter, I really like your attempt on becoming a computer freak but please be a bit careful from where you get your info. I couldn't find any clear warning on that site that going into DOS can have potentially 'funny' results. What you did there was changing one value in the registry, why the hassle? Go to the registry directly BUT back it up before and not with bluudy Win restore! ERUNT and NTREGOPT FAQ

How did you manage to create such a mess in the first place? I don't care much about Vista so do the search yourself, something like: 'force windows unload unused dlls' , they'll get deleted on next reboot.

Asper · 11th May 2008, 17:38

My computer's 2½ years old, I did as you suggested but didn't see anything that looked like it didn't belong.

hvc · 11th May 2008, 18:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asper

My computer's 2½ years old, I did as you suggested but didn't see anything that looked like it didn't belong.

Dexter's mess is 'self inflicted'. The 'force unload dlls' is actually a performance tweak with the side effect that those dlls get 'washed out' of the system over time. The reg key remains though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitey

Ubuntu, my friend, Ubuntu. Plug the mouse in and it works. Plug anything in and it stands a good chance of working. I can't remember the last time I had to worry about a driver.

How's v. 8.04 doing? I've downloaded and burned it but I'm a bit too short on computers atm to try it out.