Windows 7 Performance Secrets

Over at APC, I’ve looked at some of the techniques which Microsoft is using to punch up performance in Windows 7. Many of these are familiar as means of improving the responsiveness in Vista and earlier Windows versions, such as minimising the number of services loaded at start-up and not running unneeded software. However, some changes — like loading device drivers in parallel and letting graphics processors take on a prominent role — can’t be readily replicated on older systems. Doubtless Windows 7 will eventually develop its own mythology about performance tweaking (any user tweaks on the current M3 release can’t be taken too seriously since so much of the user interface is still to be implemented).