I support windows comps for a bunch of small companies, organizations and individuals.
Got a mix of wXP, wV, w7, and soon to be w8. So am getting ready for what will come: new installs, upgrades, new hardware,....
On my music computer I have 3 partitions on the OS disk: w7-32, w7-64, and w8-64.
I have attempted to follow the various ideas/approaches in this thread.
The idea that drivers interfere with each other seems to be key to clarifying the differences experienced with the various tweaks used by us all. The linked thread interates the problem with stuff interacting.
Fur shur there are hundreds of thousands of processes happening when a computer is running. All kinds of stupid **** occurs because of the thousands of combinations of hardware and drivers. Very complex. Way underestimated by most people.
I want anything that is not of use to not be started/running.
New computers' speed can make many tweaks of the past irrelevant.
And mask issues that only head-their-ugly-rears when least appreciated.
But I still do some tweaks just for grins.
The link has an interesting description of the need for HPET to be the lone timer.
As usual some confuse startup speed with application performance.
No doubt the conflict caused by multiple timers is a clue for some annoyances.
j