Precision PC Gamer                a ridiculous amount of PC gaming tips all in one place!

Windows 10 is the best OS speed tweak you can get if your computer can handle it. Memory switching is superior way more stable and most everything is more smooth. I don't recommend going through the process to get it to work on something really old though. Especially true for systems with SSD's, SATA6 and direct x 12 GPUs.

 

For really old computers windows 98se with sp3.3 is good. Laptops from 1997-2001. For anything older you might want win95 or dos. Windows 98 significantly reduces the amount of stuff you have available so you might want to get XP if you can tolerate it with a 512mb rig, You will loose performance on certain games with certain rigs vs Windows 98.

 

For 2007+ PCs you might want something like Windows 7 since it's cheap. Mid-ranged is basically smart phone speed 1.5gb ram and single core or low speed dual core. With a bad graphics chip-set or old card.

 

Why windows? Both Direct X and Open GL. You tend to get drivers that fully utilize the piece of hardware properly, partially because of Direct X games.

 

Safe Windows OS Tweaks;

Right click in the white background in my computer,  Advanced system settings,  Performance - Settings turn everything off accept the stuff you want and care about. You can download a mouse pointer like Proton that already has shadows.

 

Turn off indexing to increase the life and speed of your hard-drive during gaming.

 

On 7 / XP Turn auto-update to notify but don't auto download and install.

On 10 youll have to setup defer upgrades and update while you're not gaming manually.

 

Keep your startup items at bay. Only use the essentials like Steam and your AntiVirus.

 

Msconfig - Processes which aren't microsoft, turn em off as needed or applicable.

 

Easy Program Tweaks

RevoUninstalller - Fully uninstall stuff without restarting to speed up registry.

CCleaner - Cleans and helps manage stuff you don't need. Make sure you're down with your current flash videos in your wen browser.

Autoruns or Startup Delay - Selectively start the apps you want in the proper order.

 

Chrome and Cyberfox(modded firefox) tweaks

Never install toolbars or display them they're a modern day virus/adware.

 

You want to keep as many pixels as available as possible while still having the normal graphical user interface shown, while not using fullscreen modes for desktop environment.

 

You can have 30 addons yet still keep your pixel viewable area. You want easily accessable bookmarks and a page width public safe heavily traveled sites.

 

Drivers

With computer drivers it's not always about being up to date or having the lastest version especially for gaming, you want to test any unstabilities and slow downs on each version if you're having noticeable issues with a device.

 

You can install any driver version from windows 95 all the way to windows 8.1 if you do it in safe mode via the .inf catalog if available. Also try running in compatability mode.

 

Search google and the makers site for device drivers. Try to get them direct first if possible. Some companies are gone and you need to get them somewhere like Major Geeks.

 

On new components with all new devices you should update as they come out until you encounter a problem then roll back to the previous driver.