How to Tweak Windows and Make it Awesome and Fast

In this guide, I will show you how to remove a lot of the useless features that comes with Windows to save memory and space. Your PC will boot faster and run smoother. Be warned though, These are my personalized settings and I recommend that you tweak it for your needs. And it is only for PC users. You will have to disable lots of security feature and prompts, warnings I find very annoying. I take no responsibility If your computer explodes or something, proceed at your own risk. Here is what is needed to proceed:

1. Basic computer knowledge: Goal of this guide is to explain how to make Windows faster in simplest and shortest way. I made this guide after seeing an article that explains how to turn off UAC in 2 pages of html. I don't want to go in such basic details so, If you don't know how to open your Control Panel stay away.
2. Common Sense: I don't own a printer so I disabled Printing Services. If you own a printer and do lots of printing, do not ask me why your printer doesn't work after removing everything printer related from your PC.
3. Be aware that it is Mainly for Windows 8.1 (Preview) but most things would apply also to Win 8 and even 7.

Recommended Tweaks:

• First thing you should do is disabling User Account Control. Since you will do lots of tweaking the prompts will annoy you a lot. So I recommend disabling it from Control Panel. Click (Instructions) to find out how you can do that.
• Disable and remove Windows Features: Windows comes with a lot of crappy features that you never use, you can replace them with more memory efficient programs. Disable it from Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features. (Instructions)
• Replace the Windows Features you have removed with more memory efficient programs. (Instructions)
• Disable Search Indexing since it may it may consume system resources. (Instructions)
• Disable System Protection (System Recovery) from System Properties. (Instructions)
• Disable Remote Assistance if you do not wish to use Remote services. (Instructions)
• Do not forget to Defragment your drives regularly. It is renamed to "Optimize your Disks" in Windows 8.1. Go to your disk Properties > Tools > Optimize and Defragment Drive to do that.
• I suggest you disable Scheduled Optimization from Defrag. Especially if you own a SSD it may shorten the lifespan of it. Do not use defrag if you own an Solid State Drive.
• Disable any unnecessary or programs that have heavy impact on start-up. To do that right click Task Bar > Task Manager > Startup and disable anything that you don't need. (Instructions)
• Create a folder and name it "GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}" to have all your control panel settings under your hand. (Instructions)
• Stop Auto Maintenance from Action Center. (Instructions)
• Check Show Hidden Files and Show Extensions from File Explorer Window > View > Options button at the right side.

Optional Tweaks:

• If you think window borders are thick and ugly in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 here is how you change it. (Instructions)
• You can make a Modern UI App shortcuts folder that you can display in file explorer. (Instructions)
• You can disable and manage Tray Icons from Right Click on Task Bar > Properties > Customize button from Notification Area > Turn System Icons On or Off Link from the bottom. I also recommend you to disable Action Center notifications if you have above average computer knowledge and don't need anything to give you any basic info.
• Add more shortcuts to All Apps screen on Modern UI. (Instructions)

Disable Services to Save Memory and Boot Faster:

• Press Win Key + R and type services.msc into the box to launch Microsoft Services. You can set how services will work from this window. To disable right click on service and choose Properties and set Startup Type for the service.  You can either choose Automatic, Automatic(Delayed Start), Manual or Disabled. 
• Services you can safely disable to save memory: Coming soon

Best Replacement Softwares and Portable Programs for Windows 8.1

After removing Windows features such as Internet Explorer or Media Player, you will need something to replace them. Below list is free, more functional, lighter and memory efficient alternatives.

Feature	Recommended	Alternatives
Browser	Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox	Chromium, Firefox Nightly
Video Player	Media Player Classic Homecinema	VLC Player
Music Player	Foobar2000	WinAMP, Songbird
System Tools	CCleaner + CCEnhancer	HWInfo, Cpu-Z, Gpu-Z, HWMonitor
Messenger, Chat	Skype for Desktop	Skype, Pidgin
File Archiver	7-zip	Peazip
E-Mail Client	Mozilla Thunderbird	Opera Mail
Video Converter	Video to Video	---
Disc Burner	Imgburn	---
Image Viewer	Windows Image Viewer	Irfanview
Torrent	qBittorrent	uTorrent

Disable Automatic Maintenance in Windows 8.1, Windows 8

Windows will perform updates, security scan and diagnostic during the scheduled Maintenance time. You can do all those things manually and you don't need Windows to wake your computer up at 2 AM in the night to check for updates.

Here is how you disable it:

• Go to Control Panel\System and Security\Action Center\Automatic Maintenance
• Turn off  "Allow scheduled maintenance to wake up my computer at the scheduled time"
• Set the Automatic Maintenance Schedule time to a time when the computer is off.

You can also use GodMode to easily launch any control panel settings such as Automatic Maintenance. Here is how.

You can use Task Scheduler to disable Automatic Maintenance:

• Press Windows key + R to execute Run command.
• Type taskschd.msc and press enter.
• From the left navigation (Task Scheduler - Local) expand Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows and choose TaskScheduler.
• In the middle top pane right click on Regular Maintenance and click Disable.

Go to  Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows and choose TaskScheduler. From the middle top pane Right click on Regular Maintenance and click on disable. You can enable it  back any time you want by  the same way.

New Start Screen Properties in Windows 8.1 and Booting into Desktop

Windows 8.1 has brought many new features for the managing of new Modern UI. You can reach some of them by right clicking on your Task Bar on the bottom of the screen and clicking on Properties. You can find these settings in the Navigation tab:

1. Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in: This is one of my favorite features in Windows 8.1. If you check it your PC will directly boot into desktop instead of terrible Start Screen Windows 8 has brought.
2. Show my desktop background on Start: If you check it you will see your wallpaper on Modern Start Screen background. 
3. Show the Apps view automatically when I go to Start: I strongly recommend you to check this option and use it along with "Search everywhere instead of just my apps when I search from the Apps view". You can easily search files and settings by just pressing Win Key and start typing anything you want to find.

How to create Metro Apps Folder on Your Desktop

You can easily create an Apps folder that you can run and view your Metro App shortcuts on your File explorer. I don't know why you would do that since Metro is a total bloatware and I recommend completely avoiding it. But here is how:

• Create New Folder wherever you want.
• Rename the folder to Applications.{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}

• This will create an Applications folder for you to view the shortcuts of all your Metro Apps. Feel free to rename it whatever you want after this point. 

Metro App Folder Location in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.

Windows 8.1 and 8 comes with bloated MetroUI. If you are masochistic enough to use it you may want to know where the apps are located.

• Go to C:\Program Files\WindowsApps

• When you try to open WindowsApps folder this will prompt:

• When you press Continue you will see this:

• Access is denied. You need to take ownership of that folder. Thank Microsoft for making such simple thing harder for you and Right Click on WindowsApp folder and Click on Properties > Go to Security Tab > Press Advanced button at the bottom.

• Click change to change the unknown owner of the file (...)

• Write down your Username or Live ID into the box because Windows has no idea who you are > Click Check Names > If your ID is found full name would be displayed

• Click Ok until all boxes close, Click Continue if it prompts and you can finally open WindowsApps folder. Congratulations. 

How to Change Windows 8.1 Border Size

This guide is for people who wants to personalize Window borders in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. You can change border settings from Windows Registry Editor. Here is how:

• Press "Windows + R" to launch run dialog box > Type regedit and Enter. > Go to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

• Find PaddedBorderWidth key from the list. Default is -60. If you higher this number (eg. -1500) window borders will be thicker, and if you lower it (recommended is -20) borders will look thinner.

Default value for PaddedBorderWidth is -60. I recommend -20 if you want thinner borders. You can customize  this number for your needs.

• Restart your computer or Sign off from Windows to take effect.