Optimizing system performance used to be about defragmenting every so often and limiting the number of applications you’re running. Unfortunately, today’s modern PC needs a whole host of support applications doing their own thing in the background in order to maintain a usable system.

TuneUp Utilities 2010 attempts to corral your PC and whip it into shape with its extensive suite of tools designed around improving performance. Does it succeed? We’ll be taking a look at how the software goes about doing its thing and its benefit to you as a user.
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Its been a long time coming. As of October 22nd you could pick up your very own copy of the polished good stuff. Microsoft’s Windows 7 has promised to make your computing usage a kinder, gentler experience and it has the shiny icons to prove it. But with the “dark cloud” Vista hung over the Windows brand can they get their house back in order?

We’ll be taking a look at Windows 7 and how it handles the day to day rigors of PC usage. Its changes are many but no matter how you use your computer there are improvements to be found for all users.
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Microsoft had a lot riding on their Windows 7 operating system, after all people weren’t exactly flocking to Windows Vista and XP has been getting long in the tooth as far as features were concerned. Their efforts seem to have done good but does all of the added newfangled-ness cause performance issues to pop up?

AnandTech does their usual thorough testing and pits Windows 7 against XP and Vista in a veritable feast of software performance evaluations and benchmarks showing you how 7 handles the most common application tasks undertaken by PC users. There’s a lot of info to digest here:

For Windows 7, Windows has been put on a diet in order to perform better on those machines. The most noticeable changes here are that Windows 7 eats less RAM and hard drive space out of the box than a comparable version of Vista did. There have also been some underlying tweaks to SuperFetch (it’s less aggressive on startup) and the kernel to improve responsiveness.

The tweaks are certainly there as can bee seen by the OS’ ability to eek out more performance from the same hardware.

If you were wondering when the latest, monthly, ATI Catalyst drivers would be released well you had a bit of a wait this month as AMD chose to push them out on Microsoft’s Windows 7 launch date. In the latest 9.10 driver set you can expect quite a few performance improvements and bug fixes as well as support for the newest ATI Radeon HD 5870 and 5850 graphics cards. Unfortunately Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 support didn’t make it in but those cards should see support shortly in the form of a hotfixed driver.

If you’re running a Radeon graphics card earlier than the Radeon HD 2400 series you’ll have to grab the company’s legacy drivers as earlier generations of their graphics chips have been moved to legacy support status.

Here are some quick links to AMD’s download pages:

ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows 7
ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows 7 64-bit
ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows Vista
ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows Vista 64-bit
ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows XP
ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows XP 64-bit

C-Media’s lineup of audio chips can be found in a wide array of add-on sound cards and integrated into many computing products. The company maintains up to date drivers for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 operating systems.

Their drivers support the following chipsets:

CMI8768, CMI8768+, CMI8770, CMI8787

You can download the latest drivers below:

C-Media CMI8768 Windows 7, Vista, XP Audio Drivers
C-Media CMI8768+ Windows Vista, XP Audio Drivers
C-Media CMI8770 Windows 7, Vista, XP Audio Drivers
C-Media CMI8787 Windows 7, Vista, XP Audio Drivers

Ralink makes a wide array of wireless products used in both mobile and desktop environments. The company maintains up to date drivers for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 which support the following chipsets:

RT2870, RT2770, RT307X, RT2070, RT3572, RT2860, RT2760, RT2890, RT2790, RT306X, RT309X, RT35X2, RT257x, RT2671, RT520x, RT256x, RT266x, RT2500, RT2500USB

Thankfully they supply the drivers for all to freely download, unlike other wireless chip manufacturers. Here’s the direct link to their download page:

Ralink Wireless Drivers for Windows

There’s nothing quite as scary as a new operating system roll out for businesses especially when they’ve invested quite a bit of time and money in acquiring licenses for Windows XP applications. Fortunately for them, and us, Windows 7’s XP Mode will smooth things over.

The Windows Blog brings word that XP Mode has hit RTM status and will be available to download for Windows 7 Professional, an higher, users meaning your XP applications will run in a nice virtualized environment that should make things go smoothly.

You’ll be able to grab your own copy of the software when Windows 7 launches October 22nd.

Source: Windows 7 Team Blog

AMD’s monthly driver cycle is upon us once again which brings about a new ATI Catalyst drivers set bringing them up to version 9.9. The usual bug fixes are in as well as CrossFireX support for Resident Evil 5.

The drivers support DirectX 10 capable GPUs so those with Radeon graphics cards sporting a chipset that was released earlier than the Radeon HD 2000 series will have to wait for the next round of legacy driver support or make due with the 9.8 legacy drivers.

Here are the links directly to AMD’s driver downloads:

ATI Catalyst 9.9 Video Drivers for Windows 7
ATI Catalyst 9.9 Video Drivers for Windows 7 64-bit
ATI Catalyst 9.9 Video Drivers for Windows Vista
ATI Catalyst 9.9 Video Drivers for Windows Vista 64-bit
ATI Catalyst 9.9 Video Drivers for Windows XP
ATI Catalyst 9.9 Video Drivers for Windows XP 64-bit

The Intel GMA 500 integrated graphics core is popping up in many Intel Atom powered netbook designs due to its low power draw and improved standards support which is perfect for a long battery life mobile environment.

The company maintains driver support for the following:

SCH UL11L, SCH US15L, and SCH US15W system chipsets sporting the GMA 500 graphics core.

Here are the download links direct from Intel:

GMA 500 Graphics Drivers for Windows XP (version 3.0.2.32X)
GMA 500 Graphics Drivers for Windows Vista (version 4.0.2)

Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) is the graphics cornerstone for many desktop computers built using the company’s chipsets. While most enthusiasts go on to upgrade to more powerful video card solutions Intel’s GMA X4500 and X4500HD integrated graphics cores offer a more than capable feature set for media viewing and productivity environments.

The company maintains driver sets for Windows operating systems which support:

G41 Express, G43 Express, G45 Express, Q43 Express, and Q45 Express system chipsets sporting either the X4500 or the more powerful X4500HD graphics cores.

You can download the drivers below:

GMA X4500(HD) Graphics Drivers for Windows 7
GMA X4500(HD) Graphics Drivers for Windows 7 64-bit
GMA X4500(HD) Graphics Drivers for Windows Vista
GMA X4500(HD) Graphics Drivers for Windows Vista 64-bit
GMA X4500(HD) Graphics Drivers for Windows XP
GMA X4500(HD) Graphics Drivers for Windows XP 64-bit