How to Speed Up Surface Performance

[archapacman]

Post here how you have sped up performance for your surface rt tablets.

Here are my guidelines:

Things/Apps You Can Download
-Updates: go to your PC settings and make sure you get the latest update. Also go on desktop mode look up computer properties, tap windows updates, and try to find updates there. So far, updates have dramatically changed performance positively. Might vary in the future.

Things to Keep in Mind
-Internet Explorer and Desktop OneNote takes up a lot of Memory. This test was done with only 2 tabs of IE10 opened. Scary. Make sure IE10 is closed when not in use

-Try to learn the habit of swipe and close when needed Microsoft had finally built a true tablet with PC feature. As a power user though, I tend to open things quickly without a thought. Know that this is running a mobile processor with 2 GB ram. Opening 5 apps at once, with 5 tabs on IE10 app, along with 3 desktop application has caused me lag and bugs.


System Tools
-Optimization and Maintenance I have tested these features. Unlike running on a x62 or x84 processor, these things run INSTANTLY! (Except for one of them). They seem to work, but can delete your IE history/other things. Type "defrag" on system search and under tabs Apps and Settings are these tools:






-Last Resorts: Use Pc system tools here. You can refresh your PC, reinstall windows, or do an advance setup. I have not tried.

 

[Romp]

Luckily, Windows 8 is smart enough to know to not let you defrag your drive like you are trying to do.

Defragging a solid state drive on earlier versions of Windows would have an adverse effect on the life of the drive. Win8 will simply do a TRIM command on the drive. This is performed instantly and does not need to be run often. The default configuration works just fine.

----

Few people correctly understand memory usage in Windows. Windows shares memory, uses swap files, etc to run programs that seem to use a lot of memory. Keep in mind this only applies to desktop apps.

Additionally, the "Metro" or what ever they are call now, apps use special, very memory efficient methods to put themselves to sleep and swap out of memory. Having a bunch of metro apps running does not have the same effect on memory as the desktop apps. If you want to see this yourself, open IE on the desktop and open a bunch of tabs and see how much memory usage changes compared to the Metro version. The Metro version uses much less RAM. Any apps that are in deep sleep seem to use about 0.5Mb of RAM.

 

[archapacman]

I saw that TRIM function from defrag too. Glad windows 8 RT supports SSD TRIMMING! Gives more hope that RT is the future.

Although generally, the desktop apps do pick up more memory then metro (I didn't write that on my guideline), the technology for Metro have not been optimized. It still takes up significant memory even if not used (look at Photo and Metro Commander on my task bar). As I recalled, the deep sleep function have some bugs - I remember opening an app 30 minutes later and seeing it crash.

Luckily, Windows 8 is smart enough to know to not let you defrag your drive like you are trying to do.

Defragging a solid state drive on earlier versions of Windows would have an adverse effect on the life of the drive. Win8 will simply do a TRIM command on the drive. This is performed instantly and does not need to be run often. The default configuration works just fine.

----

Few people correctly understand memory usage in Windows. Windows shares memory, uses swap files, etc to run programs that seem to use a lot of memory. Keep in mind this only applies to desktop apps.

Additionally, the "Metro" or what ever they are call now, apps use special, very memory efficient methods to put themselves to sleep and swap out of memory. Having a bunch of metro apps running does not have the same effect on memory as the desktop apps. If you want to see this yourself, open IE on the desktop and open a bunch of tabs and see how much memory usage changes compared to the Metro version. The Metro version uses much less RAM. Any apps that are in deep sleep seem to use about 0.5Mb of RAM.

 

[J515OP]

Good point about the SSD vs plater hard drive. This is more of a Windows 8 performance guide since it will apply to any device you are running Windows 8 on. In that case Windows will TRIM or defrag as is applicable to the type of hard drive that your Windows 8 machine is running. As more of these hybrids with different hardware come out from other manufacturers this will be good to know.

 

[atoms83]

Luckily, Windows 8 is smart enough to know to not let you defrag your drive like you are trying to do.

Defragging a solid state drive on earlier versions of Windows would have an adverse effect on the life of the drive. Win8 will simply do a TRIM command on the drive. This is performed instantly and does not need to be run often. The default configuration works just fine.

----

Few people correctly understand memory usage in Windows. Windows shares memory, uses swap files, etc to run programs that seem to use a lot of memory. Keep in mind this only applies to desktop apps.

Additionally, the "Metro" or what ever they are call now, apps use special, very memory efficient methods to put themselves to sleep and swap out of memory. Having a bunch of metro apps running does not have the same effect on memory as the desktop apps. If you want to see this yourself, open IE on the desktop and open a bunch of tabs and see how much memory usage changes compared to the Metro version. The Metro version uses much less RAM. Any apps that are in deep sleep seem to use about 0.5Mb of RAM.

Not saying I disagree with you but I am trying to reproduce this scenario by having 5 tabs open each in IE desktop mode and Metro. this is what I found.