If you are running a Solid State Disk (SSD) today, there are a few important configuration changes to make to your Windows installation if you want to get the most out of it. For a primer on why Windows needs to be optimized for SSDs, you'll find that around the end. Now read one to learn exactly how to take full advantage of your SSD!
Use Vista or Windows 7
Make sure that you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7 when it is launched. Windows XP handles SSDs very poorly: it has difficulty managing I/O priorities efficiently and does not set proper offset when you partition an SSD. There are ways of doing this, but it must be done manually. Search the net for “partition offset xp ssd” without the quotes and you’ll find some guides. I won’t cover it, but if you are on new hardware, just use Vista or later; it will save you a lot of headaches. If you find it strange I threw Windows 7 in there, it’s because Windows 7 will best Vista in SSD support by supporting technologies like trim, among other optimizations.
Disable Disk Defragmentation
Defragmentation in a nutshell takes all the data on a drive and puts it close together at the outer-edge of a hard drive where it’s fastest. Since solid state disks don’t work at all in this way and exhibit flat performance over the entire storage medium, it is detrimental to defragment disks since you are making the drive go through read/write cycles for absolutely no benefit.
First, open up Disk Defragmenter
