Okay, here’s my attempt at a blog post, following all your guidelines:
So, I decided to mess around with this “ludicrous speed panel” thing. I’d seen some chatter online, and it sounded kinda cool – like, who doesn’t want to make their computer feel faster, even if it’s just a visual trick?
First, I did a little digging. Turns out, it’s all about tweaking some animation settings. Nothing too crazy, but enough to give the impression of things zipping around. My initial plan was to just dive in and start randomly changing stuff, I started searching online for how to access the animation settings. No surprise, and found out it is not so hard. I am a Windows user, so I am going to share the process of my practice on Windows system.
The “How-To” Part
I found a way through System Properties.
I thought there must be other ways to access them, but I only want to record my own way, So I gave up searching for others.
- Opened up the good ol’ Run dialog (Windows key + R).
- Typed in “” and hit Enter. Classic.
Next. I needed to find Advanced system settings.
- I saw the System Properties, and Clicked on the Advanced tab.
- I saw the Performance part and Hit that Settings button.
Okay, here’s where the “magic” happens.
- The Performance Options appeared, and I am in Visual Effects.
- I unchecked a bunch of the animation options. I didn’t go completely bare-bones. I wanted to see how far I went.
I kept these:
- Smooth edges of screen fonts
- Show thumbnails instead of icons
I unchecked pretty much everything else. Things like “Animate controls and elements inside windows,” “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing,” all that jazz. Gone.
Then, I just hit Apply and OK, And I closed all the opened things.
After the changes, I restarted my computer to take effect, and I was a little surprised at how much of a difference it made. Windows popped open and closed instantly. Menus appeared without any of that fade-in stuff. It felt… snappy. Did it actually make my computer faster? No, I clicked to open some Apps, and the speed is still as before. But did it feel faster? Absolutely.
So, would I recommend this to everyone? I don’t know. If you’re super attached to all the visual bells and whistles, maybe not. But if you’re like me and you just want things to feel like they’re happening as quickly as possible, it’s worth a shot. It’s easy to undo if you hate it, so why not?
