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If you're an early adopter of solid-state drive technology, odds are you're interested in squeezing every last drop of performance out of your system otherwise you probably wouldn't have spent $300 on 80GB of storage (or considerably more than that a few months ago).

There's a wealth of information to be had about SSD tweaking and with a bit of research you'll find various adjustments for Windows that can help you make the most of your drive. The thing is, to fine tune Windows, you'll waste a lot of time navigating menus and that's where SSD Tweak Utility steps in.

A user on the OCZ forums created a utility that gives you centralized access to all the popular SSD configuration points within Windows. The SSD Tweak Utility lets you fiddle with the following:

• Windows Indexing Service
• System Restore
• Windows Defrag
• Use Large System Cache
• Ntfs Memory Usage
• Disable 8.3 Filenames
• Disable Date Stamping
• Disable Boot Tracing
• Windows Prefetcher
• Windows Vista Superfetch
• Windows Services

The software is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7 (both 32 and 64-bit). It's also worth mentioning that the program only makes adjustments to Windows at the OS level, so it should work with any SSD brand or model. I tested it using a second-gen Intel X25-M on Windows 7 Home Premium and Ultimate x64 as well as Windows XP x86 without a problem.

The SSD Tweak Utility recommends which settings to disable for optimal SSD performance, and if you're a little unsure there is an auto-tweak feature that offers a brief walkthrough. This should come as a great addition to a tip we ran in December about reclaiming storage space with a few simple steps within Windows.

Are you running a SSD on your desktop or laptop now? What brand and model did you choose, and how do you like it against your old standard HDD? Share your comments here.

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