Just wanted to share these few tips I use (at least on one of my machines I use at work) on Vista machines to increase performance.  Apart from having at least a 2GB memory installed to run Vista, disabling some unnecessary services that run at startup can and will boost your Vista machine's performance.  By all means, feel free to add to this list for the benefit of all.  In addition to posting it on here (I know it'll fill up the entire page  ), I've attached a hard copy of the list.  Feel free to scan the file before you open it.  By the way, Vista runs a lot better on desktops than notebooks---just my observation.  Peace! 

Here goes:

1. Turn off Windows Search Indexing
Windows Vista search indexing is constantly reviewing files on your system to make their contents available for quick searching. This is handy, but can severely impact system performance.
To disable this constant indexing:
• Click Start then Computer
• Right Click the C: Drive
• On General Tab, Uncheck Index this drive for faster searching
• On the subsequent dialog box, Select Include subfolders and files

2. Turn off Remote Differential Compression
Remote Differential Compression measures the changes in files over a network to transfer them with minimal bandwidth rather than transferring an entire file that has previously been moved. By constantly checking for file changes, this service can hinder system performance.
To disable this service:
• Open Control Panel
• Switch to Classic View
• Select Program Features
• Choose Turn Windows features on and off
• Scroll down and uncheck Remote Differential Compression

3. Turn off Automatic Windows Defender Operation
Windows Defender real-time protection against malware continues to run despite having Automatic operation disabled.
To disable this feature:
• Open Control Panel
• Select Windows Defender
• Choose Tools from the top menu
• Select Options
• Uncheck Auto Start at the bottom of the window

4. Turn off Automatic Disk Defragmentation
Windows Vista and its always-on defragment feature isn't really that necessary and can cause system slow down. Just remember to run a defrag manually every week or so.
To disable this:
• Click Start then Computer
• Right Click the C: Drive
• Select the Tools Tab
• Uncheck Run on a schedule

5. Add a 2GB or higher USB Flash drive to take advantage of Windows Ready Boost (Additional Memory Cache)
Ready Boost is Microsoft's name for using a USB thumb/flash drive to provide some quick access memory the operating system can use as extra RAM. The Ready Boost system can significantly improve system performance.
To set this up:
• Insert a USB Flash Drive (preferably 2GB or more)
• Click Start then Computer
• Right Click the USB Drive in My Computer
• Select the Ready Boost Tab
• Choose Use this device
• Select as much space as you can free up for RAM usage vs. Storage

6. Turn off Windows Hibernation
Windows hibernation background services can use a large amount of system resources. If you don't use the Hibernate feature on a regular basis you may want to disable it to give Vista a performance boost.
To disable Hibernation:
• Select the Control Panel then Power Options
• Click Change Plan Settings
• Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
• Expand the Sleep selection
• Expand the Hibernate After selection
• Crank the selector down to zero
• Click Apply

7. Turn off System Restore (Personally, I won’t recommend doing this)
Analysis and restore point creation by Windows Vista can eat a fair amount of system resources. Disabling this service will obviously mean the system restore feature in Vista will not be available in the event of a system crash. Change this at your own risk.
• Control Panel>System
• Click System Protection on the left panel
• Uncheck the main system drive
• Agree to the confirmation

8. Disable User Access Control (UAC)
This much-loathed new Vista feature attempts to protect your system from malware infection by making you manually confirm a whole host of everyday user operations. While it doesn't directly impact performance, it can be annoying and might be more hassle than good.
To disable User Access Control:
• Click Start then Control Panel
• Select User Accounts
• Select Turn User Account Control on or off
• Uncheck User Account Control Box
• Restart as recommended

9. Disable excess Windows Services that Auto-Launch at Startup
Just like Windows XP, Vista ships with all kinds of services enabled that load at startup and may never be used by most users.
To see what loads at startup and disable the ones you likely won't be needing (they can always be started manually later):
• Click Start then Control Panel
• Select Administrative Tools
• Choose System Configuration
• Click the Services Tab
• You can safely deselect:
• Offline Files (unless you're using Offline File Sync)
• Tablet PC Input Service (unless you have a tablet PC)
• Terminal Services
• Windows Search (If you have already disabled indexing)
• Fax (unless you're using a fax modem)

10. Disable Excess Windows Features
Windows ships with other features that are listed separately in the Vista operating system from the startup services.
You can view and disable these features by:
• Clicking Start then Control Panel
• Select Program Features
• On the left panel, select Turn Windows Features on or off
• You can safely deselect:
• Indexing Service
• Remote Differential Compression
• Tablet PC Optional Components
• Windows DFS Replication Service
• Windows Fax & Scan (unless you use a modem for faxing)
• Windows Meeting Space (unless you use the Live Meeting Service)

thanks for these. . .
saw some i didn't know about. . .

u can also speed up the system - explorer in particulr - by selecting the my computer icon, selecting propertie selecting advanced, selecting settings under performance and unchecking everything other than the following - works for vista and xp


also, avoid bloatware antiviruses like norton and mcafee

alot of new laptops, esp HP ship with bundled bloatware - AOL, ms office trial edition, hp tools - uninstall them or disable their services.

the best way to speed up vista though, is to add more ram

oga t@medo
no be everybody be system guru.

abeg try break down all those latin to english.

broken english sef go do.



thank you

I must confess that my experiences with vista prompted me to return to Windows XP immediately. No matter how good your system requirements, vista is a very unstable platform. So i went for the next best thing. using my venerable XP service pack 2 with the Vista Transformation pack. Gives me the reliability of Windows XP and the cool looks of Windows Lonhorn. It's been smooth sailing since then. I bet you gurus just like having things difficult, abi?

no.

90% of the 'problems' people have with vista are overrated.

it has more to do with a problem people have - the refusal to move out of their comfort zone. people will always compain about a new Os. they did it for XP - they'll do it for windows 7.

@Oyb
I don't quite agree with u,  Vista has issues even though ms would have us believe the most of them are imagined,  Yeah things are better now with SP 1. But then it is still bloated and huge a memory hug, un like xp wh is very minimal and gets out the way so that the user can do what he wants to do on his computer without getting in his face,  Yes improvemets has been made in the areas of security.but must users see the UAC as a virus on its own and they disable it.beside vista still needs an anti virus.so security has not been well implimented in such a way that is built from start with the OS,  Must people see the future of computer to lay in ultra mobile devices like the eeepc of this world, u can't run a vista on an eeepc .even MS had to push for XP to be used on ultra mobile pcs, I don't see much hope with windows 7 cus it would be built on the vista kernel.but there are rumours that a new strip down kernel is being developed for windows , which sounds good and could mean that we can still expect another best seller from MS after XP

for the life of me i cant figure out in what way specifically vista sp1 improves that lump of dog turd. they say file transfer is sped etc etc and i say HOGWASH! file transfer is STILL slower than a crippled turtle and adds a hefty 400+mb to an already overbloated OS. all sp1 did for me was allow me to install vista OSX.

i installed and reformatted twice before my full transition to Unix-like.

oh, and readyboost requires significantly fast USB thumb drives, so yer average sandisk or china-china wont work. even external hadr drives can use readyboost but still they must be darn fast.


me, ive gone completely over to linux and os x leopard. before i got the m acbook i went the osx86 route with iatkos v1.oi and it worked almost flawlessly.

on my amd machine i run ONLY ubuntu. goodbye windoze.

why you must never rely on windows

and more, all around the world

still need more reason?

neoteny, u arent being quite honest - my lg usb drive worked with readyboost - my lg sd card worked with readyboost and now my transcend sdcard works with readyboost andisk cards work with readyboost - theres a lnk somewherre on readyboost compatible cards

hard disks do not work with readyboost - except maybe hybrid drives which are actually compatible with another vista feature - readydrive.

as to file transfer spped - just use a third party file copier - i use teracopy. have used it since i found it, so all this noise about file transfer speeds is over my head.

i belive you were using dreamscene - that is a major resources hog. i ran dreamscene with process explorer running and i saw a 20-30% cpu usage on idle. i knocked it off - too resource intensive.

anyway - to each his own

@oyb

when you say certain drives are readyboost CAPABLE, does it ot imply that certain conditions must exist? if those conditions do not exist then the drive is not capable.

requirements are thus:

1. an access time of 1ms or less

2. The device must be capable of 2.5 MB/s read speeds for 4 KB random reads spread uniformly across the entire device and 1.75 MB/s write speeds for 512 KB random writes spread uniformly across the device


now how many average thumb drives have those speed? only a certain class, the high end ones.

the good ones.

i have a ton of average drives up to 4gigs and most of them fail vista's readyboost test, except the lexar i have.

as for the harddrives, my bad. platter systems only aid superfetch as cache, not readyboost. however all NAND flash SSD's support readyboost in an ide/sata to usb configuration.

hope that cleared the air.

oh, and whats the point of installing a service pack only to end up using a third party copy program?

forgive me, but even microsoft knows vista isnt all that it was claimed to be, hence the rush to release windows 7.

hey, even jim allchin says he is buying a mac.

come off it

we all use 3rd party apps with windows. at least the geeks do

antiviruses( i use kaspersky)
file archivers ( i use winrar and winzip)
heck - i've replaced notepad with ted notepad for windows
the help32 stub with the xp help 32
i use tuneup utilities to enable third party themes (rather than replacing the theme files)
media players i use winamp, and windvd

i think in some ways, the world was just not ready for vista - how many systems are there out there with hybrid drives?

i've gotten virtually everything i used on xp to work on vista- the only thing that wont work is PDMS 11.6, and my quotes screensaver - which is v annoying - i just can't get it to work


anyway, like i said - to each his own.

linux is good this time of year

besides tons of linux apps i have the following windows apps working perfectly (others less so, but working nonetheless)

1. realplayer
2. office 2003 (outlook 2003 doesnt work, but then i have thunderbird and evolution)
3. itunes 7.5
4. video convert master
5. imtoo ipod computer transfer
6. winamp
7. halo (a few visual glitches, must be direct x)
8. notepad



linux stuff i got

1. full compiz-fusion
2. songbird
3. audacious
4. audacity
5. rhythmbox
6. brasserio cd burner
7. nero linux
8. picasa 2
9. opera
10. avant window navigator
11. abiword
12. scribus
13. blender
14. mplayer
15. totem video player
16. all relevant audio and video codecs (flac, lame, xvid, divx, avi,mpeg2, mpeg4, mov, etc)]
17. lmms
18. devede

tons of stuff.



and then theres leopard where i have ilife 08, iwork 08, bootcamp, office 2008, final cut, and oethr stuff.


im windows free!

Man so u finally broke out of jail,  Good to see that u have choosing the NIX path,  The enlighten path.!

er texasspete. . .where are you. . . i need some help here . . .the ranks of the linux alliance are swelling. . .i need a vista evangelist to put it down 4 these penguins

let me hit y'all with a paraquote from douglas adams

"It is easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of computers linux by the sense of accomplishment you get from getting them linux to work at all

just kidding - i'm still in the borg cube - maybe when autocad and sketchup are ported to linux

@bigrovar

me cousin! yes bro, im part of the movement now. happy feet!!

ive tried vixta, linspire, freespire, pclinuxOS2007 and 2008, kubuntu hardy, gentoo, xandros, and tons of distros

but i kept coming back to ubuntu

tried iceWm, enlightenment, kde, but i kept coming back to gnome.

and im here to stay, just baptized another heathen just an hour ago! he saw my desktop, fell on his knees and in tears accepted the Holy Penguin. i then gave him a copy of the Wiley Linux Bible 2008 in PDF and blessed his saved soul.

@oyb

any vista evangelist is nothing short of a self-styled Televangelist in the pay of M$. i just read somewhere )probably pcworld) that when vista came out even M$ execs dissed it.

soon, you will see the light.

You guys are so funny!

See picture i like to share w/u all that i found from google.

i think i prefer this




Pictures dont lie

dnative:

Not while Photoshop is still in existence.

and Gimp

Pls what is Vista? l was asked if l can use it in one of the interviews l attended. Whats is the relevance of it to my position as a Personal Assistant? Pls respond. Thx.

it has been said that there is no fanatic like the new convert.

thats what all neoteny's anti windows rantings are about

MyPeace:

Please what is Vista? l was asked if l can use it in one of the interviews l attended. Whats is the relevance of it to my position as a Personal Assistant? Please respond. Thx.

MyPeace

What is Windows Vista?

Windows Vista (pronounced /ˈvɪstə/) is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media center PCs. Prior to its announcement on July 22, 2005, Windows Vista was known by its codename Longhorn.[1] Development was completed on November 8, 2006; over the following three months it was released in stages to computer hardware and software manufacturers, business customers, and retail channels.

Discontinued old Microsoft operating systems are: Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 2000 (at end year 2010,  Windows XP soon discontinued).

For more detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista

For you, Mypeace:

Without Windows Vista or any operating system (Linux, Mac or Windows), your computer will not load anything but BLACK SCREEN WITH FLASHING CURSOR, just like you insert blank videotape into your VCR to play---NOTHING COMES OUT on your TV.  You as Personal Assistant, cannot do anything accessing your computer you need performing your tasks there.

Reference this to your position as personal assistant is to able to access computer system using word processing, calendar, project management, email, fax, everything office productivity electronically and dynamically---PAPER FREE in order to assist busy CEO/THE PRESIDENT OF COMPANY/BUSINESS MAN/WOMAN walking around, answering phone, running errands for him/her.

Good luck on interview but there is more than one question: What is Windows Vista?

Because the interviewers need to know your computer proficient, skills, and your familiar as Personal Assistant procedures as well as your education and working experience background to be screened whether should you be qualified or not.

Tell us what is personal assistant? Google using wiki you will find the detail description of the personal assistant.

Go getting a rented movie to get the idea what Fashion Personal Assistant (movie) is all about: "Devil Wears Prada", DVD, ProPortrayed Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway.

EVERY BIG COMPANY, not only fashion industry, mostly Financial, Stock Market, Banking, any business do have their own personal assistants for boss as full-time jobs. Just more than being secretary duty on the desk near boss' office.

Good luck!!!

oyb:

it has been said that there is no fanatic like the new convert.

thats what all neoteny's anti windows rantings are about 

i guess the reason is bcus most new users get soo pissed at the fact that they put up with Windoze shit for sooo long when they was a better and   cheaper alternative  ,  the backlash is what u see ,  deep hatred ,  for an OS that frustrated them extorted them ,  and generally short charged them for their money , 

so u ask urself what turned this guy from this , 

customize ubuntu all you want, we wont switch over.

to this ,   

@bigrovar

me cousin! yes bro, im part of the movement now. happy feet!!

ive tried vixta, linspire, freespire, pclinuxOS2007 and 2008, kubuntu hardy, gentoo, xandros, and tons of distros

but i kept coming back to ubuntu

tried iceWm, enlightenment, kde, but i kept coming back to gnome.

and im here to stay, just baptized another heathen just an hour ago! he saw my desktop, fell on his knees and in tears accepted the Holy Penguin. i then gave him a copy of the Wiley Linux Bible 2008 in PDF and blessed his saved soul.

something big must have changed him,