Simple Ways to Increase the Performance of your Windows VISTA PC in 5 Minutes or Less
Windows Vista is a rather heavy operating system with many neat features, but unfortunately they all come at a price. As a brand new operating system, it requires a pretty fast system to run well, if not optimized. Before you run out and buy a new computer just so you can run your base operating system, check out these these simple ways to speed-up Windows Vista and lighten the load.
1. Turn-Off User Account
Control (UAC)
Now, there’s a lot of talk about the new User Account Control
policy in Vista, and all I can say is that it annoys the heck out of 99%
of users and slows down normal computer usage. To turn it off,
the easiest way is to:
1. Click the Start (Windows) button
2. Select the Control Panel
3. Type in ‘UAC‘ into the search bar
4. It’ll bring up a search result of ‘Turn User Account Control
(UAC) on or off’
5. Just follow the prompts from there
Much better, eh? You might say ‘but what’s that got to do with
speed?’ It prompts you at least a couple times an hour and then
takes several seconds to figure itself out. Without these annoying
prompts, your productivity goes up, so therefore it’s a speed
enhancer.
2. Disable Unnecessary Graphical Effects
Vista is “sexy” because of its new aero glass transparency effects. Here is how to enable and disable this new eye candy.
1. Click Start (Windows) button
2. Select the Control Panel
3. Double-click Click Appearance and Personalization
4. Under Personalization, click Change the color scheme
5. In the Appearance Settings dialog box, click Windows Vista Basic, and then click OK.
Or, if you prefer a Windows 2000-style interface, click Windows
Standard, and then click OK.
3. Remove Spyware, Adware, and Malware
Have you scanned your system for spyware, adware and other unwanted pests? 1 of 6 computers has some sort of Spyware or Malware! They dramatically slow down your computer because they use resources to generate popup ads, send spam, and often interfere with the operation of good programs.
If you haven’t scanned recently, we recommend a free scan from a good anti-spyware program. We prefer to use stand-alone, high quality anti spyware programs like XoftSpy Pro, which give us the ability to scan and repair these problems in seconds.
FINAL NOTE: Recent testing has shown that stand-alone programs do a much better job than the “all-in-one” packages (eg. Norton Internet Security) at detecting spyware, adware, and malware.
4. Shutdown Search Indexing
Windows Vista Search Indexing is constantly checking the files on your system to make their information available for quick searching. This is helpful, but can severely slow system performance as the average user doesn’t use the search function frequently.
To shut down constant indexing:
1. Click the Start button
2. Select Computer
3. Right-click on the C: Drive icon
4. Select Properties
5. Select the General Tab
6. Uncheck Index this drive for faster searching
7. On the next dialog box, select Apply Changes to Drive C:, subfolders and files
8. Click OK
5. Disable Automatic Disk Defragment
Windows Vista uses an always-on defragment set up that isn’t that necessary and will cause your system to slow down. Remember to run a defragment manually once a month.
To shut down this feature:
1. Click the Start button
2. Select Computer
3. Right-click on C: Drive icon
4. Select Properties
5. Click the Tools tab
6. Uncheck Run on a schedule
7. Click OK
6. Clean Your System Registry
Of course, the fastest and easiest way to speed-up your computer is to allow a software program to do it for you! Although you will find that all of the adjustments in this book will speed up your system, the most effective and easiest way to give your computer blazing speed is to clean up your system’s Registry.
Your computer is like your car: it needs periodic maintenance to keep it running at optimum performance. Installing and un-installing programs, surfing the Internet, emailing, and other everyday activities create a sort of “sludge” that builds up in your computer over time, much like an automobile engine. After a while, it doesn't startup like when it was new, it stalls unexpectedly, and performance is sluggish on the (information) highway.
We strongly recommend running a free Registry scan to find out how many errors your computer is hiding from you. Your computer will likely have hundreds of Registry errors that are dramatically slowing down the potential speed and performance.
7. Disable Automatic Windows Defender Operation
Windows Defender real-time protection against malware continues to run despite having Automatic operation disabled. In actuality, this built-in malware protector from Microsoft is very poor at protecting your computer from external threats. You are much better off using a 3rd-party software program like XoftSpy for total protection (see Vista Speed Secret #9 for more information).
To disable:
1. Click the Start button
2. Type “services” into the Start Search box
3. Find Windows Defender in the list of programs
4. Double-click on Windows Defender
5. Choose Tools from the top menu
6. Select Options
7. Uncheck Auto Start at the bottom of the window
8. Turn-Off Un-Needed Features
There are many new features in Windows Vista that are installed by default that you may not need. These extra and un-needed features can slow down your computer and take up more storage space. Windows Features can be un-installed using the Windows Features
utility. Follow these steps to uninstall applications such as the Windows Fax and Scan and many more.
To Turn-Off Some Un-Needed Features:
1. Click on the Start Button
2. Select Control Panel
3. Under Programs click Uninstall a program
4. On the left side menu, click on Turn Windows features on or off
5. Scroll through the list as shown below and uncheck from any feature you do not want installed.
6. Click OK when you are finished making your changes. The features will now be uninstalled.
9. Disable Unused Services
Services are background processes which keep running waiting for a response, so if you don’t use the application it still runs and slows PC speed. The average user doesn’t need many running.
1. Click the Start button
2. Type msconfig in the Start Search box, hit enter
3. Click the Services tab
4. Uncheck the unneeded startup items (examples below)
Desktop Window Manager Session Manager - Provides Desktop Window Manager startup and maintenance services. Uncheck to disable.
Diagnostic Policy Service - Enables problem detection, troubleshooting and resolution for Windows components. Uncheck to disable.
Diagnostic Service Host - Same as above
Diagnostic System Host - Same as above
Offline Files - The Offline Files service performs maintenance activities on the Offline Files cache. Uncheck to disable.
Terminal Services - Allows users to connect interactively to a remote computer. Remote Desktop and Terminal Server depend on this service. If you don’t use either of these, then you can disable the service. Uncheck to disable.
Windows Error Reporting Service - Allows errors to be reported when programs stop working or responding and allows existing solutions to be delivered. Uncheck to disable.
After you are finished, click Apply then click OK to save changes.
10. Shutdown Remote
Differential Compression
Remote Differential Compression checks the changes of your files
over a network to move them with as little bandwidth as possible
instead of transferring an entire file that has previously been moved.
Obiviously, the average home PC user has NO need for this service.
With it constantly checking for file changes, this service will greatly
slow system performance.
To shut down this service:
1. Click the Start button
2. Select Control Panel
3. Click Classic View on the left side of the window
4. Double-click on Programs and Features
5. Click Turn Windows Features On And Off on the left side of the window
6. Uncheck Remote Differential Compression
7. Click OK
Extra information:
Shut-Off Windows Hibernation
Windows hibernation background services use a very large amount of system resources. If you are like most people you don’t use the Hibernate feature very much so you may want to disable it to give Vista a performance boost.
To shut down Hibernation:
1. Click the Start button
2. Select Control Panel
3. Click the Classic View on the left hand side
4. Double-click on Power Options
5. Select Change Plan Settings
6. Choose Change Advanced Power Settings
7. Click the Sleep “plus” icon
8. Click the Hibernate After “plus” icon
9. Adjust your selector down to zero minutes
10. Click Apply
11. Click OK
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