Windows Vista Top 10 Windows Vista Speed Tweaks

[bios]

10 Speed Tweaks that can make a huge difference in Vista performance

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 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
• 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 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.
To disable this service:

• 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)

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[kjanx]

i'm a long time user of all windows, repair/builder, i did the tweaks all but system restore, on my 3.4 gigahertz running vista home, i saw a good performances increase.
on my 3.0 ghz 1.5 ram computer, i did the same tweaks, and can't really see much improvment. i also did the advanced harddrive tweak on the vista enterprise machine, don't see much diff there either.
i did the bandwidth tweak on my xp computer, and lost speed there. i 'm use att dsl, and normally run at 1.5 mbs per on downloads
with the tweak, only about 670, using the speed test from internet frog website.

 

[bios]

It's great you've had some results! I've tried these on my (aging) laptop and they seem to do a decent job. A problem is, I prefer to leave most of these features on like search. If you absolutely need more speed this is a way to go without burning up your wallet by buying a new computer. Going back to the classic theme can't hurt either.

 

[kemical]

I only turn off UAC,Defender,Shadow Storage (System Restore),Remote differential compression, Tablet PC, and I untick 'animate windows when minimising and maximising' as I like mine to 'snap' open rather than slide into view. I also disable one or two other things like parental control, fax ect but the biggest boost I found was buying another GB of RAM! Running Vista with 2GB is the only way to go if you want it to be fast and still keep things like indexing and search. Prices for DDR2 are now rock bottom so it's not so expensive to upgrade and the performance increase is amazing.

 

[kjanx]

oopps, with these tweaks in vista enterprise, one of the program features that was suggested to turn off, kills the use of the 'snipping tool' which i use all the time capturing photos off web sites.
a very handy tool
i turned all programs back on, a the tool returned.
have no clue as to which one .

 

[kemical]

oopps, with these tweaks in vista enterprise, one of the program features that was suggested to turn off, kills the use of the 'snipping tool' which i use all the time capturing photos off web sites.
a very handy tool
i turned all programs back on, a the tool returned.
have no clue as to which one .

Hi Kjanx, its the Tablet PC utility. If this is turned off then you lose the 'snipping tool'. Although you can 'crop' using 'windows picture viewer', anyhow at least you managed to rectify the problem.