Hi all
I'm not a big fan of VISTA but you can do these few simple things which should improve performance on 95% of systems (especially those of you with 3, 4 or more GB of RAM).
1) Install SP1 if it isn't already installed. This actually does improve VIST aconsiderably even without doing anything else.
2) Switch off Windows search service. OK it might take a bit longer to find stuff when you need it but if you are always looking for data / files consider using something like MySQL. Switching of Indexing saves a lot of "Disk Thrashing".
3) Switch off Superfetch -- this is the "Mother of all disk thrashing problems" - what this tries to do is guess what you run in your computer and "pre load" these apps so when you start them they should load much faster. In theory great idea but very very complex to do in a real life situation - especially if you are testing a lot and don't have a particular pattern of working. Superfetch will work fine after several sessions - but it could take a week or more - meanwhile you are gnashing your teeth out wondering what the disks are doing when you aren't running anything -- especially on laptops.
OK Photoshop / ExCEL or whatever takes longer to load but who cares the load time is not significant and the computer is MUCH faster.
4) Disable ReadyBoost if you aren't actively using it. All this does is be able to use a SD / other card device from a built in card reader / usb stick like extra RAM. --If your system is 3GB or more you don't need it -- the standard paging system is fine.
These 4 simple tips should dramatically improve your system -- no registry hacks or anything else are required. Incidentally don't spend hours and hours defraggng disks-- for NT file systems the effort spent in doing this is not worth it.
Windows 7 still IMO is superior to VISTA but you can lessen the "Vista Pain" by doing the above tips.
Cheers
jimbo
Address Book - understand exporting cvs etc. My issue it tying the e-mail to the contact. I must maintain records of all communication on all sales. "Why are these blue, I thought I ordered green? You did order green but then you sent an e-mail on xx/xx/xx telling em to change the color to blue". I gotta have that record 'cause sometimes customers forget the changes they request. Zoho is the only CRM I've found that allows me to track customers, vendors, orders, prospecting everything involved. It's just a matter of time before ZohoCRM integrates with ZohoMail and I'll survive until that happens.
On to Vista - your second paragraph and beyond, haven't got a clue what you're suggesting but I'll take a guess. Add a second hard drive and install the 7 os onto it? It's a laptop so I'd have to use an external hard drive which would have to access via a USB or some other port, starting to sound complicated beyond my abilities. I think I need to do a lot more googling. Bottom line deal breaker if Dreamweaver or Corel won't run on 7 it's a moot point 'cause 3/4 of my day is spent in those two programs.
Thanks
If you are using Outlook 2000, or greater download from the Microsoft Office site the OUTLOOK backup program
now save your data to say d:\mydata\outlookcopy.pst
install your new OS and apps.
When youve got Outlook going just use IMPORT and point the inport file to d:\mydata\outlookcopy.pst
follow the prompts and use the FIRST option to avoid getting possible duplicates.
The file you need to download is called
pfbackup.exe
It checks initially that your copy of office is legit --if you used the "Blue" version of Office 2007 you'll need to install a legit version of outlook. Outlook 2000 is good as it doesn't need activation. After installing the program you can delete Outlook 2000.
If your email client is Outlook express no probs - just change your data store to say d:\email.
After installing your new OS just change the OE data store to D:\email and you'll see all your folders etc.
Cheers
jimbo