Ya can blame Que for this post...He got me to put on my IT head on from first thing this morning, and i could not remove it afterwards...LOL..Suffer little children....Bwahahahhahhahahha a a a a a
Quite a few people comment on speed issues concerning Windows Vista, so, here is a few things that you can do to "hopefully" speed up Vista to make it more enjoyable for you..
1) Disable the Windows Sidebar - The windows sidebar is a great tool and provide some great gadgets for you, however, some gadgets are pulling info from the windows resources or constantly polling the internet. All these contribute to slowing the system down...To disable the sidebar, right click in a blank area, select properties, and remove the tick from "Start Sidebar When Windows Starts".
2) An obvious one, add more Ram ( Random Access Memory ) - Any computer will always benefit from adding more RAM. Windows XP with all enhancements enabled, ran sweetly on 512MB of RAM..However, Windows Vista is "very" memory intensive. Mosts standard systems are shipped with 1Gig of RAM, however i would certainly suggest a minimum of 2GB. With Vista, i would not call 4Gig of system RAM overkill.
3) Windows ReadyBoost - This is one of the features which is a superb addition to the new operating system. How easy is it to add a quick and effective upgrade to the RAM?? Oh, very easy indeed. By using a USB flah drive or USB memory stick/key, you can instantly give the system a boost. All you have to do is plug in the drive/stick/key and the Windows Autorun prompt will appear and you can select Readyboost from the menu. When selected, you can then tell Vista how much of the free space to use in addition the system ram, the rest can be used as normal USB storage for docs, pix etc etc. A new addition to Vista memory manager is how quick it can access memory, as its design as standard to access flash memory quicker than it can your hard drive. The Readyboost feature is especially good for laptops.
4) Change the index options - Vista, as default, has its own search index locations already specified. This can, and does, have an effect on performance. The more indexed locations you have, the slower its going to be. So, to change or remove your index options, go to Control Panel, Select the " Performance Information and Tools" application, then on the left hand side, in the options, click on Adjust Indexing Options. Ideally, all you need to have in there is your documents and pictures folders as these are the two most accessed locations. A point to note is that you cannot stop this feature completely ( unless you disable the service, which does have knock on effects ).
5) Adjust the power used - The processors performance is limited as default in Vista to only use 50% power. This does have the effect that the processor (CPU) does not run at full speed. What we can do is adjust the power controls to allow full power to the processor. To do this, go to control panel, select Power Options, and change the setting to "High Performance", and then close the window to keep the setting. Of course, for you energy concious people, this does obviously use more electric.
6) As a last resort, turn off Aero - The new Vista user experience is called Aero. This is what gives you the look and feel of windows, the transparancy, the flip window feature etc etc. Although this is a super feature and very attractive, it is a HUGE drain on Vista system resources. When this feature is turned off, you will loose the attractiveness, but you will still keep the actual features of Vista like the new security, the searches and explorer enhancements, just without the eye candy. To turn off Aero, right mouse click a blank area on the desktop, select personalise from the pop up menu. This will present you with the display customisation area. Click on "Windows Colour and Appearance", now click on " Open Classic Appearance Properties..." and use the drop down list to select any widows theme except the Aero to remove the eye candy.
I hope these tips are of some use to you, as i have passed them on to many previously and all have given a positive response about performance increases..Hope they do the same for you..
Niko
Quite a few people comment on speed issues concerning Windows Vista, so, here is a few things that you can do to "hopefully" speed up Vista to make it more enjoyable for you..
1) Disable the Windows Sidebar - The windows sidebar is a great tool and provide some great gadgets for you, however, some gadgets are pulling info from the windows resources or constantly polling the internet. All these contribute to slowing the system down...To disable the sidebar, right click in a blank area, select properties, and remove the tick from "Start Sidebar When Windows Starts".
2) An obvious one, add more Ram ( Random Access Memory ) - Any computer will always benefit from adding more RAM. Windows XP with all enhancements enabled, ran sweetly on 512MB of RAM..However, Windows Vista is "very" memory intensive. Mosts standard systems are shipped with 1Gig of RAM, however i would certainly suggest a minimum of 2GB. With Vista, i would not call 4Gig of system RAM overkill.
3) Windows ReadyBoost - This is one of the features which is a superb addition to the new operating system. How easy is it to add a quick and effective upgrade to the RAM?? Oh, very easy indeed. By using a USB flah drive or USB memory stick/key, you can instantly give the system a boost. All you have to do is plug in the drive/stick/key and the Windows Autorun prompt will appear and you can select Readyboost from the menu. When selected, you can then tell Vista how much of the free space to use in addition the system ram, the rest can be used as normal USB storage for docs, pix etc etc. A new addition to Vista memory manager is how quick it can access memory, as its design as standard to access flash memory quicker than it can your hard drive. The Readyboost feature is especially good for laptops.
4) Change the index options - Vista, as default, has its own search index locations already specified. This can, and does, have an effect on performance. The more indexed locations you have, the slower its going to be. So, to change or remove your index options, go to Control Panel, Select the " Performance Information and Tools" application, then on the left hand side, in the options, click on Adjust Indexing Options. Ideally, all you need to have in there is your documents and pictures folders as these are the two most accessed locations. A point to note is that you cannot stop this feature completely ( unless you disable the service, which does have knock on effects ).
5) Adjust the power used - The processors performance is limited as default in Vista to only use 50% power. This does have the effect that the processor (CPU) does not run at full speed. What we can do is adjust the power controls to allow full power to the processor. To do this, go to control panel, select Power Options, and change the setting to "High Performance", and then close the window to keep the setting. Of course, for you energy concious people, this does obviously use more electric.
6) As a last resort, turn off Aero - The new Vista user experience is called Aero. This is what gives you the look and feel of windows, the transparancy, the flip window feature etc etc. Although this is a super feature and very attractive, it is a HUGE drain on Vista system resources. When this feature is turned off, you will loose the attractiveness, but you will still keep the actual features of Vista like the new security, the searches and explorer enhancements, just without the eye candy. To turn off Aero, right mouse click a blank area on the desktop, select personalise from the pop up menu. This will present you with the display customisation area. Click on "Windows Colour and Appearance", now click on " Open Classic Appearance Properties..." and use the drop down list to select any widows theme except the Aero to remove the eye candy.
I hope these tips are of some use to you, as i have passed them on to many previously and all have given a positive response about performance increases..Hope they do the same for you..
Niko
Last edited:
