Community Newsletter: Q&A: What can I do to improve the speed of my Vista machine?

please give examples!! thanks

1- how do i change the theme?
2- how do i disable indexing?
thanks!

Is it MS' failure, or MS' success?

The news has been out for awhile that Vista's security is tighter than that of OS-X. You cannot take remote control of a Vista PC without user intervention. This is the same scenario for a Mac or Linux box, and Leopard even comes with the firewall disabled!!! Microsoft is smarter than that.

For the record, obscurity and security are not the same thing. There is malware in the wild for Linux and the Mac, just as there is for Windows. Windows malware is much more prevalent because Windows is much more popular. XP and older versions are certainly less secure than other platforms; no dispute there. But your MS stereotype ends with Vista. The only operating system that beats it decisively is OpenBSD, and not very many people use it.

That is a so-so list, you can't beat Vanilla Vista install

"1) Change the Theme: By going into Adjust Visual Effects and unchecking things you can do without (you may want to play around to see how you like it), you can remove all of the resource-sucking features of Vista."

This is an interesting tip albeit for most newer systems is unlikely to make a big difference. Even integrated graphics solutions like Intel X3100 handle the graphics heavy UI. Heck the X3100 supports resolutions to to 1920x1200 and HDCP support so it can play back HD content (Blu-Ray/HD-DVD). You won't confuse it with a machine with dedicated graphics, but unless you have a really low end machine that is barely capable of running Vista this isn't likely to do a lot. I would turn off a lot of UI "features" for the same reason I did under XP and 98 before it: they are annoying and distract from actually using the computer!

"2) Disable Indexing: One of the not-so-new features of Vista is the Indexing Service, which quietly catalogs your computer in the background to make searching faster. Problem is, it uses a lot of resources for (IMHO) a not-so-useful function. Yeah, it helps speed up your searches, but it's not worth the performance sacrifice.
You can disable this by going into Adjust Indexing Options, clicking modify, (clicking Show All Locations if applicable) and unchecking everything."

This is a decent tip insofar as that Google Desktop and similar tools tend to do a better job indexing your hard drive(s). If you are going to use a different desktop search utility by all means turn off Windows build in indexing service. No sense in wasting resources on that service if you are using Google desktop instead, but unless your machine doesn't have a lot of RAM (1GB or less) and you have a rather small number of files I think the reduced productivity of searching for files without indexing often offsets the IO performance hit. This is the 1990s anymore. I have well in excess of 100K files on my computer and most of them aren't system files. I remember as an undergrad having friends with 1000s of MP3s on their hard drive. With hard drive 10-20 times bigger it is hard to imagine I am the only person who could benefit from an indexed search.

"3) Ditch the Bloatware:"

Here's a good idea if at all possible: do a vanilla Vista install. It is a miracle how much faster Vista is without the crap OEMs install on computers. Completely removing Norton depending upon the version is more than add/remove programs! A clean install solves this problem. For future purchases either BYO or buy a actual business computer!(hint hint most big box stores don't sell business machines!)

"5) Don't be a Packrat:"

This is great advice for ANY OS be it Mac, Windows, or Linux.

"Now click "Update my Score" and watch your performance ratings soar!"

Not to be a jerk, but generally speaking none of your tips will do jack squat to improve your Vista performance ratings. Those tests will generally only go up if you get better hardware or better drivers for your existing hardware.

Generally speaking I think that a lot of people are looking for free quick fixes where there aren't any. If your machine isn't at least 2GB I would go out and buy 2GB of RAM. It is regularly selling for ~$40-50 even in retail. If $40 is too much money than I would question whether you could afford your new computer. Since the particular user in question already has 2GB I doubt she will notice much difference unless she is running high end applications (3d games, photo/video editing, animation, etc.)

One spec that we didn't get was the processor. A lot of prefab machines include so-so processors largely because most consumers still don't realize that Core2Duo is high end nearly . There are still some stores that were selling Pentium 4s on low end machines as recently as 2-3 months ago. The P4 isn't last years model or even two year old technology folks the P4 is TWO major generations behind the Core2Duos that Intel introduced 18 months ago(July 2006). The last P4s were introduced in 2005. When you are running technology that is a full three years behind cutting edge on the latest and greatest OS (Vista) why are people so surprised that it is slow? Any past experience with Windows should teach people this. No fancy computer science degrees required to know this.

A couple of things I could suggest:

1) Buy, Borrow, or steal an OEM copy of Windows Vista. Unlike your old 98 machine I can almost guarantee you that you don't have a Vista install disc. Best case scenario is that you have a recovery disc, which will simply restore your computer back to its' original sluggishness Norton, trialware, etc preinstalled and all. Therefore you will need to somehow acquire an actual OEM disc. How you acquire this disc is up to your moral judgment. During the install you can use the key on the side of your computer to reinstall provided you have the OEM media. An hour later you have a clean legitimately licensed copy of Vista(you used the key that you purchased with the machine) without the unneeded extras. No need to figure out what services or dll files belong to bundled apps and what is actually part of Windows.

2. Turn off System Restore. This has got to be the most overhyped feature in Windows history. Restore points rarely help fix problems. Some people might dispute this, but there is one thing that can't be disputed: the restore points take up a LOT of space. If your computer works fine at the very least delete all of the excess older restore points. A lot of peoples computers have 10s of gigs of restore points that they will never use.

3. Use a real defrag utility not the included defrag utility. Windows defrag is slow and ineffective. It doesn't defrag ANY files above 64mbs or the page file. If the hard drive is particularly full it will miss other files to boot. Microsoft hasn't made a good defrag since MS-DOS! Spent $30 on Disk keeper Home. If $30 is too much at least download Auslogics defrag. It still runs circles around M$'s defrag.

4. Buy a second Hard Drive(10K raptor preferably, although a standard 7200 is fine too). Put everything, but Windows on the second drive. Move the page file and all of your other non-system files onto the other drive.

5. Depending upon your motherboard, you might be able to upgrade the processor. As I said earlier there is a big difference between a Celeron and a Core2Duo. Without changing the board you may be able to a better processor.

6. Upgrade the drivers for all of your hardware. Sometimes upgrading a video driver can improve performance 10-15%. It costs nothing, but your time to download them.

7. If you are a bit risk adverse you can try Vista SP1. It definately feels a bit faster, albeit I might wait for some more testing.

At the very least do a fresh install. You will be a lot happier.

slow running vista

great answer will try today. thanks

Vista more

It's all very well sugesting "Adjust Visual Effects " or similar but where the h**l do you find them?
One of the real pains in the a***e about Vista is that vital commands are stuffed away in corners under a morass of rubbish terms.
Also, the Search command - what sense is there in starting the Search with "Search Results"?! It is necessary to wade through several layers via tiny "buttons" just to access the poorest, slowest search facility I have come across in any operating system.

(NT) Welldone! Good article! Very useful! Thanks a lot!

SLOWING DOWN OF A PC - a irreversible design fault.

In reply to: What can I do to improve the speed of my Vista machine? by Lee Koo (ADMIN) 

We threw away our last 2 PCs 3 tears [sorry - years] ago which were the last of a succession of 6 PCs. over more than 13 years. They all suffered from the same symptoms - they got slower after 18 months of hard use. They also had the freeze screen & system crashes and an excess of high blood pressure..
A great friend persuaded us to to buy Apple Macs. I have a I-Mac G4 & my wife has a Powerbook.
We have Microsoft Office for Mac 2004 which was ahead in its facilities of the PC version until PC Version Office 2007.
The old argument that Macs are only good at graphics is rubbish. Our "Deux Pommes" are very hard worked computers. We both turn out a great deal of very varied work.
An Apple Mac is designed & built by Engineers. It is not a Lego set - where all the bits of a PC are bought as cheaply as possible, assembled and it hoped that all the bits talk to each other.
Macs simply just work - No problems from Viruses, Worm Trojans.
Yes I have had a very few crashes- Simply I have shut everything down and restarted - there was the screen massage say it has managed to recover work which I had thought lost !!!

When we changed over PCs to Macs - it was an act of faith in our friends advise.
It now looking back was the best thing we ever did.
Sometimes I think I would like to upgrade to the Apple Mac with the New Intel Chip - which if one really needs to - will run MS Vista - but THEN i THINK WHY WILL NEED VISTA.
Who in their right minds would want to step back in time.
My advice is find a Apple Mac friend & talk to him.
PC Owners - it seems to me are like leemings - all following the pack and ignoring the obvious. That PCs are in principle badly designed - but cheap. Which is the only real benefit.

Our 2 Apple Macs now are still fast and feel like they came out of the Store yesterday.

Another thing who would want to put up with Internet Explorer when Safari is brilliant - better than Firefox, Camino,Omniweb,Opera etc. Try it out they even do a PC version.