Community Newsletter: Q&A: What can I do to improve the speed of my Vista machine?
- 1/11/08 3:13 PM
What box?
by Jane917 - 1/13/08 8:12 AM In reply to: Check the box by afro2358I am not sure what box I should check. If I click on the box in the systems tray, I can click on EXIT, then the box goes away, but re-appears when I restart the computer.
The Box
by afro2358 - 1/13/08 8:20 PM In reply to: What box? by Jane917Listen, After you restart you computer, that popup is called "System Configuration Utility". On the bottom left of that message, you will see a box that you have to check that says something like: "Don't show this message or launch .......", Once you check that box and restart your PC, you will not see that popup again, unless you go back to msconfig and uncheck something else.
I just figured it out...
by Jane917 - 1/14/08 9:10 PM In reply to: The Box by afro2358The popup box in the system tray does not have a box to check. One of the choices it gives me leads to another box, which is the System Config Utility. From that box I was able to check "the box." Thanks for all the help.
I just figured it out...
by afro2358 - 1/15/08 8:57 AM In reply to: I just figured it out... by Jane917No problem.
speed up vista
by alice_b0wie - 12/14/07 9:28 PM In reply to: What can I do to improve the speed of my Vista machine? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
i've been working on vista since april 07, what i've found thats slows it down the most is the security. after trying free and paid for programs, that includes kaspersky internet security, i've determined that eset smart security has turned vista home premium into the perfect performance os. also disabling the uac and reseting the windows security alerts helped out. perfectdisk is set to run everyday, so i have a daily defrag and clean up. i also use spyware doctors free app for cleaning up the cookies i collect. but, like i mentioned, it was the security programs that slowed vista down to almost a useless level, that included avg, norton, macaffee, trendmicro, etc. try nod32/eset, i'm impressed by the speed i've regained. to me it's all about speed, graphics and security.
Vista speed (or lack thereof)
by superordenador - 12/14/07 9:28 PM In reply to: What can I do to improve the speed of my Vista machine? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
We recently bought a laptop with Windows Vista, and since I am the one in the family who when we get a new computer, OS, or application, I know how to use it by the end of the day, and we had the exact same situation. And yes, It has all the bells, whistles, (more words for crapware), and of course, its user interface. These are what bog your computer down. I only know of a few ways to speed vista up, but they seem rather effective. First of all, get rid of the user interface. That is the Number 1 unnecessary memory user. Right click on the desktop, go to personalize, click window color and appearance. At the bottom should be blue letters that say "Open classic appearance properties for more color options". Click that. Now this window you should be familiar with, but if you aren't, see the list at bottom right? Select "Windows Classic" and hit "OK". Look familiar? Yes it's the user interface from windows 95/98/2000! (FYI: a lot of stuff is still there, you just have to spend a day exploring every menu at random). Now get rid of that bar on the side- you know, to the right with all the cool but memory hogging gadgets, yeah, thats got to go. just "X" it out. Now, back to the personalize menu. Go to Desktop background. Now choose any solid color (black uses the least energy). Now go to the start bar. Hit "all programs" (near the bottom). Go to "startup" (programs that are supposed to star and run in the background when you log in- yet another feature that was on Windows 98) folder. Delete everything in it EXCEPT your antivirus program if it's in there.
Well, I hoped my 2 cents worth helped clear some memory
I love Vista
by RDO CA - 12/14/07 9:51 PM In reply to: Vista speed (or lack thereof) by superordenadorI have used vista since March and just love it--I have a Intel dual core 2 e6700 with 4GB of ram and vista ultimate and a nvidia 7950gt card and 2 500 GB hd in a raid config--It is not much diff than XP to set up and you do need to get rid of all the crapware they give you ---but I would not turn off all the nice graphics in vista as it flys after some tweaking with all of it left on--I hate to see some who don't do the basic setup on a new computer need to bad mouth it--I think sp-1 for vista will be out in final form in the 1st quarter and I think this will help
Roy
I don't know what all the fuss is about?
by psychlman - 1/5/08 12:35 AM In reply to: I love Vista by RDO CAI've been developing on PCs from DOS 3.0 through all the incarnations of Windows, good and bad, right up to Vista, and some weird and wonderful stuff inbetween as well like DR Multiuser DOS with 8 users attached. Old fart that I am now, I still remember developing apps using COBOL/CICS/DL1 on IBM mainframes! All I would say is that you shouldn't consider upgrading your OS without considering a serious upgrade to your hardware - we all know the chip manufacturers are in bed with Microsoft. It's worth considering also how prices have faired over the past 25 years. You're getting loads more for your money each time, plus the software market is so competitive there's a lot more to choose from. As for comparing Windows to MAC, again from my own experience all I can say is I never experienced any problems with backward compatibility and with every new Windows OS the problems of distributing large updates over 100s of users in 9 countries became easier - corresponding hardware upgrade or not. One thing I did learn through the years is how a user's expectation appears to increase at a rate proportional to his loss of memory, so much so that I'd deliberately place time-wasting redundant cycles into new software (you know, take them out later and the user thinks you've improved performance). So if you really think Vista is slower than XP or 98 try taking into consideration all the things you had to do before like scanning the disk, shuffling partitions, rebooting locked software, replacing drivers, etc. You'll probably find you're a lot more productive than you think.
Speeding up your system
by strongmom11 - 12/14/07 9:37 PM In reply to: What can I do to improve the speed of my Vista machine? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Vista is very fast, and your system is much heftier than the ones I have running Vista. What is likely to be bogging you down is software crawling about in the background. Google desktop is constantly indexing your system, unless you turn that off. Security suites scanning for viruses and spyware are necessary, but if you have more than one you've hogtied your system. I love the sidebar, but if it's giving you the weather and news stories constantly, that's slowing you down too. Look to your system tray in the lower left, and see all the icons there, and consider whether you need everything there running all the time. You can also go into System Configuration and see what programs are loading at startup; you may be surprised.
Downgrade to XP
by managizzle - 12/14/07 9:45 PM In reply to: What can I do to improve the speed of my Vista machine? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I am not a cynic or a Vista basher. However, I found after trying several different tricks and tips, I didn't gain any real performance from my new laptop. My solution was to downgrade to Windows XP and I couldn't be happier.
Vista to XP....
by OttifantSir - 12/17/07 2:13 PM In reply to: Downgrade to XP by managizzleSome, myself included, wouldn't call what you did a "downgrade" but an "upgrade"
I have tried every flavour of Windows from 2.5 onwards. There were certain ups and downs with each and every one of them. Not really counting ME into the mix here, I would say Vista is the worst Microsoft has offered.
I was thrilled, excited, happy, curious of and with all versions of Windows (excluding ME still) up until Vista. My first taste was on a computer of my grandfather's. Just bootup took way longer on his brand new computer than it did on my five year old with XP. I had heard it would be longer in bootup than XP, but that it should be faster when started. So, I did the initial bootup, removing bloatware/crapware, tweaking settings, installing programs he would need. Did another bootup expecting my tweaking to have had some effect. Not really.
Trying to solve a problem he had caused on his computers was easily identified, as he hadn't made that big of a mistake. I know the same procedure would've taken me about 45 mins in XP, but in Vista it took more than four hours. Hell, I even had a seven year old laptop with XP on it that would load programs faster than his brand new Vista PC.
For Darren: Disable as much services running in the background as you can. These services are there in case you need them. 95% of all users will never need more than half, or even a third of them more than once every month. So, once every month, the PC will load that program/service a LITTLE slower than normal. Get Process Explorer to learn more about the services.
Turn off all eyecandy. Don't even try to make it look as a default install of XP. I usually go to Control Panel->System and Advanced tab. Hit Settings under Performance and mark the choice "Adjust for best performance". Click OK, wait for the settings to take effect.
Never use Windows Media Player for anything other than listen to/view Windows Media-files. And when you decide you want to keep that music/video, convert it to another format like MP3/OGG for audio (I recommend BonkEnc AudioEncoder) or AVI/MPG/OGM for video (I recommend SUPER (C) Video Conversion from www.erightsoft.com) and use either VLC (www.videolan.org) or Media Player Classic (At Download.com). Why? Windows Media Player stores a whole lot of information about the files that you will never need to know, and it will clutter up your hard-drive.
Defrag the harddrive. At least once a month. I recommend using the free program from Auslogics.
Run CCleaner every time you install or uninstall something to clean the registry and check the processes/services installed. Unless you actively use something on bootup, disable or delete the entry from startup.
Defrag the registry. There are many programs out there that does this, but the best IMO, is from Auslogics. It's on Download.com, just search for Auslogics. After every cleaning of the registry, it gets a little bit fragmented.
Use free antivirus-programs. AVG and avast! are both free for personal use and automatically download new viral-detection definitions and scan your computer while you use it.
Use free firewalls. Comodo and ZoneAlarm are both free for personal use and are the best there is.
Use OpenOffice.org, not Microsoft Office. It's a free download from, surprise(!), www.openoffice.org of less than 250 MB and is compatible with Microsoft Office-files.
Use Opera as your web-browser. It's the fastest and safest browser around. Get it at www.opera.com. The amount of extras you get with this program for less than a 10MB download is astonishing. You would need about 100MB worth of add-ons for Internet Explorer to do the same. It's also available for Mac, Linux, smartphones and normal cell-phones.
Use free spyware-detection programs. Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy are usually recommended. These are, however, not scanning your computer while you use it. For that I recommend Spyware Terminator, available from Download.com. You might also want to use SpyWareBlaster. It is a run-once-in-a-while program. It puts restrictions on what can enter your computer, blocking spyware before it enters, but not hampering you browsing or experience.
Use Nero, Roxio or any of a number of free CD/DVD-writing programs, never the built-in add-on in any Windows.
Use a RAM-optimizer. I recommend FreeRAM XP Pro (It works on Vista too, despite the name) which you can get at Download.com.
Use Pidgin (get it at www.sourceforge.net) instead of Windows Live Messenger for text-chat, and Skype for video-calls.
Don't forget to update Windows. It's a dam full of holes and needs to be patched constantly.
These are all program-tips for improving your computer's speed. This is what I recommend using for all my friends and family who wants a faster, safer computer.
Basically what you want for a faster computer is Vista's drivers and command codes for using your hardware. Just the basics, no more. For almost any other thing done on a computer you are better off with free software.
Last though, I would recommend getting Boostspeed from Auslogics. This is not a free program, but when you have this, you can usually get about three times the speed out of your computer, and you only have to worry about learning one program for defragging your drive and registry, optimize the RAM, tweak settings, check startup programs, change the overall appearance of Windows and a whole bundle of other things. The coolest thing is that it has a wizard to help you check what needs to be optimized, and a lot of information on what and how to do this optimization.
I think that qualifies as my quarter.
I'm stunned by the list of do's and don'ts
by ricko2112 - 1/5/08 4:26 AM In reply to: Vista to XP.... by OttifantSirA number of replies on this thread list several do's and don'ts, but one in particular lists a whole range of products that should be used including registry defrags after every install, hard drive defrags monthly, scanners, firewalls and so on.
Stop and think! When computers become that complicated they are beyond the use and understanding of the man in the street. At that point they have defeated their own purpose: to make life a little easier. You simply cannot expect most users (90%+) to follow such a complex regime of scanning, tweaking and defragging.
If you have to be an "IT Professional" to keep your Windows system alive it's beyond a joke. Now I do work in IT, and I could just weep when I see the mess that folks get into by the time they call me to help them fix a problem. In my opinion you should not have to be that much of an expert to simply keep your computer alive. Or put the other way around, operating systems should be designed so that the user doesn't have to worry about them getting broken. It seems obvious to me but why aren't Microsoft doing it?
I've started recommending Mac to people, the majority of whom use their computer for (1) internet browsing, (2) email, (3) create documents for school/work/college, (4) listen to music and watch video/dvd. I'd use Mac myself but I need a few Windows-only apps.
One day there will be a backlash against all this complexity and fragility!
Ok my reply doesn't help answer the question. It's a plea for common sense! And to others to give common sense replies not full of unhelpful technobabble. The questioner wants the computer he now to work faster and with less hassle. Lists and lists of applications and procedures he should be running probably don't help the poor guy!
P.S. The first time I've ever ran a registry clean and defrag it made no difference to the speed of my system. The second time, it broke the registry and I had to restore my system from backup. Beware!
re: vista speed
by tony4qts - 12/14/07 9:49 PM In reply to: What can I do to improve the speed of my Vista machine? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
DYNAMITE
Vista - What was Microsoft thinking
by JackmanL - 12/14/07 9:52 PM In reply to: What can I do to improve the speed of my Vista machine? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Good luck… I’ve been asking myself that same question. I used to think I had a rather decent knowledge of the workings of Windows until Vista came along. I have experimented with Vista on several different high-end laptops and desktops, all with the same results. Regardless of settings and tricks, Vista’s overhead processes significantly diminish all-around performance compared to XP. I even did comparisons on a so-called “especially configured for Vista” laptop and desktop. From my perspective, if you are a business and want dependability and productivity, stick with XP until Microsoft comes out with SP2 for Vista. SP1 beta appears to be nothing more than a patch with no real improvement. If you regularly need to copy large work files between computers over a network or other transport media, Vista’s throughput is considerably lacking compared to XP. Unless there is a specific necessity or compelling desire for Vista’s enhanced security features and fancy bells and whistles, save yourself a lot of headaches and frustration, stick with XP.
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