5 Ways to Speed Up Windows Vista
Published by: Codrut Nistor, in Tips & Tricks
October19th2007
Windows Vista is the most notorious operating system in the world at this time, but this doesn't mean it's also the fastest. While I can't help you solve those well known driver problems or hardware compatibility issues, I will try to give you some quick hints on how to improve the speed of this operating system.
No matter if your computer is a low-end one or a "space ship", if you optimize your Windows Vista, things are going to improve for sure, but it's also obvious that people using low and mid-range systems are going to enjoy this more than the happy ones having Quad Core CPUs and 4GB of memory or more...
These being said, prepare to find out about 5 ways to speed up Windows Vista, from using the new disk caching technology called ReadyBoost, to something that everybody should know already, but too many simply forget about, and that is keeping your software environment up to date. Are you ready?
1. Use Windows Vista's ReadyBoost feature
For a long time, Windows operating systems were notorious because the speed of the hard drive had a great impact on the overall performance of the system, especially when the computer didn't have a huge amount of memory.
Now, the ReadyBoost technology introduced with Vista allows you to get a more responsive system with the help of a fast flash drive, SD card or another type of flash memory, as long as its read speed is at least 2.5MB/s for 4KB random reads and the write speed is above 1.75MB/s for 512KB random blocks.
These being said, let's leave the tech stuff behind and answer the big question: how to do it?
- First logical steps to take are to get a flash memory (purchase, borrow, rent it, that's your problem...) and connect it to your computer.
- Next, select Speed up my system in the AutoPlay window that pops up. If you have disabled this feature, you can right click the icon of the device in My Computer.
- After your drive passes the speed test, you'll find yourself inside the Properties dialog box.
- Here, enable the use of this device for ReadyBoost and choose how much space you want to dedicate for this purpose. Remember that once you have selected to use 1GB of your 2GB flash drive for disk cache, you won't be able to use 2GB to store additional data on it.
That's all! Now work with Vista and see how your performance increases. In some cases, you can get a really serious improvement, but this depends a lot on the programs you are using, the speed of the flash device and, of course, the overall configuration of your computer.
2. Fix the slow file transfers problem
After moving from XP to Vista, a lot of users noticed that file transfers suddenly became slower, and that's not something one would expect to happen, obviously. If you notice this happening on your computer too, there are two ways to solve this problem...
The first thing to do is disable Remote Differential Compression, and to do this you have to follow the next steps:
- Press the Start Orb, and then open the Control Panel.
- Here, go to Programs and open the Programs and features applet.
- In the left pane, locate and click Turn on or off Windows features.
- At last, uncheck Remote Differential Compression.
Once you have done all the above, restarted the computer, and the problem still persists, there's one more thing to try - apply a patch from Microsoft.
The patch I mentioned can be downloaded from the Microsoft site here (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938979), and I really hope you'll get lucky and get rid of the slow file operations issue after the first step, or after applying the patch, because some users report that none of these methods worked for them. If you're one of the unfortunate ones, I am sorry, but I can't give you any wonder cure at this time...
3. Turn off useless features and services
As it happened with Windows XP, Windows Vista also has a lot of services that start by default, but most users don't get to use them. This way, your system runs useless processes that use CPU time and eat your valuable free memory. Exactly as with XP, the only thing to do is shut down those useless features and regain the system resources used by them for your needs...
While we're going to talk about the details of purging useless stuff that runs in the background in the future, I'll give you some basic instructions now.
First of all, remove the unwanted features by using the Uninstall a Program applet, located in the Control Panel...
- Here, click Turn Windows Features On or Off in the Tasks pane.
- Check the existing features by hovering your mouse cursor above them - this way, you will see details about them, so you'll be able to decide which one is needed and what needs to go away. Obviously, searching on the Internet additional details about them won't hurt at all...
- Click the + sign to expand features that have sub-lists, and then uncheck anything you're sure is not needed.
If anything goes wrong and you start getting various error messages related to the features you have disabled, don't worry. Simply check again the disabled feature(s) that caused your problem.
Stopping unwanted services should be even easier, so here it goes...
- Press the Start orb, type services.msc in the Search bar and hit Enter.
- In the Services applet, look for Automatic ones - these are the services that are started automatically with Windows. Check their details - right click a certain service, and then select Properties.
- The safest choice for Automatic services is to switch them to Manual, when you're not sure. This way, if a program needs them, they'll be started when this is required.
At last, you should know that Remote Registry, Tablet PC Input Service or Windows Error Reporting are services that can be easily disabled on a desktop computer without any problems, but you should also be careful not to disable the ones like Multimedia Class Scheduler, Plug and Play, Superfetch, Windows Audio, Windows Driver Foundation or the Task Scheduler.
4. Speed Up the interface
The first thing to think about when talking about speeding up your Vista's interface, especially when your computer's setup is near the minimum system requirements of this operating system, is to disable some of the eye candy, and there are more ways to do it...
The most radical solution is to simply disable Aero and get back to the classic Windows interface. For example, some onboard graphics chipsets have DirectX 9 capabilities and, at least in theory, they are able to run Aero. Theory is theory, but practice kills it, so if the new shiny Aero makes your compter react like a turtle, simply disable it, and this is how to do that...
- Right click on the desktop and select Personalize from the menu that appears.
- Here, select the Window Color and Appearance option.
- To get the best performance, but lose some eye candy, be sure that Enable Transparency is not checked.
- If your system's speed of response is still low, click the Open classic appeareance properties for more color options link, located at the bottom of the window.
- Now, simply select a non-Aero theme, such as Windows Vista Basic, Windows Classic or Windows Standard.
...if your computer's interface isn't moving faster than before, then you either have a high end computer and you weren't aware of that, or something else is slowing down your computer.
5. Keep your system up to date
Last, but not the least, I have to tell you a few words about keeping your system up to date. There are three major things to take care about - Windows updates, drivers and software applications.
Usually, Windows Vista updates itself automatically, so you should only be careful to check what happened if some updates failed. Since the operating system gives you a lot of information about he update process, and if something goes wrong, you can easily find your way out, let's move to a more delicate problem...
Windows always claimed to be able to automatically update your drivers from the Internet with the latest version available for your hardware, but not even today this feature reached perfection, so my suggestion is to check the official sites of the hardware producers for the last drivers. The hardware items that are more likely to cause problems due to outdated drivers are the video card and the mainboard, so be sure to check for their driver updates first.
A lot of people don't care about keeping their applications up to date, but in most cases, this is a big mistake. For example, let's consider instant messaging programs. In most cases, their updates concern the improvement of the security, as well as repairing some bugs. When a software application has an automatic update feature, be sure to turn it on, but since nothing is perfect, it's always better to do it yourself and check to see if you're running the latest releases of your favorite programs.
As we were able to see, there are plenty of things to do to improve your Vista experience, and the 5 topics we had here today are only a small part of an entire armada. In the future, we'll also show you some quick registry hacks and other optimizations, as well as various tips and tricks for Windows Vista's components, together with reviews for software built to help you clean up and tweak Vista and more, so keep your eyes on SoftSupplier!
These being said, prepare to find out about 5 ways to speed up Windows Vista, from using the new disk caching technology called ReadyBoost, to something that everybody should know already, but too many simply forget about, and that is keeping your software environment up to date. Are you ready?
1. Use Windows Vista's ReadyBoost feature
For a long time, Windows operating systems were notorious because the speed of the hard drive had a great impact on the overall performance of the system, especially when the computer didn't have a huge amount of memory.
Now, the ReadyBoost technology introduced with Vista allows you to get a more responsive system with the help of a fast flash drive, SD card or another type of flash memory, as long as its read speed is at least 2.5MB/s for 4KB random reads and the write speed is above 1.75MB/s for 512KB random blocks.
These being said, let's leave the tech stuff behind and answer the big question: how to do it?
- First logical steps to take are to get a flash memory (purchase, borrow, rent it, that's your problem...) and connect it to your computer.
- Next, select Speed up my system in the AutoPlay window that pops up. If you have disabled this feature, you can right click the icon of the device in My Computer.
- After your drive passes the speed test, you'll find yourself inside the Properties dialog box.
- Here, enable the use of this device for ReadyBoost and choose how much space you want to dedicate for this purpose. Remember that once you have selected to use 1GB of your 2GB flash drive for disk cache, you won't be able to use 2GB to store additional data on it.
That's all! Now work with Vista and see how your performance increases. In some cases, you can get a really serious improvement, but this depends a lot on the programs you are using, the speed of the flash device and, of course, the overall configuration of your computer.
2. Fix the slow file transfers problem
After moving from XP to Vista, a lot of users noticed that file transfers suddenly became slower, and that's not something one would expect to happen, obviously. If you notice this happening on your computer too, there are two ways to solve this problem...
The first thing to do is disable Remote Differential Compression, and to do this you have to follow the next steps:
- Press the Start Orb, and then open the Control Panel.
- Here, go to Programs and open the Programs and features applet.
- In the left pane, locate and click Turn on or off Windows features.
- At last, uncheck Remote Differential Compression.
 |  |  |
Once you have done all the above, restarted the computer, and the problem still persists, there's one more thing to try - apply a patch from Microsoft.
The patch I mentioned can be downloaded from the Microsoft site here (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938979), and I really hope you'll get lucky and get rid of the slow file operations issue after the first step, or after applying the patch, because some users report that none of these methods worked for them. If you're one of the unfortunate ones, I am sorry, but I can't give you any wonder cure at this time...
3. Turn off useless features and services
As it happened with Windows XP, Windows Vista also has a lot of services that start by default, but most users don't get to use them. This way, your system runs useless processes that use CPU time and eat your valuable free memory. Exactly as with XP, the only thing to do is shut down those useless features and regain the system resources used by them for your needs...
While we're going to talk about the details of purging useless stuff that runs in the background in the future, I'll give you some basic instructions now.
First of all, remove the unwanted features by using the Uninstall a Program applet, located in the Control Panel...
- Here, click Turn Windows Features On or Off in the Tasks pane.
- Check the existing features by hovering your mouse cursor above them - this way, you will see details about them, so you'll be able to decide which one is needed and what needs to go away. Obviously, searching on the Internet additional details about them won't hurt at all...
- Click the + sign to expand features that have sub-lists, and then uncheck anything you're sure is not needed.
If anything goes wrong and you start getting various error messages related to the features you have disabled, don't worry. Simply check again the disabled feature(s) that caused your problem.
Stopping unwanted services should be even easier, so here it goes...
- Press the Start orb, type services.msc in the Search bar and hit Enter.
- In the Services applet, look for Automatic ones - these are the services that are started automatically with Windows. Check their details - right click a certain service, and then select Properties.
- The safest choice for Automatic services is to switch them to Manual, when you're not sure. This way, if a program needs them, they'll be started when this is required.
At last, you should know that Remote Registry, Tablet PC Input Service or Windows Error Reporting are services that can be easily disabled on a desktop computer without any problems, but you should also be careful not to disable the ones like Multimedia Class Scheduler, Plug and Play, Superfetch, Windows Audio, Windows Driver Foundation or the Task Scheduler.
4. Speed Up the interface
The first thing to think about when talking about speeding up your Vista's interface, especially when your computer's setup is near the minimum system requirements of this operating system, is to disable some of the eye candy, and there are more ways to do it...
The most radical solution is to simply disable Aero and get back to the classic Windows interface. For example, some onboard graphics chipsets have DirectX 9 capabilities and, at least in theory, they are able to run Aero. Theory is theory, but practice kills it, so if the new shiny Aero makes your compter react like a turtle, simply disable it, and this is how to do that...
- Right click on the desktop and select Personalize from the menu that appears.
- Here, select the Window Color and Appearance option.
- To get the best performance, but lose some eye candy, be sure that Enable Transparency is not checked.
- If your system's speed of response is still low, click the Open classic appeareance properties for more color options link, located at the bottom of the window.
- Now, simply select a non-Aero theme, such as Windows Vista Basic, Windows Classic or Windows Standard.
...if your computer's interface isn't moving faster than before, then you either have a high end computer and you weren't aware of that, or something else is slowing down your computer.
5. Keep your system up to date
Last, but not the least, I have to tell you a few words about keeping your system up to date. There are three major things to take care about - Windows updates, drivers and software applications.
Usually, Windows Vista updates itself automatically, so you should only be careful to check what happened if some updates failed. Since the operating system gives you a lot of information about he update process, and if something goes wrong, you can easily find your way out, let's move to a more delicate problem...
Windows always claimed to be able to automatically update your drivers from the Internet with the latest version available for your hardware, but not even today this feature reached perfection, so my suggestion is to check the official sites of the hardware producers for the last drivers. The hardware items that are more likely to cause problems due to outdated drivers are the video card and the mainboard, so be sure to check for their driver updates first.
A lot of people don't care about keeping their applications up to date, but in most cases, this is a big mistake. For example, let's consider instant messaging programs. In most cases, their updates concern the improvement of the security, as well as repairing some bugs. When a software application has an automatic update feature, be sure to turn it on, but since nothing is perfect, it's always better to do it yourself and check to see if you're running the latest releases of your favorite programs.
As we were able to see, there are plenty of things to do to improve your Vista experience, and the 5 topics we had here today are only a small part of an entire armada. In the future, we'll also show you some quick registry hacks and other optimizations, as well as various tips and tricks for Windows Vista's components, together with reviews for software built to help you clean up and tweak Vista and more, so keep your eyes on SoftSupplier!
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10 Comments on 5 Ways to Speed Up Windows Vista
On 10/19/2007 at 8:50 pm None said:
Speed Vista up by putting XP on ur PC!
On 10/20/2007 at 5:11 am Grim said:
6. Switch to XP
On 10/20/2007 at 5:34 am Polyester said:
Stop this nonsense and buy a Mac!
On 10/20/2007 at 7:52 am KodrutZ said:
Polyester, you should be aware that not everyone can afford a Mac... and some people are bound to use programs that only run on Windows, unfortunately.
On 10/20/2007 at 8:37 am Slippery1 said:
Yeah right! Mac! Phfft !
Hi I'm a Mac....
What can a pc do? Yeah whatever!
I'd switch to Linux before I'd ever suffer a MAC. Been there done that!
On 10/20/2007 at 10:33 am Codrut Nistor said:
While I see Macs being a good solution for audio-video professionals, as well as for kids that are learning to use a computer for the first time, old Windows users won't find the switch to Macs easier than the one to Linux. In fact, for some people, it can be harder to switch from Windows to a Mac, than to Linux, since you also need to pay for a new computer, in this case.
The article above is about Vista, after all, and no matter how much some people may hate it, there are millions of Vista users already. If you have friends using it, better give them the link to these tips and tricks, rather than making them regret the purchase. Times are changing, and Vista will replace Windows XP pretty soon, just like Windows XP replaced Windows 98 or the ill-fated Millenium Edition.
On 10/20/2007 at 6:59 pm Dan said:
What people need to realize is that Vista takes a VERY different approach to using RAM than XP did, in fact it's the opposite.
XP Tried to keep as much memory as possible free. Vista sees RAM as the most underutilized component and looks to fill it up as much as it can. When you decide to launch a program that needs some space and breathing room, the RAM opens up for that program, and clears the stuff out with a lesser priority.
Also with that, programs that you frequently are VERY quick to launch.
I know it's fun to bash Vista and Microsoft, but understand the thought process first before you complain that it eats away at RAM.
On 10/20/2007 at 7:11 pm Codrut Nistor said:
From my experience, I can say that Vista uses about the same approach to using memory as Mac OS, but there's only one problem - while Mac OS X uses HFS+, which is a very capable file system, Microsoft dropped WinFS along the way, so Vista can't rely on a file system that can really improve disk performance.
On the other hand, we got ReadyBoost, which is a really nice addition, but my opinion is that Vista shouldn't have been launched without a new file system to maximize its capabilities the right way.
On 05/05/2008 at 1:26 pm clara pirie said:
i typed in systems.msc and changed all the automatic features and services to manual. all was fine until i turned the computer on and on logging on my system seems to have reverted to what seems like an old version of windows. none of my programs are starting up and when i typed in systems.msc again it says 'search failed to initialise'. control panel opens up but is just an empty window and i do not know what to do. help????
On 05/05/2008 at 1:34 pm KodrutZ said:
Who said to change ALL to manual????
Try going to Windows/System32 and run system.msc from there, manually. Then revert changes. That should work, but I can't guarantee it.
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