Top 10 Easy Steps To Speed Up Windows Vista
10 Great Tips For Speeding Up Windows Vista
A few weeks ago, I found 10 great tips to speed up my PC running Windows XP and
tried them out on my laptop. The results were better than I had
expected, so I decided to find some tips for speeding up my PC which runs Windows Vista.
Once again, I restricted myself
to improvements that do not require altering the registry, since doing
so can totally screw up any computer if not done right. Instead I found
10 tips that improved performance a great deal on my HP Pavilion laptop.
Several of these tips are ones that worked well on the Windows XP
laptop, so I've presented them again here with their Vista-specific
instructions. Also note that if you have multiple user profiles on your
Windows Vista computer, you will need to repeat most of these steps for
each user.
The following tips have step-by-step instructions to optimize Windows Vista performance, and clicking on an image will show a larger version if you need more help...
So here are 10 Easy Tips To Speed Up Your Windows Vista PC...
1. Use ReadyBoost to speed up your system
If you have a high-speed USB thumb-drive you can improve performance by using it to boost your computer's internal RAM. If your computer has a built-in memory card reader, you can also use this tip to increase performance with a spare memory card from your digital camera or other device.
When you plug a USB thumb-drive or memory card into your PC, a
pop-up window appears asking you what you would like to do with the
device.
Near the bottom of the list is the option to "Speed Up My
System with Windows ReadyBoost". Just follow the onscreen prompts and
you're set!
You can also access this option by right-clicking the
device in Windows Explorer and selecting Properties. There will be a
tab at the top of the Properties window called "ReadyBoost".
If
you will be using this tip on a laptop computer, I would recommend using
a memory card instead of a thumb-drive, since having a thumb-drive
always sticking out of the side of your laptop is not very convenient!
2. Remove the desktop wallpaper
While it may look pretty, the desktop wallpaper can slow down the performance of your computer, especially if you're using a high-resolution digital photograph.
To use a plain-colored background instead, right click on the desktop and select "Personalize" from the pop-up menu.
Next select the "Desktop Background" option and on the following screen open the "Location" drop-down list.
Select "Solid Colors" from the list and choose the color you want to use.
3. Turn off Aero effects
One of the visual motifs that sets Windows Vista apart from previous
version is the use of Aero Effects, which includes such things as
transparent window frames, 3D window flipping and taskbar previews of
open windows. While these look nice, they use a significant amount of
system resources and if you can live without them you can dramatically
increase the speed of your computer.
You can disable Aero effects
from the same "Personalize" screen used in the previous tip. This time,
select the option called "Window Color and Appearance".
At the bottom of the screen, select "Open classic appearance properties
for more color options".
On the following screen, select from
"Windows Vista Basic", "Windows Standard" or "Windows Classic" to turn
off Aero effects. Select Apply when you're finished to preview the
results. If you're satisfied, click OK - if not, click Cancel to restore
your original settings.
4. Turn off the Sidebar
Another new feature in Windows Vista that consumes a lot of resources is
the Sidebar that appears along the right-hand side of the desktop. If
you're like me and you tend to maximize all of the windows on you
desktop, you'll probably only even see the Sidebar when you first boot
up your computer - the rest of the time it sits in the background
sucking up memory!
To disable the Sidebar, just right-click
anywhere within that portion of the screen.
From the pop-up menu, select "Properties", then un-check the box at the top that reads "Start Sidebar when Windows starts" and click OK. Then right-click again and select "Close Sidebar" to close the current Sidebar.
Next time you start Windows, the Sidebar will no longer appear.
5. Turn off unused services
Windows Vista comes with a ton of processes, or "services", that are
automatically set to start up every time you start Windows. Many of
these services are never used by the average user, and can be safely
disabled. By following the directions in this tip, you can keep those
services from running on start up but still allow them to be run if they
are ever needed.
Click the Start button and type "services.msc"
in the Search area. You need to have Administrator privileges to run
this program, so if you aren't logged in as the Administrator, when the
Services program appears at the top, right-click it and select "Run as
administrator".
In the Services window, scroll through the
alphabetical list of services and double click the one you want to
change. In the middle of the screen is a drop-down list labeled "Startup
type:" Choose the "Manual" option - this will prevent the service from
starting automatically, while still allowing Windows to enable it if it
is ever needed. If you set this ti "Disabled" it will never run, even if
Windows needs it, so use the "Manual" option instead!
The
following services can safely be set to "Manual": Application
Experience, Tablet PC Input Service, WebClient, Portable Device
Enumerator
You can decide if you want to change any other
services by reading the Description for each - if it's something you're
sure you don't need, then set it to "Manual".
6. Remove programs that you never use
You can free up some hard drive space by uninstalling programs that you
don't need anymore or never use.
From the Control Panel, select
"Programs" (or "Programs and Features" from the Classic View).
Go through the list that appears and double-click any programs you see that you know you don't need.
7. Remove features of Windows that you don't need
Windows Vista comes with a number of features built-in that most users
will never use, like Tablet PC Components and Internet Printing. This
can be removed to free up some system resources.
While in the
Control Panels "Programs" window from the previous tip, click the link
on the left-hand pane to "Turn Windows features on or off". After a
minute or two, a list of features will appear. Scroll through and
disable any that you're sure you don't need. If Windows ever does need
one of these features, it will prompt you to turn it back on.
Most
users can safely remove the following features: "Remote Differential
Compression", "Windows Meeting Space", "Print Services" and "Tablet PC
Optional Components". If you hold your mouse pointer over each one, a
brief description will appear explaining what the feature is used for.
The
only ones of these features that I have kept are the Microsoft .NET
Framework and a few of the Games (gotta have my FreeCell!)
8. Run Disk Cleanup
Just as in Windows XP, Windows Vista includes a utility that helps you identify unnecessary files on your hard drive that you can safely remove.
To run the Disk Cleanup utility, click the Start button and type
"Disk Cleanup" - or you can right-click the hard drive you want to
clean up and select "Properties", then the "Disk Cleanup" button next to
the pie chart.
Windows will search the drive for a few minutes,
then show a list of files you can choose to delete, along with a
description of what they are and whether you need to keep them.
Pick and choose which ones you no longer need and click OK when you're done.
9. Create a fixed-size pagefile
Like in previous versions, Windows Vista uses a pagefile to improve
performance. The pagefile is basically a file on your hard drive that
Windows uses to supplement the physical RAM in your PC. This is a good
thing, but by default the pagefile is dynamically resized by Windows,
and this can be a waste of system resources.
The pagefile should
be approximately 1.5 times the size of your physical RAM, and you can
make sure that Windows creates the pagefile as a fixed size instead of
constantly resizing it.
To find out how much RAM your computer has, just right-click on "My Computer" and select "Properties". Under the heading "System" you'll see an entry for "Memory(RAM)".
Make a note
of this, then click on "Advanced System Settings" to the left. On the
next screen, select "Settings" under the "Performance" section at the
top. On the next screen, click the "Advanced" tab, then select
"Change..." under the "Virtual Memory" area.
On the next screen,
un-check "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives". Select
the drive where the paging file is, and click the "Custom size" option
below. Under "Initial size" and "Maximum Size", enter a value that is
1.5 times your PC's total amount of RAM, in megabytes. So if you have 2
GB of RAM, that's 2000 megabytes, and 1.5 times that would be 3000.
By
entering the same value in both boxes Windows will create a file that
is a fixed size and will no longer waste resources by constantly
resizing it.
10. Disable some of Vista's visual effects
Many of the visual effects in Windows Vista can be individually
disabled, so if you don't want to turn Aero Effects off completely, you
can control which effects are used and which are not.
Right-click
on "My Computer" to bring up the System screen. On the left-hand side,
click "Advanced system settings". At the top of the page, select
:Settings..." from the "Performance" section to bring up the Visual
Effects tab. You can select the button labeled "Adjust for best
performance" to disable all the features, or select "Custom:" to choose
just the ones you want to turn on and off.
You can't hurt
anything from here, so just try the different options and click "Apply"
to see what the impact is. Once you're satisfied with the changes, click
OK. You can always come back later and re-enable anything that you
turned off!
Will you be following any of these tips to speed up your Windows Vista PC?
I Made My PC Faster!
By implementing all of these steps, I was able to speed up my PC, and my Windows Vista PC is now running
like a dream!
In addition to all of the tips listed, you should
always be sure that you have all of the latest updates for Vista from
Microsoft by running Windows Update. And if your computer is still
running slowly, you can check for driver updates to all of your PC's
hardware by visiting the manufacturer's website!
Good luck, happy
computing!
All text and images copyright ©2010 by the author. All rights reserved.
This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.
Comments
I swear if I could give this in a cheat sheet like form to every customer I talk to when at work who says a negative comment about a slow Vista machine, life would be so much easier.lol. Nice hub!
You are the very best! You taught me the RSS feeds and now you are helping me with my complicated Vista - thank you!
I would tend to disagree with shazwellyn - I am your NO1 Fan! You are awesome!
You speak in a language even I can understand!
Good stuff, but nothing I didn't know before. You should also add defragging to the list. Degragmenting the hardrive really speeds up the system especially after adding or deleting large amount of data.
Another bookmarked hub - I am you NO1 Fan! :)
Thanks for the information, i'm going to try it now, thanks
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