Tech Tip - Speed up Windows Vista

[Klink]

Its no secret that Windows Vista hasnt exactly improved upon the performance of a PC over Windows XP, there have been many blogs and reviews saying this. There are also many different sources of how to speed up your Windows Vista installation, but these can be hard to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Microsoft have a long way to go to make up for the disappointment of Windows Vista, and it seems they are certainly trying to do just that. They have released a document which outlines the different ways to crank up the speed of your Windows Vista system. The guide itself is 14 pages, and once you trim the fat off it you have some pretty helpful procedures to squeeze just that little bit more performance out of your Windows Vista PC.

The guide takes you through some very "duh I knew that" tips, through to a couple of "Hey thats pretty cool" time savers. At a few spots throughout the guide the tips are explained a little ordinarily, and someone that is technically challenged may wonder what they are talking about.

Over all, if you follow some of the tips in this guide you will find that you are better off than before reading the guide. Just remember to be careful though, or even better yet... set a "restore point" before messing around with things, that way you can get back to where you were before you started tinkering under the hood.

Please download from here: http://www.klinkeye.com/Attachments/...g-%20Final.pdf

[thro]

Tip 1:

Buy 4 gigs of ram you tightfisted bastards.




edit:
I'm not kidding. 64 bit vista + 4 gigs of ram = way quicker than 32bit with 2 gigs on same hardware platform. I know, i've done it... running 64 bit now and not looking back

RAM is cheap now, forego buying one game or something and get another 2 gig...

[TORQ]

^^^ what's general app compatability etc like running 64-bit - does all your normal 32-bit stuff run OK ?

[thro]

^^ everything i've run so far just works(tm).

The only trouble i've had so far is that my shitty old Netgear wireless card has no 64 bit driver easily obtainable, so i just ran CAT5 for now.

32 bit games? no problem. Diablo II works just fine, and that was released in what... 2000? 2001? I would wager that virtually anything released in the past 9-10 years that runs on XP will run on 64 bit vista. Some recent games (eg, The witcher, Rainbow 6 Vegas2) are more stable, I know the witcher mentions in the readme that it occasionally runs into 32 bit virtual memory limits on Vista 32bit (and crashes - i had it happen) - hasn't crashed on me yet on 64 bit.

The only potential compatibility issue really is that they removed the 16 bit subsystem from 64 bit Vista. So any OLD shitty apps that either run 16 bit, or use a 16 bit application installer won't work.

But you can get around that by running old crap like that in Virtual PC (free from MS) using a Windows XP / whatever VM).

32 bit apps are fully supported, and go in a seperate program files directory with seperate libraries, etc.

IE is installed in both 32 and 64 bit versions, think it runs the 32 bit one by default, so all browser plug-ins, etc work just like 32 bit windows.

In general it feels a bit snappier, and when sitting idle, its IDLE.

Plus you've got the benefit of all drivers being signed (yes yes, PITA at times if your hardware is unsupported), which means that they're going to be reliable.


I'm very happy with it. Loved Win2k, hated XP, 32 bit vista was good, but I certainly think 64 is a step in the right direction. No, its not perfect, but its a damn sight better than XP is. The resource requirements are a non-issue. Yes, it chews more RAM. Spend the hundred bucks on feeding it more RAM and its quick.

If you're trying to run it on a 4 year old Celeron with 512mb of RAM, you're not in the target demographic...


edit:
1 caveat: there's no 64 bit Cisco vpn client yet. That could be a deal breaker if you run Cisco client VPNs until Cisco pull their finger out.


Also, just on Vista vs XP speed.

If you run Office 2007, vista is quicker. I don't know why, but D530 laptop, 2gb ram - shipped with XP, put vista corp on it recently and Office is now much snappier. not sure if its because of stuff Office 2k7 uses being already resident in vista or what, but its certainly noticable. My work machine has gone from being a pig of a thing to being quite snappy... I haven't tweaked vista at all - its a basic out-of-box + drivers installation...

Additionally... Vista SP1 + 2003 R2/2008 Server both have SMB 2 support. This improves network throughput on SMB, particularly on slow links...

[Brougham]

ditto, i'm on 64-bit with 4gig matched Corsair ram. blazingly fast.

only issue is that my crack for AutoCAD 2008 doesn't work on 64-bit!

so, my pc isn't running illegal autocad for a change!

[NanoBear]

vista ultimate x64 for me. 4GB RAM. Had a couple of issues, canon doesn't have a 64bit driver for my old printer, but I needed a new one anyway. Also Heroes of Might and Magic II doesn't work on 64bit, but I would say most people are past that era of game anyway. Overall, its running faster than xp or vista 32bit on 2GB RAM.

I haven't tracked it down yet, but I have seen a 64bit edition of autocad 2008 floating around somewhere.

Only things I've tweaked sofar is UAC (piece of crap) and my usual disabling of some security crap. Will definitely be going through this guide.

[Klink]

Everyone knocks UAC in Vista... but noone says boo about the similar function in Mac OSX where you have to enter your password everytime you need to elevate to administrator privileges.

UAC is a very handy and secure method for restricting admin elevation by an application. It might be annoying, but the method has madness.

[Ferris]

I fucking LOVE UAC.

[Gryphen]

Tip 1: Buy 4 gigs of ram you tightfisted bastards.

Dude it's 64bit.... it has the ability to address more, so stop being mediocre and go 8gb DDR3-1333 (if the mobo supports of course)

[NanoBear]

... and throw away your space heater because your PC just became dual purpose

[Ferris]

Not really, my quad core monster runs cooler than my old P4 3.0Ghz.

[out_in_front]

My tip - ( I have home premium and 2GB ram on a laptop) - turn all the shit off -

Right click on my computer - go to Advanced system settings - then select the "performance" tab, go to settings and click Adjust for best performance - and it makes it look like 95 / 98, but it runs quicker - if you want all the wanky graphics then you are doing it wrong...

Then look up the list off apps you can turn off, Windows Vista Services Explained has a list

then go to - control panel / admin tools / services and turn every one you can off - this frees up Ram and background processing.

Then go to computer and right click on C: and untick "index this drive for faster searching" if you need to search for you documents frequently (because you do not know where you saved them / have no logical structure to your hard drive) you need to take your computer back to the store for a refund and never think of buying one again - unless you get a brain transplant.

Hope this helps. Personally I am finding it faster than XP now...

[Desmo]

Shouldn't that be My computer ---> properties ---> advanced system settings?

[out_in_front]

Yeah true - does anyone use any of the other options on the pull down menu though??

[thro]

Dude it's 64bit.... it has the ability to address more, so stop being mediocre and go 8gb DDR3-1333 (if the mobo supports of course)

Get 8 if you like, but I haven't actually run out of RAM with 4gb yet - if i notice swapping then I'll buy more for less money when the time comes

I should perhaps rephrase that as "get at least 4gb".

2 is adequate, but yeah... mainly aimed at those people who try and run vista with 1gb or less and then complain that it runs like a pig. no shit sherlock, its not really aimed at 5 year old hardware


I haven't tweaked any services - Core2 Q6600, 4gb ram (and D530 Latitude with 2gb at work running 32 bit) and its blazingly fast. If you run it on the appropriate hardware, my opinion is that you're best off leaving most of the new vista stuff turned ON - previous versions for instance is a potential lifesaver if you store work on your PC.

As far as UAC goes - once you have things set up, its no hassle. I can go for days/weeks without seeing a UAC prompt. Its no different to sudo on linux/etc...



AS far as the "wanky graphics" (ie, Aero) goes - I find it useful for the live previews available when mousing over the task bar. I actually use that a fair bit. If you have 3d accelerated hardware its a no brainer - as it offloads a fair bit of stuff to your GPU anyway.

[Dyno]

Only problem I had wast STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl.
Bought it and my old PC wasn't fast enough. New PC with Vista makes it piss but crashes after 10min
Never really had a chance to play

[Klink]

Stay tuned. I'll be writing another tech tip about UAC and how you can reduce its impact on your Vista life.

[Kingy]

Gee.. where is the executive summary Klink... so I don't have to read all the Micro$oft dribble and just make the worthwhile changes... cmon... lift your game!

[Ferris]

TBH, that was the executive summary... Want a more comprehensive guide lookup the Windows Vista Tweakguide Companion @ tweakguides.com

[Kingy]

Short version...



Format c:\





I did not really read it but have emailed it home to have a look at...