99 Windows Vista Performance Tips and Tweaks

Table of Contents
Mastering & Streamlining the Vista

System Preparation: Tweak Interface
Insurance (1-3) (54-83)
1. Back up and restore Windows Vista 54. Use checkboxes for multiple file selection
Registry 55. Enable Windows classic desktop
2. How to edit the Windows Vista appearance
Registry 56. Reduce start menu opening delay
3. Creating a system restore point in 57. Disable mandatory thumbnail previews
58. Remove unnecessary Windows Vista
Windows Vista features
59. Start task manager directly
60. Run sidebar gadgets without the sidebar
61. Backup your entire computer with Vista
System Preparation: Hardware (4-
Backup and restore (Vista Business and
10) Ultimate only)
4. Add more memory (RAM)! 62. Essential hotkey shortcuts for Vista
5. Update the motherboard BIOS 63. Return the run command to the start
6. Update hardware drivers menu
7. Test the Computer's RAM 64. Using the new 'resource overview'
8. Optimize the memory timings and monitor in Windows Vista
voltage 65. Use the Vista reliability checker to track
9. Overclock the processor and system issues
memory 66. Disable warning sounds and add visual
10. Overclock the videocard cues
67. Create desktop shutdown and reboot
icons
68. Good sidebar gadgets to have (and not to
First Boot - The Essential Tweaks have)
(11-20) 69. Run any application as administrator with
a few keystrokes
11. Turn off User Account Control (UAC)
70. Configure Windows Vista autoplay
12. Set Automatic Update to download
manually to suit your preferences
only
71. Disable security notifications
13. Learn to use the search bar as a
72. Tweak the mouse scroll wheel
Run command.
73. Add Encrypt / Decrypt to Right Click Menu
14. Disable automatic device driver
74. Disable 'GUI boot' to speed startup
searching and installation
75. Add administrator account to welcome
15. Use Windows Defender to disable
screen.
startup programs
76. Change volume levels for individual
16. Power options to high performance.
applications
17. Enable DVD playback in Vista Basic
77. Display your backed-up DVD media in
and Vista Business.
Vista Media Center (applies to Vista Home
18. Make the 64-bit version of Windows
Premium and Ultimate only)
Media Player 11 the default player
78. Reveal Vista's hidden context menu
in Windows Vista x64
power tools
19. Update vista!
79. Be the super user
20. Run programs with administrator 80. Fix the Start Menu Power button
rights 81. Enable verbose shutdown messages
(Vista business and Ultimate only)
82. Customize Vista desktop performance
83. The ultimate Vista performance Tweak
Windows Vista Performance (not really)
Boosting Tweaks (21-53)
21. Disable search indexing
22. Limit start menu search options
23. Remove remote differential
compression
24. Boost external hard drive 'Aero'-Dynamics - Customizing the
performance Vista Aeroglass Interface (84-86)
25. Enable Readyboost on any flash 84. Disable Aero (All versions except Vista
memory device. Basic)
26. Speed up SATA drives in Vista. 85. Disable Aero transparency (All versions
27. Assign specific CPUs to applications except Vista Basic)
28. Assign priorities to applications 86. Disable min/max window animation in
29. Create shortcuts for running
applications with certain
Aero (All versions except Vista Basic)
CPU/Priority settings
30. Disable unnecessary services
31. De-automate Windows Defender
32. Upgrade to Vista Service Pack 1
Network & Internet Performance
Beta (SP1-beta) Tweaks
33. Disable superfetch for computers (87-91)
with less memory 87. Enable more simultaneous downloads in
34. Boot Vista with all available Internet Explorer 7
processors 88. Enable more simultaneous Downloads in
35. Force 32-bit Windows Vista to use Firefox
all your memory by enabling PAE 89. Fix large file copying problems in
36. Used advanced disk cleanup tools to Windows Vista
regain more space 90. Disable IPV6 in Windows Vista
37. Shut down services faster for faster 91. Refresh shortcut for wireless network
shutdown.
38. Disable the Vista sidebar searching
39. Set the Sidebar to low priority
40. Kill the RSS feed sidebar gadget
41. Disable automatic backup/system
restore Vista Tuning Tips for Notebooks (92-
42. Disable hibernate on desktops 94)
43. Stop scheduled disk 92. Disable Transient Multi-monitor manager
defragmentation to speed up boot times
44. Move the Vista paging file for better 93. Tweak your Vista power saving options
performance for more travel time
45. Set a fixed paging file size 94. Disable Aero interface to save big on
46. Rebuild the paging file to optimize
performance
battery life
47. Move search index to another
physical drive
48. Disable the low disk space check
49. Disable 8.3 name creation
Windows Vista Gaming Tips (95-99)
50. Disable last access file update 95. Update Vista's DirectX9 files for better
51. Disable unneeded hardware game compatibility
52. Check bootup and shutdown times 96. Disable background features while
with the Windows Vista Event gaming
viewer 97. Run directX 9 games in Windows XP
compatibility mode
98. Fix/enable 3D sound in some games
53. Check your system's health in
60 seconds or less
99. Poor game performance? Try DirectX9
mode
System Preparation - Tweak Insurance: Tips 1-3
System Preparation - Tweak Insurance
It's always good to plan ahead. These tips will show you how to back up and restore essential
Windows Vista settings in preparation for this PCSTATS tip odyssey.
1. Back up and Restore the Windows Vista registry
Several of the following tips require editing the Windows Vista registry, a storehouse of
settings and configuration information not usually accessible through the main Vista interface.
Editing the registry can have dire consequences if the wrong values are changed, so it's
always a good idea to make a backup of the registry first. This backup can be easily restored,
allowing you to roll back any incorrect changes you made.
To backup the Windows Vista registry:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'regedit' in the search box. Hit Enter.
Highlight 'computer' in the left-hand pane.
Go to 'file\export'.
Choose a location on your computer to save the registry backup file. The preferable location is
either on removable storage like a USB drive, or on a separate physical disk from the Windows
directory, but anywhere will do in a pinch. Give it an appropriate name like 'registrybackup08'.
To import this image of the registry (and erase any changes made since), follow the first few
steps above to open regedit, then go to 'file\import' and load the file you just created.
2. How to edit the Windows Vista registry
Now that we've backed up the registry, let's look at how to edit
it. As mentioned previously, several of the following tips require
the registry to be changed, so it's a good idea to get to know
the process now.
To edit the Windows Vista registry:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'regedit' in the search box. Hit
Enter.
This will open the Regedit program which we will use for any tips that require a registry edit.
To navigate in Regedit, use the directory tree in the left hand pane.
The folders in this view are known as registry 'keys'. Keys can contain other 'subkeys' and sets
of values which affect the function of Windows Vista. During this tips article we will be creating
both new keys and new values.
To create a registry key:
Right click on an empty area of the right-hand pane and choose 'new/key'. Give the newly
created key the name specified in the tip. Note that no saving is necessary. Once a change is
made to the registry, it's made.
To create a registry value:
Though there are several types of registry values that can be created, the only one we are
going to deal with in this article is the DWORD value type. To create one, navigate to the
appropriate registry key and subkey as specified in the tip you are following, then right click
on an empty area of the right-hand pane and choose 'new/DWORD value'.
Give the new value the specified name, click 'ok', then double click on the newly created
DWORD to edit it. Enter the value again as specified in the tip you are following. Click 'ok.' The
Windows registry hasn't changed much since WindowsXP, so if you'd like to learn a little more
about the registry have a look at this PCSTATS guide on the subject.
3. Creating a system restore point in Windows Vista
Like XP before it, Vista includes the useful system restore utility. Under ideal conditions, this
feature allows you to roll back the entire operating system (excepting personal data) to a
previously created 'restore point' allowing you to undo errors caused by faulty programs or
changes made to the system. Before we continue further with tweaks, it's a good idea to
create one of these restore points and to understand how to return the operating system to a
previously created restore point.
To create a system restore point:
Open the 'start' menu and right-click on 'computer'. Choose 'properties'.
From the tasks pane on the left, click 'System Protection'.
Click the 'create' button and give your new restore point an appropriate name like 'system
before tweaks' and hit 'create'.
To restore Windows Vista to a previously saved restore point:

Open the 'start' menu and type 'system restore.'
Click 'next'.
Choose the restore point you wish to use by highlighting it and then hit 'next'.
Make sure you have saved any documents, then click 'finish'. The system will restart and
revert to the settings saved in the restore point.
System Preparation - Hardware: Tips 4-7
System Preparation - Hardware
As you probably already know, the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system is a real
resource hog. Whatever else you can say about Vista, there's not mistaking the fact it
appreciates fast computer hardware. These next few tips are dedicated to advice on improving
and tweaking your hardware to better run Vista.
4. Add more memory (RAM)!
This may seem obvious or self-explanatory, but in fact it's neither. This is the standard bit of
advice given to just about every computer newbie who has ever asked "how do I speed up my
computer?". The thing is, under Windows XP and previous operating systems, this advice has
generally been wrong.
While the performance difference between 1GB of memory and 2-4GB of system memory in
Windows XP was hardly noticeable, Windows Vista benefits greatly and noticeably from any
increase in system RAM due to it's more efficient use of available resources. While 32-bit
Windows Vista is still limited to a maximum of ~3.2GB of usable memory, you will notice a
measurable difference in performance for every gigabyte of memory you add below this limit.
Check out this PCSTATS article which answers the "how much memory is enough for Vista"
question in greater detail. The answer is 2GB of course, and we've got the benchmarks to back
that figure up.
Given that DDR2 memory is selling for less than $25/GB at the time of writing, this is maybe
the best tip we can give you to increase performance. We'd recommend at least 2GB of RAM
for an optimum Windows Vista experience, be it DDR, DDR2 or DDR3. If you're a gamer make
that 4GB RAM for good measure.
5. Update the Motherboard BIOS
It's always a good idea to make sure your computer's firmware is fully up-to-date before
taking on a new operating system, especially one as demanding as Windows Vista. Therefore,
we recommend checking for any available updates to your computer's motherboard BIOS. For
a more detailed walkthrough than we have the space to provide here, see PCSTATS Beginner's
Guide to Updating a Motherboard BIOS.
6. Update hardware drivers
Windows Vista is still relatively new, so hardware drivers (the programs that make Windows
work with your computer's hardware) are still in a state of development. If you haven't
updated them recently you should do the rounds of your motherboard, videocard and
soundcard (if necessary) manufacturer's websites in order to make sure you have the latest
Vista compliant drivers for your gear. You should especially do this if you purchased or
assembled your computer system close to the release date of Vista last year, since hardware
drivers have made leaps and bounds in performance and stability since then. In fact, a lot of
the problems users initially experienced with Windows Vista can be linked to immature drivers,
or older WinXP drivers used in place of absent Vista compliant drivers.
7. Test the computer's RAM
It's always a good idea to test your

memory periodically, especially if
you have only just installed Vista,
or if you are reading this article
because you are having
performance or stability issues with
the operating system.
Fortunately, Vista has a built in

memory testing application which
will do the job quite well. You will
have to restart and leave the
computer system alone for 30
minutes or so though.
To test your memory with the

windows Vista memory testing tool:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'memory' in the search bar and hit Enter.
Choose the 'restart now and check for problems' option.
The computer will restart and run through a full memory test. There are other ways to test
and diagnose bad system memory, such as the techniques covered in this PCSTATS guide.
System Preparation - Hardware: Tips 8-10
8. Optimize the memory timings and voltage
You may or may not wish to overclock your computer system, but to gain the best possible
performance from your memory right now, let's look into optimizing your computer's memory
latency timings.
To put it simply, memory timings are a set of arranged delays that each memory module steps
through in between transferring data to and from your computer. These programmed delays
ensure that data can be written to and read from your RAM in an orderly fashion. Shorter
delays mean your memory pushes more data in a given time, meaning better overall
computing performance.
There are too many variables for us to give you a comprehensive guide on setting your
memory latencies. Take a look at PCSTATS' article here, then refer to your motherboard
manual and the website of your memory manufacturer for instructions on your specific
hardware.
9. Overclock the processor and memory
Your computer system is the engine that powers your Vista experience, so why not make that
engine run faster if you can? Ok, there's a few reasons why you might not want to (hassle and
stability concerns to name two), but with today's computer technology, a slight overclock is
almost guaranteed. Also overclocking your computer will certainly gain you a healthy
performance advantage in games and number crunching applications. With this in mind, we'd
like to direct you to this PCSTATS Guide on the subject of overclocking for a comprehensive
how-to.
10. Overclock the video card
If gaming is your Vista priority, then this tip might be of interest to you. As with overclocking
your processor and memory, overclocking the videocard makes it run faster than spec and
thus do more work in a given time period. Faster videocard=better games. As with all other
forms of overclocking, nothing is guaranteed, not even the safety of your hardware, so take it
slowly and be careful. A well overclocked videocard can improve your direct X10 gaming
performance dramatically though. Note that this will not help much with the Aeroglass 3D
interface. If your videocard already has problems with Aeroglass, a small speed tweak is
unlikely to help. If your card can handle Aeroglass just fine, more speed will not net you any
noticeable visual improvement. For a step-by-step guide to videocard overclocking, see this
PCSTATS Guide.
Now that we've covered the basics, lets dive into the first ten tweaks you can't live without.
These are the essential "First Boot" tweaks that will make Vista a much more pleasant
operating system
to work in, particularly if you consider yourself an intermediate-to-experienced computer user.
First Boot the Essential Tweaks: Tips 11-12
First Boot - The Essential Tweaks
11. Turn off User Account Control (UAC)
User Account Control (UAC) is definitely the most maligned, misunderstood and most often
mocked new 'feature' of Windows Vista. What is it? You know those little yes/no boxes that
pop up when you try to run an installation program, or view device manager or anything else
that Vista interprets as an 'administrator' level event? That's UAC.
What it does is attempt to prevent unauthorized changes to the Windows system settings by
requiring a manual 'ok' from you, for each and every change. What it also tends to do is annoy
people, especially since the popup window does not always appear in the foreground, leaving
you to wonder why your installation has frozen.
Fortunately, UAC can be easily disabled, though you should be aware that doing so strips Vista
of a considerable extra layer of security against viruses and malware. Effectively, disabling
UAC brings us back to XP territory in terms of security, but it makes Vista so much easier to
use. If you are a computer novice, you should consider leaving UAC enabled for the time
being. For the rest of you, to disable UAC in Windows Vista:
Go to start/control panel/user accounts and family safety/user accounts.
Click on 'turn user account control on or off' and select 'continue' when the UAC box appears.
Uncheck the 'use user account control (UAC) to help protect your computer' option.
Click 'ok'. Vista will require a restart, and following that you will be free of UAC nag windows.
Note that this disables UAC only for the current user.
12. Set Automatic Updates to download only
By default, Windows Vista will automatically download and install any patches and updates
that Microsoft considers crucial. This will often result in an automatic operating system restart,
which can be canceled if you are at the keyboard, but it can play havoc with your torrent
downloading if you are not.
A better way to do things is to have Vista download the patches automatically, but wait for
your permission to install them and restart the computer.
To enable manual update installation:
Go to 'start/control panel/security/turn automatic updating on or off'
Select the 'download updates but let me choose whether to install them' option.
Click 'OK'
Windows Vista will now notify you when updates are available via an icon in the taskbar, but
will not install them until told to. When you do choose to install the patches, you'll have the
opportunity of scanning over the patches and deselecting any you feel are unnecessary.
First Booth the Essential Tweaks: Tips 13-16

13. Learn to use the search bar as a Run command.
This is an essential tip for using Windows Vista, so if you haven't figured it out already, please
pay attention: The search bar is your friend.
While the lack of options and a Run command can seem a little disorienting for first-time Vista
users, the search bar more than makes up for the other changes to the start menu. By
default, the search bar will check all your personal folders, the program files and Windows
directories and your Email and Internet history and favourites every time you enter
something.
What does that mean? It means that every document you've created, every web page you've
recently visited and every program you've installed is going to be accessible with just a few
keystrokes.
Try this: Hit the Windows key once, type mail and press Enter. Convenient huh? Try again,
this time with 'cmd'. Still missing the Run command? Didn't think so. Once you've added sites
like Hotmail or Gmail to your favourites, you can access them from the search bar directly in
the same fashion.
14. Disable automatic device driver searching and installation
By default, the Windows Vista update service will search for and download device drivers for
your hardware. Trouble is, the drivers that it finds (and installs automatically unless you have
disabled the option as seen in tip#12) are not necessarily the best choices for your hardware,
and in rare cases may cause their own problems.
PCSTATS is of the opinion that it is much better to disable the update driver function and do
your own driver updates when necessary.
To disable automatic driver updates:
Click on 'advanced system settings' on the left-hand pane.
Choose the 'hardware' tab and click 'Windows update driver settings'.
Select the 'never check for drivers when I connect a device' option.
Click 'ok'.
15. Use Windows Defender to disable startup programs

Windows Vista includes Windows Defender, which most people know as Microsoft's in-house
anti-spyware application, and it's very good at that. Defender has a few other tricks up its
sleeve though, including the handy ability to monitor and disable startup programs. Nothing
slows down a computer like a few dozen application set to load when you boot Windows and
then sit idle in the taskbar, so let's look at using Defender to clear these pesky parasites.
To disable startup apps using Windows Defender:
Go to 'start/all programs' then run 'Windows

Defender' as administrator (see tip # for how to do
this).
Click on the 'tools' icon at the top of the screen.
Click on 'software explorer'.
The left hand pane show the programs that are set
to load every time your computer starts up, sorted
by the name of the company that created them.
Clicking on an item brings up details in the right-
hand pane.
Note the 'remove', 'disable' and 'enable' buttons on

the bottom right.
Removing an application deletes it from the list

entirely (though not from the whole computer, just
the startup section). Disabling an application
prevents it from running on startup, and the
'enable' button obviously re-enables a previously
disabled program.
We would not recommend disabling any of the

Microsoft branded apps besides the sidebar.
16. Power options to high performance
By default, Windows Vista uses some fairly conservative power settings, which can be good for
your laptop or for the environment, but maybe not for you if you want your computer running
at its maximum speed and capability at all times. To remedy this, Microsoft included a third
standard power option in the control panel, the 'high performance' setting. What this does is
to disable virtually all power saving features (the hard disks will still spin down after 20
minutes if not accessed), allowing your computer to run at it's full rating even when left
unattended.
To set your Vista machine's power profile to 'high performance':
Go to 'start/control panel'
Click on 'classic view' in the left hand pane.
Open 'power options'.
Select the 'high performance' power plan.
First Boot the Essential Tweaks: Tips 17-20
17. Enable DVD playback in Vista Basic and Vista Business
Can't play DVD's in Windows Vista? Unfortunately, Microsoft Windows Vista does not support
DVD playback evenly across all its many versions; only Vista Ultimate and Home Premium
have the MPEG/2 codec installed out of the box. Notebooks and desktop computers running
Vista Business or Vista Home Basic lack this crucial software component, preventing them
from playing DVDs.
For the new Vista user settling down to watch a favourite movie, there is nothing more
alarming than the unexpected blank DVD screen that results... no matter if the media player is
Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11), PowerDVD, or VLC. Luckily, fixing this isn't difficult.
Oddly enough Vista Business / Home Basic itself doesn't offer any great help, suggesting an
"upgrade to Vista Ultimate", or occassionally to "reduce screen resolution". There is no need to
upgrade the entire operating system just to watch a DVD, and screen size is just fine. The fix
is much simpler, and you don't need to go online and pay $15 to $50 for the privilege of
adding this feature. A better course of action is to download a free codec pack, essentially a
set of decoding tools to allow Windows to read and playback DVD (and DivX for that matter)
media.
PCSTATS recommends the K-Lite codec pack, available here or via an easy Google search. K-
Lite Codec Pack 3.6.5 Standard covers all your DVD watching needs, and a good many other
codecs too. Download K-Lite from the link above, install the default set or select just the codec
you need, then restart the media player. From now on you will be able to watch DVDs in
Windows Vista.
Incidently, codec's are like drivers for media files. Whichever media player you choose to
watch DVDs on will work once it has access to the correct codec files, but without them even a
versatile player like VideoLAN VLC will be unable to play DVD content.
If you are running Windows Vista X64 Business with the 64-bit version of Windows Media
Player 11, you will need K-Lite Codec Pack 64-bit Add-on 1.2.0. It can be found here at
Betanews.com.
18. Make the 64-bit version of Windows Media Player 11 the default player in
Windows Vista x64
Windows Vista x64 users may want to take one additional step because the 64-bit Windows
Vista defaults to the 32-bit version of Windows Media Player 11 to ensure broad file and media
compatibility. To specify the 64-bit version of Windows Media Player 11 as the default WMP
player for 64-bit Vista, we need to redirect a few program shortcuts.
The 32-bit WMP11 program is located in the '.../ProgramFiles(x86)/' folder, while the native
64-bit version of WMP11 is located in the '.../ProgramFiles/' folder.
To set your Vista x64 operating system to default to the 64-bit version of Windows Media
Player 11:
Go to Start (the Vista icon in the lower left corner) > and use one of the following commands
(without quotes)...
To set 64-bit WMP11 as default player type: "unregmp2.exe /SwapTo:64"
To revert to 32-bit WMP11 as the default player type: "unregmp2.exe /SwapTo:32"
From now on in Windows Vista x64 you will automatically be able to watch DVDs on the 64-bit
version of Windows Media player 11. On the off chance the SwapTo command doesn't work,
there is a more advanced set of commands detailed here.
19. Update Vista!
Keep your Vista install current. Many of the patches and hotfixes that Microsoft has put out in
the year since Vista's release increase performance, either by streamlining the functions of the
OS or by fixing things that were broken. To squeeze the most speed out of your Vista system,
it has to be kept current.
To update Vista, just open the 'start' menu and type 'update' in the search bar.
20. Run programs with administrator rights
Microsoft added a second layer of security to Windows Vista by ensuring that standard user
accounts do not have full administrative privileges. This helps to protect the OS by ensuring
that users cannot easily change some system settings but it also serves to annoy users who
want to easily change some system settings. Fortunately, there's an easy fix. You may already
know how to do this if you are Vista savvy, but if you are not, this is required to carry out
many of the following tips.
To run a program with Administrative rights:
Type the name of the program in the 'start' menu searchbar.
Right click on the program's icon in the search results and choose 'run as administrator.'
Now you have the power.
Vista Performance Boosting: Tips 21-23
Vista Performance Boosting Tips
Now it's time to get to the meat of this article. The following tips deal with speeding up your
Windows Vista experience by altering many of the default settings of the operating system.
Happy tweaking!
21. Disable search indexing
The indexing service in Windows Vista is a lot better integrated into the operating system than
it was with Windows XP, and a lot more useful, given the presence of the searchbar. It's still
not essential though, and it still uses up hard disk and memory resources. Disabling the
indexing service does not disable the search or search bar functions of Vista, but it will slow
down the results a bit. Disabling it will speed the rest of your computer system up a bit, so the
trade off is up to you.
To disable the Windows Vista Indexing service:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'services' in the searchbar. Hit Enter.
In the services window, scroll down until you reach the 'windows search' service. Right click it
and hit 'properties'.
In the 'startup type' dropdown box, change the value to 'disabled', then click the 'stop' button
below to stop the service immediately. Hit 'ok.'
22. Limit start menu search options
Once you've gotten used to it, The start menu search bar is an incredibly easy way to find and
launch programs, files and other stuff. It can run into speed problems though, once the
volume of data in your Windows Vista computer system increases. It can also give you a lot of
extraneous results that you may not want, or want others to see. Let's look at some ways to
customize the search bar to streamline and speed up searches.
To change start menu search bar options:
Right click on the 'start' button and select 'properties.'
Now click the 'customize' button.
Scroll down until you reach the 'search' entry.
The next five options control what the search bar will
actually search for.
'Search' you are going to want to leave enabled unless

you really dislike the search bar. You can
'Search communications' searches Windows Mail for contacts and emails. If you don't use
Windows mail or don't plan to initiate emails from the start menu, you can disable this one.
'Search favourites and history' checks through Internet Explorer 7 for faves and recent web
site visits. If you use Firefox or value your privacy, you might want to disable this one, though
it does make navigating to a favourite page quick and easy.
'Search files' has three settings. By default it will search all files in your user directory, but not
elsewhere on the computer. You can also set it to search all indexed files on your computer,
or, for maximum search speed, disable file searching entirely.
'Search programs' enables and disables program searching, obviously. We'd recommend you
leave this one alone, because it might make Microsoft developers cry if you disable it (also it's
useful).
23. Remove remote differential compression
The remote differential compression feature of Vista was designed to streamline transfers of
files to and from remote directories by keeping track of file changes and only transferring the
changed parts of a file or document, rather than the whole thing. This is a great feature for
offices that commonly store and access work on network drives, but not so much for home
users, especially since the service can eat up system performance while it's working.
To disable remote differential compression:
Go to 'start/control panel/programs/uninstall a program'.
In the sidebar, click 'turn windows features on and off'.
Uncheck 'remote differential compression' and click 'ok.'
24. Boost external hard drive performance
If you use an external hard drive enclosure as secondary storage for your vista computer
system, or if you regularly use a USB storage device for large amounts of file transfers, you
will benefit from this tip. By changing the way Vista handles writing data to USB storage
devices, we can considerably boost the access speed and data transfer rate of said device.
By default, Windows Vista does not use write caching on USB drives, meaning that all data
you send to the drive is instantly transferred to the device. Write caching acts as a buffer
between the slow mechanical hard drive and the fast system memory. In essence, your
computer writes to the cache (another area of memory) which then transfers the data
sequentially to the drive, freeing up the rest of your system to do other things.
By enabling write caching on USB drives, you can increase the apparent performance of your
external hard disk greatly. Note that flash memory devices will see little to no performance
increase with this tweak.
To enable Write Caching on an external drive:
With your external USB drive plugged in and connected, go to 'start\computer.'
Right click the external drive in the computer window and choose 'properties.'
Click on the 'hardware' tab.
Highlight your external drive in the list and click the 'properties' button.
Select the 'policies' tab.
Choose the second option marked 'optimize for performance.' Click ok.
Important:Note that in order to prevent data loss, you will now have to use the 'safely
remove hardware' icon in the taskbar whenever you want to remove your external drive. This
is not necessary when shutting down the computer system though.
25. Enable Readyboost on any flash memory device
If you've been paying attention, you'd have noticed that we have not included Readyboost as
one of our performance tips. This is because PCSTATS tested this Vista feature extensively in a
previous article and came to the conclusion that the performance gain it offers is minimal at
best, unless you have very little memory available (512MB or less). Since DDR2 memory is so
cheap, it invariably seems a better expense than buying and using the more expensive
ReadyBoost certified flash devices.
However, if you already have a flash memory device or two around the house and want to
play at ReadyBoost, but Vista is telling you your toys aren't fast enough to join, this tip could
be for you.
To enable ReadyBoost on a 'slow' USB drive or flash memory card:
Insert the device and ignore the

autoplay Window.
Open 'start\computer'. Right click on

the flash memory device and choose
'properties.'
Go to the 'readyboost' tab and place

a check next to 'do not retest this
device'. Hit 'ok'.
Unplug your USB device.
Open Regedit (open 'start' menu and type 'regedit.')
Navigate to
'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\EMDMgmt'
In this folder, there should be a folder corresponding to each USB storage device you have
ever had attached to your computer. Find the one corresponding to your USB drive and open
it.
Double-click on the 'DeviceStatus' value and change it to '2'.
Now replug your USB device. It will now be recognized as ReadyBoost capable.
26. Speed up SATA hard drives in Vista
In a similar mode to Tip # 24, Vista can also be tweaked to improve the performance of
internal SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives. Vista's write cache has two levels, the more basic of
which is enabled by default. To really enhance the performance of your SATA hard disks you
can enable the 'advanced disk performance' mode.
It should be noted that this tip, like a couple of others in the guide, has the potential to
damage your Vista installation. By extending write caching (data held in memory to be written
eventually to hard drive) you extend the risk of damaging your system files in the event of a
crash or power outage. That being said, you will experience an increase in drive performance,
so balance the pros with the cons.
To enable advanced performance on a SATA internal drive:
Go to 'start\computer.'
Right click the SATA drive in the computer window and choose 'properties.'
Click on the 'hardware' tab.
Highlight your SATA drive in the list and click the 'properties' button.
Select the 'policies' tab.
Select the 'enable enhanced performance' option. Note the warning. Click OK.
27. Assign specific CPUs to specific applications
Windows Vista allows you to easily assign an application to run only on a specific CPU, which
Microsoft dubs processor affinity. If you have a dual or multi-core processor in your computer,
this can be a good way of getting some use out of the secondary processors. Your mileage
may vary, but it's an interesting tool to experiment with and a way of seeing your new multi-
core chip at work.
To assign processor affinity

settings to an application:
Start the desired application.
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and choose

the 'task manager' option.
In the 'applications' tab, locate

the desired program and right click on it. Choose 'go to process'.
This will bring you to the 'processes' tab, with the process that drives your application
highlighted. Right click on it and choose 'set affinity...'.
The processor affinity window opens. Using the checkboxes, select which processor(s) you
want to be able to run that application.
Note that all settings will be reset to default when you restart the computer.
28. Assign priorities to applications
All recent Microsoft operating systems have contained the concept of priority, meaning in this
case, which process gets the most attention from the CPU. In Vista, you can customize these
priority settings so that your hardware is concentrating most on what you want it to.
Vista has a range of available settings ranging from 'low' to 'real time'. It should be noted here
that any full screen application (including games) is automatically given high priority by Vista,
so there are no frames per second increases to be had here. What you can do is tweak your
commonly used windowed apps to get the desired level of performance vs. system resource
consumption.
To assign custom priorities to applications:
Start the desired application.
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and choose the

'task manager' option.
In the 'applications' tab, locate the

desired program and right click on it.
Choose 'go to process'.
This will bring you to the 'processes' tab, with the process that drives your application
highlighted. Right click on it and choose 'set priority'. The priority list will open. Choose your
desired level, but note that choosing 'realtime' is not a good idea if you want to run anything
else at the same time.
Note that all settings will be reset to default when you restart the computer.
29. Create shortcuts for running applications with certain CPU/Priority settings
If you've tried out the above two tips for
assigning specific CPUs to processes and
assigning priorities, you've no doubt noticed that
all your setting disappear after reboot. How to
make these permanent? Well, there's no real
easy way, but there is a workaround you can do
by creating a custom shortcut to the app you
want to run with specific CPU or priority settings. Let's look at how to do this.
To create a shortcut to run an application with specific CPU affinity or priority settings:
First you will need to know the location of the application you want to run. The best way to
find this is with the searchbar in the start menu. Say you wanted to find the executable file for
the Vista Sidebar. Open the start menu and type 'sidebar' in the search box.
The first entry you get will be the Windows Vista Sidebar executable file. Right click on it and
choose 'properties'. Click the 'open file location' button at the bottom of the next Window.
Make a note of the file path in the navigation bar at the top of the screen. For Sidebar, it's
'c:\program files\windows sidebar\sidebar.exe'.
Now, drop back to the desktop and create a new shortcut by right-clicking on the desktop and
selecting 'new/shortcut.'
When the shortcut wizard appears, enter the following into the text box:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c start "(the name of the application you want to start,

quotes necessary).exe" /(LOW, HIGH or REALTIME priority) /AFFINITY (1 or 2) "(the path to
the file you want to run, from the previous step, quotes necessary)"
The brackets should be removed from the above once you substitute your own items, but all
other formatting should remain.
Save the shortcut, then use it to start your app with the desired custom settings.
30. Disable unnecessary services in Windows Vista
There are a few services that Vista runs by default which it is very unlikely that a home user
will ever need. You may as well disable these in order to save the small portion of system
resources that they consume. Note that this list was designed with a home user and a home
networking environment in mind.
If your computer is part of a larger business network, or you use a server-oriented (meaning
domain controller, etc.) network at home, please do not make any changes to your existing
Vista services.
To disable unnecessary services:
open the 'start' menu and type 'services' in the searchbar. Hit Enter.
In the services window, scroll down until you reach the service you want to disable. Right click
it and hit 'properties'.
below to stop the service immediately. Hit 'ok.' Alternatively, if you're unsure of an existing
program or application using one of the following services we're suggesting be disabled,
change the startup type to 'manual' instead, and then click the 'stop' button below to stop the
service immediately. By selecting 'manual', if a program calls for this service it will startup
instead of generating an error.
Here is a list of Vista services that are safe to disable, with the caveats we mentioned above.
Note that not all of these services are present on all versions of Vista, so if you can't find one,
don't panic.
Application experience
Application management
Distributed link tracking client
Offline files
Webclient
Tablet PC input service
TCP/IP NETBIOS helper
Restarting a Service: If you find one of these services was needed by software you use
everyday, and want to restart it, go back into the Services control panel. Double click on the
service you disabled and change 'startup type' back to 'automatic', click ok. Next, right click
on the same Service and click "start" to initialize it right away. By setting 'startup type' to
automatic, you're telling Vista to automatically start that service the next time the computer
starts. If the service is disabled and stopped however, you need to manually re-start it.
31. De-automate Windows Defender
By default, Windows Defender will run it's anti-spyware scan daily (albeit at a fairly unsociable
hour if possible). Though it runs in the background, this can impact computer system
performance the same way any full system file scan will. You may prefer to disable the
automatic scanning completely and perform only occasional manual system scans at your
discretion.
To de-automate Windows Defender system scans:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'defender.'
Click the 'tools' icon at the top of the window, then the 'options' selection.
Uncheck 'automatically scan my computer'. Click 'save'.
32. Upgrade to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta (SP1-beta)
Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista is currently available as a pre-release version, and promises
to provide a whole host of speed tweaks and fixes for some of the nagging issues that drag
down Vista performance, especially on lower end computer systems.
While installing pre-release software is risky, the speed benefits that Microsoft outlines are
probably worth it. Have a look at this PDF document on Microsoft.com and see what I mean.
Historically, Windows Service Pack updates have provided major benefits (and occasional
major headaches) for users, and this one should not be any different. Make sure you install it
when it is officially released, if not before.
33. Disable superfetch for computers with less memory
The Vista Superfetch feature is an interesting one. In theory, your Vista PC will 'learn' your
typical activities in terms of file and application access, then preconfigure the most commonly
used apps in its memory on startup, making them much faster to access. In practice, this
works very well on computers with 2GB or more of memory, but leads to a lot of disk
thrashing and sluggishness on systems below the magic 2GB line. If you are not happy with
the startup speed of your Vista machine, why not try disabling the Superfetch feature?
To stop and disable Vista Superfetch:
Go to the 'start' menu and type 'services' in the search bar. Hit Enter.
In the services window, scroll down until you reach the 'superfetch' service. Right click and
choose 'properties.'
Change the 'startup type' dropdown box to 'disabled' and click the 'stop' button to stop the
service.
Hit 'OK'.
34. Boot Vista with all available processors
While it takes good advantage of today's multiple core processors when it's loaded, Vista will
still use only a single processor core when the OS itself is loading. Fortunately you can
override this and force Vista to take advantage of all available processors when starting up.
To force Vista to use all processors during the startup process:

Right click on the 'start' menu and type 'msconfig.' Hit Enter.
Go to the 'boot' tab and click 'advanced options.'
Place a check next to the 'number of processors:' option and change the dropdown box to
reflect the number of discrete processor cores in your computer.
Hit 'ok' to save. You will need to restart to take advantage of this tip, obviously.
35. Force 32-bit Windows Vista
to use all your memory by enabling PAE
As we stated above, the 32-bit versions of Windows Vista will only recognize a maximum of a
little more than 3GB of memory if you have 4GB of RAM physically installed. It is possible,
however to gain access to the rest of your 4GB of memory by enabling Page Address
Extension (PAE) mode within Vista.
This feature works with 64-bit Intel and AMD processors to add an extra memory address
space over and above what is usually available to the operating system
. This will not allow enough headroom to access much more than 4GB of physical memory, so
you'll have to move to Vista 64 or Linux to go further, but for users who have 4GB and would
like it all to be used by Vista, this tip is worth a try.
One caveat; the extra memory addresses added by PAE require some extra work by Vista in
order to use them, so you need to balance the benefit of the extra memory compared to this
extra overhead. When it comes to apps that are not really memory hungry, enabling PAE may
only slow your computer down. Still, it's easy to enable and easy to remove again, so why not
try?
To enable PAE mode in Windows Vista:
Open an administrative command prompt (see Tip #20 for instructions on doing this)
Type the following: 'bcdedit /set pae forceenable'. Restart the computer.
Vista should now see your full 4GB of memory.
If you find performance has not improved the way you would like, you can disable PAE again
by opening the administrative command prompt and typing 'BCDedit /set PAE forcedisable'
followed by a restart.
36. Used advanced disk cleanup tools to regain more space
The program behind Vista's disk cleanup tool is the 'cleanmgr.exe' file. If you access this file
from the command prompt, you can enable several previously hidden options which give you
more control in terms of what is removed from your computer when you run disk cleanup.
Let's look at doing this.
To use the cleanmgr command to create custom drive cleaning options:
Open an administrative command prompt (open the start menu, type 'cmd' in the search box
and press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER).
Type 'cleanmgr /sagetset: 1' and hit Enter. This

brings up a checklist of the items you can set
diskcleanup to delete when it is run. You'll
notice that there are several options here which
are otherwise not available. Choose the options
you prefer.
When you hit 'ok' you have saved a cleaning

profile. To run that cleaning profile and remove
the items you specified from all drives, just
enter the following in the command prompt:
'cleanmgr /sagerun: 1'
37. Shut down operating system services faster, for a faster shutdown
When you shut down Windows Vista, all running services are shut down as part of the process
(obviously). Now if one or more of these services are engaged in doing something or are
hung, Windows will wait as long as 20 seconds before making the executive decision to close
each of them down. One easy way to speed up your shutdown process is to shorten the
amount of time that Windows will wait before putting the hammer down on errant processes.
To shorten the service shutdown grace period:
Open the 'start' menu, type 'regedit' and hit Enter.
Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control'
Double click the 'WaitToKillServiceTimeout' DWORD value to edit it. Give it a value between
5000 (5 seconds) and 12000 depending on how conservative you are feeling.
Your computer should now shutdown faster.

38. Disable the Vista sidebar
The Vista sidebar is one of the new features of the OS that has attracted wrath and praise in
equal amounts. Whether or not you appreciate it's style, ease of use and array of handy
gadgets, or hate it's space hogging, system clogging ways, it's impossible to deny that it eats
up system resources, even when you are doing other things and not looking at it.
Disabling the Vista gadget sidebar will increase the performance and reduce the load time of
your computer system slightly (which is, after all, the point of this PCSTATS Guide). If you do
not want to take the drastic step of disabling the sidebar completely, some tips follow which
will show you how to make more efficient use of the bar and its gadgets.
To disable the Windows sidebar:
Right click on a blank area of the sidebar and choose 'properties.'
Uncheck the 'Start sidebar when windows starts' option. Hit OK.
Right click on a blank area of the taskbar and choose 'close sidebar.'
39. Sidebar to low priority
So you like the Vista sidebar (and why not?) but you are worried about it consuming
unnecessary resources while you are doing things with your computer that do not involve it?
We have a solution for you.
What we are going to do is show you how to permanently set the sidebar to be a 'low priority'
application for Vista, meaning that the operating system will not devote resources to sidebar
apps when other full screen applications are demanding them.
To set the Windows Vista sidebar to low priority permanently:
First follow the steps in Tip #38 above to prevent the sidebar from starting when Vista starts.
Go to 'start/computer' and press 'ALT' to bring up the file menu taskbar.
Go to 'tools\folder options' and select the 'view' tab.
Under the 'hidden files and folders' section, select the 'show hidden files and folders' option.
Click 'ok'.
Navigate to 'start\computer\c:\users\(your
username)\appdata\roaming\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs\startup\'
Right click on the empty directory and choose 'new\shortcut.'
When the shortcut wizard appears, copy and paste the following:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c start "sidebar.exe" /LOW "C:\Program Files\windows

sidebar\sidebar.exe"
And click 'ok' to save the shortcut. Now every time you start Windows Vista, the sidebar will
be started also, but at low priority only.
40. Kill the RSS feed sidebar gadget
Even if you don't tweak the sidebar in any other way, you should take our advice and remove
the default RSS feed gadget Microsoft included on the bar. The trouble is that this particular
gadget has a nasty habit of running very intensively every few minutes, regardless of what
else you are doing on the system. This can cause brief performance stutters in games and
other applications.
To remove the RSS feed gadget:
Highlight the feed gadget by mousing over it, then click the small 'x' that appears to the top
right of the icon.
41. Disable automatic backup/system restore
Microsoft's system restore feature has always been of dubious use. As most technicians will
tell you, once your Windows system is corrupted enough to require system restore, it's usually
too far gone to be worth saving. Boot from safe mode or a live CD, get your data off and
reinstall. Since system restore for Vista doesn't contain any major updates over its Windows
XP predecessor, we'd recommend disabling to save on disk space and false hopes.
Note that in no way are we not recommending BACKUPS, as you should always have your
crucial personal and work data backed up onto a separate physical storage device. It's just
that history has proven that there is very little point in backing up your OS's system files. By
default, system restore can expand to use up to 15% of each of your drives, so there's a good
reason to turn it off.
To disable system restore:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'backup'. Hit Enter.
In the left hand pane, click 'create a restore point or change settings.'
Under the 'available disks' heading, uncheck all entries. Confirm and hit 'ok'.
42. Disable hibernate on desktops
If you've got a desktop that's on most of the time, doing large amounts of non-critical
applications in the background (read downloading), you probably want to disable the
hibernation and hybrid-sleep functions of Vista. Doing so will save you a chunk of disk space
the size of your physical RAM.
To turn off hibernation in Windows Vista:
Open the 'start menu' and type 'cmd' in the search bar but do not press Enter. Right click on
the 'cmd' shortcut where it appears in the search results and choose 'run as administrator'.
In the command prompt, type 'powercfg h off'.
43. Stop scheduled disk defragmentation

Microsoft has considerably simplified the disk defragmentation interface in Windows Vista, and
made it an automatic process, figuring (probably accurately) that 99% of their user base does
not know what disk defragmentation is and would not do it anyhow.
By default, Windows Vista will run a disk defragmentation process (essentially making sure
that all the files on your drive occupy contiguous drive space and are not scattered all over the
surface of the physical disk) every Wednesday morning at 1AM. If you happen to be up
gaming at 1AM on Wednesday morning, this will play havoc with your frame rates. It's
probably better to disable the automatic defragmentation process and do it manually once
every 3-6 months.
To disable automatic disk defragmentation in Windows Vista:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'defrag' in the search bar. Hit 'Enter'.
Uncheck the 'run on a schedule' check box.
Click 'ok'.
44. Move the Vista paging file for better performance
The page file is an area of hard disk space reserved by Windows for use as additional memory.
By default, Windows manages and resizes this file dynamically to suit its needs. Vista does a
very good job of optimizing the page file on its own, but there is one tweak you may be able
to make which will considerably increase its performance. If you have more than one physical
hard disk drive installed in your computer, you can move the page file onto the physical drive
that does NOT have Windows Vista installed on it. Since most page file hits are related to
Windows system operations, this will considerably reduce disk access on your OS drive,
speeding everything up.
To move the Windows Vista Page file:
Click on the 'start' menu and right click on 'computer'. Choose 'properties'.
In the left-hand pane, choose 'advanced system settings'.
Click the 'advanced' tab, then under the 'performance' heading choose 'settings...'
Choose the 'advanced' tab again, then under the 'virtual memory' heading click 'change...'
Uncheck the 'automatically manage paging

file size for all drives' checkbox.
In the window that shows the list of partitions

(C:, D:, etc.) choose a partition that resides
on the physical hard drive that does not have
Windows installed and highlight it. Select the
'system managed size' option then click the
'set' button. This will create a paging file on
the hard disk in question.
You will notice that the 'paging file size' for

the highlighted drive now reads 'system
managed'
Now highlight your C: partition (assuming

that this is where Windows Vista is installed).
Select the 'no paging file' option and click
'set'.
Your paging file has now been offloaded.

45. Set a fixed paging file size
If you want to optimize your Vista system's use of its page file as much as possible, consider
setting up a static paging file. Normally, the operating system dynamically resizes the page file
as it sees fit, but this resizing operation imposes an overhead on page file operations as well
as being unpredictable in terms of the size it takes up on the disk. By setting a static file size,
Vista is relieved of the need to manage the paging file which leads to more efficient operation.
To set a fixed paging file size:
Click on the 'start' menu and right click on 'computer'. Choose 'properties'.
In the left-hand pane, choose

'advanced system settings'.
Click the 'advanced' tab, then under the

'performance' heading choose
'settings...'
Choose the 'advanced' tab again, then

under the 'virtual memory' heading
click 'change...'
Uncheck 'automatically manage paging

file size for all drives' at the top.
Highlight the drive that contains your

paging file. Select the 'custom' size
option below.
Now enter in an appropriate amount of space in the minimum and maximum boxes. A good
guideline would be 1.5 x the amount of physical memory in your system, so set a 3GB page
file for a system with 2GB of system memory.
Click 'set' and 'ok'.
46. Rebuild the paging file to optimize performance
If you have noticed that game performance has diminished or that applications are loading
slower than they once did on your Vista system, you may want to give this tip a try. By
default, Vista does not clear the contents of the paging file (the area of the hard disk Vista
reserves to act as extra RAM memory). Over time it can become fragmented and less efficient.
One solution is to reset this file every so often, ensuring a fresh start for your applications and
games.
To reset the Windows Vista page file:
Click on the 'start' menu and right click on

'computer'. Choose 'properties'.
In the left-hand pane, choose 'advanced

system settings'.
Click the 'advanced' tab, then under the

'performance' heading choose 'settings...'
Choose the 'advanced' tab again, then under

the 'virtual memory' heading click 'change...'
Uncheck 'automatically manage paging file size

for all drives' at the top.
Highlight the drive that contains your paging

file. Select the 'custom' size option below.
Change the minimum and maximum page file size to '0' and click set.
Restart the computer.
Reopen the paging file properties window and highlight the drive that contained your page file.
Choose the 'system managed size' option and click 'set'. Confirm the overwrite and click 'ok'.
47. Move search index to another physical drive
Much like the paging file in Tip #44, you can move the search index to a separate physical
hard drive to save overhead on the system drive and boost performance. Note that this tip
does require rebuilding the index file, so performance may slow initially until it reaches a
useful size again.
To move the search index to another physical drive:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'index' in the search bar. Hit Enter.
Click the 'advanced' button.

Click 'select new' at the bottom of the page. Choose a new location on a different physical
hard drive.
Hit 'ok'.
48. Disable the low disk space check
If you've got a second hard drive that is filling up, or a partition that's getting near its space
limit, Vista will warn you... And warn you... And warn you, with little pop-up notifications
appearing in the taskbar every little while. This can get annoying fast, especially when you see
that the system is polling the disks every few minutes to bring you this important warning. It's
quite easy to disable though, with a quick registry hack doing the job.
One caveat: Having a decent amount of free disk space IS important if the partition in
question is your C: drive where Windows resides. If you want to disable this warning, pay
occasional attention to the state of your file space please.
To disable the low disk space check/notification:
Navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies'
If you have a registry key named 'Explorer' at this location, click on it to open it. If not, create
one by right clicking on the right hand pane and selecting 'new/key.' Call the new key
'Explorer.'
Navigate to Explorer and create a new DWORD value named 'NoLowDiskSpaceChecks' and
give it a value of '1'.
Disk checks will now be disabled.
49. Disable 8.3 name creation for files
The 8.3 namespace is a method of naming files used in DOS and Windows 3.1 (for example
myfile83.exe). This naming standard has not been necessary since Windows 95 hit stores
some 12 years ago. To maintain some illusion of backward compatibility the feature has been
kept, and if you do happen to use a DOS-based 16-bit application that can only recognize 8.3
character file names, you will need it. Otherwise, as Microsoft itself says:
"The creation of 8.3 filenames and directories for all long filenames and directories on NTFS
partitions may decrease directory enumeration performance."
...In other words, it's slowing you down.
To disable 8.3 name creation in Windows Vista:

Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem'
Change the value of the 'NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation' DWORD to '1'.
50. Disable last access file update
By default, any Windows installation that is using the NTFS file system (that is, almost any
installation of Windows 2000 or later) updates each file with a date stamp every time it is
accessed. If you don't think this feature is useful, save yourself some unnecessary disk access
by disabling it. Note that this is not the same feature as the 'file last modified on:' information
that appears when you bring up the properties of a file in Explorer, so disabling last access
update will not disable that information.
To disable last access file updating:
Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem'
Change the value of the 'NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate' DWORD to '1'.

51. Disable unneeded hardware
Do you use firewire? How about your wired Ethernet
connection? If the answer to these questions is no, you might want to consider disabling the
unnecessary hardware to free up system resources. This is a simple process and can be
reversed with a few clicks of the mouse, so you don't need to worry about the consequences
later on.
To disable unnecessary hardware in Windows Vista:
Open the 'start' menu and right-click on 'computer'. Select 'properties'.
Click 'device manager' in the left-hand pane.
When device manager opens, mouse down to the hardware you want to disable. Firewire
would be under 'ieee1394', while all network connection hardware is stored in the 'network
adapters' section.
To disable a device, right click on it and choose 'disable'. If you think you've made a mistake,
return to device manager, right click on the device and choose 'enable' to return it to its
previous state.
52. Check bootup and shutdown times with the Windows Vista Event viewer
The Windows Vista Event Viewer is not a tool most Vista users will find themselves checking
often, but it has a few handy uses. One thing you can do with the event viewer is check your
bootup and shutdown times and compare them to your system's previous times. If starting
your computer has recently become painfully slow, this is the way to track when the rot
started.
To check Vista's boot and shutdown times:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'event' in the search bar. Hit Enter.
Navigate to the following path: 'application and service log\microsoft\diagnostics-

performance\' and double click the 'operational' log.
The interface is a little less-than-obvious at first, but here's the key; log entries numbered
from 100-199 deal with startups and startup events. 200-299 are shutdown related, and 400-
499 are system performance entries.
Click on a '100' item, go to the 'details' tab and select 'friendly view' .
Here you are shown the time (measured in ms) to complete the boot process, as well as the
various steps along the way. You can compare this to previous '100' items on the log to check
whether your boot time has sped up or slowed down with the changes you have made to your
system. The same can be done for '200' shutdown events.
53. Check your computer system's health in 60 seconds or less

Another feature Microsoft added to Vista as part of the performance and reliability monitor
upgrade is the system health report generator. This will analyze your system using the various
hardware and software monitoring tools available to the OS and give you a one page
breakdown of your systems current health, with links to more additional information than you
could ever want. The system health report will give you a quick idea on what, if anything is
causing problems with your system's performance.
To run the System Health

Report Generator:
Oen the 'start' menu and

type 'perform info' in the
search bar and hit Enter.
Now click 'advanced tools'

in the left-hand pane.
At the bottom of this window, click 'generate a system health report' to run the report
generator.
You now have a snapshot of what Vista thinks of your computer and its own configuration.
Read and enjoy!
Mastering and Streamlining Vista Interface: Tips 54-57
Mastering and Streamlining the Windows Vista Interface
Now that you've tweaked the mechanics of your computer's Windows Vista installation, let's
start in on the visuals. The Vista interface presents a lot of tweaking opportunities and hidden
goodies for the diligent user, and PCSTATS is going to reveal a few of the best in this section.
54. Use checkboxes for multiple file
selection
This tip is a perfect example of why people should not give up on Windows Vista. Lurking
within the standard Vista explorer interface is a really, really convenient way to highlight
multiple files without using shift or CTRL. Welcome to the era of the checkbox. Once you have
enabled this feature, you will see a little checkbox at the upper left corner of each icon in the
explorer window. Checking this box will highlight the file in question. Genius.
To enable checkbox file selection in Windows Vista:
Go to 'start/computer'.
Click the 'organize' menu and choose 'folder

and search options'.
Select the 'view' tab.
Scroll down and check the 'use check boxes to

select items' option.
55. Enable Windows classic desktop
If you just can't get used to the look of the Vista interface, or you are running under 1GB of
memory and you need to speed up the desktop, try enabling the Windows Classic interface.
This is a two step process involving changing both the desktop settings and the Start menu.
Note that while in XP the 'classic interface' was that of Windows 2000, in Windows Vista it is
the XP interface that is brought up when you make this change.
To revert to the Windows classic interface:
Right click on the 'start' menu and click 'properties'.
Select the 'classic start menu' option and click 'ok'.
Right click on an empty area of the desktop and choose 'personalize.'
Select the 'theme' option.
In the 'theme' dropdown box, choose 'Windows Classic.'
Click 'ok'.
All the bells and whistles are now gone completely.
56. Reduce start menu opening delay
If the Vista interface seems sluggish to you, this tip may help things feel a little more frisky by
boosting the speed of the start menu.
To reduce start menu opening time:

Navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop'
Double click on the 'MenuShowDelay' value and change its value to 150.
57. Disable mandatory thumbnail previews
By default, Windows Vista renders nearly every directory in thumbnails, which can be a good
thing, but can also be a pain if you've got a lot of files and little memory. If you'd like to go
back to the XP-centric explorer where thumbs where an option not a mandate, it's easy
enough to do, fortunately.
To disable automatic thumbnail previews:
Go to 'start/computer.'
open the 'organize' menu and choose 'folder and search options.'
Choose the view tab and place a check next to the 'always show icons, never thumbnails'
option at the top. Hit 'ok.'
58. Remove unnecessary Windows Vista

features
Like most Microsoft operating systems
, Vista uses the 'kitchen sink' approach, bundling more software and applications than you are
ever likely to use. Let's look at streamlining your Vista PC a bit and saving some drive space
by removing some of these unnecessary applications.
To remove unwanted Vista components:
Go to 'start/control panel/programs/uninstall a program'.
In the sidebar, click 'turn windows features on and off'.
The checkboxes list optional features that can be added or disabled. Good options for removal
include games, DFS file replication service, windows meeting space and tablet tools.
59. Start task manager directly
Windows Vista alters the traditional CTRL+ALT+DEL keyboard shortcut. Instead of opening the
task manager straight off, the three finger salute takes you to a more general option menu. If
you'd still like to visit the task manager directly, just hit CTRL+SHIFT+ESC instead.
60. Run sidebar gadgets without the sidebar
This tip falls under the category of "why did I not notice this before?". You do not need the
physical space of the sidebar to run Microsoft sidebar gadgets. Click your favourite gadget and
drag it out of the sidebar onto the desktop and voila! Now you can close the bar, reserve your
real-estate and still keep the use of your favourite gadget(s).
It's important to note that when you carry out this tip and close the sidebar, it remains
resident in memory and is required to keep the gadget running. Unfortunately this means you
can't disable the sidebar completely as in Tip #38 and still keep your fave gadget on the
desktop.
61. Backup your entire computer with Vista Backup and restore (Vista Business and
Ultimate only)
If you have a removable USB or eSATA hard drive enclosure, consider this tip once you have
your Vista install set up just the way you like it. Vista Business and Ultimate editions allow you
to create a backup image of your entire computer, data, applications and all. It does take up a
lot of space as you might imagine, so you will pretty much need to dedicate an entire hard
drive to it, but it's worth it for the peace of mind it offers.
PCSTATS recommends separating your data and system partitions, making an image of your
system partitions and then regularly backing up your data partitions to a source that is not
inside your computer.
To make a backup image of your entire system:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'backup' in the search bar. Hit Enter.
Click 'backup computer'.
You can backup either to a separate hard disk partition or to DVD media. You'll end up using
at least 5-10 DVDs for a standard Vista install, so that's not really an option.
Once you've indicated which partition you would like to backup to, just hit 'ok' and follow the
prompts to create your backup image.
62. Essential hotkey shortcuts for Vista
Here's a quick list of some essential hotkeys that will make working with Vista much faster:
WIN+ (1-10): corresponds to the first ten items in the quicklaunch bar. This means that
WIN+1 will minimize everything to desktop, which is handy.
WIN+SPACE: brings the Vista sidebar to the front.
WIN+G: Cycle through Sidebar gadgets
WINKEY+TAB: Flip 3D interface
CTRL+WINKEY+TAB: persistent Flip 3D
ALT+TAB: Jump between all open windows quickly, or back and forth between the last two
accessed.
ALT+Print Screen: Take a screen capture of just the window in focus (the active window), as
opposed to the entire desktop.
We can't forget the good old standby's: CTRL+A: select all, CTRL+C: copy, CTRL+V: paste...
it's amazing how these three with ALT+Tab can accelerate data manipulation between
different windows or documents. Note that most of Windows XP keyboard shortcuts continue
to apply in Windows Vista. These are just some of the new ones unique to the OS. For
Microsoft's complete list of Vista keyboard shortcuts, go to this page at Microsoft.com
63. Return the Run command to the start menu
If you find you really can't live without the Windows XP style 'run' command on the start
menu, it's easy enough to restore.
To make the 'run' command appear on the start

menu:
Right click the 'start' menu and choose 'properties.'

Choose the 'start menu' tab.
Click the 'customize' button.
Scroll down until you find the option titled 'run

command' and check it. Hit 'ok'.
64. Using the new 'resource overview'

monitor in Windows Vista
The Windows performance monitor has received a considerable facelift with the release of
Vista, and now offers a whole host of monitoring information about your computer, once
you've learned how to configure it for easy use. The most obvious and useful new feature is
the resource overview window. This screen handily centralizes your CPU, memory, network
and hard disk % at use information and allows you to track which files and processes are
using your system resources in real-time. Let's take a look at how to use it.
To open the resource overview screen:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'monitor' in the search box and hit Enter.
Welcome to the new and improved resource overview screen. As you can see, the four
windows correspond to the four major hardware areas of your system, and show you
essentially how hard they are working over the last 60 seconds of time. Now, let's dig a little
deeper.
If you double click on any of the four displays, you'll notice that the corresponding
heading on the lower part of the screen will expand, offering you more information. For
the CPU, we can see exactly which processes have been taking up CPU time over the last
minute, and what percentage. For the hard drive, the files that have been read from and
written to and how much. For the network which processes are accessing network
connections and how much data are they transferring (very useful for identifying possible
spyware/trojan virus problems), and for the memory you can see how much memory each
running process is consuming and what percentage of that can be shared with other
applications or is fully reserved. All-in-all a very useful overview of the activities of your
entire computer system
right at your fingertips.

65. Use the Vista reliability checker to track system issues
Part of the upgrades Microsoft added to Windows Vista was a huge increase in the functionality
of the suite of self-monitoring tools first introduced in Windows XP. While most of the
improvements just add new functions to existing programs like the performance monitor,
there is one completely new addition which is definitely worth your while to explore. The
Windows Vista reliability checker.
The reliability checker is a log of all software or hardware errors and irregularities your system
has ever experienced, as well as a record of software installations and removals, all bound up
in a daily log format combine with a 'reliability index' which measures your systems current
reliability compared to at other points in its lifespan. This is an absolute godsend for Windows
troubleshooters and anyone curious about the overall health of their computer.
To open the Vista reliability checker:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'monitor' in the search box and hit Enter.
Double click on the 'reliability monitor' link in the left-hand pane.
The interface is easy to figure out, so explore. You will definitely find something interesting,
especially if you've been having constant system errors. With this tool you should be able to
track the problems back to where they started and get an idea of the source.
66. Disable warning sounds and add visual cues

If you are fed up with the audio prompts and alerts in Windows Vista, you can easily switch
them out for visual cues, making your Vista experience more intuitive without headphones or
speakers.
To disable audio warning for visual warnings:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'ease' in the search bar. Hit Enter.
Scroll down and click 'use text or visual alternatives for sound.'
Check 'turn on visual notifications for sound (sound sentry)' And choose the visual cue you
would like from the list below.
67. Create desktop shutdown and reboot icons
If you're fed up with the arcane operations of the new Vista start menu shutdown dialog and
want a simple way to restart your system, consider creating shutdown and restart icons right
on the desktop.
To do this:
Right click on an empty area of the desktop and select 'new\shortcut'.
In the location text box, type 'Shutdown.exe -s -t 00' for a shutdown icon or ' Shutdown.exe -r
-t 00' for a restart icon. Hit 'next' and give the new shortcut an appropriate name like
"shutdown".
68. Good sidebar gadgets to have (and not to have)
If you've decided you are fond of the Vista Sidebar and want to maximize its potential,
PCSTATS has got a few recommendations for you in terms of handy gadgets. Also, make sure
you get rid of the RSS feed gadget as stated in Tip #40.
Try the following gadgets as a good primer for what you can do with your sidebar:
Blister CPU, memory and hard drive monitors gadget at Feebdack.com.
Wikipedia search gadget from Windows Live.com.
Control your system from the Sidebar gadget from Windows Live.com.
Calculator! Simple and obvious, what the sidebar was made for. Try this gadget from Hacki.st.
69. Run any application as administrator with a few keystrokes
If you don't want to disable UAC, but you're annoyed with the constant security interruptions
and elevations every time you try to do something of consequence with Vista, try this handy
little shortcut. You should already be using the start menu search command to start most of
your applications if you heeded Tip #13 above, so let's make the process a little more useful.
After you type the name of the application you are going to launch in the search bar, but
before you press ENTER, hold down CTRL and SHIFT, then press Enter. This will automatically
launch that application with administrative privileges.
70. Configure Windows Vista autoplay manually to suit your preferences
The Windows Vista autoplay menu has marginally more useful options than its XP predecessor,
but it's still a bit of a pain to click through every time you insert media. Microsoft has included
a quick config utility that can make setting your preferred options for each type of media much
easier though.
To set autoplay preferences:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'autoplay' in the search bar. Hit Enter.
From this screen, you can select what you want to happen when each autoplay-enabled media
type is inserted. Leave the 'use autoplay for all media and devices' option at the top checked
unless you want to disable autoplay altogether. It is required to use the rest of the options on
this screen. When you are done, scroll to the bottom and hit 'save.'
71. Disable security notifications
If you've made one or two of the changes in this article, like disabling UAC for example, and
are getting fed up with the Windows security center notifications popping up in the taskbar
and nagging you about what you've done, here's how to disable them.
To disable Windows Vista Security Center notification:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'service.msc' in the search bar. Do not press Enter.
Mouse up to the 'services.msc' search result, right-click it and choose 'run as administrator'
(this is assuming you have not already disabled UAC as per tip#11, in which case the run-as is
not necessary).
In the services window, scroll down to the 'Security Center' service, right click it and hit
'properties'.
72. Tweak the mouse scroll wheel
If your finger is getting sore from all the scrolling around you do on web pages and
documents, you can actually tweak the resolution of your mouse's scroll wheel in Windows
Vista. By default the OS scrolls 3 lines at a time, but if you want faster scrolling and less finger
abuse, this is easy to change with a small registry edit.
To increase mouse wheel scroll speed in Vista:
Navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop'
Scroll down to the 'WheelScrollLines' value and double click it to edit.
Larger values equate to larger 'notches' on the scroll wheel, but this will require a restart
before it's effective.
73. Add Encrypt / Decrypt to Right Click Menu
Windows Vista contains a built in encryption function that can be used to 'lock' specified files
or directories so that only your specific user account can access them. This is not password
based, but account based, so that unless you are logged in with your specific username and
password, the file is inaccessible. It's kind of tricky and time consuming to get at the
encryption option in the default Vista interface though. To make access to encryption easy,
put it on the context menu with this little registry addition.
Note: It's always good to be careful with encryption, because it is quite possible to lose access
to important files completely. For a solid grounding in the topic as it relates to recent versions
of Windows, see PCSTATS Guide to Encryption right here.
To add encrypt/decrypt command to the right-click context menu:
Navigate to
'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced'
Create a new DWORD value named 'EncryptionContextMenu' and give it a value of 1.
74. Disable 'GUI boot' to speed startup
The little animated bar you see while loading Windows can be disabled, which will actually
shave a few precious seconds off your startup time. Try it, it worked for us.
To disable the Vista GUI boot:
Open the 'start' menu and enter 'msconfig'

in the search bar. Hit Enter.
When the MSConfig window opens,

navigate to the 'boot' tab.
Place a checkmark next to the 'No GUI

boot' option. Click 'ok'.
75. Add administrator account to welcome screen
Vista is designed so that using the default administrator account is not necessary.
Unfortunately, the lever for doing this is the ever-intrusive UAC (User Access Control) which
we have already talked about. If you would rather go directly to the source to make your
changes and use the administrator account, you might be baffled since this account is inactive
by default. Let's look at making the default administrator account one of your login options on
the welcome screen, so it's available when needed.
To make the administrator account appear on the login screen we need to do two operations;
add a password to the administrator account and make it active.
To add a password to the administrator account and activate it:
Open the 'start menu' and type 'cmd' in the search bar but do not press Enter. Right click on
the 'cmd' shortcut where it appears in the search results and choose 'run as administrator'.
In the command prompt, type 'Net user administrator (password)' where (password) is the
password you want to apply to the administrator account. Do not include the brackets. Hit
Enter.
In the same command prompt, type 'Net user administrator /active:yes' and press Enter.
The administrator account will now appear on the welcome screen and can be used.
76. Change volume levels for individual applications
This is not strictly a performance tip, but it makes working with Vista a lot easier if you like
listening to music while you run other applications. The Vista audio control panel allows you to
set the volume independently for each application you have running. This means you can mute
or reduce the audio of the game or application you are running while continuing to listen to
your music at full volume. Great feature.
To access the Windows Vista
sound mixer:
Right click the 'volume' icon in the taskbar and choose 'open volume mixer'.
From here you can adjust both the overall speaker volume and the individual volumes of each
application.
77. Display your backed-up DVD media in Vista Media Center (applies to Vista Home
Premium and Ultimate only)
This not a performance tip per se, but it does correct a major annoyance in the Windows Vista
Media Centre default settings. By default, Media Center will not find and list DVD media that
you have backed up to your hard drive. Fortunately, correcting this can be done with a quick
registry edit.
To enable the gallery display for stored DVD media in Media Center:
Start Regedit and navigate to

'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media
Center\Settings\DvdSettings'.
Double-click the 'ShowGallery' value and change it to 'Gallery'.
Now the DVD gallery will display in Media Center and enumerate your stored DVD media in the
library.
78. Reveal Vista's hidden context menu power tools

The right-click context menu in Vista has a few hidden surprises if you press and hold the
SHIFT key while you bring it up.
When used on a file, the SHIFT key adds the options to pin the file in question to the start
menu, add it to the Quicklaunch bar or save its name and directory location as a text path for
pasting into documents.
When used on a folder, the copy as text path option is added, along with the handy ability to
pop-up a command prompt window in the folder in question.
79. Be the super user
If you're nervous of the consequences of disabling UAC, but want to avoid all the nagging
prompts and keyboard shortcuts that leaving it enabled can entail, there's a better way. You
can convince the operating system that you are actually the one true admin with a simple
command.
To enable full administrative privileges with a normal Vista user account:
Open an administrative command prompt (see Tip #20 for instructions).
Type 'net user administrator activate:yes' and hit Enter.
80. Fix the start menu power button
One of the annoyances that new Vista users often run into when they first use the OS is that
the big friendly default power button on the start menu does not actually power down the
system. Now who's idea was this? Instead, you get a system in deep sleep and an owner who
wants to leave but now has to wait until his system wakes up before he can shut it down
properly.
Fortunately, a fix is easily at hand to revert

the power button to its more obvious and
useful function.
To make the start menu power button work

properly:
Open 'start\control panel.'
Click 'classic view' in the left-hand pane
Open 'power options.'

Under your currently selected power plan, click 'change plan settings.'
Click 'change advanced power settings.'
Scroll down to 'power buttons and lids' and expand the entry. Expand 'start menu power
button.'
Change the 'setting' dropdown box to 'shutdown.' Click OK.
You will find that your power button now acts as a power button.
81. Enable verbose shutdown messages (Vista business and Ultimate only)
This is not really a performance tip per se, but it will let you see what is going on when you
shutdown Windows Vista, which could help you boost your shutdown speed. With this tip
enabled, Vista will inform you of what is going on behind the scenes on the shutdown screen
with text messages.
To enable verbose shutdown messages:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'gpedit.msc' in the search bar. Hit Enter.
In the group policy window, navigate to 'computer configuration\administrative

template\system' then scroll down in the right-hand pane until you reach the 'verbose vs.
normal status messages' option. Double click it and set the option to 'enable'. Hit ok.
82. Customize Vista desktop

performance
Whether or not you use the Aero 3D interface, you can tweak a whole range of factors to
customize your Windows Vista desktop, or drop features to gain speed on lower-end computer
systems. All these options are available in one handy menu which can be found In the
advanced properties of the 'computer' option in the Start menu.
To adjust Vista desktop performance settings:
Click on 'advanced system settings' on the left-hand pane.
Go to the 'advanced' tab and under the 'performance' heading, Click 'settings...'
In the 'visual effects' tab, you have a whole range of settings you can disable to boost desktop
performance, or you can choose the 'adjust for best performance option' if your system is
having great difficulty with Vista.
83. The ultimate Vista performance tweak (not really)
The Windows Experience Index (WEI) score is generated by the WinSat program. WinSat
stores its results in an XML file on your hard drive, which is then read by the WEI in order to
generate your 'score' as displayed in the performance information and tools window.
Wouldn't it be nice to have this instead though?

Open the 'start' menu and type 'wordpad' in the search bar. Right click on 'wordpad.exe' in the
results and choose 'run as administrator.'
When wordpad opens, go to 'file\open' and navigate to

'c:\windows\performance\winsat\datastore'. Change the file types dropdown box to 'all files...'
.
Open the file with the most recent date. Edit lines 12 through 19 and add whatever value you
would like to see (in the format #.#). Save the file.
Now open the performance information window ('start' and type 'performance info') and click
'update my score.' When the update is finished, your new score will appear!
(Please note that this tip has absolutely no effect on how your computer actually performs, but
it looks good!)
Customizing Vista Aeroglass Interface: Tips 84-87
Customizing the Vista Aeroglass Interface
84. Disable Aeroglass (All versions except Vista Basic)
If the Aeroglass interface works on your video card, but not really well, or if you are lacking
system memory, or if you just don't like the bells and whistles, you may want to turn off the
Aero 3D user interface. This is easily done.
To disable the Aeroglass interface:
Right click on an empty area of the desktop and choose 'personalize'.
Select the 'window colour and appearance' option, then 'open classic appearance properties for
more options.'
In the dropdown box, choose 'Vista Basic' and click 'OK'.
85. Disable Aero transparency (All versions except Vista Basic)
If you like the Aero interface, but you're having problems justifying the performance hit, try
simply disabling the transparency effect. This is by far the most GPU intensive part of the new
interface, so by disabling it you should be able to keep the rest of the eye candy without
slowing your system to a crawl.
To disable transparency in the Aero interface:
Right click on an empty area of the desktop and

select 'personalize.'
Choose the 'window colour and appearance' option.
Uncheck the 'enable transparency' box.
86. Disable min/max window animation in Aero

(All versions except Vista Basic)
Another GPU intensive part of the Aero interface is the Window min/max animation. If you'd
like to keep the smooth Aero looks, but don't like the slowdown every time you manipulate a
window, try disabling it.
To disable the Aero Minimize/maximize animation:
Open the 'start' menu and right click on 'computer.' Choose 'properties'.
Choose 'advanced system settings' from the left-hand pane.
Choose the 'advanced' tab.
Under the 'performance' heading, click the 'settings...' button.
Uncheck the 'animate windows when minimizing or maximizing' button.
Network and Internet Performance Tweaks
Compared to Windows XP, Vista networking is quite well optimized right out of the box, but
there are still a few tweaks and troubleshooting tips to be had.
87. Enable more simultaneous downloads in Internet Explorer 7
As was the case with Windows XP, the version of Internet Explorer bundled with Windows
Vista is limited to just two simultaneous connections to the same Internet server. This is
generally fine, but it can mean that large complicated websites can take longer to open than
they should, and it also means that you cannot download more than two files simultaneously
from the same location. Fortunately this is easy enough to change.
To increase the number of simultaneous downloads in IE 7:
Open Regedit and navigate to

'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings'
Create a new Dword value called 'MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server' and give it a decimal value
between 3 and 5.
Create another new Dword called 'MaxConnectionsPerServer' and give it an identical decimal
value.
Close Regedit and restart IE to take better advantage of your bandwidth.
Network and Internet Performance Tweaks: Tips 88-91
88. Enable more simultaneous Downloads in Firefox
If you prefer to use Firefox (which, like IE7 defaults to only two persistent connections to a
given server), here's the Firefox-approved version of the above tip:
Open Firefox and type 'about:config' in the address bar.
Scroll down to the 'network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server' entry.
Double click the entry and change the value to anywhere from 4 to 10.
Restart Firefox.
89. Fix large file copying problems in Windows Vista
Out of the box Vista can have some issues with large file transfers over a network. This is
because of a new Vista feature called 'receive window auto-tuning'. In a nutshell, this allows
Vista to automatically scale the size of each packet of data it requests and receives over a
network connection
to suit the available bandwidth. This is a good thing. However, older networking hardware may
have issues with this newfangled technique and refuse to co-operate, leading to dropped file
transfers, slow performance and other weirdness.
If you are experiencing network issues with large file transfers and occasional connection
problems with applications like Messenger, we recommend that you restrict or disable the
receive window auto-tuning feature.
To do this, open a command prompt window with administrative privileges (see Tip #20).
Type 'netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=restricted' and press Enter.
If this fixes your issues, relax. If you continue to have networking problems, open another
administrative prompt and type 'netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled'.
90. Disable IPV6 in Windows Vista
Windows Vista is the first Microsoft operating system to feature IP Version 6 as a default
networking protocol. This despite the fact that essentially nothing uses it. Since each of your
network interfaces is running both IPV6 and standard TCP/IP by default, wouldn't it be a good
idea to disable the unnecessary protocol? We think so.
To disable IPV6 in Windows Vista:
Start Regedit and navigate to

'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tcpip6\Parameters\
Right click on an empty area of the right-hand pane and choose 'new\DWORD value'.
Name the DWORD 'DisabledComponents' and give it the value '0xFF'
You will need to restart your system for this to take effect.
91. Refresh shortcut for wireless network searching
The Vista 'searching for wireless networks' screen does not have a refresh button, which can
lead to frustration and anger for those to impatient to wait for the screen to refresh itself.
Fortunately, hitting the F5 key will refresh the screen automatically.
Vista Tuning for Notebooks: Tips 92-94
Vista Tuning for Notebooks

92. Disable transient multi-monitor manager to speed up boot times
Microsoft included the TMM program to make it easier for mobile users to connect and
disconnect their laptops frequently from one or more separate monitors. Its main function is to
detect when a new monitor has been plugged in and pop up a dialog allowing the user to
easily configure said device. It also can add some unnecessary overhead, both at startup and
by occasionally polling for the presence of D-SUB connected monitors.
To disable TMM:
Open the 'start' menu and right click on 'computer.' Choose 'manage.'
In the computer management window, navigate to 'task scheduler\Task scheduler

library\Microsoft\Windows\MobilePC'
To disable the TMM function, right-click on it and choose 'disable.'
93. Tweak your Vista power saving options for more travel time
The Windows Vista power options allow a lot of fine customization, allowing you to sacrifice
features and performance for better battery life on the go. Better yet, you can save these
settings and switch to and from them at will so you don't have to suffer when you are plugged
in.
To create a custom power profile in Windows Vista:
Open the 'start' menu and type 'power'. Hit Enter.
In the power options window, select 'create a power plan' in the left-hand pane.
Choose 'power saver' as the default template and give your new plan a name, then hit 'next.'
Select any special display or sleep options you may want, then click 'ok'.
Your plan is created. Select it and choose 'change plan settings,' then 'change advanced power
settings.'
Here you can tweak your new power plan for maximum battery life, based on how you usually
use your laptop when it's unplugged. Some good suggestions for power savings are:
Turn off hard disks after 10 min or less of inactivity

Wireless adapter to maximum power saving mode (reduces range)
Search and indexing to power saver mode
94. Disable Aeroglass interface to save big on battery life
If your laptop has the graphical hardware to handle Aero, you should still disable it... At least
when you are running on battery power. The reason for this is that Aero actually uses the full
power of your graphics card, forcing it to do more than just push pixels to the screen, and
making your video card work eats more power, a lot more. You'll find your laptop travels a lot
better once you've canned Aero.
To disable the Aero interface:
Right click on an empty area of the desktop and choose 'personalize'.

Select the 'window colour and appearance' option,
then 'open classic appearance properties for more
options.'
In the dropdown box, choose 'Vista Basic' and click

'OK'.
Windows Vista Gaming: Tips 95-99
Windows Vista Gaming Tips
95. Update Vista's DirectX9 files for better game compatibility
One of the fixes for getting games to run in Vista that do not normally (such as FEAR and
3Dmark06 as two examples) is relatively simple. These games require the latest version of
Directx 9. Vista does not actually contain a full installation of Directx 9, just some elements for
compatibility purposes. So, install Directx 9.
To install Directx 9c on Windows Vista:
Download the latest DirectX 9 redistributable file from Microsoft.com here.
Unzip the file into a folder on your desktop or in your documents.
Run the DXSETUP file.
You can delete the folder after the install has finished.
96. Disable background features while gaming
If you want to try and wring a little more performance out of your games in Windows Vista, try
modifying their executable files to disable some background desktop features. Vista allows you
to nest commands within the executable file which will turn off the Vista 3D effects like the
Aero desktop when you run the game.
To disable the 3D desktop while gaming:
Locate the executable file for the game. The best way to do this is to go directly to the
'c:\program files' directory and find the folder for the game in question. You can also use the
search function.
Right click on the executable file and choose 'properties.'

Click the 'compatibility' tab.
Under the 'settings' heading, check 'disable visual themes'.
Click 'ok'
Note that this tip disables the Aero desktop only for the game you just modified.
97. Run DirectX 9 games in Windows XP compatibility mode
Pretty much everyone has heard by now that Vista has some compatibility issues with 'old'
(read 'designed for XP') applications and games, and it's true. There are a lot of programs and
games that really should work on Vista but don't for one reason or another.
Fortunately various patches added since the Vista release have helped the issue considerably,
but many of your old games still just won't play 'out of the box' on Vista. There is a tip that
can help you resolve this issue though. Try enabling the XP compatibility mode for your older
games. Just as Windows XP had various compatibility modes included to mirror older OS
environments, so Vista can mirror the XP environment to a degree. This is a setting that must
be switched on specifically for each game individually, so let's look at how to do this:
To enable XP compatibility mode for a game:
Locate the executable file for the game. The best way to do this is to go directly to the
c:\program files directory and find the folder for the game in question. You can also use the
search function.
Right click on the executable file and choose 'properties.'
Click the 'compatibility' tab.
Check the 'run this program in compatibility mode for...: box and ensure that the dropdown
box underneath is set to 'Windows XP Service pack 2'.
Click 'OK'
You must do this separately for each game.
98. Fix/enable 3D sound in some games
Microsoft made a major change to the way 3D sound effects are handled when they created
Windows Vista. Unfortunately, this change rendered a whole lot of hardware (essentially
anything from Creative Labs in the last few years) unable to render hardware 3D sound effects
with many older and some new games. If you have a Creative Audigy or X-Fi sound card that
you know supports 3D positional audio, but either the option is not available in some of your
games or you get no sound when you activate it, this fix is for you.
Creative Labs created a program called 'ALchemy' which bridges the gap between their
hardware and what it expects from the software, allowing you to experience that sweet, sweet
positional audio again.
The bad news here is that ALchemy is not free. Creative has started to charge a small amount
for downloading it, which is fair enough since it's their product and it fixes a problem they did
not create.
If you think you need it, download the program from Creativelabes.com here.
99. Poor game performance? Try DirectX 9 mode
If you own some of the newer DirectX10-capable games like Bioshock or Crysis, but you are
disappointed with the performance you are seeing when you run these games in their full
DX10 glory, there's an option which you'll probably want to try. Navigate to the games folder
('start\games') and right click on the icon that starts your directX10 game. You should see a
'play DirectX 9' option. You may sacrifice a few of the visual bells and whistles, but your frame
rates are almost guaranteed to be better.
Well, that's it for PCSTATS latest 99 Tips! We hope you enjoyed using this tips list as much as
we enjoyed making it!
If you have any comments or questions, please post them in the PCSTATS Forums. Find out
about this and many other reviews by joining the Weekly PCstats.com Newsletter today! Catch
all of PCSTATS latest hardware reviews right here.
Beginners Guides: Stopping Vista From Thrashing Hard Disks to
Death
While your PC may be doing nothing, all of a sudden you notice the hard
drives are trashing around like the entire drive is being copied. Never fear,
PCSTATS is here to help you stop Windows Vista from excessive hard
drive usage, and show you how to free up some disk space too! - Version
1.0.0
Bookmark this PCSTATS Guide for future reference.
While many complaints about Windows Vista's sluggish performance can be attributed to users
with computer systems that are just not ready to run Vista well (less than 1GB of memory is
fairly painful with Microsoft's latest operating system), it is clear that Windows Vista uses your
computer's hard disk drive(s) much more intensively and extensively than Windows XP
ever did. This results in some truly disturbing disk thrashing at times, even on high-end
computers. It has eventually become apparent that most of this is by design. The disk
thrashing action is the result of processes that work behind the scenes and does not affect
overall performance much, unless your system is low on RAM. The long term affects of wear
and tear on your hard drive though, are another thing entirely.
In this PCSTATS Beginners Guide we will explore the reasons and culprits behind Windows
Vista's high disk usage, and explore ways to not only reduce the noise and activity, but also
save and reclaim drive space Vista is using for features that you may not want.
Inside the thrashing: What's using your drive cycles?
First, let's take a closer look at the Windows Vista services and programs which cause the
most drive activity, then look at ways to tame them and free your drives.
The daily Grind: Windows Vista file Indexing
Windows Vista, like XP before it, builds itself an index file, which contains markers to all files
and folders in certain locations on your disk (User folders, the Desktop, Program Files, etc.).
To do this, it must churn through the hard disk searching and indexing each and every last
file. Vista periodically rebuilds this index, causing further drive thrashing. By default, the files
within your 'user' directory (Vista's equivalent of XP's 'C:\documents and settings\username'
which contains your documents folder and your desktop) are indexed.
There are a couple of ways to reduce the disk overhead that the indexing feature imposes. The
obvious and more drastic method is just to turn drive indexing off. In Windows XP, this was
almost an automatic step when tweaking the operating system, since the indexing feature was
next to useless anyway. With Windows Vista's enhanced search features, you may want to
think twice about this if you have, or expect to have a large amount of data (in terms of
number of files) stored on your computer. Indexing does make searching for files and folders
quite a bit faster, but searches do still work with the same results without indexing. They may
just take longer.
To turn the indexing feature off in Windows Vista, open the 'start' menu and type 'services' in
the search bar. Hit ENTER.
In the services window, scroll down until you reach the 'windows search' service. Right click it
and hit 'properties'.
If you don't want to disable indexing entirely, consider altering its function to make it index
less files, keeping only what you are likely to search for. Windows Vista allows you to get very
specific about what types of files will be indexed.
Quick Boot Tweaks
There are several, very simple tweaks that can be performed that will significantly
decrease the amount of time it takes your computer to boot up. Not only that, but
several of them will also increase the speed of your system as well. To begin with,
there are four main files which all versions of Windows use to a varying degree while
booting up. These four files are autoexec.bat, config.sys, system.ini, and msdos.sys.
For the most part, unless you are running a command-line virus scanner,
autoexec.bat should be empty. However, the other files can be modified to increase
system boot time and performance.
For example, adding the line stacks=0,0 to the config.sys file can significantly speed
up a computer. However, the two files I really want to focus on here are system.ini
and msdos.sys. Within system.ini, add the following lines under [386Enh]:
LocalLoadHigh=1 - This setting tells the computer to load everything the operating
system needs into upper memory by default, freeing up as much conventional
memory as possible (the first 640K). Microsoft would like us to believe that this no
longer effects the system, but they are lying.
DMABufferSize=64 - This setting tells the computer to leave as much memory

available for DMA data transfers as possible, speeding up not only the boot process
but the system in general.
There are some even more exciting settings available within the msdos.sys file for
optimizing the boot process. Before you can modify the msdos.sys file (which is a
hidden file, by the way, so you'll have to set Windows to show hidden files from
within Windows Explorer), you will need to remove its read-only attribute. To do this,
right click on the file, enter its properties menu, and uncheck read-only. Now that
you've done that, open the file in notepad and add the following lines:
Logo=0 - This setting turns off the silly Windows splash screen during startup.
Disabling this will shave a few seconds off your boot time.
Drvspace=0 - This setting turns off support for Drivespace-compressed FAT16

drives. Since no one uses this anymore, it is safe to disable. Disabling it will not only
speed up your boot time, but it will also free up some extra resources as well
Dblspace=0 - Same as above, but this time for Doublespace-compressed FAT16

drives.
DisableLog=1 - This setting disables the log file which Windows creates by default
when booting up. Disabling this will shave a few seconds off your boot time, and
since no one ever uses the log file for anything anyway, it won't be missed.
AutoScan=0 - This line disables the automatic scandisk that is run if the computer
is improperly shutdown - saving a bunch of time if you are constantly restarting your
computer using the power button instead of the 'correct' way. Sadly, however, this
doesn't appear to work with Windows Me.
Applying these tweaks should dramatically decrease the amount of time it takes for
your computer to start up or reboot. Hopefully, these tweaks will help your computer
boot up faster, and give you a slight performance boost as well.

99 Windows Vista Performance Tips and Tweaks

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Table of Contents

Mastering & Streamlining the Vista

System Preparation - Tweak Insurance

1. Back up and Restore the Windows Vista registry

To backup the Windows Vista registry:

Highlight 'computer' in the left-hand pane.

2. How to edit the Windows Vista registry

To edit the Windows Vista registry:

To create a registry key:

To create a registry value:

3. Creating a system restore point in Windows Vista

To create a system restore point:

Open the 'start' menu and right-click on 'computer'. Choose 'properties'.

From the tasks pane on the left, click 'System Protection'.

To restore Windows Vista to a previously saved restore point:

System Preparation - Hardware

4. Add more memory (RAM)!

5. Update the Motherboard BIOS

6. Update hardware drivers

7. Test the computer's RAM

It's always a good idea to test your

Fortunately, Vista has a built in

To test your memory with the

Choose the 'restart now and check for problems' option.

8. Optimize the memory timings and voltage

9. Overclock the processor and memory

10. Overclock the video card

to work in, particularly if you consider yourself an intermediate-to-experienced computer user.

First Boot the Essential Tweaks: Tips 11-12

First Boot - The Essential Tweaks

11. Turn off User Account Control (UAC)

Go to start/control panel/user accounts and family safety/user accounts.

12. Set Automatic Updates to download only

To enable manual update installation:

Go to 'start/control panel/security/turn automatic updating on or off'

First Booth the Essential Tweaks: Tips 13-16

14. Disable automatic device driver searching and installation

To disable automatic driver updates:

Open the 'start' menu and right-click on 'computer'. Choose 'properties'.

Click on 'advanced system settings' on the left-hand pane.

15. Use Windows Defender to disable startup programs

To disable startup apps using Windows Defender:

Go to 'start/all programs' then run 'Windows

Click on the 'tools' icon at the top of the screen.

Click on 'software explorer'.

Note the 'remove', 'disable' and 'enable' buttons on

Removing an application deletes it from the list

We would not recommend disabling any of the

16. Power options to high performance

Click on 'classic view' in the left hand pane.

Open 'power options'.

Select the 'high performance' power plan.

First Boot the Essential Tweaks: Tips 17-20

17. Enable DVD playback in Vista Basic and Vista Business

To set 64-bit WMP11 as default player type: "unregmp2.exe /SwapTo:64"

To revert to 32-bit WMP11 as the default player type: "unregmp2.exe /SwapTo:32"

19. Update Vista!

20. Run programs with administrator rights

To run a program with Administrative rights:

Type the name of the program in the 'start' menu searchbar.

Now you have the power.

Vista Performance Boosting: Tips 21-23

Vista Performance Boosting Tips