Vista Tweaks

Microsoft Windows Vista offers many new features that are not available in the previous version of Windows Vista. Some of them are:

• DirectX 10 (Which is great for gamer, although actually gives no significant effect in graphics quality compared to DirectX 9.0)
• The famous Aero theme (Which is very nice with its 3D and transparency effects but it can eats up half of your memory)
• Windows Sidebar (Similar to Google Desktop, some of the widgets are cool, some of them will just cripple your system performance)
• New Start Menu (With great Start search feature)
• Some interface changes (This may be more intuitive or more confusing)
• And many more!
  

At first, I am doubtful to change to Vista as I am really used to my old XP -- I don't want to see my PC runs slowly -- But I am also curious to see what's in Vista. I've tried Vista Beta 2 some time ago, but it is really buggy and not complete -- It doesn't even have a driver for my Wi-Fi USB!!

A year after Vista is released and now it's on SP1, I tried the Ultimate one. My first impression is, WOW the interface is cool, but it is also deadly to your CPU and memory! With all aero things on it could eat around 400MB of your memory! This means a 1GB of RAM or even 2GB is definitely required.

I've been thinking for some time how to increase Vista performance, because mostly it is slower than my XP especially when running games (usually around 3-7 FPS difference). So, I tried to find answer to fix it.

Here are some of the tweaks that you can use to increase Vista performance, some of them are not much, but it can make your work 1-2 seconds faster. Note that some of the tweaks are the same from XP.

1. Turn off some of useless programs at startup
If you are running many programs at startup (roughly, you have so many icons in your system tray), you can turn some of them off.
Effect: It can increase windows startup time as well as reserving more memory space for other programs.
How: Go to Start > Run > msconfig > Startup. From there, you can disable some uneeded entries (Make sure that you DO know what programs that you disable).
In case you cannot see Run... in the Start Menu, You should do: Start > type Taskbar and Start Menu > Start Menu > Customize (not on classic one). Check the Run command. It should display the Run... button.

2. Disable some of Vista's services
Vista has more than 130 services, for a mere mortal, some of them you won't even need.
Effect: If the uneeded items are activated, it can waste your memory and processing speed.
How: Go to Start > type Services > Enter (Or you can go type services.msc in Run command). From here you can change some Automatic settings to Manual or Disabled.
Here are the things that you might consider:

• Diagnostic Policy Service, Diagnostic Service Host, and Diagnostic System Host. This services may not be needed and can be Disabled. Basically these services are used to verify correct installation of drivers and programs, but in reality, it don't do much help when there are errors in the programs / drivers.
• Function Discovery Provider Host. It is a service used by Windows Media Center to allow resources to be discovered in the network. Since most of us don't use Windows Media Center (It sucks, really) and not even connected to a network, this service can be Disabled.
• Internet Connection Sharing, Network List Service, and Network Location Awareness. If you are not connected to any LAN network, and don't want to share your internet connection, you can Disable these services.
• Offline Files. This should be Disabled if you are not connected to a domain.
• Portable Device Enumerator Service. This is used by Windows Media Player to detect devices such MP3 players. Since most people don't synchronise their device with WMP, you can Disable it. Note for iPod owners, this setting will not affect the connection between iPod and iTunes.
• Routing and Remote Access. Most people don't connect their PC to a LAN, so this feature is useless and can be Disabled.
• Security Center. If you are confident enough that your PC always has an updated anti-virus and firewall, you can Disable this. Disabling this service also removes annoying messages that inform you to update your anti-virus, etc.
• Tablet PC Input Service. I wonder why this option is turned on by default, since most of us don't use a Tablet PC. This should be Disabled.
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper. Since we are living in a modern era with modern network systems, we won't need NetBIOS now, it is for backward compability with older operating systems, therefore this service can be Disabled.
• Terminal Services. This is used to connect and control another PC and vice versa. It should be Disabled if you don't use this feature, thus making your computer more secure.
• Windows Error Reporting Services. It controls the annoying messages that always come up when your programs go error, it asks you to send a report directly to Microsoft. Well, it is quite useless, unless the report goes directly to Bill Gates PC, hehe.. It is recommended to Disable this service.
• Windows Time. With this service turned on, you PC time will automatically synchronised to a time server periodically. Well, it sounds not to be very useful right? Then, it can be Disabled.
• Windows Update. Sometimes, automatic updates can be very annoying if you have a slow internet connection or limited by internet quota. You should turn it to Manual, and do the update manually.
• Application Experience and Desktop Window Management Session Manager. I am not a fan of Aero interface because it is really punishing to your PC. You should use the Basic theme, it's enough to get a Vista-feel. Therefore, if you don't use Aero, it's better to Disable these services as well.

3. Turn off Aero
Aero indeed have nice effects to your interface. Sadly, it is one of the biggest reason why your computer is slower in Vista. Moreover, some of programs don't support this theme, so, Aero will be disabled when running these programs. It is a better idea to just turn this Aero for good.
Effect: Your free RAM is much more bigger, your computer starts faster, and at last you can perform tasks faster.
How: Go to Control Panel > activate Classic View > Personalization > Window Color and Appearance > Open classic appearance properties for more color options > Windows Vista Basic. That's it, now your Vista is faster and more RAM friendly.
However, if you insists to turn on Aero (Or you become an Aero maniac), you can still make it a little faster by turning off the transparency effect. Here's how:
Go to Control Panel > Classic View > Personalization > Window Color and Appearance > uncheck Enable Transparency.

4. Turn on Advanced Performance for hard disks
Vista comes with a more advanced file system management not found in XP. This feature will enhance write caching of your hard disks.
Effect: Your hard disks will read and write slightly faster.
How: Go to Start > type Device Manager > Enter > expand Disk Drives > right click on your hard drive > Properties > Policies > check Enable advanced performance > OK.

5. Tweak indexing options
Indexing options provide faster search of files, folders, and programs. But if it is not tweaked properly, it can end up finding a lot of useless files in your drives.
Effect: After this tweak, it can saves your time a bit when searching.
How: Go to Start > type Indexing Options > Enter > Modify. See in the selected locations for any uneeded locations and after finish, click OK.
You can also specify which filetype will be included in the search in Advanced in Indexing Options.

6. Don't search for files, communications, etc. in Start Menu search
Start Menu searching is designed for quick search for programs. You don't need files and others to be included in the search.
Effect: Your start menu search will be faster a bit.
How: Go to Start > type Taskbar and Start Menu > Start Menu > Customize (not the classic one). Then you can uncheck Search for communications and Search favorites and history. At last you should select Don't search for files.

7. Disable some useless visual effects.
Some visual effects are slow and don't have significant effect in terms of graphic quality. So, it is better to turn some off.
Effect: You can perform tasks faster.
How: Go to Start > right click on Computer > Properties > Advanced > under Performance, click Settings. Now you have some options to be turned off:
- Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing: By turning this option off, you can save time about 1 second when maximizing or minimizing a window.
- Enable desktop compostion: By turning this option off, that means that you turn off all Aero effects. Not recommended for Aero users.
- Fade slide menus into view, Fade or slide ToolTips into view, and Fade out menu items after clicking: These options are for eye-candy purpose only, it should be disabled if you encounter freezing problem when opening many windows.
- Show translucent selection rectangle: This don't have major negative impact but it can be turned off to pump some performance, or if you don't like the translucent effect.
- Slide open combo boxes and slide taskbar buttons: Just like the fade options, it can be disabled to prevent lagging when many windows are opened.
- Smooth-scroll list boxes: It should be turned off especially when your video card is not quite fast or if you are using graphic driver from windows.
- Use background image for each folder type: This will show a watermark when you open folders that has special files like music or pictures. It's not useful though and it does not turn off the folder icon.

8. Change your Virtual Memory to appropriate amount
Virtual memory is used to swap resources from your hard disk into your physical memory. Because usually main memory is limited, this swapping procedure is critical to make resources and instructions available to running programs.
Effect: A correct value will increase your programs performance and prevent program crash.
How: Go to Start > type SystemPropertiesPerformance > Advanced > under Virtual Memory click Change.
Normally the needed virtual memory / page file is 1.5x of your physical memory. So you can set it to Custom and make the Initial size and the Maximum size is 1.5x of your total RAM. (e.g. if your RAM is 2GB, that means your paging file should be 2048 x 1.5 = 3072MB). The identical amount of intial and maximum size is to prevent fragmentation in your hard disk as the file will not grow or shrink.
Note if you have more than one hard disk, you can set your page file in the different disk than your Windows disk, because the hard disk that contains Windows tends to have busier I/O activities, so it is better to move it to another disk drive. However if you do so, make sure that you still leave about 50MB of virtual memory in your Windows drive to prevent problems.

9. Keep windows system core in memory
Memory is always faster than your hard disk, therefore you can make sure that Windows system core can be placed inside the memory instead of hard disk. However, it is only recommended if your system RAM is more than 1 GB.
Effect: If you put windows core system always in memory, your system may run faster as it is processed quicker.
How: Go to Start > type Regedit > Enter. Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlSet > Control > Session Manager > Memory Management. Change DisablePagingExecutive value to 1.

10. Turn off User Acount Control
UAC is used by windows to prevent unauthorised access to important windows settings.
Effect: This feature is very annoying and slowing you down when you want to change some settings (provided that you are the computer Administrator).
Effect: Go to Control Panel > activate Classic View > Turn User Account on or off > uncheck Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer > OK.
You have to restart your computer for this setting to have effect.

That's all for the basic tweaks that you can do to improve Vista's performance. For advanced tweaking you should consider a third-party program like TuneUp Utilities 2008 (It offers many windows tweaks, disk defragmentation, registry cleaner, etc.) or TweakVI from Totalidea for advanced windows tweaking.

Another tips is just to install Windows Vista Home Basic (like I did) instead of Ultimate as it will saves your hard disk space (up to 2.4GB difference) and it don't have CPU hungry features which you will not likely use. Home Basic version serves well for most users, it is quicker in performance, and it is cheaper! I can guarantee most of you won't even use Windows Media Center, BitLocker Encryption, IIS Web Server, Remote Desktop, 128GB of max memory instead of only 8GB, Dual processors (not dual core), Mobility Center, DVD Maker, Dynamic drives, more games, and more other features that you can do more with third-party programs installed.

However, if you are a Home Basic user but you want Aero effects to be turned on, you can do it by:

• Go to Start > type Regedit > Enter. In the registry editor, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > DWM. Edit the value of Composition to 1 and Composition Policy to 2.
• Then you should restart the Desktop Windows Manager by using this method:
  Go to Start > Run... > type cmd > OK.Then at command prompt, enter these commands:
  net stop uxsms then enter,
  net start uxsms then enter again.
  
• After that, reboot your Windows. Now you have Aero effects enabled in your Home Basic system.

For Home Premium or Ultimate users, if you don't want to use Home Basic, you should consider uninstalling some Windows programs. Here's how:

• Go to Start > type Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off.
• Now you can uncheck some programs that you don't really need such as Windows Ultimate Extras.

I'll return next time if I have more windows tweaks, tips, and tricks!