5 Tips to Speed Up Windows Vista
Nov 2 at 6:06am by Andrew Benton
So, you bought a brand new computer thinking it would run Vista like a champ? Think again. Vista is a resource hog, and by default will put a real hurting on every component in your computer. Here are some ways to help make your Vista experience a little better.
1. Overclock your CPU or Graphics Card
This one is a little bit edgy, something I don’t recommend anyone do unless you do your research first, but this can definitely speed up your computer.
2. Get Rid of Unneeded Programs
Open up control panel and click ‘uninstall a program’. In the pane on the left, click ‘Turn Windows Features On or Off’. Go through the list and un-check useless stuff you’ll never need (ex. Meeting Space, Tablet PC, Faxing, etc.) You should probably also get rid of any software that came pre-installed with your computer. Dell likes to put tons of useless trial ware and software on your computer that you didn’t ask for, so take it off and free up some disk space in the process.
3. Get Rid of Unneeded Services
Services that run in the background of Vista can eat up a lot of resources. Turning them off can help speed up your experience. To get to the services, click the start button, then hit run, then type in services.msc. Another way you can get to the run dialog box faster, by the way is holding down the windows key on your keyboard and hitting the ‘r’ button.
Once you are in the services dialog, here are a few you can almost always immediately turn off:
- Computer Browser
- Distributed Link Tracking Client
- IKE and AuthIP IP Keying Modules
- Offline Files
- Remote Registry
- Tablet PC Input Service (unless you’re using a tablet PC)
- Windows Error Reporting
And, you should never, ever disable or mess with these:
- Multimedia Class Scheduler
- Plug and Play
- Superfetch
- Task Scheduler
- Windows Audio
- Windows Driver Foundation
You will notice that there are a ton of services in that list. While I can’t go into them all here, you can find a great list of what does what here. You will also notice you have a few choices how to set the services:
- Automatic means that the service starts automatically when windows starts
- Manual means the service only starts when something else (program, etc) triggers it. For those things on manual, you really shouldn’t worry about.
- Disabled means the service is turned off and does not start when the computer is turned on.
4. Speed up the Vista Interface
Sure, the new vista theme is pretty to look at, but it really puts a hurting on your system, and changing it to look like the older versions of windows can make a very noticeable effect on your systems performance. Here are some easy ways to do this:
- Right-click the desktop, click Personalize, and click Windows Color and Appearance. Uncheck Enable Transparency. Click OK.
- The sidebar is a real hog, so Right-click the Sidebar, click Properties, and uncheck Start Sidebar When Windows Starts.
- The visual effects probably have the biggest impact, changing these can help you DRASTICALLY by just disabling some of the “neat” stuff in vista. Open Control Panel, click Performance and System Tools, and click Adjust Visual Effects. I suggest taking off any animations, shadows, etc. You really cant tell a difference anyways.
5. Control UAC
The User Account Control in vista is really, really annoying, and slows down normal usage. Here is how to turn off the part that turns your screen black, while keeping the security UAC provides.
- Open group policy by going to start> run, then typing gpedit.msc
- Go to to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options
- Browse until you see the policy named ‘User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation’. Set this policy to disabled.
So, there you have it. 5 easy and quick ways to speed up your Windows Vista experience. Got some of your own? Share them in the comments.!
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