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Article by Eddie Smith
Top 35 Tips For A Faster Vista PC – Computers – Programming
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No matter how you look at it, a PC never feels fast enough, and when it comes to Vista, everything seems to take too long.
Copying files, searching for documents, connecting to a wireless network and waiting for it to start are all frustrating.The good news is that we’ve got a stonking selection of speed tips, tricks and tweaks for you.
Whether you’re using a desktop or a laptop, here are some handy tweaks you can make, services you can turn off and much more to help you get things done faster.1. Clean out old filesIn Performance Information… click Open Disk Cleanup to delete redundant files. Then click Start, enter ‘defrag’ in the search box and press Enter, click Defragment Now, and wait while your hard drive is optimised.
3. Disable unused devicesClick Control Panel > System and Maintenance > System > Device Manager, right-click hardware you don’t need – an unused network adapter? – and select Disable. However, disable the wrong thing and your PC won’t reboot, so if in doubt, leave it.
4. Disable unwanted servicesType ‘Services’ in the Search box and press Enter to see what’s marked as ‘Started’ and running on your PC. Services you may not need that start anyway include the Distributed Link Tracking Client (which maintains NTFS file links over a network) and the Tablet PC Input Service (unless you’re using a Tablet PC). Double-click a redundant service, set its Startup type to Disabled, and it won’t be relaunched when you next boot. Again, some services are vital to your system, and disabling them will stop it from booting altogether. Take advice from sites like Black Viper, and if you’re in doubt about something, leave it running.
5. Troubleshoot long boot timesIf your PC is up to date, but you’re suffering really slow boot times (over three minutes) then there could be a hardware or driver issue. Try removing everything apart from your monitor, keyboard and mouse. Or if you’re currently unplugged from your network, reconnect and see what happens.
6. Check for errors in the Event ViewerFind clues in the Event Viewer (type ‘eventvwr’ in the Search box and press Enter). Expand the Windows Logs part of the tree and browse the Applications and System logs. Scroll down to the last time you booted and look for error messages that might explain why your PC is performing poorly.
7. Remove system tray clutterTake a look at all those icons in your system tray. For every essential item like your antivirus program, there will be something else, like QuickTime, which probably doesn’t need to be there at all. Right-click or double-click that icon, look for ways you can tell the program not to load, and benefit from a little extra speed.
8. Check running tasksSome background programs will run anyway, and could be tying up more memory or processor time than you realise. To find out, right-click the taskbar, select Task Manager > Processes. Now just watch for a while. Assuming you’ve sorted by CPU use, you’ll now see background processes pop up as they run. If you spot something you don’t recognise that’s taking up 10 per cent or more CPU time, right-click it and select Properties to find out more. Once you’ve discovered which program owns this process, check the documentation to find out if you really need to run it.
10. Trim the fat with AutorunsEvery program that starts up with your PC extends the boot time. Some programs are essential, but others aren’t. Trim them back with free program Autoruns. Autoruns has a whole series of tabs – each of these display start-up programs according to their category. Switch to the Logon tab. Before you remove anything, right-click on it and choose Search Online to find out more. Once you’ve been able to verify that a disabled entry isn’t important, you can opt to remove it completely – to do so, right-click and choose Delete. Click Yes when prompted. This action should prevent future memory loss.
11. Update your driversIf you are experiencing any kind of performance issues, checking you’re running the latest drivers should always be one of your first ports of call. The drivers provide the link between the hardware inside your PC and what you experience, and companies constantly update them to iron out bugs and optimise performance. Search the manufacturer’s web site for the latest editions of your drivers.
12. Tweak advanced settingsEven if there’s no new driver for a device, you may still be able to squeeze more speed out of it. Click Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Device Manager, then expand the Network Adapters section, right-click an adapter and select Properties > Advanced. You’ll probably find all kinds of settings that aren’t available anywhere else, and it’s much the same for any device with an Advanced tab.
14. Turn off legacy supportLaunch REGEDIT, and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\currentcontrolset\Control\filesystem. Set ntfsdisable8dot3namecreation to 1 and it won’t create DOS-style shortened versions of file names; setting ntfsdisablelastaccessupdate means Windows won’t update the Last Accessed date on a folder when you view it. Both tweaks will help improve drive performance a little, but could break old software.
15. Get more speed from your SATA drivesYou can squeeze a little extra performance from a SATA drive by going to Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > System > Device Manager > Hard Drives, then right-clicking your drive, selecting Policies and checking Enable Advanced Performance. Beware: Microsoft says this increases the chance of data loss if the drive loses power. Only do this if you have backup like a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) or are willing to take the risk.
17. Give ReadyBoost a goSlower PCs may benefit marginally from using a USB drive as a ReadyBoost drive – but it’s no substitute for adding more RAM. Before you start you need to make sure your USB memory card is up to the job. You’ll need a minimum of 256MB storage and a maximum of 4GB, and it needs to be capable of specific speeds: 2.5MB per second for random reads and 1.75MB per second for random writes. ReadyBoost will test your memory when you first plug it in and, if it’s not up to scratch, ReadyBoost will refuse to use it.
21. Save time with Scheduled TasksIf your PC is left on overnight or when you’re not using it, you can schedule common tasks to occur while you’re away from your desk. Go to Start Search, type in ‘Task Scheduler’ and hit Enter. Once the Scheduler is open, select tasks and edit the time they should occur and how long they’ll last, along with other options. The tasks you’ll probably want to run most often are Disk Defragmenter and System Restore.
23. Optimise the registry the easy wayCleaning the registry used to come with all sorts of problems, and doing so can be a good way to send your PC to an early grave. Instead, try defragging the registry, which works much the same way as it does with hard drives.
24. Trace Windows servicesBrowse Task Manager on any PC and you’ll see the same name: svchost.exe. Each copy of this runs Windows services, some of which can be turned off to save RAM. Find the svchost.exe copy using the most memory, right-click it and select Go to Service(s). Check Black Viper to see what can be safely disabled.
25. Optimise SuperFetchThe SuperFetch settings in Windows Vista are designed to maximise performance, and Tweak VI (available to download from Totalidea Software) has a section dedicated to occasionally clearing the logs to tidy things up and optimise it. To access this, select System Information and Tweaks > Hard drive information… Switch to the Prefetcher and SuperFetch optimisation tab and follow the instructions that are presented.
26. Turn off automatic defragmentationYour PC slows down while the Defragmenter is running, so you might prefer to set it to run manually – turn off scheduling by unticking Run on a Schedule (recommended). Alternatively, pick a time when you’re away from your PC – your lunch hour may be good, so it doesn’t interfere with your work.
28. Remove external drives quicklyThe Remove Drive Safely gadget sits quietly in your Windows Sidebar and lets you disconnect your USB, SATA and eSATA drives with just a click of your mouse, and it recognises any new drives you plug in as well. You can quickly disconnect single or multiple drives, and because it sits on your Sidebar, it’s immediately accessible. Download the gadget from Windows Live Gallery, or click the plus sign on the Sidebar and choose Get more gadgets online.
29. Disable network printer searchIf you’re on a network, but not sharing any printers, then speed things up by disabling the network printer search. Open the Network and Sharing Center, then under Printer Sharing, click the down arrow and select Turn off printer sharing before clicking Apply.
30. Close any program faster than everPeople have been using this great trick for ages now: to close anything from an Internet Explorer browser window to Windows Media Player faster than you’re able to with your mouse, just hold down the Alt key on your keyboard, and then press F4. It might