Speed Up the Performance of Vista

Here We Go:

1. Uninstall the Bloatware From Your Computer
Most computers that you buy, at a retail store or OEM, have a ton of software that come installed on it. Some of these can take up a lot of resources. Uninstall the ones that you do not want to use from Programs and Features.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/123397-uninstall-change-program.html


2. Install the Latest BIOS and Device Drivers
Make sure that you have the latest drivers installed for all of your devices and BIOS version for your motherboard. Check at the device's website for them. Be sure to have the correct versions for your 32 bit or 64 bit Vista.


3. Install More RAM
The more you have the better your performance can be up to a point. Usually 3 or 4 GB will be the most you will need. I would recommend to have at least 3 GB of RAM to help have good performance.


4. Turn Aero Glass Transparency Off
The glass effect used by Aero uses a large amount of resources. You can switch it off without disabling Aero.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/75413-aero-glass-transparency.html


5. Adjust Visual Effects for Best Performance
Uncheck the options you do not want or select for best performance to increase the speed. You can optimize performance by changing how menus and windows appear.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/75417-visual-effects-options.html


6. Enable Advanced Performance for the Hard Drive
By default Vista does not enable write caching for SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives or advanced performance for SATA or ATA drives. To improve your data retrieval speed you must enable the write caching and advanced performance.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/59886-hard-drive-speed-boosts.html


7. Disable the Search Index
Vista search index constantly reviews files on your PC to make their contents available for quick searching. This is a nice feature, but it can impact system performance by the hard drive running more often and often gives inaccurate results due to not being finished updating yet.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-indexing-service-search.html


8. Disable or Remove Unused Startup Programs
Go through your startup programs and disable the ones you do not want to start when Vista starts. It is a good idea to check these every once in awhile to help make sure that some malware is not starting up with Vista too.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/79612-startup-programs-enable-disable.html


9. Disable Unused Vista Services
Use the guide below and disable only the services you will not be using. They can consume lots of RAM and processor usage.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/59910-services.html


10. Disable or Restrict TCP/IP Auto Tuning
NOTE: This is only for when you are having a slow or problematic network issue.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/72308-auto-tuning-tcp-ip-receive-level.html


11. Turn Off Remote Differential Compression (RDC)
NOTE: For more information on Remote Differential Compression, see: Microsoft MSDN: About Remote Differential Compression
Remote Differential Compression measures the changes in files over a network to transfer them with minimal bandwidth rather than transferring an entire file that has previously been moved. By constantly checking for file changes, this service can hinder system performance.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67732-windows-features.html


12. Turn Off Extra Unused Windows Features
Vista ships with many other features that are listed separately from the startup services. You can review and disable these features here.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67732-windows-features.html


13. Turn Off Automatic Disk Defragmentation
Vista comes configured with hard drive defragmentation automatically scheduled and can cause a system slow down with its always-on defragment feature.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/72832-disk-defragmenter-vistas.html


14. Defragment the Hard Drive on a Regular Schedule
Disk fragmentation leads to system slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startup and shutdown and sometimes to system failures.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/72832-disk-defragmenter-vistas.html

Auslogics Disk Defrag is a great free program that is faster and better than Vista's Disk Defragmenter.
http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/index.php


15. Defragment the Registry
Unlike registry cleaning utilities, no entries are removed from the registry. Instead, wasted space is reclaimed and the files are defragmented in the registry to improve performance. Auslogics Registry Defrag is a great free program for this.
http://www.auslogics.com/registry-defrag/index.php


16. Turn Off the Hibernation Sleep Mode
Vista's hibernation background services use a large amount of system resources and hard drive space. Set the Hibernate after to Never. You will want to use the Hybrid sleep instead.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/63567-powercfg-sleep-problems.html


17. Turn Off System Restore
Analysis and restore point creation by Vista can use a fair amount of system resources.
WARNING: Disabling System Restore will mean that there will be no restore point available to go back to in the event of a problem with your computer. You will need to make backups if you disable System Restore.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66971-system-restore.html

and

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/169523-system-restore-task-change-automatic-restore-point-schedule.html


18. Turn Off Windows Sidebar
Each Sidebar gadget consumes system resources, so either trim back what you use to a minimum or turn off the Sidebar completely.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/81260-windows-sidebar-startup.html


19. Speed Up the Menu Pop Out Delay Time
This will speed up all menu slide outs or pop ups delay time in Vista to make them open faster.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67220-menu-show-delay-time.html


20. Disable Network Printer Search
If you have this, disabling network printer search can improve performance. When you browse through folders Vista is always looking for network printers. This search ends up in consuming lots of resources. To speed up performance just follow these steps:

A) Open Folder Options. (Control Panel or Tools menu in a Explorer window)
B) Click View tab.
C) Uncheck Automatically search for network printers.
D) Click OK to apply.

21. Use ReadyBoost
Windows ReadyBoost can use storage space as a memory cache on some removable media devices, such as USB flash drives, to speed up your computer.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/81381-readyboost.html


22. Use Disk Cleanup
This tool deletes unnecessary or temporary files on your hard disk so you can increase the amount of storage space you have.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76073-disk-cleanup.html


23. Speed Up the Boot Time
This will show you how to speed up just the boot up time to your desktop in Vista.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/70563-boot-up.html


24. Speed Up the Shutdown Time
This will set the amount of time Vista waits for programs to save data and close before shutting down.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/70567-shutdown.html


25. Use the High Performance Plan in Power Options
This will allow your CPU to operate up to it's full 100% instead of the default 50% in the other Plans. See step two here:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/63567-powercfg-sleep-problems.html


26. Make a Program or Process Run with a Higher or Lower CPU Priority
If you have a large resource demanding program or process running, then setting it to a higher CPU priority will allow it to run faster.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/72924-cpu-priority-processes.html


27. How to Set the Processor Affinity for a Application in Vista
Like setting the CPU Priority (See 27 above) , you can set the Processor Affinity to have a application (Ex: Anti-Spyware scan) to use only one CPU while you have another application (Ex: Internet Explorer) running on just the other CPU to allow maximum usage of each CPU assigned to each application.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/146578-processor-affinity.html


28. Get the Full Bandwidth Back from the QoS Reserved Bandwidth Limit
By default, Vista reserves 20 percent of the connection bandwidth for QoS traffic handled by the QoS Packet Scheduler. The reserved bandwidth is still available to other programs unless a program specifically requests priority bandwidth. Vista will then restrict the best effort traffic to 80 percent of the bandwidth so that high priority traffic can be accommodated. This will show you how to change the percentage of reserved bandwidth, or disable the reserved bandwidth to get back the full bandwidth all the time.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/109326-qos-bandwidth-reserve-limit.html


29. Set Vista for the CPU L2 Cache Memory Size
This can increase performance by approximately 2 percent in some cases. You will need to read the description at the link. It's to long to place here.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/75681-cpu-l2-cache-memory-setting-vista.html


30. Add COPY TO FOLDER and MOVE TO FOLDER to the Context Menu
Copy To Folder allows you to right click on a item and copy it to another location immediately.
Move to Folder allows you to right click on a item and move it to another locatation and remove it from it's current location immediately.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/89196-context-menu-add-copy-folder-move-folder.html


31. Disable the Transient Multimon Manager (TMM)
This is the 2-3 second delay followed by a blank black screen as Vista searches for monitor changes when you startup Vista. Disabling TMM will stop this. Be sure to read the Warning.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/115320-transient-multimon-manager-tmm.html


32. Adjust Superfetch to Meet Your Needs
Superfetch is a new improved feature in Vista that monitors which applications you use the most and preloads these into your system memory (RAM) so they'll be ready when you need them. You can change Superfetch to preload only the Boot files, Program files, or the default both Boot and Program files into memory, or disable it completely. In most cases, leaving Superfetch set to default will help Vista run faster over time. Test and see for yourself.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/72293-superfetch-memory-prefetcher.html

and

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/108833-superfetch-change-preload-data.html


33. Clear the Vista Temporary Files
The Temp folder is where Vista and programs sometimes store temporary files. Sometimes these files are not deleted after Vista or the program is finished with them. This can cause the temp folder to fill up with junk temp files which may cause Vista to take longer to access the Temp folder and create a slight delay.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/104637-temporary-files-temp-folder.html


34. Turn Windows Explorer Thumbnails Off
If you do not care about having thumbnail images for the file icon and the default icon is fine, then this can help speed up navigating in Windows Explorer by Vista not having to load the images for the icons.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/73715-thumbnails-windows-explorer.html


35. Change the Maximum Download Sessions in Internet Explorer or all Browsers
This can help increase the speed of Internet Explorer or the browser that you use.
A) The current HTTP specification limits the number of simultaneous file downloads to two downloads, plus one on stand by. As connection speeds increase, the number of simultaneous downloads to a single web server may not be enough for your needs.
B) If you visit a web page with lots of images (and supporting files like CSS styles and Javascript), then you can have a slower browsing experience. On average, your browser would have to make more than 40 requests to the server before it can assemble the complete page. Requesting all the files you need with the default 2 at a time is going to be slower than requesting say 10 files at a time.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/80980-internet-explorer-maximum-download-sessions.html


36. Change the Number of Processors Used at Boot Up in Vista
If you have a multiple core CPU (Ex: Intel Core Duo or Quad CPU) or multiple CPUs, then this will show you how to change the Number of Processors that will be used durring boot up to help speed up the boot up time.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/153125-boot-advanced-options-number-processors.html


37. Disable Clearing the Virtual Memory Paging File at Shutdown
When this setting is enabled it can add around a minute or so to how long it takes your computer to shutdown and restart.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/157323-virtual-memory-paging-file-clear-shutdown.html


38. Enable Defragmenting of Boot Files at the Startup of Vista
When enabled, this can help improve the performance of the computer by consolidating the fragmented boot files to get a faster startup time. This should be enabled by default in Vista, but it would not hurt to double check.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/157352-defragment-boot-files-enable-disable.html


I will add more as I find them,
Shawn