First off, a few things to say: One, I know this should probably belong in the General section, but I wanted my fellow DC friends to read it first, so you guys can let this help you if you use Vista.
So please GM's / CSR's, don't move this thread yet. Thank you. EDIT: I have posted this again in the General Section. So hopefully, this thread is here to stay in the DC area so it can help DC players out. XD
Two: I don't want a "Vista sucks" or "Windows Suck" or "Mac is way better" flame war going on. This is just meant to help those with slow Vista computers. So please, bear that in mind when you reply. If you have nothing good to say, don't say anything at all.
I will be writing more later! Ok, here we go!
Please, if this helped you, +REP IF YOU LIKE. Thanks.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Vista is Microsoft’s newest operating system to its famed Windows OS. And while it is a great operating system, it can be one of the slowest computers you have used. However,
don’t let this stop you from enjoying Vista! Here are a few tricks on how to speed up Windows Vista. I used these tricks to make my Vista 3x faster (at last comparison) than my XP.
1) Lose Stuff You Don’t NeedThere are a few features in Windows Vista that you really don’t need. Go to the Start Menu, and type in “Programs and Features” in the search box. It should show up immediately. Open it. On the left pane, click on “Turn Windows Features On or Off.” You will find a window with a list of features and a checkbox next to it. A check in that box means it is turned on, and a filled square means that only a portion of that feature is turned on.
Here are some things that you can turn off. Note that turning these features off does not remove them from your computer.
Games (You can keep a few you like, Uncheck the ones you don’t need)
Indexing Service
Internet Information Services
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0
Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) Server
Print Services
Remote Differential Compression
Removable Storage Management
RIP Listener
Simple TCPIP services
SNMP feature
Tablet PC (Leave this on if you’re using a Tablet PC)
Telnet Client
Telnet Server
TFTP Client
Windows DFS Replication Service
Windows Meeting Space
Windows Process Activation ServiceI unchecked all of these except for a few games. You don’t really need these anyway.
2) Flush Services You Don’t NeedGo to the Start Menu, and type in services.msc. Up will pop a window with many services. Take a look at the “Startup Type” Column. In that column, you will see one of these three words:
Automatic – This service starts whenever Windows starts
Manual – This service only starts when it is needed.
Disabled – This service will never start. Note that if a service is disabled, and another program needs the service to continue, you may not be able to continue.Now, look for services that are “Automatic.” Don’t worry about the Manual ones, because they only start when they are needed. To change how the service starts, right click it and press properties. If the service is currently running, click “stop” on the window that pops up, then choose the desired startup type (Automatic, Manual, Disabled) from the drop down menu. I recommend putting services you don’t need as “Manual,” so they start up if needed. However, there are some things that you can set as “Disabled,” if you’re sure you don’t need them. One example is Table PC (if you have a Tablet PC, keep this Automatic.). If you don’t have a Tablet PC, you can disable it.
Some things that you can pretty much automatically set on Manual are:
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
IKE And AuthIP IP Keying Modules
Offline Files
Remote Registry
Tablet PC Input Service (Leave ‘Automatic’ if you have a Tablet PC)
Windows Error ReportingSome things that you should
DEFINITELY NOT disable are:
Multimedia Class Scheduler
Plug and Play
Superfetch
Task Scheduler
Windows Audio
Windows Driver FoundationBe careful in disabling Security services!3) Clean out Background ProgramsThese pesky buggers can slow down your computer when you don’t even want them running. A good way to get rid of programs automatically starting when Windows starts and slowing down you computer is to look at your system tray (bottom right corner of the screen, with the clock, audio, etc). Find any third party programs there (ie Quicktime, AIM, etc). Right click on the icon and look for a “Properties” or “Tools” of some type. Look around the program’s Properties for a way to prevent it from loading when Windows starts.
After that, click Start and type in msconfig. Click on the “Startup” tab. There is a list of programs that automatically start up when Windows starts. Uncheck the box next to a program if you don’t want it to start up automatically. The program will still start if you need it. This just stops it from automatically loading and hogging resources.
Take care in unchecking these programs. Some, like Windows Defender, other anti-virus programs, etc. should be kept on. Restart the computer.
4) Disable User Account Control (UAC)You’ve probably noticed by now that if you try to do certain things that require administrator privileges, the screen fades and a window pops up, requesting your Administrator account password before you can continue. This is annoying, and slows down your computer. You can disable this by going go the Start Menu and typing in msconfig. Then, go to the Tools tab. Scroll down until you see “Disable UAC.” Click once on that, then click on the launch button. A command window will open. Don’t do anything. Once the command is finished, you can close the window. Now close msconfig and restart the computer. Note that you can always enable UAC again by doing the exact same thing, except this time highlighting “Enable UAC” and clicking Launch.
5) Vista too Pretty for You? IMO, Windows Vista has the best GUI (Graphical User Interface) in the history of personal computers. Transparencies, fluid animations for minimizing, maximizing, opening / closing programs, etc. Wow. This next tweak is for lower end computers, as high end computers won’t benefit much from this.
Well, here it is. If you’ve got an extremely low end computer, you gotta get rid of some of that pretty stuff. Awwwww. Here are some things you can do:
Switch to a non-Windows Aero GUI. Aero is Vista’s GUI, you know, with all the transparencies and pretty buttons and all. Right click on the Desktop and click Personalize. Go to Windows Color And Appearance. Now, click on “Open Classic Appearance Properties,” choose a theme, and click OK.
Get rid of the transparency. I know. It’s too hard to lose. So that’s why you should only do this on a low end computer. Right click on the Desktop and click Personalize. Go to Windows Color And Appearance. Uncheck “Enable Transparency.” Click Ok.
Turn off Sidebar. While it has some pretty neat gadgets and even more gadgets that you can download off the internet, it can slow your computer down. Right click the Sidebar, go to Properties, and uncheck “Start Sidebar When Windows Starts.” Now close the Sidebar. If you ever want to turn it on again, just go to the Start Menu and type in Sidebar. It still doesn’t start when Windows starts, though. I keep mine on, since my computer’s in the high-end range. XD6) Think the Vista Bootup screen is boring? Use the hidden Vista Aurora Bootup.This doesn’t speed up your computer, but it creates an illusion that your start up will be faster, because you’ll be staring at the beautiful aurora. This is the default Vista boot screen:
Yup. Just a boring black screen, with a little bar at the bottom. BOOOORING.
Go to the Start Menu and type in MSCONFIG. Open that, and go to the “Boot” tab. Check the box that says “No GUI Boot.” Now hit Ok and restart the computer, and the new boot screen should show up. This is what it looks like:
Much better. Note: You may get a Windows Defender error after you change this. Enable system config utility using the tray icon, and the error should go away.
7) Use the Computer!That’s right. Using the computer will make it faster. Vista’s Superfetch feature will actually “learn” how you use the computer, and make certain applications that you use more often start faster. So use the computer, and let SuperFetch learn!
8) Use Windows ReadyBoostYou can use your USB drive to help improve performance. Usually, you’ll wanna plug in a USB drive that has equal or more size than your actual computer memory. Usually, 1GB+ USB drives will do.
Plug in your USB drive, and on the window that pops up asking what you want to do, scroll to the bottom and select “Readyboost.”
9) Shut down Windows Indexing ServiceVista constantly indexes all your files for faster searching. This can slow your computer down severely, as it’s always indexing whatever you’re doing. To turn it off, go to:
Start Menu, then to Computer (Or press Windows Logo + E), right click on your C: Drive, and choose Properties. On the General tab, uncheck “Index this drive for faster searching.”10) Shut off Automatic Disk DefragmentWindows Vista defragments your computer automatically on a schedule (for example, 1:00 AM every Wednesday). This can slow down your computer. You can turn this off, but remember to run a defrag once every month.
Go to the Start Menu, then to Computer. Right click on your C: Drive and select Properties. On the “Tools” tab, click on “Defragment Now.” On the window that pops up, uncheck the box next to “Run on a schedule.”Again, remember to defragment manually once every month or sooner.11) Turn off Windows HibernationIf you’re like most people, you rarely use Hibernation. Usually, you should use Sleep instead. It’s way faster when you “wake the computer up” again. So let’s get rid of Hibernation, which uses a lot of background resources.
In the Start Menu, type in POWER OPTIONS. Click “Change Plan Settings” for the plan that you have chosen, and then on the window that pops up click on “Change Advanced Power Settings.” Here, click on the “+” next to Sleep, then the + next to “Hibernate after,” and crank it down to zero. If you have a laptop, you should change both “Plugged in” and “Battery” to zero. It should say “Never” after you’ve changed it.
Note: It would be wise to repeat the same thing for every power plan, just in case you decide to change to a different power plan in the future. Come on now, there’s only 2 more power plans, and it’s real simple and short to change ‘em…-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I will update this thread with more later. This took a while to write (and I will be writing even more), so if this helped you, or if you just wanna be a nice guy, please
+REP IF you like. Thanks in advance if you do! 
