Windows Vista
Performance Tips and Tweaks [Part II]
Most of the
following tips emphasize increasing the responsiveness and speed of Windows
Vista, whether on a new computer or an old computer that has migrated from
Windows XP to Microsoft's new operating system. Whether you are looking for
desktop performance, quicker boots and shutdowns, better gaming or more battery
life for your Vista powered laptop, there's something in this Performance Tips
for Windows Vista Guide to help.
Note: Most of the
below tips will work on any version of Windows Vista, from Home Basic to
Ultimate, 32-bit and 64-bit. A few, such as the tips dealing with the Aeroglass
interface and the Vista Media Center, do not. Whenever a tip does not function
on one or more Vista versions, this will be indicated in the heading. There are
also a few tips specific to using Vista on a laptop, as well as some gaming
tips. These have their own sections in this Guide.
Continued from the May
issue of the Umbrella Online:
5. Update the
Motherboard BIOS: It's always a good
idea to make sure your computer's firmware is fully up-to-date before taking on
a new operating system, especially one as demanding as Windows Vista. Therefore,
I recommend checking for any available updates to your computer's BIOS.
6. Update hardware
drivers: Windows Vista is
still relatively new, so hardware drivers (the programs that make Windows work
with your computer's hardware) are still in a state of development. If you
haven't updated them recently you should do the rounds of your motherboard,
video card and soundcard (if necessary) manufacturer's web sites in order to
make sure you have the latest Vista compliant drivers for your gear. You should
especially do this if you purchased or assembled your computer close to the
release date of Vista last year, since hardware drivers have made leaps and
bounds in performance and stability since then. In fact, a lot of the problems
users initially experienced with Windows Vista can be linked to immature
drivers, or older WinXP drivers used in place of absent Vista compliant
drivers.
7. Test the
computer's RAM:It's always a good
idea to test your memory periodically, especially if you have only just
installed Vista, or if you are reading this article because you are having
performance or stability issues with the operating system.
Fortunately, Vista
has a built in memory testing tool which will do the job quite well. You will
have to restart and leave the computer system alone for 30 minutes or so
though.
To test your memory
with the windows Vista memory testing tool:Open the 'start'
menu and type 'memory' in the search bar and hit Enter.
Choose the 'restart
now and check for problems' option.
The computer will
restart and run through a full memory test.
8. Optimize the
memory timings and voltage: You may or may not
wish to overclock your system, but to gain the best possible performance from
your memory right now, let's look into optimizing your computer's memory latency
timings.
To put it simply,
memory timings are a set of arranged delays that each memory module steps
through in between transferring data to and from your computer. These programmed
delays ensure that data can be written to and read from your RAM in an orderly
fashion. Shorter delays mean your memory moves more data in a given time,
meaning better overall computing performance.
There are too many
variables for me to give you a comprehensive guide on setting your memory
latencies. Take a look here (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=873)
, then refer to your motherboard manual and the web site of your memory
manufacturer for instructions on your specific hardware.
9. Overclock the CPU
and memory: Your computer system
is the engine that powers your Vista experience, so why not make that engine run
faster if you can? Ok, there's a few reasons why you might not want to (hassle
and stability concerns to name two), but with today's computer technology, a
slight overclock is almost guaranteed. Also overclocking your computer will
certainly gain you a healthy performance advantage in games and number
crunching. With this in mind, I'd like to direct you to this article about
overclocking for a comprehensive how-to. (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1804).
10. Overclock the
video card: If gaming is your
Vista priority, then this tip might be of interest to you. As with overclocking
your processor and memory, overclocking the videocard makes it run faster than
spec and then do more work in a given time period. Faster videocard=better
games. As with all other forms of overclocking, nothing is guaranteed, not even
the safety of your hardware, so take it slowly and be careful. An overclocked
videocard can improve your direct X10 gaming performance dramatically though.
Note that this will not help much with the Aeroglass 3D interface. If your
videocard already has problems with Aeroglass, a small speed tweak is unlikely
to help. If your card can handle Aeroglass just fine, more speed will not net
you any noticeable visual improvement.
Now that
I've covered the basics, lets dive into the first ten tasks you can't live
without. These are the essential "First Boot" tasks that will make Vista a much
more pleasant system to work in, particularly if you consider yourself an
intermediate-to-experienced computer user.
11. Turn off User
Account Control (UAC)
User Account Control
(UAC) is definitely the most maligned, misunderstood and most often mocked new
'feature' of Windows Vista. What is it? You know those little yes/no boxes that
pop up when you try to run an installation program, or view device manager or
anything else that Vista interprets as an 'administrator' level event? That's
UAC.
What it does is
attempt to prevent unauthorized changes to the system settings by requiring a
manual 'ok' from you, for each and every change. What it also tends to do is
annoy people, especially since the popup window does not always appear in the
foreground, leaving you to wonder why your installation has frozen.
Fortunately, UAC can
be easily disabled, though you should be aware that doing so strips Vista of a
considerable extra layer of security against viruses and malware. Effectively,
disabling UAC brings me back to XP territory in terms of security, but it makes
Vista so much easier to use. If you are a computer novice, you should consider
leaving UAC enabled for the time being. For the rest of you, to disable UAC :
Go to start/control
panel/user accounts and family safety/user accounts.
Click on 'turn user
account control on or off' and select 'continue' when the UAC box
appears.
Uncheck the 'user
account control (UAC) to help protect your computer' option.
Click 'ok'. The
machine will require a restart, and following that you will be free of UAC nag
windows.
Note that this
disables UAC only for the current user.
12. Set Automatic
Updates to download only
By default, Windows
Vista will automatically download and install any patches and updates that
Microsoft considers crucial. This will often result in an automatic system
restart, which can be canceled if you are at the keyboard, but it can play havoc
with your downloading if you are not.
A better way to do
things is to have Vista download the patches automatically, but wait for your
permission to install them and restart the computer.
To enable manual
update installation:
Go to 'start/control
panel/security/turn automatic updating on or off'
Select the 'download
updates but let me choose whether to install them' option.
Click
'OK'
Windows Vista will
now notify you when updates are available via an icon in the taskbar, but will
not install them until told to. When you do choose to install the patches,
you'll have the opportunity of scanning over the patches and deselecting any you
feel are unnecessary. ... via Bill Petitt, SVCG
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