Speed Up the Performance of Vista

How to Speed Up the Performance of Vista​

   Information

This is a list of suggestions that will show you how to speed up the performance of Vista.

These are suggestions that you can pick and choose which ones you would like to do. If you do not notice a increase in performance or have a problem, you can always go back and enable it again or undo it.

   Warning

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR VISTA
NOTE: It is recommended to have at least 3 GB of ram to help have good performance. For more information, see: Microsoft Windows Vista: Recommended System Requirements


Vista Home Basic

• Processor: 1GHz (32 or 64 bit)
• System Memory (RAM): 512MB
• Hard Drive: 20GB with 15GB available for Vista
• Video Card: 32MB Memory and DirectX 9 Support
• DVD-ROM Drive

Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate

• Processor: 1GHz (32 or 64 bit)
• System Memory (RAM): 1GB
• Hard Drive: 40GB with 15GB available for Vista
• Video Card: 128MB Memory, DirectX 9 Support with: WDDM Driver, Pixel Shader 2.0, 32bits per pixel
• DVD-ROM Drive

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.​

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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.​

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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.​

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4. Install Vista SP1

Installing SP1 can help improve your performance with the updates that it provides to Vista.​

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5.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.​

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6. 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.​

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7. 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.​

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8. 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.​

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9. 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.​

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10. 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.​

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11. Disable or Restrict TCP/IP Auto Tuning

NOTE: This is only for when you are having a slow or problematic network issue. ​

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12. Turn Off Remote Differential Compression (RDC)

NOTE: For more information on Remote Differential Compression, see: Microsoft MSDN: About Remote Differential Compression​

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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. You can uncheck this option in Windows Features to turn it off.​

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13. 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.​

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14. 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.​

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15. 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.​

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16. 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. Free Registry Defrag is a great free program for this.​

Free Registry Defrag​

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17. 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.​

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18. 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.​

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19. 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.​

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20. 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.​

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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.​

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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.​

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23. Speed Up the Boot Time

This will show you how to speed up just the boot up time to your desktop in Vista.​

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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.​

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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:​

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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.​

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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.​

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28. Change or Disable the QoS Reserved Bandwidth Limit

By default, Vista can reserve up to 20 percent of the network bandwidth for QoS traffic handled by the QoS Packet Scheduler. One hundred percent of the network bandwidth is available to be shared by all programs unless a program (Ex: Windows Update) specifically requests priority bandwidth. This 20 percent reserved bandwidth is still available to other programs unless the requesting program (Ex: VoIP applications) is sending data. Vista can then restrict the best effort traffic to a minimum of 80 percent of the bandwidth to the other programs so that the high priority traffic can be accommodated. If the program that reserved the bandwidth is not sending sufficient data to use it, the unused part of the reserved bandwidth is available for other data flows on the same host.​

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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.​

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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.​

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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.​

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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.​

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

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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.​

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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.​

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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.​

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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.​

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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.​

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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 that has been reported to help speed up the boot up time even though Vista uses all available Cores or Processors by default.​

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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.​

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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.​

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39. Move the Virtual Memory Paging File to a Second Hard Drive

You can place the paging file on a second physical hard drive instead of the same C: drive that Vista is on. Doing this allows Vista to dump temp junk onto one drive while not having to interrupt reads or writes on the other drive. You can expect a 5 to 10% increase in speed depending on the speed of your hard drives.​

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40. Change the Mouse Hover Delay Time

The mouse hover delay time is how long the mouse pointer has to stay hovered over an item, in milliseconds, before that item's pop-up is displayed. For example, pop-up descriptions or taskbar thumbnails.​

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41. Install Vista SP2

Installing SP2 either through Windows Updates or the standalone installer can help improve your performance with the updates that it provides to Vista.​

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42. Use a Solid State Drive (SSD)

Installing Vista onto a solid state hard drive (SSD) instead of a normal SATA or IDE hard drive will dramatically increase your computer's performance.​

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43. Turn off all unnecessary animations

If animation effects, such as fade windows when closed visual effects, run slow or sluggish on your computer, then using Turn off all unnecessary animations can help improve your computer's performance.​

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I will add more as I find them,
Shawn

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Larry, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Shawn

 

[Lightning Speed]

Thanks I like it when you added all the guides that's all about how to increase system performance in one topic ^^
Thanks for you effort mate, And keep up the good work!

Cheers
-Scott

 

[Random]

A few more adds!

I first thought of making my own personal tutorial to speed up Windows Vista, but that was before I saw this one. Excellent work, Brink! There are a few tweaks that I would like to inform you about:

Vista SP1 Clean-Up:
Once you have installed Service Pack 1 and are sure that you will not uninstall it, you can use [Win] + [R] and type vsp1cln.exe to start a throughout cleaning of old components which have been replaced by newer ones with the pack.

Superfetch

"My recommendation: Don't mess with it, period.​

I only even list the option in this guide because so many places on the web talk about adjusting on even stopping it. SuperFetch is a highly improved version of XP's prefetch:​

"SuperFetch keeps track of which applications you use most and loads this information in RAM so that programs load faster than they would if the hard disk had to be accessed every time. Windows SuperFetch prioritizes the programs you're currently using over background tasks and adapts to the way you work by tracking the programs you use most often and pre-loading these into memory. With SuperFetch, background tasks still run when the computer is idle. However, when the background task is finished, SuperFetch repopulates system memory with the data you were working with before the background task ran. Now, when you return to your desk, your programs will continue to run as efficiently as they did before you left. It is even smart enough to know what day it is in the event you use different applications more often on certain days."​

How is this not a good thing???"​

Services
Here is a good list which finds the services that you can turn off based on whether you use a laptop or a desktop.​

Changes through the registry
There are plenty of settings which you could make easier to adjust by creating .reg files with the changes in them. I see you've done it on many already, so nice going.​

Maximize work area
Right click anywhere on your desktop and click the bottom option. Then choose the first option in the window that popped up. You will see a one-liner colored blue just like a hyperlink. Click it. Now click on "Advanced". In the "Element"-menu, click on option nr:
2 - Set value to 17.
7 - Set value to 17.
8 - Set value to 1.
15 - Set value to 0.
18 - Set value to 17.​

Now click apply and close the window. You will see that the frame around each window is now thinner, making a larger area for the actual window.​

Note: Sorry that I did not just spell out the names of each option. My operative system does not have English as the default language.​

 

[Brink]

Hello Random, and welcome to Vista Forums:

Thank you, but we have these already though.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/142656-sp1-disk-cleanup-tool.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/72293-superfetch-memory-prefetcher.html

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

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/59910-services.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/78281-advanced-appearance.html

 

[Random]

Ah, I see. That's good then. Are you going to include them in the form of small summaries with links in the start post too? The more, the merrier I say. Well, I'll have a trip around this place then, attempting to get a bigger overview.

Again, thanks a lot for all of this. It's magnificent work!

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Random.

Only steps 9 and 32 are really for speed performance though.

 

[Suezorm]

I never realized how ignorant I was until I began using Vista with Word 2007. I find it difficult to even communicate the questions I need to ask, even though communication has always been considered one of my greatest assets---along with writing and research. I didn't understand how my new ASUS computer could operate so slowly. Thanks for the tips, and I implement only those that I completely understand. People have told me that I can't wreck this computer, but it crashed after a Windows download......again after I simply worked on an existing Word document. Needless to say, this former PhD candidate, teacher/writer is terrified to do anything that could jeopardize my files. I trust this forum--completed the removal of indexing option and couldn't believe how much faster this computer worked. I am grateful.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Suezorm, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Please feel free to ask any question you may have about Vista here at Vista Forums. We will be happy to try and help you with it.

Shawn

 

[ponteha]

Hi

First of all thanks for your useful ways for speed up the vista performance

In my task manager in performance tab I can see that my memory usage is about 1.23 GB when I start my computer! (I have 3GB of ram)

Now I have a question:

I've set the hibrenate after to "never" and turned the hybrid sleep "on" in the power options.

And after putting the computer in the hybrid sleep about some minutes and waking it up, I've noticed that the memory usage reduced to 580 MB!!!

Now I'm so happy about this but it's also so strange for me... I just wanted to know is there a problem or something? or is it harmful?

Let me know please.

Regards,
Ali

 

[Brink]

Hello ALi, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Not necessarily. That size is determined by how much you have running at one time.

Since you have hibernation set to "Never", you should have hybrid set to "Off" and Sleep to "On" instead. Hybrid allows the computer to go to sleep, then after the set time, into hibernation.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[ponteha]

But what about the memory usage?

After hybrid sleep the 1.32 GB usage reduced to 580 MB!!

Doesn't that help the performance of the PC?
Or there is no difference?

I'm confused please clear me.

I think it MUST help the performance... but the thing that I don't understand is that is there something special in hybrid sleep that make the PC to use less memory?? and if it's good, why it's off in default and why it's better for us to turn it off?

Let me know please.

Regards,
Ali

 

[Brink]

Ali,

I'm not sure why your RAM usage (see boxed in red below) would drop like that by simply by going into hybrid sleep mode and waking up. This usage amount is strickly dependant on how much you have running. Perhaps something is not running now that was before. You might take a look at the Resource Monitor for Memory to see what was running before and after.

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Using less RAM does necessarily affect performance though. It just means that there is more RAM available before your system needs to use the page file (slower) on the hard drive.

How does it act with using Sleep only and no Hybrid or Hibernate?

Shawn

 

[ponteha]

Hi

I have taken photos before and after the hybrid sleep.

Before:

After:

I'm using HP laptop... I think the sleep of laptops are a bit different with PCs, am I right?

It's so strange to me, do you see any strange thing in the photos?

And is it possible that the computer shows a fake memory usage statistic?

Regards,
Ali

 

[Brink]

Normally laptops sleep just like a desktop unless the OEM has something proprietary that alters it. The only difference is that you have a battery meter with the laptops and usually not desktops.

It looks ok to me. It appears that you have less running after waking up than you did before.

 

[BADHIGEEN]

Great tutorial:D Brink you are like one with this stuff

 

[ponteha]

But can we find a reason for this? if it's right and the computer is not showing a fake statistic so it can be a great way to improve the performance...

But I'm thinking hard and just can't stick it in to my mind...... this is so funny...
So let's say "ONE WAY FOR IMPROVING VISTA PERFORMANCE IS TURNING HYBRID SLEEP ON!! that's it"

And did you give it a try on your own vista? I don't know, if it works for me it should works for others too, vista is vista.

And I don't think it matters what kind of vista we are using...

please give it a try on your own and let me know the results... I HAVE TO GET IT, IT'S MAKING CRAZY!! please, please.

Regards,
Ali

 

[Brink]

Ali,

I gave it a try to see, but it made no difference in memory usage. The only thing it did do was to take a little bit longer before going into sleep as it saved everything to the hibernation file that wasn't going to get used anyway since hibernation was set to "never".

The only thing I can tell you is that something may have been running before that is not running now. You can test this my leaving Hybrid set to "off" and see what your memory usage is before and after normal Sleep.

 

[Brink]

Great tutorial:D Brink you are like one with this stuff

You're welcome BadHigeen, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Shawn

 

[ponteha]

I think my computer is showing a fake statistic... because in experience I didn't feel that it works faster and the performance has been improved!

Regard,
Ali

 

[kevinarjun]

awsome tutorials thanks a lot....