Tweaks for Speeding up Windows
Delete Programs You Never Use
Many PC manufacturers pack their new computers with programs you didn’t order and might not want. These often include trial editions and limited edition versions of programs that software companies hope you will try, find useful, and then pay to upgrade to full versions or newer versions. If you decide you don’t want them, keeping the software on your computer might slow it down by using precious memory, disk space, and processing power.
It’s a good idea to uninstall all the programs you don’t plan to use. This should include both manufacturer-installed software and software you installed yourself but don’t want any more— especially utility programs designed to help manage and tune your computer’s hardware and software. Utility programs such as virus scanners, disk cleaners, and backup tools often run automatically at startup, quietly chugging along in the background where you can’t see them. Many people have no idea they are even running.
Limit Programs Load at Startup
Many programs are designed to load automatically when Windows starts. Software manufacturers often set their programs to open in the background, where you can’t see them running, so they’ll open right away when you click their icons. That's helpful for programs you use a lot, but for programs you rarely or never use, this wastes precious memory and slows down the time it takes Windows to finish loading.
Decide for yourself if you want a program to load at startup
But how can you tell what programs load automatically at startup? Sometimes this is obvious, because the program will add an icon to the notification area on the taskbar, where you can see it running. Look there and see if there are any programs running that you don’t want to load automatically. Position your mouse over each icon to see the program name. Be sure to click the Show hidden icons button so you don’t miss any icons.
Even if your PC is older, it might contain manufacturer-installed programs that you never noticed or have since forgotten about. It’s never too late to remove these and get rid of the clutter and wasted system resources. Maybe you thought you might use the software someday, but never did. Uninstall it and see if your PC runs faster.
Turn off Unnecessary Services
Services are background processes that run silently without you ever knowing about them. Because Vista takes the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to what it loads on boot, there are likely some unnecessary services running in the background.
To get rid of them go to Start > Run, type services.msc and hit Return. Double-click on the service you want to get rid of and change the startup type to Disable.
Some examples of services you may not need: Secondary Logon, Remote Registry, Computer Browser, KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator, Tablet PC Input Service and Distributed Link Tracking Client. There are dozens more. Sift through them and run a few rigorous web searches to see if you need all of them.
Run Fewer Programs at the Same Time
Sometimes changing your computing behavior can have a big impact on your PC's performance. If you’re the type of computer user who likes to keep eight programs and a dozen browser windows open at once—all while instant messaging your friends—don’t be surprised if your PC bogs down. Keeping a lot of e-mail messages open can also use up memory.
If you find your PC slowing down, ask yourself if you really need to keep all your programs and windows open at once. Find a better way to remind yourself to reply to e-mail messages than to keep all of them open.
Disable Aero
The Windows Aero Glass interface for Windows Vista requires a decent video card, you won’t be
able to use it on an old clunker computer. For those worried about performance, sometimes squeezing every last drop requires disabling Aero.
You might also have some performance reasons for disabling it… to do so, just right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize. Click the “Window Color and Appearance” link:
Then in the next screen, click the link near the bottom for “Open classic appearance properties for more color options”.
Now you should be able to disable Aero altogether by choosing Windows Vista Basic in this screen:
Turn off visual effects
If Windows is running slowly, you can speed it up by disabling some of its visual effects. It comes down to appearance versus performance. Would you rather have Windows run faster or look prettier? If your PC is fast enough, you don’t have to make this tradeoff, but if your computer is just barely powerful enough for Windows Vista, it can be useful to scale back on the visual bells and whistles.
You can choose which visual effects to turn off one by one, or you can let Windows choose a bunch for you. There are 20 visual effects you can control, such as the transparent glass look, the way menus open or close, and whether shadows are displayed.
Add more memory
This isn’t a guide to buying hardware that will speed up your computer. But no discussion of how make Windows run faster would be complete without mentioning that you should consider adding more memory to your PC.
If a computer running Windows Vista feels too slow, it’s usually because the PC doesn’t have enough memory. The most sure–fire way to speed it up is to add more.
Windows Vista can run on a PC with 512 megabytes (MB) of random access memory (RAM), but it runs better with 1 gigabyte (GB). For optimal performance, boost that to 2 GB or more.
If you're going to the trouble of opening up your PC case to add more memory, you might as well boost the total to at least 2 GB. Especially if you're the sort of person who keeps a dozen e-mail messages, ten browser windows, and six other programs open at once—all while instant messaging.
Another option is to boost the amount of memory by using Windows ReadyBoost. This feature allows you to use the storage space on some removable media devices, such as USB flash drives, to speed up your computer. It’s easier to plug a flash drive into a USB port than to open your PC case and plug memory modules into its motherboard.
Disable Remote Differential Compression
One of the solutions you may look into is to disable and remove the Remote Differential Compression feature in Vista. Remote Differential Compression (RDC) allows applications to synchronize data between two computers in an efficient manner. The synchronization efficiency is made possible by using compression techniques to minimize the amount of data sent across the network. RDC is suitable for applications that move data across a wide area network where the data transmission costs outweigh the CPU cost of signature computation. RDC can also be used on faster networks if the amount of data to be transferred is relatively large and the changes to the data are typically small. Open Control Panel and in the Programs node, click the Uninstall a Program link.
In the Uninstall or Change a Program window, click on the Turn Windows features on or off link.
BTW, you can also type the following command from the Run option: OptionalFeatures.exe
In the Windows Features window click to un-select the Remote Differential Compression checkbox and click OK.
