So, Windows Vista has been gaining a lot of bad press. A LOT. However despite the number of people constantly attacking it, it is actually a very good operating system (OS).
Now I know what many of you are going to say – Dave, XP was better/I have wet dreams about Mac OSX… I hope this article will at least make Vista seem like a much more approachable & useable beast.
First things first. I must agree that straight out of the box, Vista is crap. It is utterly terrible. Whether it is the User Account Control completely slowing down everything you do, to it taking seemingly light years for it to respond to a mouse click. Microsoft should never have released it as it was, and should be ashamed. XP up until a year or so ago was definitely the better option. Currently I use Vista (until Windows 7 is released), and completely prefer it to XP.
However in the past year or so, the release of Service Packs 1 & 2 have improved things considerably. So hopefully the article below will help all of you enjoy using your computers again!
1. Clean Install
There is nothing that will make your computer faster to respond than a clean OS install. Back up all of your music, documents, pictures etc then get the OS restore disc that your computer came with. Insert it into the CD drive, and restart your computer. (N.B. make sure you have the drivers CD that also came with your computer) You should eventually reach a screen that says something like ‘Press any key to boot cd’. Hit any key and the windows install screen will eventually appear. Follow the on-screen instructions (changing all the language options from US English to British English), and choose the primary partition. A partition basically marks the beginning and end of what appears in windows as your hard drive. For instance, if you have 2 partitions on one drive, then windows will see each partition as separate drives. Once windows has installed then insert the driver CD into your computer and install all the drivers for the motherboard chipset, graphics, sound etc etc. Do not connect your computer to the internet yet.
2. Update To SP2
Even if you haven’t followed step 1, this really is a good idea whatever state your pc is in. Most people find windows updates annoying as you have to restart afterwards, and sometimes installing takes a lifetime. XP should be updated to SP3, while vista’s most recent update is SP2. It is available directly through windows update, however it can also be downloaded (so you can keep it to put on other pcs) here. Remember that SP1 must be installed first.
Although service pack updates take a while to install, they are definitely worth it. They increase both the speed at which windows runs, sometimes add additional features and also increase the security of the OS. If you complain about windows, you absolutely have no leg to stand on if you do not regularly update.
3. Optimise Services
Once installed with SP2, it is time to start streamlining the OS. Vista is a bloated OS, however with SP2 updates it is also one of the most stable & reliable OSs that I have ever used (more reliable than even XP, and in my experience OSX). Vista is slow because it is rather a system intensive OS to run. That doesn’t mean that we can’t change that however. I can run vista completely lag free on my netbook once it has been slimmed down (just to prove a point, I actually run XP/xubuntu dual boot)
The way to do this is edit the services that run while your computer is on. Services are like background programs/events that run. They enable windows to perform many of it’s automatic tasks, e.g. detecting your ipod when you plug it in. Many of these services are not required by the average user (e.g. many of the advanced networking functions) An excellent services guide can be found here. A ‘one-click-fix’ can also be downloaded here. Unzip the file and run it – it will automatically edit your services to run automatically or not. This will make the OS boot quicker, and also reduce the amount of RAM it requires once fully loaded.
Editing your services yourself can result in larger performance gains however than just sticking to the “safe” settings. Personally I would follow the above guide and manually edit the services to run automatically, manually or to be disabled. To do this, go to the start bar and search for services.msc
Once running it, to edit a service simply right click on it and choose properties to change the run properties.
4. Install Programs/Drivers
So now to install any additional programs that you want on your computer. Be aware when installing programs that they will often try to install sponsor software, e.g. lots of toolbars for internet explorer etc. Personally, as basic protection I install Comodo Internet Security (an excellent free antivirus/antimalware/firewall program), Spyware Blaster, Spybot, Tuneup Utilities, Ccleaner & Smart Defrag. You may not need some drivers/software e.g. keyboard and mouse software is rarely needed, and simply uses system resources for nothing. Also be aware that many programs want to run at startup. Unless you vitally need them, then don’t allow them to. It’ll slow your system up considerably both during booting and after.
5. Clean The Registry
Install Ccleaner, and run the free space & registry cleaner. This is a very useful tool, and is worth running once a week. This will keep your PC running efficiently. The registry is a library of settings for your computer (e.g. default program settings for files, logon settings etc). It changes moderately frequently, and as such a lot of junk settings can be left & not removed. Ccleaner basically finds these useless entries in the registry and removes them. A cleaner registry means a more reliable computer.
6. Edit Startup Programs
Very easy to do through Windows Defender. Open Windows Defender. Click Tools, and then click Software Explorer. In the Category list, select Startup Programs. To list startup entries for the system, click Show for all users. You can enable, disable or remove startup entries from there. Be fairly vicious with choosing what programs to disable and you’ll see a massive boost in boot-speed.
7. Defragment
Smart Defrag is a free defrag tool from Iobit. Download it here. Run it in deep optimise mode. In addition to defragmenting your files, it also orders them on the hard drive in order of use. So the most commonly used files are placed at the start of the drive (and thus can be accessed quicker). File fragmentation occurs during regular system use, so do this once a week to once a fortnight.
8. Disable UAC
User Account Control (UAC) is definitely a step in the right direction for windows. Linux has had similar features for a long time now, and it’s addition is definitely a welcome one. However it can be extremely annoying to most users. It can be altered so you are not asked for permission to run a program, but without turning it off. Download TweakUAC here, and follow the website instructions. I recommend switching UAC to quiet mode.
9. Don’t Use Internet Explorer!
Two options here. If you want a quick browser that only really does web browsing, then use Google Chrome. It’s a ridiculously fast browser and is very intuitive to use. However if you either want the safest browsing experience or like your browser to do a selection of additional things, then go for Firefox. For extra safe browsing, I use Adblock Plus, NoScript & a coookie cleaner.
There you have it! Once you have done all of these steps you should find that vista boots faster, is incredibly reliable, much more pleasurable to use and importantly is much less of a RAM hog than it is by default. There will probably be additions to this How To: in the future, as I’m sure there are a few additional things to add that have presently slipped my mind. Hope this is useful!
Dave x
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