5 Ways To Speed Up Windows Vista

With just a few simple changes you can get some significant speed gains while using Windows Vista.

  1. 1. Shut Down Remote Differential Compression

    Remote Differential Compression checks the changes of your files over a network to move them with as little bandwidth as possible instead of transferring an entire file that has previously been moved. With in constantly checking for file changes, this service will greatly slow system performance.
    To shut down this service:

    • Control Panel
    • Change to Classic View
    • Choose Program Features
    • Select Turn Windows Features On And Off
    • Uncheck Remote Differential Compression

  2. 2. Shut Down Windows Search Indexing

    Windows Vista search indexing is constantly checking the files on your system to make their information available for quick searching. This is helpful, but can severely slow system performance.
    To shut down constant indexing:

    • Select Start then Computer
    • Right Click your C: Drive
    • General Tab, Uncheck Index this drive for faster searching
    • On the next dialog box, Choose Include subfolders and files

  3. 3. Add at least a 2GB USB Flash drive to take advantage of Windows Ready Boost

    Ready Boost uses a USB flash drive to provide quick access memory for the operating system. The Ready Boost system can greatly improve system speed.
    To set it up:

    • Plug in a Ready Boost Compatible USB Flash Drive
    • Select Start then Computer
    • Right Click Your USB Drive in My Computer
    • Choose the Ready Boost Tab
    • Click Use this device
    • Choose as much space as you can free up for RAM usage vs. Storage

  4. 4. Disable Automatic Disk Defragmentation

    Windows Vista uses an always-on defragment set up that isn’t that necessary and will cause your system to slow down. Remember to run a defrag manually once a month.
    To shut down this feature:

    • Select Start then Computer
    • Right Click on C: Drive
    • Choose the Tools Tab
    • Uncheck Run on a schedule

  5. 5. Shut off Windows Hibernation

    Windows hibernation background services use a very large amount of system resources. If you are like most people you don’t use the Hibernate feature very much so you may want to disable it to give Vista a performance boost.
    To shut down Hibernation:

    • Choose Control Panel then Power Options
    • Select Change Plan Settings
    • Choose Change Advanced Power Settings
    • Open the Sleep selection
    • Open the Hibernate After selection
    • Adjust your selector down to zero
    • Apply

17 thoughts on “5 Ways To Speed Up Windows Vista

  1. Linux is for people who use there computers for everything except computing. Thanks for the tips regarding speeding up Vista. 🙂

  2. Excuse me SideShowSurfer, Linux is the operating system used JUST for REAL computing. If you think real computing is to pass 50-80 hours playing games, chatting, and show to your friends how you spend so much money in just stupidities, why don’t just buy a PlayStation or a XBox360? Because Windows is that: JUST A GAME CONSOLE….

    The difference between Windows Vista and Kubuntu 7.03, for example, is abysmal: Vista acts like a turtle, but Ubuntu just rocks… Sorry, my M$ zealot, but you’re WRONG….

  3. so exactly when will there be vst support for linux? until then my glorified game console will be preferable to a “pure computing” machine. I will gladly switch over as soon as someone does a stable patch for quality music plug-ins.

  4. allow me to say, that linux might appear to “pro” but actually we all know its for nerds who wants to appear like pro. if you want great performance with great computing skills then use windows if you want to be a unique nerd then its ok go for linux but dont expect much support, just use unknown programs instead of flash/photoshop/ maya and so on

  5. I’m pretty sure that I know the reason nobody uses linux… it’s because you can easily mess things up with linux when you fix it, and you have to edit system files (A LOT).

    I’d rather have a decently fast computer that has plenty of support and is compatible with pretty much anything of importance then have Linux which is a little bit faster. Who cares if Linux is for “pure” computing? If all I wanted to do was word processing and using the internet, do you think I’d get a brand new f****** dual-core desktop/notebook? I might install linux if I wanted to buy a 5+ yr. old pc, but why would I want to install linux on any of these new computers that come out?

  6. I tried the 5 tips to speed up my system, but i can’t notice any effects. Do these really boost up the system internally?
    Oh yes, to all my DUDES…pliz stop blaming upon one another for using different OS. U all seems like playing cat and dogs. Everything has its own value and we all must preserve and respect it.

  7. well if you really want a fast computer… i would say: upgrade you rams, cpu, and video card, including hard disk, thats the only way you will nowtice a fast computer, tweaking out your system or registry that would like causly a problem to you and your system. tweak your system only if you know what you are doin.

    as for me, my specs are: core2 duo Q67, 4 gygs of rams DDR2 800, and video card 9800gtx 512 MP, psu 600 watt. and am pretty much happy with it, OS is window vista ultimate… thats it folks…just upgrade you hardwares if needed any speed.

  8. other tips!… you folks should know, these tweaks are not for speeding up your system but its to load your system quicker and your programs installed in your windows to load faster or even window boots up faster. thats all is these tweaks are about. you will only notice it when upgraded and hardwares, like as i mention above. trust me, u will happier then ever once you upgraded your, RAMS CPU, PSU VIDEO CARD AND MOTHERBOARD, these are the only way to speed up windows.

  9. To : NotCool

    a Gig is recommended to experience ReadyBoost,but most likely a Gig below will Not make any difference….

  10. Another Step you have missed out which makes a massive difference is:

    Keep your system clean!

    make sure remove programs your not using
    have protection against spyware and other nasty’s
    use a program like Ccleaner And/Or Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal. Both programs are free, and make keeping on top of your system maintenance a lot easer.

    hope this helps!

  11. I find it funny that you hardcore windows users are against Linux, when if it wasn’t for the KDE environment, Microsoft wouldn’t have had any ideas for vista. i also find it funny that you hardcore Linux users are so against windows, when it sets the platform for every program in Linux has copied (office). the truth of the matter is computer hardware has come so far, but systems are still the same speed because for every new processor / chip set there’s new software to push it. you really want your new computer to be fast? put an OS from 10 years ago on it. however the ONLY way vista can really be faster is if Microsoft wrote a better kernel for it (we hoped that would happen for 7 but it didn’t) Linux and windows loads allot of stuff and it takes time, so grab some patience…. or just go buy a MAC!

  12. Yep install Linux and give away all your software like photoshop and get very geeky and learn new stuff about linux, compling software before install and all stuff that makes the general user experience very bad.

    Linux is only good for servers and slow hardware.

  13. Use your recovery disks, u made after installing your computer. It removes everything and resets all parameters to “0”

    See how fast your computer is now.

    it removed 50 GB useless memory slurping data

    ###
    WARNING: U will lose all files stored on your computer If you use recovery!!!!
    ###

  14. i tried all the things mentioned and also used reg cleaner reginout the results were positive thanks

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