Top 4 Tweaks for Speeding Up Windows Vista

Windows Vista can be awesome choice as an operating system, provided you’ve a fully loaded PC with top notch configuration to run Vista. More so, there are several tweaks that can boost up the performance of Windows Vista to a great deal; let us take a look at some of them.

• Tweak 1: Turn off Automatic Disk De-fragmentation : By default, the Windows Vista operating system uses a disk de-fragment feature that can slow down your PC to a great extent. However, you must keep in mind that you will have to run disk defrag manually, every once in a while, in order to get optimal performance.
  To disable Disk De-fragmentation follow these steps
  Click Start > Computer > Right Click C: Drive > Click on Tools Tab > Uncheck Run on a schedule.
  And, that’s it, you’re done!
• Tweak 2: Turn off Windows Search Indexing Windows Vista search indexing is yet another resource extensive feature in Vista that can hamper the overall performance of your system to a massive extent. Basically, this feature constantly reviews and indexes the latest files used on the PC, so as to enable quicker searching. Therefore, unless you’re someone who often needs to search documents, you may not want to keep this feature enabled all the time.
  To disable constant indexing in Vista, follow these steps
  Click Start > Computer > Right Click C: Drive > Under General Tab > Uncheck the option ‘Index this drive for faster searching’ > Go to next dialog box > Select the option ‘Include subfolders and files’.
• Tweak 3: Disable User Access Control (UAC) It is a new security feature in Windows Vista that claims to protect your system from malware infection. However, it can be quite an irritating affair as the UAC makes you manually confirm plenty of user operations, resulting in wastage of time. Its impact on system performance isn’t too high, but it can be more of a hassle to the user. To disable User Access Control, follow these steps.
  Click Start > Control Panel > Select User Accounts > Select the option ‘Turn User Account Control on or off’ > Uncheck the option ‘User Account Control Box’
  Note: To bring the new settings into effect, you must restart your computer.
• Tweak 4: Disable Excessive Auto-Launch Windows Services at Startup This is perhaps the most important tip to boost up the system performance, whether you’re using Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7. Windows Vista has all kinds of services configured to load at startup by default, which can eat up hell a lot of resources. However, you may not used most of these services, and it is highly recommendable to disable these services at start-up.
  Note: You can always turn on a specific service as and when required.

  To disable the unwanted Auto-Launch Windows Services, follow these steps :
  Click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > System Configuration > Services Tab; now deselect the following –
  1. Offline Files
  Note: You may require this service if you’re using the Offline File Sync feature
  2. Tablet PC Input Service
  Note: You may require this facility if you’ve got a tablet PC
  3. Terminal Services
  – Windows Search
  – Fax
  Note: You may need this option if you’re using a fax modem.

Furthermore, you may also want to prevent Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and other instant chat messengers to automatically initiate during system boot. Lastly, don’t forget to get rid of any active torrent sessions, and DON’T use multiple anti-virus programs on a PC; they can be a nightmare for your CPU!