How to Optimize Vista

Okay since I am so annoyed with all the ranting going on about "how bad Vista performs" and "how full of shit it is". Take note of the following easy fixes to regain your performance:

1) Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter -- uncheck "run on a scheduel". The hard-drive performance monitor on the defrag schedules at very very inappropriate times. Disabling this prevents your computer from getting hiccups sporadically, often during peak activity... such as installing a program or playing a game. It also fixes the cause of several installs failing without logical reason... defrag messes with the cab files trying to defragment them.

2) On every GPU-intensive program, right click the exe -> properties -> compatibility tab -> disable desktop composition -> Okay This disables Aero for the duration that the program is running, dedicating the GPU solely for your application. This setting DOES get remembered unlike, for instance, affinity.

3) Manually set your programs' processor affinity and priority to allow the most intensive programs to either have their own processor, or the highest processor priority versus the lesser important processes. This setting is not remembered, but there's bound to be a manager available online.

C'mon guys, I am piss-tired of having people whine and bitch about the first two problems which is a simple 2-minute fix. Seriously. Don't whine... if your computer isn't running its fullest potential... just ask to see if there's a simple tweak. There probably is. And it keeps my blood pressure down too ;)

Doesn't this belong in the tech forums?

Lol, this only improves performance on my machine about 10% when compared to XP, 100% would be equivalent to XP. I'm even running the windows classic UI. Kicking it old school, you might say. I have just about every visual enhancement feature disabled. I even bought a special 4 gb high speed ExpressCard flash memory stick dedicated for vista's Readyboost. Programs still lag like hell switching between them. Photoshop's UI lags all the time when doing specific things like moving around layers. 3d Applications such as Maya and 3ds Max lag HEAVILY when just doing simple things like selecting vertecies, faces, manipulating UVs, and dragging objects. Also, many programs have become allot more unstable for me. Maya never crashed as much as it used to on XP. All these problems I only face in vista. Don't even get me started on how bad the video drivers for my gfx card are on vista. Sure, don't blame vista like any other m$ zealot, blame the third party software developers and hardware drivers for vista's failings.

Not everyone has enthusiast system specs that can handle Vista's ridiculous waist of CPU cycles and ram. Microsoft should have chosen to copy OSX's efficiency while they were at it, they even took the time to perfectly copy OSX's user document filing system, right down to the exact same directory names. They could have at least taken the time to ensure the os runs more efficiently, something OSX does with each new version.

thank you. +REP. That was really helpful, I'm gonna try it when i get Vista.

jaharin, i have a friend withteh same card and 1 gig of ram, and he runs it fine. It sounds like you havnt updated your graphics drivers in a while, because the old ones did that.
nvidia.com is your gfx cards best friend.

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Originally Posted by soccerbummer1104

jaharin, i have a friend withteh same card and 1 gig of ram, and he runs it fine. It sounds like you havnt updated your graphics drivers in a while, because the old ones did that.
nvidia.com is your gfx cards best friend.

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I check it daily and always get the latest ones, hoping and praying that the next one will once again work like it does on XP. Does your friend use 3ds max and maya on a regular basis? The main problem I have with the drivers is that there is no powermizer controls, I cannot set my GPU warning temperatures, or even see what tempurature the GPU is running at. I have to use some other overclocking utility to monitor it and its really frustrating, because if I don't keep track of my GPU temps and adjust the power levels and down the clock speeds to compensate or else vista is going to fry it as my gpu runs much hotter on vista than it does on XP.

Hell, I just disabled Aero period.

I installed Vista on my MacBook Pro (the 5400rpm HDD preset) and used the drivers provided by Apple for BootCamp'in with XP. I have no problems what-so-ever related to graphics or performance, but I also run under Windows Classic (still use the 'advance' visuals, ie Clear Type fonts or w/e its called).

At any given time while my computer is on, I have running 3-4 instances of VS05 or 03, 3-4 instances of IDA, Trillian Pro, iTunes, EditPlus 2, oh and Calc :o. And a couple of windows explorer windows but I don't think those really matter.

But I get no problems with my performance with Vista. Not only that, but all my music, source code and .idbs are stored on a external 120gb HDD running at 5400rpm through a USB 2.0 hub (FAT32) then about 80% of my applications are stored on that same HDD but in a NTFS partition; all of them are compressed except for any large game related files.

I have NO problems at all with Vista, even though its running tons of heavy duty applications on two different 5400pm HDDs. And I haven't used ReadyBoost in about 3 months.

Did I mention that this was a laptop? Or that Apple makes it? The only problem I have currently with MS is their H2V management (the people behind it anyway).

Maybe some people are just blinded by the headlights of the bandwagons they jump on?


EDIT: It should also be noted I use Home Premium.

I don't understand why people are having so much trouble with Vista. On my old AMD 64 3000+ system I ran it with Aero with the same performance as XP, on my new C2D system I still have no problems, aside from a few driver/xfire issues.

Vista's use of RAM is actually a better thing once you think about, why have 2GB ram if you're only going to use 300MB of it? The unused RAM isn't going to make anything faster, Windows Prefetcher does a good job of learning how you use your computer and maximizing its potential.

jahrain I really don't understand where your problem is? I literally have the EXACT(I dunno the differences between 7600 Go or 7600 GS) same specs as you and I run vista like hotcakes. I keep all the features on and it runs smooth like a baby's bottom. H2V runs like a charm and I only get the occasional hiccup. No crash problems, no serious lag issues, no graphic problems(yes I'm using NVIDIA Drivers) and this is on a laptop. So I don't really know what kind of bind you got into, but I recommend you check some drivers because I think that's where your issue might be.

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Originally Posted by Kornman00

I installed Vista on my MacBook Pro (the 5400rpm HDD preset) and used the drivers provided by Apple for BootCamp'in with XP.

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Got one of them as well.. Running Vista ultimate with no problems whatsoever, I did disable some of the services though! Nice machines :)

But Jahrain, I doubt you can notice any sort of speed changes with readyboost.. As it's a service that also requires more memory from the ram, I'm guessing you already knew that.. well maybe?