Windows vista speed tweaks

Windows vista speed tweaks

1, Increase external USB hard drive per­formance.

By default, USB storage devices have write caching totally disabled primarily so you can unplug them without bothering with the Safety Remove Software icon in the Tray. Al­though this is handy for flash drives, it significantly slows down external USB hard drives. First, plug in your external USB drive, right-click Computer in the Start menu, and choose Properties. Then, click the Device Manager link, expand the Disk Drives entry by clicking the plus (+) sign, and double-click your external USB hard drive. Click the Policies tab and then click Optimize for Performance. This makes two more options appear: Enable Write Caching on the Disk and Enabled Advance Per­formance. Enable both options and click OK. Rebooting enables the change.

2, Increase SATA drive performance.

Vista's write caching is fairly conserva­tive by default in order to prevent data loss in the event of a power fail­ure. It your desktop PC is connected to a UPS (uninterruptable power sup­ply), or if you're using a notebook computer with a reliable battery, you can set the write caching to be more aggressive. Right-click Computer in the Start menu, choose Properties, and then click the Device Manager link. Expand the Disk Drives entry by clicking on the plus (+) symbol and then double-click your SATA hard drive. Click the Policies tab, check Enable Advanced Performance, and click OK. Rebooting Vista will enable this change.

3, Disable Network Printer Search.

Vista normally searches for new net­work printers when you browse your LAN. But if you aren't regularly ad­ding printers to your network, this searching slows things down. To dis­able this feature, click Network from the Start menu, which opens the Network window. Press ALT to make the Menu Bar visible if it isn't already and then choose Polder Options from the Tools menu. Finally, click the View tab. uncheck Automatically Search for Network Printers, and then click OK.

4, Turn unneeded Vista features off.

Windows Vista adds hundreds of fea­tures when it is installed. Not all of them arc enabled by default, but you probably don't need many that arc, any­way. Disabling those you don't need saves resources and speeds your system up. To find these and disable them, open the Windows Control Panel and switch to Classic View. Next, double click the Programs and Features icon and then click the Turn Windows Features on or off link on the left side or the window. After a moment, a large list appears with checkboxes. Those that are checked are enabled and those that aren't arc disabled. Different versions of Vista have different features enabled, so expand any collapsible entries by click­ing the plus (+) sign to see what's turned on and disable what you don't need. For example, if you don't have a Tablet PC, you can safely disable Tablet PC Options Components. Click OK when you're done, and your computer will restart if necessary.