Speed Up Windows Vista

I have written some articles on general issues related to the speed of your computer, but recently I have been receiving some email about increasing the speed of Vista. Vista can be made faster by using the normal methods of computer optimization, but by doing a few other small tweaks you should get Vista running super fast.

I have separated them up into 4 groups;

Aero Desktop

Windows Aero is the graphical user interface and the default theme in most editions of Windows Vista, it makes the desktop look more advanced than XP but the problems with it is that it can reduce the speed of your computer. If you are running the Aero Desktop and have a computer with less than 2GB ram or if your video card is not up to scratch (Aero will not work if this is the case) than I suggest you should remove the desktop and use an alternative.

To de-activate Windows Aero just;

• Right click on your Desktop and click Personalize
• Click on the Window Color and Appearance link
• In this Appearance Settings box you will be able to change the desktop from Aero
• Click Apply and you are done

User Access Control

The User Access Control is a decent feature in Vista but I find it so annoying that every time I try to do something it pop-ups with question relating to whether I want to allow or deny what I am doing. I wouldn't have attempted to do it in the first place if I will deny myself!

To turn off the User Access Control you must;

• Click Run from the Start Search in you Start menu
• Type msconfig in the run box (approve the permission!)
• Click on the Tools tab in system configuration box
• Scroll down the tools tab and click on Disable UAC
• Click Launch
• You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take place.

More Memory

This is the simple section, more memory means a faster Vista. If your computer has anything less than 2GB of RAM than quickly go out and buy more, you will not regret it.

ReadyBoost

Windows Vista introduces Windows ReadyBoost, a new concept in adding memory to a system. You can use non-volatile flash memory, such as that on a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive, to improve performance without having to add additional memory "under the hood."

The flash memory device serves as an additional memory cache—that is, memory that the computer can access much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive.

When a removable memory device such as a USB flash drive or a secure digital (SD) memory card is first inserted into a port, Windows Vista checks to see if its performance is fast enough to work with Windows ReadyBoost. If so, you are asked if you want to use this device to speed up system performance. You can choose to allocate part of a USB drive's memory to speed up performance and use the remainder to store files.