Maggie's Farm

Intro

As with all computer operating systems since the first caveman abacus, Windows Vista needs a number of small adjustments to make it work its best.  Some of these might have a semi-dramatic impact on your system (depending upon a number of factors), some might increase its performance slightly, and some, admittedly, just make it feel a bit snappier.

I'm using the Vista Ultimate edition.  If you have a different edition and something doesn't quite match up, don't worry about it.

I'll divide this post into three areas:

- Basic Setup Tips: Small adjustments that will make your system a bit easier to use but won't actually alter anything

- Must-Do's: Items that should be done on every Vista system

- Dealer's Choice: Small individual functions you might want to alter or eliminate

BASIC SETUP TIPS

Open the Control Panel.  Set it to 'Classic View' if it's not.

Personalization

Let's discuss the display size of your monitor first.  Do you find yourself squinting at the tiny text on the screen, or leaning forward to read a web page?  If so, your monitor's resolution is set too high.

To make things larger, open 'Personalization'.  Click on 'Display Settings'.  Move the slider from 1280 down to 1024, OK, 'Yes'.  That's the standard setting for 17" and 19" monitors and is the size most web pages are optimized for.

If the Desktop icons now seem too large, click on the Desktop with the right mouse button, 'View', select 'Classic Icons'.  If the icons in windows seem too large, set the 'Views' menu to 'Medium' or 'Small'.

Folder Options

Open 'Folder Options'.  Personally, I like 'classic' windows and opening each folder in its own window, so I select the second entry in the first two areas.

Click on the 'View' tab.  Most computer users want to know exactly what type of files they're dealing with, so uncheck "Hide file extensions..."  If you want access to all the files on the computer, check 'Show hidden files...' and uncheck 'Hide protected...'  Also uncheck "Show pop-up..."  If you have an "Automatically search for network printers" entry, uncheck it (unless you're using a network printer).

System

Open 'System', 'Remote settings', uncheck it.

User Accounts

If you want to get rid of those pesky 'Permission' boxes that pop up everywhere, open 'User Accounts', 'Turn User Account Control on and off'.  Uncheck the box, reboot.

To note is that this isn't a 'security system' of any type.  It's exactly what it looks like; a small warning system to remind the user that the system's settings are about to be altered, nothing more.

Close the Control Panel.

Delete Box

Speaking of pesky boxes, if you want to get rid of that 'Are you sure?' box that pops up every time you delete something, go to the Desktop, right-click on the Recycle Bin icon, open 'Properties' and uncheck the 'Display...' box.

Task Bar & Start Menu

Click on the Task Bar with the right mouse button, open 'Properties'.  Once most people learn where the Task Bar is and what it does, it's common to check "Auto-hide the taskbar' so it'll get out of the way when it's not needed.  I would suggest you uncheck "Group similar..." and "Show windows previews..."  If you don't use the Quick Launch part of the Task Bar, uncheck the box.

Click on the 'Start Menu' tab, then the 'Classic' button, then 'Customize'.  Check "Show small icons...", uncheck "Use personalized..."  That'll make your Start Menu more compact and easier to use.  'OK' to close the box.

Click on the 'Notification' tab.  Click on 'Customize'.  This area covers icons in the SysTray, the area to the right on the Task Bar.  For icons that you never use, like 'Safely Remove Hardware' or 'Windows Sidebar', click on the 'Hide while inactive' and change it to 'Hide'.  OK to close the box.

At the bottom of the 'Notification' panel you can get rid of the 'Network' icon and the 'Volume' icon if you don't need to access the volume control.  OK to close the box.

Start Menu Clutter

Don't hesitate to delete or move things around in your Start Menu.  For example, Windows puts a whole bunch of tools ("Windows Calendar", "Windows Contacts", etc) right on the main part of the menu, which looks just great the first time you open Vista — and helps make the whole thing a cluttered nightmare six months down the road.  So, grab the ones you don't use with the left mouse button and either move them to the 'Accessories' area or delete them.  Remember, nothing on the Start Menu is a real program or file.  They're all shortcut icons and can safely be deleted.

You can also click on the actual Start Menu icon with the right mouse button and 'Open' if you want to make your own Start Menu folders.  I have "Audio", "Games", "Tools", "Video", etc, folders.  What I do with a newly-installed program is grab the actual program's icon and d-r-a-g it to the appropriate folder, then delete the now-useless program folder it was in.

Window Clutter

Granted, one legitimate beef about Vista is that its folder windows are unnecessarily cluttered.  Unfortunately, we can't do much about the junk at the top, but at least we can get rid of that mess to the left.

Open 'Computer'.  Click on 'Organize', skip down to 'Layout' and turn on the 'Menu Bar', if it isn't already.  Skip back down to 'Layout' and deselect any icons that are highlighted.

Go to the 'View' menu, select 'Status Bar' so it's on.  Personally, I like "Sort By Name", "Auto Arrange", "Align to Grid", "Medium Icons".

MUST-DO'S

Our primary mission is to turn off a number of programs that Windows runs at boot-up.  We'll do this in a variety of ways.  If you can handle a computer but don't really know much about its inner workings, this should be an interesting experience.

Backing Things Up

I highly recommend you back up the whole works before starting.  We won't be making any settings that can't be undone, but on the off-chance that your system doesn't run as well afterward, it would be easier to just restore the system and start over, this time checking things out before moving on to the next tweak.

Unless you're already using a backup system like True Image, go to Control Panel, open 'Backup and Restore Center', click on 'Back up computer'.

Background Programs

Between the persnickety way Vista handles program memory and the fact that it uses a gi-normous amount of memory compared to older versions of Windows, keeping the background programs under control is paramount.  It is the single most important factor.

Windows runs three types of background programs at boot-up; what it calls 'features', some background routines called 'services', and the pre-loaders that other programs have installed.  The third one will take a few minutes on your part to correct, but it's the most important of the three.

Features:

Go to Control Panel, 'Programs and Features'.  Over to the left, click on "Turn Windows features on or off".  In the small box that (eventually) pops open, uncheck:

Indexing Service (if it isn't already)
Remote Differential Compression
Tablet PC Optional Components (unless you use a tablet)
Windows Fax and Scan (unless you use Windows Fax)
Windows Meeting Space (unless you use Live Meeting)

Click OK to begin.  This process will take a fair while and it'll want a reboot when finished.  You can continue with this page in the meantime.

Windows Services:

Along with the 'features', Windows also runs a bunch of small programs called 'services' at boot-up, most of which you'll never use.

To disable the unnecessary ones, open Control Panel, 'Administrative Tools', 'Services'.  If any of the following are showing as 'Automatic', right-click on their entry, open 'Properties' and change the menu box in the middle to 'Manual'.  That way, they'll still run if needed, but won't run until they are.

Set to 'Manual':

Application experience
Diagnostic Policy Service
Distributed Link Tracking Client
IKE and AuthIP IP Keying Modules
Offline Files
ReadyBoost (unless you have under 2 gigs of memory — see note below)
Tablet PC Input Service (unless you use one)
TCP/IP NETBIOS helper
Terminal Services (unless you use Remote Desktop)
Windows Error Reporting Service
Windows Firewall (assuming you're using something better)
Windows Search (make this one 'Disabled')

If you want to do this 100% correctly, reboot and run your standard programs for a sec, then fire 'Services' back up.  If any of the above are 'Started', switch them back to 'Automatic'.  Likewise, if any other services are 'Started' and set to 'Manual', switch them to 'Automatic'.

If you have under 2 gigs of memory, you'll want to use the ReadyBoost system, so leave it set to 'Automatic'.

If you're unsure as to how much memory you have, click on the 'Computer' icon with the right mouse button and open 'Properties'.  If you have 2 gigs or less of memory, you should buy a good 4-gig flash stick and use the ReadyBoost system.  When Windows runs out of memory, it'll write its temp files to the flash stick, rather than the hard drive, which is much faster.  Four gigs is the max it can utilize.

To enable ReadyBoost, just plug in the flash stick and wait for the AutoPlay window to pop up.  Click on the 'ReadyBoost' tab, then 'Use this device'.

Pre-Loaders:

Of everything on this page, this step might make the biggest single difference to your system.

Many programs install a 'pre-loader' that runs during boot-up and installs a bunch of files into memory so that the program, itself, will pop open that much faster when you run it.  This isn't a bad practice in theory — until a dozen programs install pre-loaders and burn up half your memory.

Worse, you won't know you're out of memory when you do run out, because the computer will start writing memory files to the swap file (a great big file on your hard drive) and thus everything will continue to run just fine, albeit at a slower pace because the system is using a slow hard drive for caching files rather than an electronic microchip.  It'll feel sluggish on your end and you won't know why.

Open Control Panel, 'Administrative Tools', 'System Configuration'.

This window is almost empty on a brand-new Vista.

Except for "Windows Defender" and the "Microsoft..." entry, everything else on this panel was added later by a program that someone installed.

Obviously, the only entries that should be checked are the programs that really should run at startup, such as firewalls, anti-virus/spyware programs, mouse drivers, etc.  You should go down the list and uncheck anything that isn't essential.  Note that you can grab the separation bars between the table headings and make the columns wider so you can read the entire name or manufacturer.

If you're unsure what an entry does, just do a Google search.  You'll probably be able to tell just from the search list whether it's malware or not, and who it belongs to.  If it just belongs to some program you've got on your system, uncheck it.

Many of them do nothing except put an icon for the program (or its options) in the SysTray.  The pre-loader's name will often have the word "sys" or "tray" in it.

Assuming you have a quality anti-spyware program installed, uncheck 'Windows Defender'.  If you're not using the Sidebar, uncheck the "Microsoft..." entry.

The bottom line is that you should be able to uncheck every item on the list and your system should run just fine, so it won't hurt anything to experiment.  If suddenly a program doesn't run, go find its associated entry in System Configuration and re-check it.  But it's pretty rare.  I only know of two programs (Adobe Acrobat and True Image) that actually need a pre-loader run at startup.

Disable System Restore

Unless you use it, this should be axed.  It's another one of those 'busy' programs that constantly runs in the background, in this case making 'snapshots' of your system settings.  Given how seldom Windows has a driver problem (that is, something Windows Restore could actually fix), and given how quick it is to restore your entire system using other methods, it doesn't make any sense to clog things up with this beast.

To turn it off, go to Control Panel, 'Backup and Restore Center', over to the left click on "Create a restore point..."  Uncheck anything that's checked.

Disable Hibernation

Unless you use this feature, it's gotta go.  It doesn't work very well and it's placing a gigantic 3-gig file on your hard drive.

The problem with doing it through the Control Panel is that it doesn't delete the huge file, and it's "in use" so you can't delete it manually.  So do the following.

Go to Start Menu, 'Programs', 'Accessories', skip down to 'Command Prompt', click on it with the right mouse button and "Run as administrator".

Type this in and hit Enter:

powercfg -h off

That'll turn off Hibernation and delete the humongous file.  Keep the DOS box open for the next step.

Disable TCP Autotuning

If you don't have the DOS window open from the previous step, go to Start Menu, 'Programs', 'Accessories', skip down to 'Command Prompt', click on it with the right mouse button and "Run as administrator".

Type this in and hit Enter:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

That'll turn off the TCP autotuning process, yet another needless background program gobbling up system resources.

Disable Disk Defragmenter

You definitely don't want this annoying thing running in the background.  With modern hard drive speeds, disk defragmentation is a thing of the past.  If the anal-retentive-slash-pedantic side of you insists your hard drive be defragmented, go to Start Menu, 'Programs', 'Accessories', 'System Tools', 'Disk Defragmenter' and let 'er rip.  Unfortunately, this POS doesn't even have a gauge bar so there's no telling how long it takes.

To disable it, open 'Computer', right-click on the C Drive and open 'Properties'.  Click on the 'Tools' panel, then 'Defragment Now'.  Uncheck "Run on a schedule..."  It only does the C Drive by default.

Disable Windows Defender

This is a Windows anti-spyware program.  Like Windows Firewall, it isn't a bad program, all in all, but it's still a freebie and a commercial program is always better.  I recommend the Zone Alarm Security Suite.

To disable Windows Defender, open Control Panel, 'Windows Defender'.  Click on 'Tools', then 'Options'.  Turn off "Automatically scan...", then scroll down the panel and uncheck "Use real-time protection..."  Scroll down and turn off the first and third 'Advanced options' boxes.  Click 'Save' when through.

If you tend to do your maintenance (running Registry cleaners, system-fixers, making backup files, etc) on a schedule, add Defender to the list.  Click 'Scan' at the top of the program to run.

If it actually starts finding things, that means you're not using a high-quality anti-spyware program.  If you're going to stick with what you have, undo the above settings so it constantly runs in the background, and open System Configuration back up and turn it on there.

Disable Security Messages

If Windows Security is nagging you that this or that is turned off (because you're using a better program), open Control Panel, 'Security Center', click on "Change the way..." over to the left.  Click "Don't notify me" and that'll do it.

Hard Drive Read/Write Speed

This is only for desktop computers with a backup power supply, not computers that might suddenly shut down from a loss of power, be it battery power or electrical outage.  It disables one of the copying safeguards which protects the hard drive if the power is suddenly shut off, but it also slows down the copy process and doesn't need to be on if the system has a backup power supply.

Open Control Panel, 'Device Manager'.  Open the 'Disk drives' area.  Right-click on your hard drive and open 'Properties'.  Click on the 'Policies' tab and check the "Enable advanced..." box.  Do the same with any other hard drives you have, including any external USB drives.

Unwanted Programs

Open Control Panel, 'Programs and Features'.  Now, while it's true that you probably won't recognize some of the entries, you'll know if there's one listed that you never use.  If so, right-click on it and 'Uninstall'.  Some proggies want a reboot.

DEALER'S CHOICE

Note: We're going to use a program called RegEdit for a number of these tweaks.  It doesn't have an icon on the Start Menu or Control Panel.  If you'd like it for easy access in the future, it's in the 'Windows' folder.  Grab it with the mouse and d-r-a-g it over to the Start Menu and drop it in the appropriate area.  Rename it to the proper "RegEdit".

Getting Rid Of The '- Shortcut' Tag

In order to get rid of the unnecessary "- Shortcut" that Windows tags onto the name of a new shortcut icon, do this.

Open Start Menu, 'Run', enter "regedit", OK.

With steady hand and heart, navigate your way to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Software
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion

Click on 'Explorer' and you'll see a 'link' entry over to the right.  Double-click on it to open it, change the number to "00 00 00 00".  Close down RegEdit and the "- Shortcut" will disappear after the next reboot.

Speed Up The Start Menu

The Start Menu has a built-in delay between menus, just to give it a relaxed, elegant feeling.  If you want it snappier, do this.

Start Menu, 'Run', type in "regedit", OK.

Navigate your way to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Control Panel

Click on 'Desktop'.  Over to the right, double-click on 'MenuShowDelay and change the number to zero.

Quicker Boot-Up

If you have a dual-core computer, this might speed up your boot-up time.  It gained me about 10 seconds.  If you're unsure if you have a dual-core machine or not, click on the Task Bar with the right mouse button, open 'Task Manager', then click on the 'Performance' tab.  If you have dual processors, there will be two small windows in the top-right area.

Open Control Panel, 'Administrative Tools', 'System Configuration'.  Click on the 'Boot' tab.  Click on 'Advanced options', check the 'Number of...' box and select '2' in the drop-down menu.

Shut Down Quicker

When Windows is shutting down and encounters a program that doesn't want to let go, it'll wait 20 seconds before deciding to pull the plug.  This is silly and the wait time should be lowered.

To do so, open Start Menu, 'Run', enter 'regedit', OK.  Navigate your way to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet

Click on 'Control', double-click on 'WaitToKillServiceTimeout' over to the right and change the value to 5,000.

Changing 'Sleep' to 'Shut Down'

This only pertains if you selected 'Classic Start menu' in the 'Customize' area of the Task Bar/Start Menu properties.

If you'd rather have your computer say 'Shut Down' when you select 'Shut Down' (I know that sounds crazy, but it's true), rather than the default "Sleep", do this.

Open Control Panel, 'Power Options'.  It doesn't matter which "plan" you're using.  Next to the active plan, select "Change plan settings".  On the new panel, select the time you want before the monitor and hard drive go to sleep.  I use the 'balanced' plan and set both to 1 hour.

Now click on "Change advanced power settings".  Go down to the "Power buttons and lid" area and open it.  Open up "Start menu power button".  Click on 'Sleep' twice and a drop-down menu will appear.  Select 'Shut Down'.  OK to close the small box, then click 'Save changes'.

Quicker Browsing Speed

This will increase your 'ports' from 2 to 8, which will both speed up your overall browsing as well as allow Internet Explorer 7 users to download more than 2 files at once.

Go to Start Menu, 'Run', type in "regedit", OK.  Navigate your way to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Software
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion

Click on 'Internet Settings'.  In the right-hand window, click with the right mouse button and create 'New', "DWORD".  Call the new entry "MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server".  You can highlight the long name and do a copy & paste into RegEdit with Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V.

Double-click on the new entry.  Click 'Decimal' and enter a value of 8.

Again click with the right mouse button and make a new DWORD called "MaxConnectionsPerServer"  Open it, click 'Decimal', enter an 8.

Go Directly To The 'Open With' Box

When you try to open a file that doesn't have a program associated with it, Windows first pops open a box that asks you if you'd rather go to the Internet or open a list of local tools.  If you want to bypass that box and have it open the tools list directly, do the following.

Go to Start Menu, 'Run', type in "regedit", OK.  Navigate your way to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion

Click on 'Policies' with the right mouse button and open 'New', 'Key'.  Call it "Explorer".

With 'Explorer' highlighted on the left, click in the right-hand window with the right mouse button and select 'New', then 'DWORD'.  Make the name "NoInternetOpenWith".  Double-click on it and set the value to 1.


Make Windows Snappier

If you like the cool transparent look of Vista's windows, but are a little bored with the animated 'transitions' when they're opened and closed, do this.

Open Control Panel, 'System', click on 'Advanced system settings'.  Click on the first 'Settings' button, then uncheck anything that starts with 'Animate', 'Fade' or 'Slide'.  That'll make things seem snappier without losing any of the cool Vista looks.

If you really want to get back to the basics, uncheck the bottom box on that panel, then right-click on the Desktop and open 'Personalize'.  Open the 'Themes', select 'Windows Vista', then 'Windows Classic'.  At this point, you're pretty much back in the Win98 days, lookswise.

DNS Lookup

A web site's actual address is an IP (Internet Protocol) number, like "199.181.132.250".  The names like "google.com" that we enter into the browser's address box are just to make it easier for people to remember.  Your ISP converts the name into an IP number and takes you there.

Many ISPs, however, have a small lag time as they do this process, so the trick is to use an ultra-fast server dedicated to doing nothing but this one task.

You should make a quick test.  Open your browser and go to some sites that you haven't visited since the last time the computer was booted up.  What you're looking for is the actual connection to the site in the address box, not when the site actually displays.  If there's a fairly sizable lag of a few seconds before the site's address appears in the box, do this step and try it again.  If the site's address appears pretty much right away, skip this item.

Open Control Panel, 'Network and Sharing Center', then 'Manage network connections' over to the left.  Click on your Internet connection with the right mouse button and open 'Properties'.  In the box that pops open, click on the 'Networking' tab.

You might see two 'Internet Protocol Version...' entries.  You probably want 'Version 4'.  Highlight it, then click 'Properties' down below.

In the lower part of the panel, select 'Use the following DNS...'.  In the two boxes below, put '208.67.222.222' in the top box and '208.67.220.220' in the bottom box.  You'll have to disconnect and reconnect to the Internet before it takes effect.

CCleaner

If Windows XP was a little 'untidy' because it constantly left temp files and such around, cluttering up the place, Windows Vista is downright slovenly.

In order to keep the clutter down to a low roar, I recommend you install and use CCleaner.  During the installation, on the Options page, uncheck every box except the second one.  Add the program to your weekly maintenance routine.

The one thing CCleaner does that's a bit of overkill is that it'll delete all of your cookies, which are the things that remember your name & password when you log onto a site.  How you handle it depends on how many sites you go to that require a name & password.

If there are a number of such sites, and you're adding to them all the time, run the program, uncheck 'Cookies'.  Then, come the day you actually want to clean out the 'Cookies' folder, just do it though the options in the browser.

If you only have a few sites on the list, first make sure you have all the names & passwords at hand, then run CCleaner with 'Cookies' checked.  Then go to each site and log in.  That'll put a fresh cookie on your system.  Open CCleaner, click on 'Options' on the left, then 'Cookies'.  Click inside the left-hand box and hit Ctrl-A to highlight everything, then click on the arrow button.  Now you can keep your 'Cookies' folder cleaned out with CCleaner but it won't delete your good cookies.

Misc Notes

- The "Run as administrator" option can be invaluable.  For example, if the registration box for some program just won't go away, find the program's actual icon in its program folder (not the entry on the Start Menu), right-click on it and "Run as administrator".  Take care of the registration info and this time the box should stay away.  And some updates, bug fixes and patches might require the 'administrator' to run them, so keep it in mind if something's not working right.

- If a favorite program either won't install, or won't run correctly if it does install, try Compatibility Mode.  If the problem is with the installation, click on the Setup program with the right mouse button and open 'Properties'.  If the program's already installed, go to the program's folder and open the 'Properties' of the actual program (usually an .EXE file).  Click on the 'Compatibility' tab and try a few of the options.

- On the subject, it's not unusual for Windows to pop up with a 'program error' box after you shut a program down.  As long as the program's working fine when it's up, just ignore them.  You can try a few of the Compatibility Modes, but if you still get the error message, don't worry about it.  These things always happen with a new operating system.  If the program is still being supported, check out their web site for a Vista patch.

- Speaking of which, you should take the time and visit the home sites of the makers of your video card (or chip) and your CPU.  Open Control Panel, 'Device Manager', 'Display adapters'.  Go to Google and type in the name and model number of the chipset.  The home site should pop up and maybe the actual driver downloads page.  See if there's an updated Vista driver.  Then go back to Device Manager and do the same for 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers', the 'Storage Controller' entry.  In some cases, like with Intel motherboards, both Vista updates might be in the same program.

- If your system seems to have something wrong with it, open Control Panel, 'Performance Information and Tools', click on 'Advanced tools'.  Any problems Windows sees will be listed at the top under 'Performance issues'.

- If your hard drive is thrashing around and you're curious what's causing it, right-click on the Task Bar, open Task Manager.  Open the 'View' menu, 'Select Columns', add 'I/O Reads'.  Click on the 'Processes' tab, maybe widen the program a bit, then click twice on the I/O column to bring the most-used figures to the top.  The one with the changing numbers is probably the culprit, most likely an anti-virus or anti-spyware program updating itself.  If it's a program called "csrss.exe", that's a Vista program and needs to run.  If you don't recognize the name of the program, do a Google search.

Your Part

Your main responsibility lies in checking System Configuration after installing every new program, just to see if any pre-loaders were installed.  Those are the real memory-gobblers, and thus the main reason a system slows down over time.  Staying on top of the pre-loaders is the one single most important thing you can do to keep your computer healthy and happy.