Improve Windows Vista performance in a five easy steps

So we've got Microsoft's latest and greatest operating system Windows Vista, but now we're wondering how we could improve performance on this new pretty operating system. I've compiled a list of five simple things that we can do to increase performance.

1. Utilize Ready Boost.
Adding more memory to your current system is one way to increase system performance. Increasing the amount of memory in your system will allow your computer to run more applications without accessing the hard drive. Depending on your system configuration, however, it may be impossible for you to increase the amount of memory in your system.

Windows Vista comes with a new feature called Ready Boost which will allow you to connect a standard USB flash drive to the computer to increase performance. The flash drive will act as an additional memory cache that the computer can use to access random data. The computer is able to access data off of a flash drive faster than it is able to access data from a hard drive.

When you first connect the flash drive to your computer, the Windows Vista will scan the flash drive's performance to see if its performance is fast enough to utilize Ready Boost. If it is, in the auto launch, you will see an option towards the bottom that ready "Speed up my system".


When you select that option, you are then prompted with another window which will allow you to set how much space on the drive that you want to reserve for increasing system speed.


2. Enable Advanced Performance for SATA hard drives.
Be very cautious with this next tip. Enabling advanced performance could lead to file system damage or data loss in the event of a power failure. When you enable this feature, the write cache is increased on the hard drive. This option can significantly increase write performance. In the event of a power failure however, data that is in the cache has not had a chance to be written to the disk, and data corruption will occur because the operating system recognizes the data as being written. To minimize the risk of power failure, it is highly recommended that your system is attached to some backup power supply.

So enhance hard drive performance, open the device manager. Under disk drives, you will find your hard drive along with any other storage devices that you have attached to your computer. In most cases, you will only have one entry under the disk drives field. Right-click on your hard drive and select properties.



After enabling this option, you will receiving a warning regarding data loss in the event of a power loss. Click OK and you're done.

3. Keep your drivers up to date.
Hardware manufacturers periodically release updated drivers for your hardware that is in your system. These updates can improve the efficiency and stability of your hardware. You don't necessarily need to check for updates daily, however, you shouldn't neglect at least periodically checking. I typically check for new drivers about once a month.

4. Disable unused Windows features and services.
Windows Vista makes some assumptions about what you are going to do with your computer. As such, it installs some pieces of software that you may never need. You can remove these features. In the Control Panel, there is an option called Programs and Features. When you launch that, it will display all of the programs that are installed on your computer.


On the left, you will see an option that reads "Turn Windows features on or off". When you select that option, Windows will prepare a list of features that are install on your computer. You can simply deselect any that you are not going to use. If you find something interesting, you can select it. Press OK to apply those changes.


After you check or uncheck Windows features, the following screen will come up while features are being installed and uninstalled.



5. Minimize your startup items.
If you take a look in your system tray, located to the left of the date and time information on your task bar, you will probably notice many little icons. As programs are launched, many create an icon in the system tray for quick access.


These applications can be prevented from launching at startup. From preventing these applications from launching at startup, you system will be able to startup quicker, you will have more free memory. Unless you actually use all of the applications in your system tray every single time you use your computer, it is better to just launch the applications when needed.

To disable applications from running on startup, open the Control Panel, and navigate to Administrative Tools.


Under Administrative Tools, scroll down to "System Configuration".


Click on the Startup tab to reveal applications that will launch on startup.


In there, you can uncheck any applications that you don't necessarily need to be launching on startup.