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How to speed up Windows Vista?
Windows runs pretty well on its own, but there are many things you can do to increase performance.
In this post, I will focus on the key things you can do to get the most out of doing the least in terms of performance.
I recommend you make backups before making major changes to your system. Refer to the backup Windows Vista page for guidance.
Enhance SATA Disk Performance and speed up Windows Vista
This guide will help you improve the performance of your SATA hard drive by enhancing write caching.
If you are not sure whether or not you have an SATA drive in your computer, please check with your manufacturer.
A quick warning: If you turn this setting on and your computer is not connected to a battery backup, losing power increases you risk of data loss or corruption. If you are using a laptop, the chances of this are unlikely as you have a battery in the laptop that will act as a power source if there is an outage.
1. Click on the Start Button and type in Device Manager in the search box
2. Hit Enter
3. Click on the + Next to Disk Drives
4. Right click on your hard drive and select Properties
5. Select the Policies tab and check Enable advanced performance
6. Now click OK and close Device Manager
Speed up Your External Hard Drives to speed up Windows Vista
The default setting in Windows Vista disables write caching for external drives. This is done so that you can eject the drive at any time without data loss. If you are willing to eject your drive each time, you can
increase the performance of your external hard drives.
To turn write caching back on and activate advanced performance, do the following:
1. Click on the Start Button and type in Device Manager in the search box and hit enter
2. Click on the + Next to Disk Drives
3. Right click on your external hard drive and select Properties
4. Select the Policies tab and select Optimize for performance
5. Check Enable write caching on the disk and Enable advanced performance
6. Click OK and reboot your computer
Move Page File to Different Physical Drive and speed up Windows Vista
If you have more than one physical drive in your computer, this guide is for you. The page file can take a considerable toll on your system drive; by moving the page file to a separate drive, you can increase overall performance. Learn how to move the Windows Vista page file to another drive in this guide.
2. In the left-hand pane, select Advanced System Settings
3. Click the Advanced tab and under Performance, select Settings...
4. Click the Advanced tab and under Virtual Memory, select Change...
5. Uncheck "Automatically Manage Paging File Size for All Drives"
6. Select the different physical drive that you want your paging file to now be stored on (e.g. D) and select System managed size and press Set. (make sure this is the first partition on the second drive)7. Select the drive that contains your paging file (usually C), select the Custom Size option, set the original and maximum size, and press Set Your page file will now need to rebuild on the new drive - this may temporarily slow performance.
Note: The reason for keeping around 1GB on the OS drive is because Windows Vista needs still some page file space there.
Rebuild the Page File to speed up Windows Vista
Windows Vista creates a page file, which essentially acts as RAM on your hard drive. This page file speeds up access to commonly used programs and becomes fragmented over time. Rebuilding the page file eliminates fragmentation; learn how to rebuild the page file in this guide.
1. Press Start, right click on Computer and select Properties
2. In the left-hand pane, select Advanced System Settings
3. Click the Advanced tab and under Performance, select Settings...
4. Click the Advanced tab and under Virtual Memory, select Change...
5. Uncheck Automatically Manage Paging File Size for All Drives
6. Select the drive that contains your paging file (usually C) and select the Custom size option
7. Edit the minimum and maximum page file size to 0 and press set
8. Now restart your computer
9. Now follow steps 1-5 and replace step 6 with System managed size and press Set
10. Press OK to save and after a brief period of sluggishness, while the computer rebuilds the page file, you should notice improved speeds.
Move Search Index to a Different Physical Drive and speed up Windows Vista
If you have more than one physical drive in your computer, this guide is for you. The search index can take a considerable toll on your system drive; by moving the index to a separate drive, you can increase overall performance.
To move your search index, do the following:
1. Press Start, type index in the search bar and press Enter
2. Press the Advanced button
3. Press Select new at the bottom and select a new location on a different physical hard drive
4. Press OK. Your search index will now need to rebuild, which may temporarily slow performance.
Disable Superfetch to Save Memory and speed up Windows Vista
Windows Vista Superfetch learns your typical activities with files and application access. By learning, it predicts your computer use actions and puts your most commonly used applications in memory. This is great if you have a lot of RAM, but if you have less than 2GB, then I suggest you disable this feature - saving you from sluggish computer use.
Please Note: Even with less than 2GB of ram, you may find this doesn't help. If you notice no difference after a day or two, then you can probably re-enable Superfetch.
To disable Superfetch, do the following:
1. Press Start, type services in the search bar and press Enter
2. Locate Superfetch in the list of services, right click it, and select properties
3. Change the Startup Type dropdown box to disabled and click the stop button
4. Now click OK
Please remember, this will only help if you have less than 2GB of RAM.
Disable "Last Accessed" File Attribute to speed up Windows Vista
Every time you access a file on your computer, a Last Accessed file attribute is updated. You will likely not need this, so you can remove some overhead by following this guide.
Download the Registry Hack
If you don't feel confident working with the Registry Editor, you can download this registry hack. Simply
extract the file and double click on DisableLastAccess.reg. To re-enable the Last Access option, double click on ReEnableLastAccess.reg
Manually Disable Last Access File Updates and speed up Windows Vista
1. Press Start, type regedit in the search bar and press Enter (or press Winkey+R)
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
3. Update the value of NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate to 1
4. To undo this change, simply change the value back to 0
In order for this to take effect, you may need to restart your system.
Make Windows Shut Down Faster to speed up Windows Vista
As you install programs on your computer, it slows down - we all know that. However, what you may not
know is that the programs install what we call services. Windows is "kind" enough to patiently wait for these services to stop when you shut down your computer. It really doesn't pay off to wait. Decrease the time it takes for Windows to shut down by doing the following:
1. Click the start button and type regedit in the search bar
2. Hit the enter key
3. You will see a screen like the one below. Find your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control in the left menu
4. In the right window you will see a key called WaitToKillServiceTimeout, with a default value of 20000 (20 seconds.)
5. Right click on the key and select Modify...
6. Change the value from 20000 to 5000. This can potentially reduce your shut down time by 15 seconds.
Please note: I do not advise setting this value to less than five seconds.
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