NBR Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide

Hey, thanks for the tweaks. They are working great for me but i am having one problem. Ever since i did them my shutdown/boot has been faster. But for some reason i cannot come out of sleep mode. I am forced to just take out the battery and reboot. One time i rebooted windows "analyzed" the problem and said it was a problem with the drivers. It could not fix the problem but said that i maybe could try downloading a new driver from "http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us"

I tried to do this and it said that it could not install because i am not running Vista(which i am).

Any ideas?

 

You need to carefully follow the directions. It stated that you could not install because you never got an inf file and placed it in the expanded viseo directory before clicking on setup.

You will see that some come with the inf driver and some do not.

1. Download the executable.
2. Download the closest relate inf driver from another video download (I have found it really doesnt matter which)
3. Expand the video file.
4. Drag the inf file into the new video directory.
5. Hit enter on the setup in that directory.

 

Thanks for the help.

I kinda suck at this stuff so i might need some clarification

Which executable should i download?
Where do i find "inf drivers"?

Is this the usual way to deal with the "sleep" problem?

 

If you look through the diferent drivers here, you will find that one or two fixes specifically address the sleep problem.

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/vista

As for the INF file, click on the one closest to the driver you are downloading and follow what I said.

 

I tried to to the "Cut vista shutdown in half..." thing, but I cant find the 'WaitToKillServiceTimeout' folder. I followed the procedures n' all, but I cant find ti. I'm running (Dell install) Vista Home Premium btw.

 

Open Run Command window(Win Key+R) >Type Regedit>Now enter following value to registry

 

I still cant get to it. Maybe there's an alternate route....

 

Hey Flamenko, i've just sent you a pm with new tweaks so check it out when you have the time.

 

my vista ultimate sometimes it can't shut down correctly: it exits vista, shut the screen, but power leds still on! any ideas?
another problem: It seems vista can't save my mouse settings: left-handed, double click speed ecc. every boot I have to re-set it manually. anyone with the same problem? is it possible to fix it?
thanks

 

top thread

 

I Agree!

I got my new M1330 all tweaked up!

 

i got my dell inspiron 1420 tweaked up. Before= 48% memory usage After=28% memory usage but when i restarted my laptop, it returned to its original memory usage which is 48%. So what happened? Or whats the problem?

 

There isn't one. Vista uses a different way of allocating memory with the basic tenet that unused memory is wasted memory. It will watch your usage patterns and attempt to keep things in memory that it thinks you are going to need. For example if it realizes you startup MS Word every day, first thing, then Vista will preload MS Word into memory to have it at the ready. (That is a gross over simplification of what happens but is the concept.)

This use of memory is such that at any moment when another takes needs some of this memory, Vista can instantly free up portions for the required task at hand.

Bottom line, is any tweaking you do should not necessarily be targeted at reducing all memory usage as a goal unto itself.

Gary

 

Hi,

Aerofoil is one of the apps mentioned in this thread and as the author I was looking for some feedback - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=189580

Thanks,

Benjamin

 

According to Holiday 2007 edition of PC Gamer (p144):

"If you're using Vista, install the Virtual Address Space Hotfix from Microsoft (you'll find it at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105). This is particularly important for 32-bit Vista operating systems."

[Of Crysis]: "If you want the best quality experience with the smoothest framerate, upgrade to a 64-bit version of Windows."

Just some things I thought I should put out there, hopefully I haven't repeated what someones already said (and I'm not prepared to look through 77 pages to find out haha).

 

thanx for all the advise! everythin worked great except for the nvidia driver. It crashed my laptop like 5 times. just thought i'd let you know.

bon

 

Isn't a Tweak, well not really, is having the latest windows updates? I was wondering if there is way to check them all, cause i have lost faith in Microsoft/Windows update since it doesn't include important hotfixs for my graphics card noted by nvidia on their website.

 

What realistic benefits does the hotfix have on performance Flicker?

 

When I follow the steps to stop indexing windows I get an error: C://Boost/memtest.exe.

What does this mean

 

Hey there,

I got new laptop acer travelmate 5720
2 GHZ 1 gb ram
160 hard disk

I got vista on it it works bloody slow i wanted to install the XP on it and when i tried There was an error arrived which was saying contact manufacturer and next time there is no hard drive found to install vista ...


can anyone help me step by step what to do ...please

I have XP original cd....

Please Help//

 

ACHI controller is the culprit.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...d-find-any-sata-hard-disk-drive-on-ahci-mode/

See above.

Hope this helps,

Phil

 

What was the REST of the error? There should be more to it than just that.

Gary

 

Go to the search box at the top of this page and type "XP SATA INSTALL" without the quotes. You'll find the answers there.

Gary

 

Possible Windows Tweak to allow 4GB memory address with Vista 32-Bit.

I went to the following page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929580 and it states you can add a option to allow 32-bit OS to address all 4GB of memory.

From what I read, when graphics cards, hardware, and BIOS uses memory, some of the addressable memory is relocated above the 4GB barrier.

This site states that opening an elevated COmmand Prompt and type in "BCDEDIT /SET PAE ForceEnable" should allow the full allocation of memory.

Can anyone confirm this?

 

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't -- it is really dependent on the motherboard.

 

Does anybody know if this would work for a Dell XPS M1330? I'm thinking about getting 4GB pretty soon

 

The PAE "fix" not only depends on the motherboard, but I belive it depends on the software to recognize that PAE is on. It is NOT a universal "fix".

Gary

 

i have an AMD TuX2 64 gamer: ACER ASPIRE 4520G-

and 4GB of Ram with a 32-bit Vista home premium.

do you think it will work with my setup? i'm afraid to try without knowing if there is a way to reverse it?

thanks.

 

I did this clean up guide, well some of it, followed it correctly and some strange things happened.

1. when i reset, in the shut down screen windows came up with "Configuring Updates" with is strange because my updates were turned off.
2. On start up i check the Task Manager, which shows just shy of 1gig RAM usage on boot up, which is higher than ever, it does drop to 600-500 after about 5 minutes but the huge increase i just don't quite understand.

Is there something strange going on here, is it just Vista working its Memory hogging magic?

 

Your system must have been downloading updates concurrently. check to see what was installed and when. None of the tweaks will cause that to occur.

 

It did nothing to my system when i testet on vista ultimate 32bit.

It sees 3gb of my 4gb no matter what i do.

 

Since you didn't bother to quote the message you are responding to or offer the slightest clue as to which of the multiple tweaks here you are referring to, we have absolutely NO IDEA what you are talking about.

Gary

 

Please excuse me if this question has already been answered-I read a couple of pages in between but found nothing-but is it safe to use CCleaner for 'registry'? As in, in CCleaner on the left you have 'cleaner', and 'registry' is there as well. Is it safe to use that registry cleaner from it? Also, you don't tick/check any more options in 'cleaner' in CCleaner than the default yeah? I use Firefox on Vista Home Premium. Thanks for the help.
Amazingly awesome tips btw.

 

As with security and the registry I always say "safe" is a "relative" term. I personally know that CrapCleaner is relatively safe. It did however monkey up my thinkpad's touchpad, but I was able to remember to exclude that the next time I cleaned. But in general it has a been very safe to use. Each build seems to get better, and the term "safe" gets "safer" with each build. Just remember you can always restore a registry clean up. I would however exercise caution since if you don't know how the registry works you can royally mess up what you have. If it is stable and runs well I'd skip the registry cleaning.

 

Fair enough. But when I did the scan (I didn't clean the registry, just wanted to see what it shows needs to be cleaned) under 'data' I could see the names of a lot of my programs that I had uninstalled but then again it's way too big for me to pick out what I have/haven't heard of and clean only the ones I am 100% sure of (like the programs I've uninstalled). Hmm only if Windows was made better we wouldn't need to do all this! lol

 

The only problem I have ever had is with the thinkpad pointer. So I would imagine you'd be okay. But just in case you can always rollback.

 

Hi,

I use CCleaner all the time on my Vista Home Premium version. Never encountered any problem. Hope this helps...

 

I second that; I use CCleaner both the registry cleaner and the crap cleaner on Vista Home Premium all the time

 

Edit 10/28/2009: Looking for info about defragging boot files under Windows 7? Then Click here

Some time ago I posted a long message in this thread explaining what was REALLY going on behind the scenes when TweakXP was being used to optimize the boot files under Vista.

I mentioned that I wanted to create an app or some way for folks to do the same thing on their own without the need for TweakXP. (Especially since it was NEVER designed for Vista in the first place and some of its other options might be detrimental to Vista's health.) I have been swampped since then, but yesterday this issue came up again in the Sony forum here. So, after helping someone there with this issue I am copying it here as well.

------------Quoted from the Sony Forum here---------------------------------
Have you allowed Vista to defrag and reorder the boot files? Most laptop users never get a chance for this to be done, because they don't leave their machines idle long enough for the automatic process to kick in. There is a whole series of messages about this in the "top tweaks" thread. The tweak recommended is to use an app called TuneXP, which was designed for XP and use it to do some "magical" trick to defrag and reorder the bootfiles. I did a complete expose' of exactly what it does and it comes down to two simple commands.

Open notepad and paste these two lines in it:

Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
defrag -b %SystemDrive%

Next save the file on your desktop with an extention of .BAT. (DO NOT NAME THE FILE DEFRAG.BAT) Or better yet I'll include an attachment right here!

It is a zip file but just open it and move the file to your desktop. Close ALL running applications.

Then right click on it and select run as administrator. The first line just tells Vista that all applications are idle and it can start a background task that is just sitting there waiting for this event to occur. That task analyzes the bootfile history that Vista maintains and creates a file with the optimum order for these files. The second line starts a specialized defrag process that uses that ordering information and puts these bootfiles into the proper sequence!

It will popup a command window and look like it is just sitting there hung on the first line. It's not, trust me. If you open Task Manager and view all running processes you will see Defrag and DfrgNtfs running. When they are done the command window will disappear. Be patient give it some time. It can take anywhere from a few seconds to an hour even. Just depends on how fragmented your files are. I just ran it and it took about seven minutes. Your disk drive light will show LOTS of activity.

Sit back, have a cup of coffee or whatever. Just wait until the command window disappears. That cannot be stressed highly enough! DO NOT CLOSE THE WINDOW! BE PATIENT! LET IT FINISH! Now reboot and see if it made any difference in boot time.


Gary
------------------------end of quoted message-----------------
P.S. flamenko feel free to use this in place of the TweakXP segment in your primary post here if you wish. Just be sure to include the zip file as well, if you do.

 

Thanks a lot, Gary.

 

that looks great!
thanks Gary
+rep

 

Gary, the two defrag processes ended by themselves about 15 minutes ago, but the command window is still opened. Is it okay to close it now, or is it still busy doing something? There is no cpu or disk activity happening whatsoever.

 

That is VERY odd. Are you SURE the two defrag processes are done? You did see them running at some point and now they are gone??? If so, yes close the command window.

Did you use my batch file or did you open a command window yourself and enter the commands? The command window will ONLY disappear on its own if you use my batch file.

Gary

 

Is anyone here using Vista with a 1GB notebook? Is the speed/performance acceptable after all those tweaks (btw: thanks for this great thread)?

 

Yes... my sons Compaq is running fine with 1Gb and Vista Premium.

EDIT...and Schud i will get to you. On a course away right fm home now.

 

Yep, my son's Asus did fine with Vista on 1 gig....he's got two now as I put one of my sticks in when I went to 3.

 

Yes, I ran it through your batch file. The system was clearly under the defrag process and both services were listed before they finished. When they were gone from task manager, the system had no cpu or disk activity. However, it seemed to have worked as my startup is indeed a bit quicker. Oh well, I wasn't worrying, just seeing if it was normal or not. Thanks a lot for sharing the info and for the file.

 

Oooops a bit late but...WAHOOOO!!!!!!!! a hundred thousand reads!!!!!!!

 

Great tweaks.

One of things I did was turn off the Tablet PC services as unneeded. However, today I wanted to play with the Snipping tool and tried to turn them back on. Got errors and now can't reactivate. Windows will only create an empty folder in Accessories.

Don't need Tablet PC and not worth the time to troubleshoot, but heads up to others in case they have the same problem.

 

I think I provided that heads up in the thread itself didn't I? You should be able to turn it back on, however, and then seek the command out and use it through 'Run'.