NBR Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide

Please add Windows Defender for managing the startup programs !

Can you explain more about SuperFetch ?

 

Hey Gary...


You will note I fixed that tweak. Yours is front row centre now. Site rule No. 1...NO HEART ATTACKS OR STROKES!

 

Oh trust me, I noticed it immediately and was VERY glad to see that. Like I said in my note, you are doing a great job at weeding out which of these tweak apps are junk and which are not. This one just feel through the cracks. I just wish to hell these tweak app writers would document their work!

Gary

 

Hey guys,

flamenco, first of all, great thread and thanks a lot for taking the time to make it -rep

The only problem I've had so far has been with step #6 second part. When I uncheck and then reboot it appears as a blocked startup program. So if can anyone can help me with this I would really appreciate it (see attatchment).

Also, I not very sure how to measure boot time. I would guess it's from pressing the power button until window's logo appears and then you type in your password... but then there's a time needed for for all the programs to load up.... could anyone clear that for me?

Another issue is that when ever my internet security program (McAfee) loads first everything's fastter but when it's the last thing to load it takes as twice time to load everything

Thanks a lot to everyone, specially flamenko!

 

On #1, I get to TMM, open it but cant find 'Disable' I right clicked and disabled but that dose not work

Please Help!

 

Whenever you change your startup settings through that method, that dialog box appears. Simply check it off and hit ok.

As for boot time, many cheat by timing until the boot screen but i go from the start of the button to complete desktop loaded with virus program and I dont use any logging. It goes there automatically.

Also, McAfee is very proprietary and uses a bit more resources than others. Consider AVG free edition. I find that works excellent, takes up little resources and updates almost daily.

Jewperman,

If it is not enabled, it is disabled. If you cant change it, do as i have done and delete it if you will never use TMM.

 

It's better to use Windows Defender

 

Hmm, I think I will just put up with the blinking! Thanks for the reply and suggestion though

 

Hey Flamenko....Nice formatting for the article......Just a small suggestion....IMO it will nice if u can increase this font size a bit. I know it would make the article more lengthy, but you know just to make it easy to read....

 

Thanks Flamenko for changing it.....Now it looks neater

I can but I won't do that....I'm too lazy

 

slow control panel icon load.Does anyone have this problem?

 

Is the first post updated or should I red the whole thread?

 

First post is up to date...

 

Nice thread flamenko, but isn't it about time you updated it?

 

Updated as in....

I can only update it when tweaks equal to or greater than are found Cal.

Not so easy a task...

 

I have to constantly test software to add to my list. Not so easy either.

 

Or we have just reached the point-of-no-more-faster with Vista aka Vista-screws-you-on-performance-no-matter-what-you-do.

 

Dont really understand the rant kozzney but I can say that this system is the absolute fastest I have had any laptop running with any OS. Nothing even comes close.

Cal...

You have your work cut out for you and I knew that as soon as I saw the thread. My thread is up to date. Im told, and have been by many non-NBR members that the guide just may be the best on the Net, no holds barred.

After all, its been plaigerized by lots of other sites which is a compliment in itself.

If it is deemed one of the best, its because I went through pretty much every other tweaking site myself which was tons of surfing. I had the fortune of also finding the hard to dig up tweaks such as the 'Disable TMM' with the help of other NBR members.

I think we are aver 120000 reads which shows me its doing just fine on its own.

 

My thread has barely gotten any views at all. It has a lot of work left.

 

Your thread will get tons. It will also be alot of work, much more than this.

 

That leaves a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth....

 

Sorry, I'm just fed up with Vista and the problem I had recently regarding some of the recent Windows Updates. They BSOD'd my comp on reboots and the only way that anyone figured out how to fix it was to install SP1 RC which made my comp slower... so yea...

 

I've been using vista fine, actually, it's been getting faster all the time.

 

Wait....is it possible the updates have knocked out the AHCI driver? Try to reinstall it. The only time i have ever known of the warm reboot sit BSOD was with the AHCI not installed/working properly.

 

It's possible, it's possible. Not too far-fetched either. Maybe it'll work.

 

Yea, absolutely, i am feeling the same too. As far as i remember, my system never give me any BSOD.

 

I have also never gotten a BSOD. Then again it's just good maintenance.

 

Hmmm... that's a good idea, but since I've got it working now from updating to SP1, I'm afraid to mess with anything else especially since school has just started back up for me--so I have very little time to do stuff.

Here's my thread that I started a few days ago on the issue though, in there is the BSOD stop error code that I got and all the other little details, maybe that code points to the AHCI driver??? Here it is:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=206587

 

flamenko,
I've done a few of your (easy) suggested tweaks on my new Dell m1530 and when I tried to run "snipping tools", no can do.
I have the Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition 32bit.
Any other suggestions as the snipping tools seems like a good thing to have.

Tweaks completed thus far:

Disable TMM
Cut Shut Down Time In Half!!
Get Quicker Internet Confirmation!
Use Vista's Secret Boot Screen!!
Disable Vista Search Indexing
Turn Off Unused Windows Features
Increase Performance by Adjusting Vista Visual Effects and Performance Properties!!!!

Thanks for all your and others help on this thread.
ps/rep given

 

My guess is in Tweak #8, you turned off Tablet Optional PC Components,

"Unless you have the Tablet PC Optional Components feature enabled, the Snipping Tool will not be available on your computer. To enable this feature please follow the instructions in our Windows Vista Feature Guide. When you have enabled the feature, come back and follow the rest of these steps."


http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial135.html

 

flamenco,
I've rechecked tweak #8 and the only items checked are:

Games
Tablet PC Optional Components

when I select "Run" and type in "snipping tools" the message I get is:


(red X) Windows cannot find 'snipping'. Make sure you typed the name correctly,
and then try again.

Any other ideas why I get this message?
Thanks

 

Hit winkey and 'R' - It will bring up the run command.
Type 'snippingtool' no space and no quotes..should work.

eheheh bet that works...

 

@FLHX07, do you see the snipping tool under Start>All Programs>Accessories>Snipping Tool?

 

I can now access it both ways thru the "start" key and as crash says.
Now for a few more tweaks
Thanks

 

Allright!
I joined just because I could post here in this thread after reading it and following it thoroughly!

flamenko I have to say looking for some nice tweaks online for 2 days because my computer was going at ****ty speeds...this has got to be the best of them !!!
I downloaded most of the software .. since I already bought MS Word 07 and some other programs already...other than that my computer's shutdown and turning on has improved by like tons and tons

Before:
My Vista boot up: ~3-4 min...
NOW After TWEAKS: ~1 min 5 seconds BIG DIFFERENcE

My Vista Shutdown: ~2 min +
NOW After Tweaks: 30 seconds & 59 milliseconds

My Vista Log-on screen to desktop: ~ 1 Min
NOW After Tweaks: ~10 seconds or so

I loved every bit of the tweaks i did

OOH
and the biggest difference that i saw was my power management!!
IT DOUBLED LIterraly!
Since I have a 17" Monitor on Laptop! My battery used to die (mostly die allways) in about 50 minutes or 1 hour max (that is what is suggested battery time)
Now after the battery tweak my deadtime for battery is about 1 hour & 50 min to 2 hours

Thanks again and if you have any cool other tweaks let me know!
-N6

 

Thank you and thats quite a compliment!!!

Its really interesting to know that you got extended battery times with an external monitor because of them. Thats great!!! Tx again.

 

Glad to hear it works!

PS Thanks flamenko for the rep.

Welcome to the forums

 

Wow, n6420, those are some pretty impressive improvement times.

 

Those are impressive time improvements.....Glad to find that you liked Flamenko's tweaks...enjoy ur stay at NBR !!

 

I'll have to post my start and shut down times soon but both have been reduced quite a bit
Thanks again to all

 

per openoffice, i cannot get the spell checker to work. I type in gibberish or an incorrect word and it does not have the red squiggly line under it nor does it recognize the mistakes when i use spellchecker. Anyone know how to activate it. Also What do programs had devastating results and were removed by flamenko as i would like to be safe also.

 

AutoMZ was removed by flamenko because some people were experiencing big problems after using it.

 

That's pretty freaky. I used it thinking it was perfectly safe but now it gets removed?! That kind of freaks me out. I used it and deleted the program along with the backups. I've installed way too much software from then to go back, what should i do?

 

Nothing. If it did not IMMEDIATELY cause you a problem you are now safe. It was pulled because it STUPIDLY set the NumLock key on reboot. This caused folks who used a password at boot time to be locked out unless they happened to notice that the numlock was on. I suggested that ANY program that did anything that stupid is totally suspect.

Gary

PS the other app removed was TweakXP, which was never intended to be used under Vista. I wrote a batch file and documentation that performed the same function that TweakXP was being used for, namely boot file defrag and reorg.

 

Wow.. even though I though of myself as an "advanced" user, not expecting to find anything helpful in this thread.... I actually learned something and that something made me feel stupid

The battery power plan:

This week my computer's performance decreased significantly and even using Rocketdock at medium settings used about 100% of both cores of my CPU (lol) so I was like wtf... and changing the plan to "High performance" fixed it!

I have to thank you +1!

 

Cal....

I don't understand why people have so much problems with AutoMz. This may be because i don't use password login and havent experienced my cap locks coming on. I have used this program for months now and still continue to use it about once a month to clean up my system.

Many others have experienced the same as you may have. I pulled it out of respect for the few that had some troubles even though, I probably could have put a caveat with the program.

 

Switch from safe optimization to power optimization after a month of using AutoMz... Although i don feel significant difference but what can i say? Looking good there =).

Thanks flamenko and everyone who contribute to this thread i'm greatly appreciate. Seeing my system a lot faster than my friend's m1530 makes me feel great! (Although he does not tweak his system... Well what do you care? lol)

 

If i recall correctly, windows told me i had caps lock on and i turned it off no problem. Whew, that takes a load of my mind.

 

Sorry for the newbie question, but if I use mostly coffee shop and school wifi connections, will the #4 "Workstation service disable" option be available to me? I ask because I have significant delay between the appearance of desktop after startup and the recognition of connectivity.

Thanks

 

Yes, it will still work. Or put better, it won't prevent you from connecting to those networks.