NBR Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide

FLHX07...

go into control panel/programs and features and delete that baby.

 

trying now

 

using IE 7, and yes it's now gone!
Thanks to all

 

looking at the uninstalled and updates in the Control panel, programs and features, installed updates I find the following:

security updates (6)
update for MS windows (32)
hot fix for MS Windows (23)
security update for MS windows (14)

Is there a way of removing these other than one at a time and should they be deleted regarding performance/hd space taken?

Sorry if this was already addressed as I didn't see it nor where.

 

I'm trying out the extracted tweak made by Gary right now. I'm going to see if it can decrease my boot time.

 

My boot time is slightly faster after applying that tweak. Thanks flamenko!

 

Anything for you Cal! Your a credit to the site!

 

I think your tweaks may do more good than my software list though, so no credit is needed here.

 

any thoughts/comments on my post above?

 

Sorry, but I don't understand what you're asking/saying. Do you want to uninstall all those updates, or install them, or hide them from Microsoft Update? Please clarify.

 

crash,
I have all those updates and am wondering if I need to remove/uninstall all the earlier updates.
As you can see there are quite a few.
Do I keep or remove the earlier ones?

 

does anyone else have these large number of updates and just leave them alone or remove them?
By remove I'm asking removing the earliest dated updates of each.

 

If you just starting...there are several updates on a fresh system, especially if you didn't install all the updates hardware drivers...just let it go.

 

I don't think there's a need for you to disable Windows Update - even though they add "bloat" to your system, there's a reason why MS deems them necessary. Ignore the "optional" and "extra" ones. And install programs that you are only going to use. I maintain a list of must-have progs in my head, and there's never a need to go beyond them. Registry clutter is partly due to uninstalls and the program information not being completely taken away from the reg (I think Installshield and Windows Installer are the ones to blame for that - someone correct me if I'm wrong).

 

Hey flamenko,

I just realized that by default, Vista is scheduled to defrag my HDD once a week. I hadn't set this schedule up, so it must occur by default (not necessarily a bad thing). Anyways, those wanting the most performance possible would want to turn it off and run it manually (I would assume), so maybe you could include to turn off the scheduled defrag as a tweak under "Speed and Performance"?

Obviously defragging helps, but I do it regularly with Auslogics, and don't need Windows defrag running once a week while I'm in the middle of something.

To turn the scheduled defrag off...
Start>type "Disk Defragmenter"
Uncheck "Run on Schedule"
Click Ok

If you choose to include this, a note at the end along the lines of "If you disable this, make sure you're manually defragging your HDD every once in a while" would be good.

 

Awesome news flamenko!

 

Hi there flamenko,
I've just been directed to this thread, and I'm not sure I want to trawl my way through 102 pages of replys.
Is the 1st post all I need, or are there other bits and pieces I need in the middle of all of this.
Cheers
Andrew

 

First post is all you need. Alot of what is in the middle is our negotiating to make sure the wording is just right on many.

 

Hey Flamenko,

So, I have 2 GB's of RAM (rest of specs in signature) and I was wondering how much I should put for the max and min of the disk cache. I don't really have the time or patience to test around. Should I set it to about double yours?

Thanks,
Leon

 

Your pagefile should be 1.5 times as large as your total ram and make the initial size the same as the maximum size. For you that allows for a 3Gb (3072) file minimum/maximum.

The reason for making both the same is to eliminate increased disk activity if the pagefile is required to expand.

If you are aware what your normal and high ram usage is (I have a gadget on my Sidebar that helps me with this), you can then reduce the total maximum.

I, for example, never use 4Gb ram in total so, if I had 2Gb ram, I would be comfortable with a pagefile of 1.5-2Gb.

 

So...the name changed?

 

Yup....were improving, becoming more professional, expanding....spreading our wings....

 

I see, it look better now.

 

Oh well, I'll just let the system control it. I still have about 60 GB of free space, which is about 2 times more than your total space Flamenko...

 

Guys,

My favor Services tweaks at http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm now updated VISTA with SP1.

Dg

 

Flamenko,

There may be a big problem with this one.

I have asked Maximus77 to check on this, but so far I have not heard back. The problem that may exist is this. The Software Distribution directory appears to have a tie to the list of Windows Updates that have been installed on a machine. If you go to Start | Control Panel | Programs and Features and then select "View Installed Updates" you will see the list. I believe that once you delete the Software Distribution folder, this list will be empty. Not such a big deal in and of itself. HOWEVER, if you happened to be one of the folks like me who installed the Beta of SP1, you will need to be able to uninstall it before you can install the real one when it comes out. And if the list of updates is empty, you will be unable to uninstall the beta. Not such a good thing.

Again, I asked Maximus to check on this but have not heard back from him yet. I'll report back when I do. In the mean time if someone REALLY needs that little bit of disk space back, they should consider copying the contents to a CD before they empty the folder. That way they can restore the contents if necessary.

Gary

 

Regrettably, my space is as such:



That is self inflicted though as I am running the MtronPro presently. Speed! Lets see who has more disk space in two weeks (teehee)

 

We really are. You have no idea how often I refer somebody to this guide. Great stuff here!

 

Me too, but i've also seen you recommending people to my thread too.

 

You are right, all windows update histories are gone after I delete the Software Distribution folder. Also be really careful when deleting the MSOCache, especially if you lost your office install disc, you could get in big trouble.

 

Yes, I have included appropriate warnings within the respective para's.

 

Yup, it's an equally useful thread

 

Many of you who have gone through all these processes to optimize Vista, using TuneXP, and found slow boot is due to one problem. The CPUPriority is set to 26(38) in the Priority Control in the registry. This is found at HKEY Local Machine- System- CurrentControlSet-Control-PriorityControl and look for Win32PrioritySeparation key, if it set 26(38) set to 2

 

Also make sure that the key enable prefetcher has a number higher than 3

 

What exactly do these changes do?

Namely, how will I notice its effect?

 

I wouldn't advise anyone to follow the above suggestions by russelllive unless there is alot more background done. russelllive, should you have a suggestion could you please pm me regarding it. There are a few very knowledgeable people here who help to verify or attest credibility to a tweak/tip in order to prevent the mistake of many to just do it.

Your suggestion may be entirely credible but please consider the lasting effect of one that isn't and readers grabbing on to such.

 

OpenOffice is AWESOME! this is exactly what i was looking for. other than ask my friends to give me a hacked version... this will be great for school. looks just like MSO. Credit and Thanks to Those who discovered it.

 

I could not find waittokill to change the shutdown time any clues I did just as you said and it was not there.

 

Don't know if this has been mentioned but disabling the pagefile also increases speed as Vista is forced to use the RAM instead.

 

Yes I use mine now with pagefile disabled. I have yet to include it as it can be unhealthy, if not dangerous with less than 4Gb.

 

Soo much debate on this one...who do I believe?

It's like I have Jiminy Cricket on my right shoulder saying, "Use your pagefile, or your nose will grow!"...and then I have the little devil dude on my left shoulder tempting me to ditch the silly pagefile.

I wish we could have an intelligent debate on this, ,I've seen many attempts, but never a comprehensive pro/con, why/why not discussion on this one...especially for Vista.

 

Meetloaf... You have 4Gb ram and its used in a 64Gb environment. Unless, for some reason you have a million applications running at once, turn it off and see how it goes for you.

Use the meter in Sidebar to monitor how much ram is always in use.

 

=P

How would that be to have 1 Million applications running at once, anyone wanna come over and try it with me?!

...would running a virtual machine occasionally pose a problem?

P.S. After a clean install and a 7200 RPM drive, I'm still having startup issues. I largely installed the same programs on this install, so I'm thinking it might be something like my anti-virus program? I had a boot at about 1 minute, but never since that time.

I've followed the majority of the guide, and still no money.

 

Your boot should be way faster. When you did the clean install you should have tweaked it before any other installations and then timed the startup. Did you do that?

 

I didn't get all the tweaking done before I started installing like a madman, unfortunately. SP1 did slow things down a bit...

When the Valentine's Day craze is over, and my w/e company is back home, and my two kick-in-the-pants tax exams are finished, I will delve into this further.

As for now, TSCHUSS!

 

Is that 4gb on the RAM boards or 4gb being recognised by Vista, my Vista is the 32bit version and it shows up as having just under 3gb with 4gb on the RAM boards and I've not had any problems not using the pagefile, yet...

 

He's using Vista 64-bit so he's able to address all 4 GB.

BTW, SP1 causes 32-bit Vista to see all 4 GB installed (instead of reporting 3.2 or whatever), HOWEVER, that does not mean that all 4 GB are being utilized. Still only 3.2 GB (or whatever it is for your computer) is being used. MS thought it would be nice if your OS would show how much RAM is installed even if it can't use it all.

 

Thanx Crash...and yes, I use 4Gb as recognized by my 64 Bit Vista OS. Only after I monitored my ram usage for the longest time did i feel comfortable with this; it does add a bit though, even when the pagefile was on a ssd previously.

 

No problem, flamenko

 

Nice guide Flamenko, but I'm surprised that under the "Regain Valuable Disk Space" section you don't show how to manually delete shadow copies and restore points.

When you select Disk Cleanup, select the admin option (Files for all users on the computer) then go to the "more options" tab. From there, press cleanup on the second option for restore/shadow points. You can regain 10+ Gb of harddrive space from this. I always do this before performing a defrag.

Hope this helps.