NBR Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide

Most folks with laptops never really let the machine stay idle long enough for this to automatically happen. My batch just triggers the process manually.

Gary[/QUOTE]
So how long is that exactly?

 

So how long is that exactly?[/QUOTE]

Off hand I don't remember. You can dig around in the Task manager and find it, though.

Gary

 

Great guide! Thanks for that.
Im not sure if that wasnt posted but the topic author might include it on the front page in the first post.

=============
After doing a SP1 upgrade, when you have been happy with it and it has been stable you can clean up up to 2GB of space deleting the temporary SP1 files.
That is quickly done by using a built in SP1 cleaner.

WARNING! Performing the cleaning procedure will make SP1 completly integrated with the system and you WILL NOT BE ABLE to unistall it!
[although, why would you anyway? - most people are happy with the stability and performance update]

So:

1. Run command.exe in administrator mode
Start\Accesories\ right click on Command prompt and select 'Run as administrator'
2. type in

Code:

vsp1cln.exe

in the command prompt window.
3. Confirm cleaning with by pressing 'Y' key on the keyboard.
4. This might take a while but when it finishes you will get a message saying that everything went ok.

WARNING! Performing the cleaning procedure will make SP1 completly integrated with the system and you WILL NOT BE ABLE to unistall it!

Enjoy

 

Ya, I think everyone knows about that. But thanks anyways...

 

For 2 GB of space I don't want to be anything undone.

 

Hey Les, I finally got the mojo, boot to desktop 35s (including post). Just did another clean install, this time I did all Windows updates before installing drivers and programs...well, except I haven't installed an anti-virus program yet :\

But thanks again for the guide.

 

Good to see Meetloaf.... For a good laugh, go back to your first posts on start times. lol

 

Wow, you guys are getting pretty nice bootup times. In XP I have about 45-50s until USABLE desktop.Cause the first image of the desktop is at about 35-40s.
In Vista I had about 55s before the guide and about 45-50s after the guide.

 

I get 100% 31 seconds for bootup time

 

Is this bad if I wanted to make a wireless bridge using my laptop and my 360 to connect to xbox live?

 

Haha, yeah, "Clean install" isn't a naughty word in my house anymore

I've done it 3-4 times since then. And hopefully I will be able to "Clean install" in a matter of minutes with the images I just made with Seagate's bootable Discwizard (powered by Acronis).

Thanks again Les, you're our hero.

 

Is this bad if I wanted to make a wireless bridge using my laptop and my 360 to connect to xbox live?

 

Can someone please help me in my question

 

Great guide and I've done the tweaks on 2 different laptops now.

I have run into a question because I did a clean install on my Vostro, waited for SP1 to download and then wanted to tweak the system. In #7 (Trebuin and blackviper.com service tweaks), I've noticed most of the services that are listed are gone or have changed names since SP1. Is there any up-to-date tweak info on these services by chance post SP1?

 

why dont you try it? If it doesnt work then it probably wont connect with each other

When i do this tweak, i cannot access any network files or users

 

I almost had a heart attack today. I restarted my comp after I enabled 'No GUI Boot.' For some reason after the restart it would not go to the login screen. It would show the "secret" bootup screen and then just go black. Even after turning it off and turning it back on, it did the same thing.

I decided to just go into Safe Mode and checked off the 'No GUI Boot' option. And then things worked fine. It's really weird.

 

Hmm, I did the ScuderiaConchiglia's defrag procedure, but after an hour of intense defragging, the gain I got was only about 7 secs from pushing the power button to getting to the Vista login screen (before 72s, after 65s). Oh well, better than nothing.

I didn't time how long it took to completely load to the desktop though - should this have been improved also? At least I didn't notice it being much quicker than usual. I'm running 3,8 GHz Core2 Duo, 4 gig memory, Samsung F1 1TB harddrive, Vista x64, so my hardware shouldn't be the issue.

 

Did you download my batch file or did you create your own via the instructions. I ask because it sounds like it took a lot more time than it should for a BOOTFILE defrag. It sounds like it might have done a regular defrag.

Gary

 

I downloaded your batch file and ran it with admin rights - nothing running in the background. I did notice that the two defrag processes didn't disappear from the task manager at the same time the command prompt window closed. In fact, they didn't close at all. A good 10 minutes after the cmd window had disappeared, I just restarted the computer when the disk usage was a bit lighter. I've had Vista for a couple of months now, and I've only used manual defrag once. At that time, it took several (more like 6) hours to complete. My Vista partition is around 150GB.

The batch file should work as it is with Vista x64, right? It's just that I noticed in the batch file there's references to runddl32.exe and advapi32.dll - these are correct for the 64-bit version also?

 

With Vista-64? I have no idea. It is untested in that environment. The two defrag process SHOULD disappear from task manager at the same time that the command window closes.

Gary

 

Ok, thanks.

I guess we can say it does something in Vista-64, but probably not what it's supposed to At least not as well as in 32 bit envoronment. But I don't think it did any harm, either... knock on wood.

I'll try it with my notebook (in Vista x86 ) as soon as I get it back from repair.

 

so i did the defrag process to make start ups faster and now the hard drive seems to be constantly busy when i am using the computer. it was never like this before. anybody have an idea?

 

No, but I can tell you it has absolutely nothing to do with the defrag process as long as you allowed the process to complete its work and didn't interrupt it by closing the cmd window, killing a task or shutting down while it was still working.

Did you do any OTHER tweaks too?

Gary

 

By deleting my shadow copies, it gave me back 25 gigs!

 

And you lost the ability to roll back if there are any subsequent problems with your system or files. Was 25 gigs of space worth that loss of "insurance"?

Gary

 

Using TuneXp on my system erased all the icons in the Object Dock.
But it did decrease boot times...

 

I assume you are running WinXP. Those of you who are not, you should NOT run TuneXP on a Vista machine. The only reason it was EVER mentioned in this thread was because it could defrag the boot files. But it has all sorts of other HORRIBLE side effects on Vista if you try other options. This is why I created the bootfiles defrag batch file and Les then removed TuneXP from the Vista tips and tweaks guide.

Gary

 

This, apparently, can't be reiterated often enough.

 

I got tired of the disk thrashing in Vista so I turned off Readyboost and Superfetch. Guess what? My boot times dropped from 58 sec to 40 sec from pressing the power button to desktop.

 

Does anyone here know how to get Dreamscene to work. I have downloaded all the updates and content packs but whenever I select a dreamscene background nothing changes.

 

Right click on your desktop, "Play Dreamscene"

 

when I try that it is greayed out so I cant select that. What video driver should I have installed?

 

after some research i turned superfetch to manual and this has solved the problem

 

KOTULCN:

Did you install dreamscene through ultimate in the update area? Do you have..pretty much any video driver installed?

It should work.

 

Les, thanks again for the Bloatware Guide and this Tweaks Guide. I have not gotten 2 Vista machines working much better than "out-of-the-box".

But now, with my XPS M1530, I cant seem to get thru a fully checked ErrorCheck / DiskCheck at reboot. It gets to step 5 at about 77% and locks up. Is there something in vista that needs to be reset or turned off? Is it a bad sector on the HD? Calling dell today I guess.

 

Yes I used windows update to install both Dreamscene and the content pack, and yes I have the video driver for my service tag on Dell's website. I was wondering if there was something in the tweak guide that I might done that is preventing me from using Dreamscene.

 

Not that I am aware of...

 

Thank you Les for this amazing guide!

 

Not really sure if this is a Bloatware Guide Question or a Tip and Tweaks Guide Question.

I am still sorting thru Why I can only run check disk by booting up from the Vista DVD with out it hanging up. That seems odd.

Where's My Hibernation??

I just now realized, I also do not have a hibernate option in the power button choices. What did I do to it?

So Far:
- I Followed the bloatware guide: worked OK (excpet I could not schedule a working checkdisk - but maybe no relationship)
- I did several of the tweaks here
- Windows Update downloaded SP1 2 days ago
- And I went into MS services and disabled a good number of the ones on BlackVipers page

Seems I had Hibernate before SP2, but did not notice it missing until after Services changes. Did I disable a needed service or is this a "feature" of SP1?

Oh BTW, the system is Blazing now .... it is just kind of "Buggy" for lack of a better word.

 

You probably deleted your hibernation file when you did a 'Disk Cleanup' through Vista; most do. I believe the option to delete is selected by default and below the bottom of the menu so u have to scroll to it.

Google this problem and you will find the solution.

 

Well it turns out that a codec pack I installed was the issue, I hadd to change a couple of setting and voila DS works now. Thanks for your replies.

 

Thanks, did that. Exactly as you said. Odd that you cant "clean" that file up. Why would they even have it in disk clean if it is going to totally turn off Hibernate

Anyway, for anyone needed it, here is the commnad line from cmd:

powercfg -h on

You have to have IE7 closed and have to have Admin access and UAC turned off.

 

No, you do NOT have to have UAC turned off. You are correct that you have to start the command prompt with Admin rights, though. Not so sure about the IE7 needing to be closed part. I haven't heard that or tried it however.

Gary

 

Is there a similar thread to this for Windows XP? I just down-graded to XP, and I want to improve my performance.

Thanks

 

UAC off was what I read in the google search pages that I found. IE7 closed was personal experience. It triied it 3 times while ie7 was up and it would not work. Closed IE7 and it hit first time no problem.

So my story is Anecdotal at best .... Your milage may vary.

 

Greetings,

I have reviewed alot of info before writing this question. After you download and install the 174.74 driver from laptopvideo2go everything is ok. When you do a reboot your driver isn't active w/o doing a F8 because of the MS digital sig that is broken, this is understood.

My question is: Do I have to do a F8 and "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" everytime I reboot or do a fresh boot in order to invoke this new video driver?

I have went through both Trebuin's and Les's information. I thank both of you for spending the time to make this information available. I may have missed something the second time around because alot of information is there and I will admit that I didn't go through each post the 2nd time, but I did the first time.

I have not finished the transference from 32 bit to 64 bit yet; but I have noticed a performance improvement already.

This is saying alot because I have a m1330 2.6Ghz w/ 4 GB of ram.


thanks....



I resolved it. thanks...

 

I've never had to press f8 and I'm running this driver, and I've done zero workarounds. I wasn't even aware of the problem.

 

i'm thinking of creating a .reg file that u just click and it will completely tweak ur computer for performance. anyone interested?

 

For those of you with the "I can't find hibernate from my Start menu" problem, I found a workaround, odd as it is.

Go into your power config options (Start or Orb | type in power - Select power options)

Go to Change Plan Settings for your plan
Go to Change Advanced Power Settings
Click on "Change Settings that are not currently available"
Go to Sleep
Turn Hybrid Sleep OFF
Click Apply

Click Orb, Shut Down options (>) - you should now see a setting for Hibernate.

This presumes you've already gone through other troubleshooting steps and done the -h on/off via cmd and you've checked and verified you have a hiberfil.sys

 

Like Winbubbles can do? How would you determine what "tweaks" to do?