NBR Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide

Yes....These tweaks were all done in Win 64 way back when. Those were the days that very few would make the 64 jump and there were a few very lively discussions as to the value of 64. I still remember how many thought 64 bit was a total farce which would never see the light of day as software manufacturers would not support it. Ever wonder why Dell jumped in so quick???

All I can say in the end is I had a million system crashes with XP, plenty of specific software crashes with Vista but not a single crash ever once 64 bit was set up...

I have also done quite a few of the tweaks on Win 7 64 bit although the end result is not nearly as visible as it was back then.

I would invite anyone to carry on the tradition, hunt around, invite others here to assist and grab the opportunity to make the first global Win 7 Tweak Thread. Plaigarize and use as many of my Vista Tweaks as you wish!!! Its quite an honour to see the support along with reprinting of this thread in several different languages. It felt great to bring something like this to the web and to let everybody have the best that could be found for free. It felt great watching everyone from the site come together to make the thread exactly what it was...the best that could be found on the net.

EDIT: I apologize of this sounds abit boastful but I am absolutely in awe of the fact that we brought together input from all over the world to create this thread...and it succeeded way beyond anything imaginable.

 

Les, i try your configuration, but my "windows update" seems to be not working...

i click "check for updates" but no updates coming and the red shield always there...!!!

can you help me on this...?

 

after i try your configuration... my windows update not working...
what seems to be the problem?
even when i click "check for update"
its only reading and no result for new update...

 

Zoovido, please don't cross-post or hijack threads - it's against the forum rules:

Please continue discussion in the thread you created: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=438264

 

Any chance of a Win 7 tips and tweaks guide soon? I hope a Win7 version of VLite is made (though doesn't look like it will come any time soon - at least from the creator of VLite). I know Win7 works in VLite, but it wasn't designed with Win7 in mind and I'm sure there are several differences which might affect creating a streamlined copy from VLite.

 

do these tricks (1st page) work for windows 7 as well?

 

Gah... read the last few pages...

Yes, they possibly work but while Win7 is virtually a cleaned up Vista it is still slightly different so some "tweaks" may break some functionality.
If you have to mess around with your OS; then wait for a Win7 guide.

But honestly - why do people bother breaking their newly installed OS in the first place?
Vista and Win7 run best when left alone.

 

thx man for the info

 

OK, so I am looking through the thread. 1st, it appears that the Tips post (the first one) is updated so it is current and not 2 years old. Am I correct?

Second, I am reading about the pagefile and ways to speed up performance. I have not done anything about killing processes or such, my question is about my RAM.

I have 3 GB. when I look at Task Manager, it seems I am constantly using 50% (1.57 GB).

Under Performance, Physical is Total: 3015; Cached 1933; Free 46. Kernel Mem: 400 Total, 257 Pages, 143 Nonpaged.
Page File 1503M / 6233M

I have bluetooth and wireless network, but no apps open (not even FF). I use Kaspersky Internet Security, but may be dumping it (seems that it is a bit of a hog and slows starts/shutdowns).

So, I have recently had a lot of slowdowns and (Not Responding) when using Apps. I have seen my RAM up to 90% utilized (or more sometimes). I thought Pagefile adjustment might help that, but I am not sure. Sorry for a probably noob type question, but I am missing it.

 

Let your OS manage the pagefile.

KIS, yes it has gone done in quality on 2010 :cry: - MSE (=Microsoft Security Essentials http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/?mkt=de-de) is a good alternative, and free

 

Wow. Thanks for the quick answer. I used to use ESET Nod, but the Cisco Clean Access agent we are forced to use doesn't play nice.

So, letting my OS handle the pagefile. Should I be concerned about the 50+% Physical Memory reporting in Task MAnager: Performance?

Thanks again.

 

RAM usage doesn't matter until you hit 100% and stuff get's paged out.

Before that you do not need to care

You're welcome

 

Once again, thanks. As I wrote my email, I started to wonder if what you just said was actually the case. But, usually I THINK I know just enough to get myself in trouble

I tried to rep again, but I guess I have to 'spread it around'.

 

Don't worry about it.
Thanks for the one you gave me already

And you're welcome

 

Les, why not the best?

You have already done 64bit OS, Vista, who can seamlessly provide a tutorial for Win7 better than you?

You are the best 64 bit OS guru, why not win7?

 

Regarding item 15 : Turning off system restore

"My Own Opinion??? Ok...sure I would suggest you leave it on for now, anyway, and reduce your saved restore points to just the one by:

Start/Computer/Right click on 'C'/Properties/Disk CleanUp/More Options/System restore and Shadow Copies (Clean Up)."





When I click on "disk cleanup" , I don't see the choice "More Options", only choice is "My files only" or "Files from all users on this computer" ?

 

Take "fileds from all users" you'll get a window and then you get that tab

 

Just upgraded to Windows 7 and it's slower than optimized Vista. Is there a W7 guide similar to this looming in the near future?

 

I'd have to see it to believe it. The only way I see this possible is if you were running x64 Vista and stripped down the services pretty hard core.

Back when this thread was alive and kickin' I used to be a hard core system 'tweaker' (hah, doesn't sound right). Needless to say, I've been running Win 7 for a year now (finally jumped ship and went 'Retail'!). I have all but completely stopped changing settings, stopping services, optimizing this/that, loading up custom/modded drivers, clean installing often, etc. because Win 7 is much much much better than Vista ever was, I've not had to mess with much of anything to have a quick/responsive OS.

Perhaps you could describe how you feel the performance is worse in 7, then we can see what the underlying cause is.

 

What Meetloaf13 said! +1

Gary

 

You just described my past self.

 

Ya agree totally... I am running Win 7 on 5 machines in my house and considered doing up a new Win7 Tweak thread. The difficulty I had was finding tweaks that really made that much of a difference.

I had even pulled as many tweaks out of the Vista thread that I could and...no diff...so....

Now I have to get myself a ULV netbook to see if I can get a large ssd into her and then make sure it is 64bit with as much ram as I can shove in there...just because. Presently waiting for the right system to strike my interest... UL20 looks good but it may be a busy spring for 11.6 netbooks/notebooks.

 

Les is in the house!!! Where ya been, my friend? Glad to hear you are liking Win7 as much as I am.

Gary

 

Hey Gary...my work keeps me busy as heck... I sold my 1340 and am looking to find a new system with some distinct qualities which gets me back here to look and learn.

Hoping to find a 11.6/culv1.4/4gb/win7-64/hdmi/bt/under3lband1"thick...that I can get a 256gb ssd in to..

Once I get it I am going to seek help here overclocking the cpu...

Hope allis well with you...

 

heyguys
awesome thread here.
is this applicable to windows 7?

 

In short, no. Just Vista.

 

Actually, there are many of the tweaks that can be done, however, none that you will really notice any speed or performance improvement with...

 

Wow, I remember this thread.

Looking forward to the Win7 thread.

 

I'm not alone! =]

...alas, I miss yonder days of old...clean installs, tweakfests, and Scud enduring the endless onslaught of non-pagefiling foo's

Not likely, M$ must have read through LES' first post and remedied all the slow-downs =]

 

Good to hear from you all again folks...been awhile....awaiting my new system right now...tick tock.

 

this post saved me a lot of valuable time. can't wait for your Win 7 tweak guide.

 

There probably won't be one since W7 doesn't require a whole lot of tweaking.

 

You are exactly right... I have tweaked my system with as many tweaks as I could dig up...I don't see any difference except....

I have an ssd and found this:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3116/tweaktown_s_solid_state_drive_optimization_guide/index8.html

It has made a difference in speed and system response time IMHO.

 

You shouldn't "tweak" an OS for a SSD - its not needed - the important bits are done by the OS itself in Windows 7 too.

(On Vista you should manually disable the scheduled defrag - but that's it)

 

Been through it all....

Respectfullly, been here a hundred times when people say the same about turning off pagefile. There use to be huge spitting matches but, in the end, I still believe pagefile does nothing moe than make up for RAM you haven't got. If you have 4Gb or more...use the ram not a pagefile that, by its own theory, has to slow your system down to put info on a hard disk under the guise of a virtual drive...

And...if it is not supposed to be turned off then why would they offer an option in your configuration menu to turn it off...

I simply want a system that flies, weighs next to nothing and is stable as a rock....and thats what I have...tweaked out. On top of that, I think I am at about 23 seconds again for full start time...can't argue with that now can ya...

 

reading the guide makes me so happy..with all the exclamation marks

 

Eheheheheheh never had that reaction.... Glad to have helped.

 

This is so true! Win 7 is so refined it's simply astounding. example: With Vista I had a reboot time of 200+ seconds. Win 7 reboots in under 90 seconds!

 

That is still slow.

Your Vista time was more your setup and not Vista.

Your Win 7 time is still long. There's got to be something (loading mapped network drives, cooky printer driver, etc.) that is causing you to have a startup time of 90s. With your specs, I'd say you could get it down to 60s. But, if you don't boot all that often, it may not be worth the hassle.

 

On a slow 5400rpm HDD which was also very energy efficient (can't be fast, can it?) - with my Vaios HDD protection on the worst I had in Vista was 150-170s - never more.

And that's with KIS adding easily 20 seconds...

 

Hello People,

I guess my question goes well in this thread.

I was just checking my service settings (along with reference from blackviper and google) and I was wondering if I can set the following on "Automatic (delayed start)".

* Andrea ST filters service (part of sigmatel I guess)
* Portable device enumerator service
* Sigmatel audio service

PS., I didn't have any problem' as such with my computer which made me want to change the settings. But of late, the start up has been a little bit slow and I was wondering if I can just try with these changes. And yes, I do clean up the system, defrag, etc etc. regularly.

Thanks in advance.

 

when i installed win7 on my notebook a didn't needed to install any additional software to bost my notebook, i've installed just the regullar drivers that win7 didn't revognize and it works really good, before with the vista i have a lot of problems, so definitely you should switch to win 7

 

WIN 7 ?? Time to update your signature line then! And for fast boot up, try a SSD = Solid State Drive = fantastic!

 

I was wondering if these tips and tweaks are still relevant?
MS released tons of updates and several service packs for Vista, obviously they improved something. May be something works like in Windows 7 and some tweaks are not needed?
My experiense with Windows 7 wasn't very good, so i had to go back to Vista.

 

Yes, they are completely relevant.....

 

I think I just spit up in my mouth

 

Would you mind telling us your experience with Windows 7 aka Vista SP3?

 

I get around 40-50 minutes battery life more on Vista, and that was major for me.
Also, some SZ native functions don't work on Windows 7, for example wake on when lid open. I don't think Sony will ever release 100% windows 7 compatible native apps...

 

You need to look around a bit on the Sony section here. There are guides for installing Win 7 on various VAIO machines. I am pretty sure the SZ model is among them.

Gary

 

In this guide you say to turn off Search Indexing and Windows Search.

Thats fine for Vista, but i have Windows 7. I cannot seem to find a way in win 7 to only disable the search indexing feature.

many websites that tell you how to do this are actually only telling you to disable the windows search feature. They seem like they do not know there is a difference. I do Not want to turn off windows search. Just the fast indexing.

How do i do this?