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March 18, 2014
Top 10 Windows Vista Speed Tweaks (Part II)
6. Turn off Windows Hibernation
Windows hibernation background services can use a large amount of system resources. If you don’t use the Hibernate feature on a regular basis you may want to disable it to give Vista a performance boost.
To disable Hibernation:
Select the Control Panel then Power Options
Click Change Plan Settings
Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
Expand the Sleep selection
Expand the Hibernate After selection
Crank the selector down to zero
Click Apply
7. Turn off System Restore
Analysis and restore point creation by Windows Vista can eat a fair amount of system resources. Disabling this service will obviously mean the system restore feature in Vista will not be available in the event of a system crash. Change this at your own risk.
To disable this service:
Control Panel > System
Click System Protection on the left panel
Uncheck the main system drive
Agree to the confirmation
8. Disable User Access Control (UAC)
This much-loathed new Vista feature attempts to protect your system from malware infection by making you manually confirm a whole host of everyday user operations. While it doesn’t directly impact performance, it can be annoying and might be more hassle than good.
To disable User Access Control:
Click Start then Control Panel
Select User Accounts
Select Turn User Account Control on or off
Uncheck User Account Control Box
Restart as recommended
9. Disable excess Windows Services that Auto-Launch at Startup
Just like Windows XP, Vista ships with all kinds of services enabled that load at startup and may never be used by most users.
To see what loads at startup and disable the ones you likely won’t be needing (they can always be started manually later):
Click Start then Control Panel
Select Administrative Tools
Choose System Configuration
Click the Services Tab
You can safely deselect:
Offline Files (unless you’re using Offline File Sync)
Tablet PC Input Service (unless you have a tablet PC)
Terminal Services
Windows Search (If you have already disabled indexing)
Fax (unless you’re using a fax modem)
10. Disable Excess Windows Features
Windows ships with other features that are listed separately in the Vista operating system from the startup services.
You can view and disable these features by:
Clicking Start then Control Panel
Select Program Features
On the left panel, select Turn Windows Features on or off
You can safely deselect:
Indexing Service
Remote Differential Compression
Tablet PC Optional Components
Windows DFS Replication Service
Windows Fax & Scan (unless you use a modem for faxing)
Windows Meeting Space (unless you use the Live Meeting Service)
Windows hibernation background services can use a large amount of system resources. If you don’t use the Hibernate feature on a regular basis you may want to disable it to give Vista a performance boost.
To disable Hibernation:
Select the Control Panel then Power Options
Click Change Plan Settings
Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
Expand the Sleep selection
Expand the Hibernate After selection
Crank the selector down to zero
Click Apply
7. Turn off System Restore
Analysis and restore point creation by Windows Vista can eat a fair amount of system resources. Disabling this service will obviously mean the system restore feature in Vista will not be available in the event of a system crash. Change this at your own risk.
To disable this service:
Control Panel > System
Click System Protection on the left panel
Uncheck the main system drive
Agree to the confirmation
8. Disable User Access Control (UAC)
This much-loathed new Vista feature attempts to protect your system from malware infection by making you manually confirm a whole host of everyday user operations. While it doesn’t directly impact performance, it can be annoying and might be more hassle than good.
To disable User Access Control:
Click Start then Control Panel
Select User Accounts
Select Turn User Account Control on or off
Uncheck User Account Control Box
Restart as recommended
9. Disable excess Windows Services that Auto-Launch at Startup
Just like Windows XP, Vista ships with all kinds of services enabled that load at startup and may never be used by most users.
To see what loads at startup and disable the ones you likely won’t be needing (they can always be started manually later):
Click Start then Control Panel
Select Administrative Tools
Choose System Configuration
Click the Services Tab
You can safely deselect:
Offline Files (unless you’re using Offline File Sync)
Tablet PC Input Service (unless you have a tablet PC)
Terminal Services
Windows Search (If you have already disabled indexing)
Fax (unless you’re using a fax modem)
10. Disable Excess Windows Features
Windows ships with other features that are listed separately in the Vista operating system from the startup services.
You can view and disable these features by:
Clicking Start then Control Panel
Select Program Features
On the left panel, select Turn Windows Features on or off
You can safely deselect:
Indexing Service
Remote Differential Compression
Tablet PC Optional Components
Windows DFS Replication Service
Windows Fax & Scan (unless you use a modem for faxing)
Windows Meeting Space (unless you use the Live Meeting Service)