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The Microsoft Vista operating
system brings a lot of bells and
whistles - some beautifully
rendered screens, backgrounds,
menu bars, and window borders.
However as most users realized,
these same frills are a huge
draw on computer resources and
most PCs were simply
underpowered and ill-equipped to
meet Vista's demands.
Consequently, many Vista PCs run
sluggish and slow.
Vista's user interface is
especially hard on PC
processors. There are
several things you can do to get
rid of some of the Vista "fluff"
and get your PC to run more
efficiently and ultimately
faster! An additional benefit to
disabling Aero is to increase
your battery life (for all you
laptop users out there).
Instead of configuring the Color
Scheme, you could try adjusting
the Themes, in particular
selecting the Windows Vista
theme. If you have not done this
before, once again begin by
right-clicking the desktop and
select Personalize. This time
select 'Themes' and Windows
Vista.
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Windows Vista Aero Minimum
Requirements
Windows Aero
Capable
DirectX
9-class GPU that supports:
A WDDM Driver
Pixel Shader
2.0 in hardware
32 bits per
pixel
Adequate
graphics memory 256 Mb
(Minimum 128 mb)
If your machine meets the first
5 criteria above, you can get
away with less graphics memory
provided you accept lower
monitor resolution:
Adequate
graphics memory for a single
monitor means:
64 MB of
graphics memory supports a
resolution of 1,310,720
pixels (still allows a 1280
× 1024 monitor)
128 MB of
graphics memory allows
resolutions of up to
2,304,000 pixels
256 MB of
graphics memory to support
resolutions of greater than
2,304,000 pixels
Disable
the Windows Vista
"Aero" Effects
The Aero interface
may be beautiful,
but it has demanding
graphics
requirements. Vista
will disable it by
default if your
graphics card isn't
capable, but even if
it is, you might
find the speed
tradeoff
unacceptable. Go to
the Window Color and
Appearance panel
(right click the
desktop and choose
Personalize) and
then click the link
at the bottom of the
screen labeled "Open
classic appearance
properties for more
color options."
Select an option
other than Aero and
you're done (we
recommend selecting
Vista Basic).
For a less radical
option, from the
same "Window Color
and Appearance"
panel, turn off the
"glass transparency"
setting which seems
to be the source of
much of Aero's
memory usage.
The transparent
glass in Windows
Vista computer can
look very nice.
However, on some
computers that have
underpowered video
adapters will see a
performance hit when
running the
transparent glass
effect. One way to
speed up Windows
Vista and still get
the benefits of
aero, such as flip
3D and taskbar
thumbnails, is to
disable glass
transparency.
A. Click on the desktop and select "Personalize".
B. Select "Windows
Color and
Appearance".
C. Uncheck "Enable
Transparency".
Other less-drastic
solution is to turn
off the animations
and other visual
effects - like much
of Vista, these
options are flashy,
purely cosmetic, and
a draw on your PC's
system resources.
Widgets are memory
hogs and getting rid
of them will help
speed up Vista.
Who really uses
those useless
widgets anyways?
If I am on my PC, I
am computing, not
staring at the
sidebar! To
disable the sidebar,
right click on the
sidebar or sidebar
icon, and choose
"properties".
Next, uncheck the
“Start Sidebar when
Windows starts”
checkbox.
Also, instead of right-clicking
the desktop you could start from
Start Button, select Control
Panel --> Appearance and
Personalization --> Change the
Color Scheme.
Windows Vista and RAM
Windows Vista is well-known to
be over-consume your PC's RAM.
You can add a 2GB USB Flash
drive (or larger) to take
advantage of the Windows Vista
Ready Boost feautre. Ready
Boost uses a USB flash drive to
provide quick access memory for
the operating system. The Ready
Boost system can greatly improve
system speed.
To set it up:
◦Plug in a Ready Boost
Compatible USB Flash Drive
◦Select Start then Computer
◦Right Click Your USB Drive in
My Computer
◦Choose the Ready Boost Tab
◦Click Use this device
◦Choose as much space as you can
free up for RAM usage vs.
Storage
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