So you are using Windows Vista and feel that its slower than Windows XP? Then you have come to the right place.
Following tutorial will help you in tweaking your Windows Vista to the max and you'll feel a significant improvement in your system performance. So without wasting any time lets start:

1. Following code contains a few registry modifications, which are completely safe and can increase the performance of Windows Vista. Just paste following code in Notepad, save the file with name "Vishal.reg" (including quotes) and then run it:

2. Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Properties (or press <WIN> key + <Pause/Break> key), click on Advanced system settings link in left side pane (You can also open it by typing sysdm.cpl in RUN or start menu search box and press Enter). Now click on Settings button in Performance section:



Now disable all unnecessary options in Visual Effects tab, you can remain following options enabled according to your requirements:

Enable desktop composition (If you want to use Windows Aero theme)
Enable transparent glass (If you want to use transparency in Windows)
Show preview and filters in folder (If you use Details Pane in Explorer)
Show thumbnails instead of icons (If you want to show thumbnails in Explorer)
[Show window contents while dragging (If you want windows to show content while moving them)
Smooth edges of screen fonts (If you want to show smooth fonts)
Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop (If you want to show shadows under desktop icon labels)
Use visual styles on windows and buttons (If you want to use Windows Aero or Basic theme.)




3. Open Folder Options and click on View tab:




Now disable following options:

Display file size information in folder tips.
Display simple folder view in Navigation pane.
Hide extensions for known file types.
Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color.
Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items.

Other options don't affect the system performance. You can enable/disable them according to your requirements.


4. Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Manage (You can also open it by typing services.msc in RUN or start menu search box and press Enter).
Now goto Services & Applications -> Services. Here you can set a few unnecessary services to Manual, which will not start with windows and will decrease the boot time and will increase system performance.
Please follow the following tutorial to know about which services can be safely set to MANUAL:

Windows Vista Services that can be Safely set to MANUAL

5. Type msconfig in RUN or Startmenu search box and press Enter. Now goto Startup tab and deselect the unnecessary entries, which you don't want to start automatically with Windows, e.g. you can disable VGA driver utility, Sound Card utility, etc to speed up the startup time and to increase system performance.
You can also disable these items using Windows Defender. Open Windows Defender and click on Tools and then click on "Software Explorer".

6. Open Sound in Control Panel (or type mmsys.cpl in RUN or Startmenu search box and press Enter), goto Sounds tab and select No Sounds in Sound Scheme section. Or you can remain some of your favorite sounds but set Exit Windows, Windows Logoff, Windows Logon and Start Navigation to (None).

7. After following all above mentioned points, you'll see a big improvement in your Windows Vista performance. If you want to tweak more, then you can use 3rd party tools which are listed here:


Windows Vista Tweaking Software List

8. At last I'll advise to defrag the HDD regularly, install only necessary software, use the latest drivers and keep your Windows updated.

the sounds are a big one that help really.

removing the pagefile if you have 2gb memory or more is a good idea, but if you run games, you want it enabled.

also if you have big external USB drives attached, turn them off on boot. that can cut your boot time in half or more. then turn them on after booting up.

Dude that was an awesome guide, thank you!

Thanks a lot, but what if i didn't like the effects after running the registery file... is there a way i can undo it ?!

Holy crap!!

I recently upgraded my RAM to 4GB from 1GB because I got tired of my PC running like molasses when I DL torrents.

It helped somewhat but I felt gypped (is that politically incorrect these days?) cause it didn't seem to be "all that and a bag of chips" for such a huge upgrade in RAM. Especially considering my old PC ran XP just as fast with only 312MB of RAM.

But this tutorial is a HUGE improvement!

Thank you!!

How can I get a "we're not worthy" icon in here?

EDIT: Woo hoo!!

Oh, boy, I am finding that although I can replace hardware and install software, when it comes to the Windows system registry and all, I'm a blank sheet. I've copied and pasted the code above and saved it to notepad as directed, but HOW do I run it? The rest I can follow. Thanks in advance, because running Vista and having Pentium duel core processors is not nearly as fast as I thought it would be, so I hope all this helps, and according to the feedback I see above, it does. I LOVE this site! Someday I hope to be a contributor since I'm learning so much here.

Karafantus: I think you should be able to do a "System Restore" and undo the changes. You can find this by going into the control panel under System and Maintainance. In Vista, it's then under Backup and Restore. Go from there. Go back to a date before you made your changes and choose to restore to that date. You will not lose saved data, but I think any new programs installed will be removed, but not any downloaded programs that you can install from.

Thanks for the info just what I was looking for dude.

I Feel REALLY Stupid but i accidently ran the---Vishal---reg in my xp Pro !!!

I have xp pro & my wife has Vista But mine is the only one online right now . So i put everything on to a drive to transfer...To Make a long story short... Is this going to effect my pc? I didn't do the rest of the directions just ran that...I don't dare to shut mine down until i hear from ya so I"ll be checking in OFTEN...Man I Feel Really dumb...but it is what it is,huh?!

I Just tried the System restore With my pc and it worked just fine WHHEEEWWW!!!

Is there anything like that for Xp Pro?...Keep up the good work my friend you're a Genius

THANK YOU!!!!!
AMAZING

great guide thank you.

while I agree this is a great tutorial, I must caution you against using msconfig to disable services in Vista OR XP. For reference, The following site has great information on disabling services the proper way (through services.msc in the run box) and within the site has a forum discussion on why NOT to use msconfig. Basically, it is a flawed application, but was really only meant for trouble shooting purposes for startup issues, not a permanent way to stop services

Black Viper's site

Other than that, great tutorial.

Great tutorial

Thank you,

great!!! thanks for tips

I had a problem with this tutorial. Basicly, I set the recommended services to manual and now I have a ton of processes (60) running when I start task manager to see what's going on with my computer. I think everything is running smoothly and there is no instability, but I imagine having a ton of processes running would likewise use a ton of CPU resources.

I'm kind of stuck on what I should do, but if it comes down to it I'll just do a system restore and undo the changes. If anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it.


Edit: I think I understand what's going on now. The services that I set to manual don't show up in the processes tab of task manager, and the ones that ran in the background now show up. If I understand this right, everything is operating the way it should.

Thanks for this guide. I appreciate it very much.

Thanks, man!