Speed Up The Vista Interface

[JSKY]

Speed Up the Interface

Windows Vista features what some of us think is the prettiest graphical user interface in the operating-systems industry. Its stylish transparencies and nifty animations — driven by Direct3D and your graphics card — give it a polished look that's a pleasure to use.

Unfortunately, that shiny, new interface, called Aero, is also a resource hog. If you're running Vista on a PC that's near or just above the system requirements, you might want to shut off some or all of those features.

Here are some actions you might want to take to tweak interface services:

1. Lose the transparency. Right-click the desktop, click "Personalize" and click "Windows Color and Appearance." Uncheck "Enable Transparency." Click "OK."

2. Get rid of the Sidebar. It's cool, but some of those gadgets chow down on memory. Right-click the Sidebar, click "Properties" and uncheck "Start Sidebar When Windows Starts." Click "OK." Then right-click the Sidebar and click "Close Sidebar." If you ever want it back, you can simply click the Start button and key in "sidebar" and hit "Enter."

3. Get rid of some of the visual effects. Open Control Panel, click "Performance and System Tools" and click "Adjust Visual Effects." In the resulting window, you can uncheck line items for animations, fades and other effects; or simply click "Adjust For Best Performance."

4. Go with a non-Aero theme. To get rid of Aero entirely, use the Windows Classic, Windows Vista Basic or Windows Standard theme. Right-click the desktop, click "Personalize" and click "Windows Color and Appearance." Click "Open Classic Appearance Properties" . and choose a theme in the Color Scheme list box. Click "OK."

When you perform such tweaks, Windows Vista won't look as pretty. It will, however, respond much faster. A high-end system might not benefit a whole lot from these adjustments, but they'll improve low-end computers.

[pcperini]

Speed Up the Interface

Windows Vista features what some of us think is the prettiest graphical user interface in the operating-systems industry. Its stylish transparencies and nifty animations — driven by Direct3D and your graphics card — give it a polished look that's a pleasure to use.

Unfortunately, that shiny, new interface, called Aero, is also a resource hog. If you're running Vista on a PC that's near or just above the system requirements, you might want to shut off some or all of those features.

Here are some actions you might want to take to tweak interface services:

1. Lose the transparency. Right-click the desktop, click "Personalize" and click "Windows Color and Appearance." Uncheck "Enable Transparency." Click "OK."

2. Get rid of the Sidebar. It's cool, but some of those gadgets chow down on memory. Right-click the Sidebar, click "Properties" and uncheck "Start Sidebar When Windows Starts." Click "OK." Then right-click the Sidebar and click "Close Sidebar." If you ever want it back, you can simply click the Start button and key in "sidebar" and hit "Enter."

3. Get rid of some of the visual effects. Open Control Panel, click "Performance and System Tools" and click "Adjust Visual Effects." In the resulting window, you can uncheck line items for animations, fades and other effects; or simply click "Adjust For Best Performance."

4. Go with a non-Aero theme. To get rid of Aero entirely, use the Windows Classic, Windows Vista Basic or Windows Standard theme. Right-click the desktop, click "Personalize" and click "Windows Color and Appearance." Click "Open Classic Appearance Properties" . and choose a theme in the Color Scheme list box. Click "OK."

When you perform such tweaks, Windows Vista won't look as pretty. It will, however, respond much faster. A high-end system might not benefit a whole lot from these adjustments, but they'll improve low-end computers.

So essentially, turn off all that is good about Vista, so that Vista will run? This is one time that I have to love Mac for creating its own hardware, because it will always be enough to support the beautiful effects that the latest gen of OSs provide.

[computerwiznick]

Thanx i can not wait to try this... I will inform u if this does work.

[Snakeyes11]

I have done all that and yes it seemed to work pretty well. There were times when I would still get the Blue Screnn of Death. I guess my Nvidia 8600GTS is not compatiable with Windows Vista at all. I ran Vista in classic mode and it seemed a whole lot faster then it did with the nice Graphical User Interface (GUI). I have gone back to Windows XP becuase Vista was giving me a headache and it was becoming a hassle to try and install stuff that didn't work with Vista that worked with XP.

[Larkman]

So essentially, turn off all that is good about Vista, so that Vista will run? This is one time that I have to love Mac for creating its own hardware, because it will always be enough to support the beautiful effects that the latest gen of OSs provide.

I beg to differ, and not trying to get into a Mac vs. Windows argument but older Macs will not run OSX. Upgrading one isn't even an option. New Operating Systems take advantage of newer hardware regardless if it is Apple, Microsoft, etc. A GUI does not an OS make.

[Larkman]

I have done all that and yes it seemed to work pretty well. There were times when I would still get the Blue Screnn of Death. I guess my Nvidia 8600GTS is not compatiable with Windows Vista at all. I ran Vista in classic mode and it seemed a whole lot faster then it did with the nice Graphical User Interface (GUI). I have gone back to Windows XP becuase Vista was giving me a headache and it was becoming a hassle to try and install stuff that didn't work with Vista that worked with XP.

I had a hard time with Vista 64-bit when I first installed it on my X64 system. It took many blue screens and many hours trying to figure out what was happening. One day I decided to upgrade the BIOS and instantly it fixed most every problem I was having. No more blue screens, no more slowdowns. That and upgrading to 2gb RAM from the original 512mb I had helped tremendously. The only existing problem I had was the absence of a driver for my USB Network Device. I had to uninstall and go back to XP Pro. Once a driver for the device becomes available I will go back to Vista X64 (and SP1!).

[trip1red]

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/supertweaks.htm