Novices and experts can dramatically speed up Vista and enjoy it! Vista is truly bloatware, but it's easy to trim the fat and make it much faster. Further, Vista is a much safer operating system than XP! Intermediate and expert users may want to scroll down to the specific tips and tweeks but beginners with a Vista machine or thinking about upgrading should read this whole Guide. These tweeks are especially important for people who want to squeeze out performance ... like business users and especially gamers.

Although this Guide is written for Vista,  it will also help XP [and earlier] users. Some tweeks don't work in XP and many paths have changed in Vista. Path names in this Guide are shown like this: "Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore". This example works for XP, but some paths in this Guide won't work in XP at all because the new Vista functions are changed. This Guide is subject to revision and comments are sincerely invited, especially from beginners. We want this Guide to be as clear as possible within eBay length limits for Guides.

Guide Contents:

• Background
• Pre-tweek Fundamentals
• Basic Speedup Tips
• Intermediate Tweeks
• Expert Tweeks  

Background:  The main reason OEMs (Microsoft included) have clogged up Vista is because they need to sell things. The hardware business is extremely competitive. OEMs need cash from third parties to survive. The result is that out-of-the box software has dozens of actively competing applications like media players that clog your RAM and CPU. These processes constantly run in the background and partially pre-load so that you'll have a more pleasant "experience"... IF you need them. You can see some of these critters lurking in the tray at the bottom right of your tool bar. Some are invisible unless you look for them. Worse ... they continually compete, trying to sell you music and movies or online services. They want constant updates, and can cause conflicts. This Guide will help you get rid of the "crapware" [a technical term] from Dell, HP etc. and also terminate many unessential hidden Microsoft services.

Pre-tweek Fundamentals: Before doing anything: - Explore! Start > All Programs ... then, click around, open some folders, and get an idea of what's there. Importantly, before you start tweeking:

• Create a System Restore Point: Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore 
• Create a Recovery Disc: Start > All programs > Maintenance > Create a Recovery Disc. 
• Backup your system: Start > Maintenance > Backup and Restore Center Note: Before using Vista's backup ... Notice that it has settings. Study the options. This is a good Vista feature and can save you a lot of grief! Best: Attach an external hard drive with sufficient capacity, or ... Have DVDs on hand. If you've already loaded 3rd party software ... Have a bunch of discs ready! If you want to live dangerously ... Skip backups! 
• Backup your essential work files separately: External hard drives are nice but subject to power surges ... DVDs are time consuming, but can sit in a safe. For important data, get archival quality disks, which have a much longer life than the regular dye based disks.
• eBay prohibits external commercial links in guides. We'll reference free, downloadable software generally, but you'll have to find applications on line yourself. There are many varieties of e.g. registry cleaners and they vary from excellent to Trojan horses ... it's that bad in PC Land. Always use trusted sources for downloads, and only after researching specific software reviews on line before downloading and running. You have been warned! 
• Read all screens carefully, when tweeking or downloading and running "free" software to avoid downloading the wrong link and/or installing crapware. Only select the features you want. You probably don't want another Yahoo toolbar... if any. 
• Record your shutdown and startup times so you can monitor your progress.
• Suggested: Use a paper and pencil to record any significant changes you make to your system!!! If you make any mistakes, you'll be able to explain to an expert how you got there. 
• Make sure Windows is updated: Start > Control Panel > Switch to Classic View > Windows Update. While you're there, select automatic updates and check for any additional updates you might want. These will include new software "drivers" ... updates for Vista, like your drives, monitor and printer. It takes software and peripheral vendors years to get the drivers right for a new OS.
• Make sure, in the Control Panel, that your Firewall is on and your Virus Protection is enabled! 
• Locate your 3rd party software. Make sure you have the disks and Serial Numbers.
• Find, download and run Belarc Advisor. This free program will generate a several page report of the hardware and software in your system. including updates. Print several copies and file them where you can find them. They will be a big help if you need to call an expert for phone help or want to buy upgrades. 
• Don't complain about Vista just to join the crowd. Relax, roll with the punches and get used to it. Vista is just different than XP ... It's a nice upgrade with new features, so resign yourself to learning a bit. These days viruses are everywhere and the security functions are there to protect you, despite being irritating with "nag screens". Once you tweek Vista, you'll learn to love it ... Then you'll laugh at the moaning Vista masses.
•  A very simple speedup method: Avoid having a lot of open programs ... obviously!

Why we understand tweeks: We have suffered through many Windows releases and resulting glitches and driver problems. In addition to selling phone and online computer consulting services via eBay, we are "power users" and do pro HD video production. HD rendering takes a huge amount of data storage and processing. We use Vegas Pro 8 and render in full 1080p which kept crashing on Vista when we first got it out of the box. We were forced to learn every trick we could to speed up Vista to eliminate crashes and reduce rendering time. Another advantage to tweeking Vista is boot up time.  Some users report 6 minutes or more. Our tweeked Vista and old XP computers start running applications in under a minute from startup. It's a "green" thing too and saves electricity. Saving 8 minutes per day of power up, reboot and shut down time is 40 hours per year, but your time is more valuable than the electricity or drive wear. Tweeked, ALL of your work will go faster. 

Basic Vista Speed Up Tips to reduce Boot Time, Conflicts, plus CPU and RAM load: [Novice note: For technical term definitions like "RAM", open another instance of your browser and search them with Google.]

• Turn off Vista "eyewash", like transparency stuff [Aero] that eats CPU horsepower and starts by default. Start > Control Panel > Switch to Classic View > Performance Information and Tools > Adjust Visual Effects > Custom > Then deselect choices, apply, test the results, and add or subtract the options to taste. 
• Turn off Windows Sidebar and widgets: Start > Control Panel > Switch to Classic View > Windows Sidebar > Uncheck Sidebar start. The sidebar isn't all that exciting and eats resources.
• Uninstall all software you don't want: Start > Control Panel > Uninstall a Program [be thorough and ruthless] This should remove many startup, background processes. In particular, uninstall old trial software that is past the drop dead date. You don't use it, but 5 will get you ten that it's running something in the background.
• Color Management: Start > Control Panel > Switch to Classic View > Personalization > Display Settings Switch from 32 bit to 16 bit color ... Hit apply and don't freak out when the screen goes black for a second ... that's normal. This will make a major difference in speed if you find the results acceptable. If you do mostly word processing and spreadsheets, only change the color setting when you want to watch a movie.
• Delete Files you don't need ... Especially video! 
• Clean your Windows Registry, Empty Your Recycle Bin and Delete all Temporary Files: There are excellent, safe, free programs to do that like CCleaner and Eusing Registry Cleaner. 
• "Defrag" to condense your data ... Now that you've removed some crapware and software, the data on your hard drive has spaces in it. Defragmentation helps the main hard drive work faster. Start > Control Panel > Switch to Classic View > Performance Information and Tools > Advanced Tools > Open Disk Defragmenter > Defragment Now. Take a break ... defragmentation is a long process, but just these few steps so far will make a noticeable difference in your computer's speed. Next ...

Intermediate Tweeks: 

1. Install more RAM: We won't get too technical here, but Vista needs a lot of RAM [fast, solid state memory]. The 32-bit editions of Windows Vista ... Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate, all support a maximum of 4 Gigabytes [Gigs] of RAM. If you have one Gig or less, Vista will run like a lame pig because it will be constantly writing to and from the hard drive. Shame on OEMs who sell Vista machines with a Gig or less. You can install RAM the regular way by opening the case and snapping it into the motherboard, but check for open slots and type compatability first!
2. Quick RAM Upgrade Trick: A nice Vista feature is "ReadyBoost": Put an empty $9 USB 4 Meg Flash Drive in a USB port. It is slower than RAM on the motherboard but faster than reading and writing to the hard drive. Instructions are all over the web. Google: "ReadyBoost" and "USB".
3. Inspect and Stop (some) Unwanted Background Processes: Everybody knows that Windows hides many processes and Task Manager doesn't show them all. We'll explain more in the Expert section below, but you can get a good grip on reducing overhead with Windows Defender's Software Explorer: Start > Control Panel > Switch to Classic View > Performance Information and Tools > Manage Startup Programs. Play with the Software Explorer ... it's intuitive and you'll get it.
4. Disable Memory Hog Players like Flash, Quicktime, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player from running in the background: Install a vanilla player like MpcStar ... make it the default player. It has a small footprint with a simple "skin" and isn't constantly trying to upgrade itself to sell you something. Disabling the big time players at logon doesn't mean they won't start up when you need them. It just means that they will take an extra second or two to load if you want them. In the meantime, everything else you do will be faster. Again: Start > Control Panel > Switch to Classic View > Performance Information and Tools > Manage Startup Programs
5. Completely uninstall all virus security programs other than the one you use. We use Avast, for example, but your OEM may have installed Norton, Mcaffee or the like. You may have downloaded one or two to test them. If so, they may well all be running in the background. More doesn't mean better and these resource hogs can cause conflicts. We're going to do another Guide on viruses and malware, so we won't explain these tools in depth here. Just trust us and get rid of the ones you don't use. You also remove these in Manage Startup Programs. Note: Some programs are resistant to being uninstalled and will reappear. Microsoft IM and the Yahoo Toolbar seem particularly good at that technique ... like malware. If you think you uninstalled a piece of software, you may find it reappears after a reboot. Check and see ... To get rid of it may require some expert techniques. [below]
6. Virus Security Tip:  According to published research, 90% of all malware and virus infections could be eliminated if the computer were being run as a secondary user, without administrative privileges. With XP, not having administrative privileges can be a pain but Vista is an improvement, and another reason to upgrade. Per Microsoft: "In Windows Vista, standard user accounts have been given additional privileges so users can perform common tasks without helpdesk support and without having the full set of permissions provided by the administrator account. The new privileges include the ability to view the system clock and calendar, to change the time zone, to modify wireless network security settings, to change power management settings, and to download and install critical updates from Windows Update. Additionally, disk defragmentation is an automatically scheduled process in Windows Vista. Actions that do require administrator privileges are marked with a shield icon, so users can see what configuration changes they can and can't make."  Start > Control Panel > User Accounts > Manage User Accounts Read the options.
7. Tip: None of the commercial virus scanners on the market are 100% perfect. We'll cover this when we do our eBay Virus and Malware Guide in several weeks, but you may be infected and not know it. If you have McAffee or Norton for example, Scan with several, like Avast, AVG, A-squared and PC Doctor [Uninstall when done.].   
8. Tip: When to disable virus protection: If you're doing some hard crunching like rendering video ... Pull the ethernet plug ["RJ-45" ... the one that looks like a fat phone connector] out of the back of your computer and disable your virus protection. If you're unplugged, aren't using strange pen drives or suspect disks, you don't need it.
9. Install a new video card: Typically, RAM will be consumed by "helping" generic OEM video cards. More memory onboard a video card should speed up your system and decent ones are available for well under $100, with bells and whistles like TV tuners. They aren't all that complicated but specific advice here is beyond the scope of this Guide. You'll have to do some research on your own system via Google to find out what upgrades may be appropriate for your particular configuration and usage. This is the time to consider whether you want to expand your desktop to include another screen. 
10. To get specific advice from a vendor, you can copy and paste the basics of your system into an email from Belarc Advisor.  

Be advised: While we advise keeping Windows Update on automatic. The updates will constantly turn on new services. You will want to repeat steps 3,4 and 5 periodically.

Expert Tweeks: Our current primary computer is a year old $600 HP package with stock everything: 2.30 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core, 128 kilobyte primary memory cache, 512 kilobyte secondary memory cache and 4 Megs of  RAM and a garden variety SATA main drive. Not fancy but we've honed Vista down to booting up in under a minute, including Avast, with no apparent glitches.

Experts understand that drives,CPUs, RAM and etc, have speeds ... faster is usually better. Our equipment is commercial off the shelf, but we're very satisfied with Vista's speed now, to the point where more speed would be pointless. Part of our enjoyment from picking Vista apart comes from seeing what Microsoft is up to these days. Digital Rights Management seems to be an issue to make sure that the big media gets paid ... We don't care, and kill that type of stuff that isn't seen in Task Manager. A tweeked system allows us toys like Apple's new Vista-compatible browser Safari which we like, but assume takes a lot of RAM. Tweeked up ... we can afford the load.

Note to Novices and Intermediates: If you're reading this far, beyond this point is where you can get in serious trouble and perhaps lobotomize your system entirely. Be advised that if you really want to optimize your system, you will be faced with a day or two of solid work to carefully find and stop dozens of background processes, one at a time ... after finding out what they are. Proceed at your own risk.

Vista Boot Loader Management: EasyBCD is an example free tool for configuring the Vista bootloader if you want to boot into other OSs like Ubuntu. Linux is certainly one way to improve on Vista's speed. With a dual boot system, you can do fast work in Linux ... save it ... and then reboot in Windows if you want "pretty" or need a Windows program that won't run well on Linux. We are paranoid about viruses, web bots and malware these days, and we do malware work on other people's systems remotely ... We look at suspect websites, scan files for others ... We have sacrificial sandbox systems and use flash USBs that are often networked. One mistake and we've potentially  infected most of our computers. It's nice to have a dual boot system with Linux available if we need it in an emergency, but we don't dual boot which we've found risky in the past. We keep our Linux machines separate.

Hidden Process Management: If you're an expert you probably have many performance and process inspectors and meters and so on. We root around in Microsoft Tech Support and elsewhere for free ones, and like what we have, but there are a lot of elegant ones available for bucks. eBay Guides templates won't let us show a hi-res version, [?] A thumbnail screenshot of for one of our software utilities from Microsoft shows everything running, has kill./suspend options and looks like this. A detail follows the screenshot.

There are limitations to Microsoft's software and experts may want to try an interesting piece of software called ProcessKill, which has a major advantage ... it allows batch processing of "Kill" lists and there are canned ones available which is a neat time saver. You may want different scripts for different applications ... surfing is one thing ... off-line video crunching is another. 

Speed is the secret to survival, but ... There is a major problem with tweeking for Vista speed: There is no single solution because ... killing/suspending/removing programs and processes depends entirely on the individual user and how they use their computer. Personally, I hate the bloated media players. Likewise, a ferocious gamer certainly doesn't want Flash, Windows Media, RealPlayer, I Tunes, etc. etc. preloading and running in the background, which can get them killed in an on-line, multi-player game. If the gamer's sister uses the same machine, she may want ALL of the players and multi-task. When Mom or Dad want to work at home on a business plan and send faxes ... that's another set of requirements.  None of the generic "speed-up your computer software" can possibly be suitable for all users, and optimal tweeking pretty much needs to be done by hand.  

The requirement for Expert tweeking, or Virus/Malware removal is that you have to see absoutely everything running, or that might run ... Then find out what an individual process is ... verify processes individually and ... suspend the process ... See if it makes a difference ... and then disable or delete and kill it. This is not a procedure for the inexperienced and takes a bit of discipline. We do on-line, inexpensive consulting for average users. Using basic process tools, including a remote desktop at the customer's option, we can quickly speed up their systems by editing 30-40 processes out of hundreds, but optimizing a system can take hours. In our remote sessions, we do the basics, generally with remote desktop, demonstrate the techniques and the client can pick Vista apart on their own. 

Examples: "WLLoginProxy.exe" certainly sounds like it could be essential for something or other ... It turns out, looking on line that it's a "helper" for Microsoft Instant Messenger... obviously dispensible for many users. Another example: "HKCMD.exe" This is a program for the shortcut keys on fancy keyboards. We don't use ours and killed it, but some people may use both frequently. 

Indexing: If you're an expert, you may know about what Windows is up to here. It seems to run during "system idle" but we haven't researched it deeply. The new Vista search functions work fine for us, so we don't mess with them. Indexing processes are optional and experts in control of their file system may want to suspend them.

System Restore ... is certainly overhead that takes CPU time and disk space. If you're willing to do without it, it's optional. [Disabling not recommended for novices or low intermediates.]

Beyond Vista's Task Manager: Although Vista's Task Manager is much better than XP's, we don't like the process tools in Vista ... too many clicks and boxes, too much eyewash and the print is too small on a hi res screen, [At least there's no barking puppy or talking paperclip] If you're responsible for a network, you'll certainly want to spend some bucks on a commercial process monitor that manages all of the computers in the network.  

Cheap, Tasty/Risky Speed Trick: Overclocking the CPU!  What can we say about speed? There's a nice little free program out there that will help you overclock, AND provides CPU temp data so you can watch a CPU fry in graph format: "SpeedFan". We aren't so worried about overclocking ... Mostly what we worry about is a typo when overclocking ... an extra zero makes a difference!

Selecting Vista and XP Process List Options: If you've read this far, here's a reward: We won't bother recompiling a process list from web selections.The most comprehensive starting point for Vista tweeks is blackviper.com, but you'll want to use additional resources like liutilities.com. Simply type the name of a process in the Google tool bar and dozens of good websites will show up listing and describing processes. You'll cull them until you find the ones you like best ...

Conclusion: At its core, Vista is a very good operating system. It's just overbuilt and top heavy ... a big business, committee-built horse that looks like a camel and smells like lawyers and marketing people. The "experience" feels like too many software and graphics designers at Microsoft are creating busy work.  Now that we're all networked because of the internet we want you safe, so that we'll all be safer. Be careful when you modify your computer. Protect your data and your virus protection!

Comments on how we can improve this Guide are particularly invited from computer beginers.

About the Guide author "nauticalsales" ... Phil lives in North Central Florida. Academically. he is a philosopher of science who wrote his master's thesis on computer simulation of thinking over 30 years ago, stayed current, and has prototyped powerful marine robots that operate via broadband with a 10-12 mile range. He recently started selling computer expertise on Ebay. He is disclosure oriented and values ordinary language.