Speed up xp and vista: number 3 of 50

Tip One: Tweak the Index Service

Opinions abound about the Vista Indexing Service and whether or not it slows down system performance. Unfortunately, much of the discussion I’ve seen is anecdotal in nature, with some users reporting that Vista is speedier than XP, and others reporting that it is dog slow.

Personally, I like the Indexing Service. It helps quickly locate content on a Vista machine without a folder hierarchy doing the job for me. Just type what you're looking for and go. It's kinda like a desktop Google, and yes, I'm aware that Google has a similar desktop add-in.

But the Indexing Service (which is not mentioned anywhere on Microsoft's Vista website; a search produces results for outside webpages) is not something you add, as was the case with Windows XP and the Windows Desktop Search (whose full name is actually Windows Desktop Search with MSN Search Toolbar).

Instead, the Indexing Service is built into the Vista OS, and runs by default. For those who want to try out life without the Vista’s Indexing Service, here’s how to disable:

Method One:

1. Open the Control Panel and then choose ‘Uninstall a Program’ from the Programs grouping. Now, select ‘Turn Windows features on or off.’
2. From this dialog box, you can disable the Indexing Service

Method Two:

1. Disable the Windows Search service using the Services MMC snap-in. If you type ‘services’ into the Vista Start Menu, it should come up.
2. Locate the Windows Search service, then choose ‘Disabled’ as the startup type. You should also Stop the service for it to take immediate effect.

Method Three:

1. If you’d like more selecting control over the Indexing Options, open the Control Panel and locate the Indexing Options application (or you can type ‘index’ from the Start Menu – the Indexing Service should help you locate it in the list of Programs. Ironic, huh? From here, you can remove locations you use rarely, or remove all locations altogether.
2. It is also possible to disable indexing for a certain drive or enable it only for selected folders. You can do this by changing the Properties of a drive or folder (right click on drive letter in Windows Explorer).

You can always switch back later if you want.

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Speed up xp and vista: number 2 of 50

Tweak Two: Disable unnecessary features on your motherboard.

Many modern motherboards come with a host of components built into the circuitry of the board itself - this is possible as chips continue to shrink, and manufacturer can place more horsepower into smaller areas of real estate.



Integrated components can include the sound card, network cards, video cards, and even RAID, allowing date to be written to multiple hard drives at the same time.

These features can place a tax on system resources, even when they are not being utilized by the operating system. Thus, if you're not using one of these, it's good practice to disable these features using your motherboard's BIOS setup program.

A common example: you are using a sound card to facilitate Surround sound, and are not using the built-in sound card that's part of the motherboard. If that's the case, you should disable the integrated sound card for best performance.

You can look for many of these integrated features in a section called Integrated Prephrials in the BIOS.

More with Less: 50 ways to speed up xp and vista

Face it: your computer isn't as fast as when you first installed Windows. For a host of reasons, PC performance tends to degrade over time. But there are proven methods that will help you regain some of that lost speed.

This is the first in a 50 part series of tips and tweaks to help improve performance of the world's most popular operating system. Most of the tips that follow over the rest of 2009 will apply for both XP and Vista, some will be specific to just a single operating system.

And almost all of the tips will be brief. There's no sense in performing a tweak if it's going to eat up half of your weekend. Computers should help you be more productive, not less.

So stay tuned, and remember to hit the 'subscribe' thingy in the upper right hand corner to have the latest tips delivered right to your Inbox or RSS reader.


Tweak One: Update your BIOS.

OK, so this tip isn't technically a Windows tweak. It is a great place to start nonetheless.

You can usually find improvement in Windows performance by looking not at the operating system, but rather at the software the operating system uses to communicate with your computer's hardware - the BIOS.

So before you spend too much time tweaking the OS, make sure you have the latest and fastest BIOS for your motherboard. On modern computers, updating the BIOS means locating a small executable file from the manufacturer website, running it, then rebooting your computer. If you're using a Dell, go here. If running an HP, go here.

It's really that simple. The biggest challenge, in fact can be locating the BIOS update in the first place...it's not something that is searched for when performing a Windows Update (probably because it's not Windows).

If you need help finding this information, drop me an email. Otherwise, you can find the current version of the motherboard (along with the mobo manufacturer) from the Power On Self Test (POST) screen.

Look for new speed tips and tricks about every Wednesday throughout the year, with tweaks on Windows 7 as the product moves closer to launch.

5 reasons why Windows Vista is a dud

Someone sent me an interesting op/ed piece by techrepublic's Jason Hiner about the fall of Windows Vista. I'm going to cut out all the boring parts and give you the digest version here, include my reaction, and then ask for your comments/experience by clicking on the 'comments link below.

I want to add from the outset here that it gives me no joy to post this - I make, and have made, my living over the past 10 years largely because of the Windows operating system. I just happen to share Hiner's conclusion, though, that Windows Vista has been largely a failure.

And if you really want to click over to the the full techrepublic article click here.

5. Apple successfully demonized Vista

Apple’s clever I’m a Mac ads have successfully driven home the perception that Windows Vista is buggy, boring, and difficult to use.

Not really. Apple just makes good ads, period, and the I'm a Mac ads have more than jumped the shark in my opinion. I don't really think that corporate CIO's are swayed much by Justin Long. In fairness, Justin did make his screen debut in Galaxy Quest as plucky nerd Brandon (the one who was being nagged my his folks about taking out the trash before saving the crew of the NSEA Protector), so I could be wrong on that one.

4. Windows XP is too entrenched

In 2001, when Windows XP was released, there were about 600 million computers in use worldwide. Over 80% of them were running Windows but it was split between two code bases: Windows 95/98 (65%) and Windows NT/2000 (26%), according to IDC.

In 2008, there are now over 1.1 billion PCs in use worldwide and over 70% of them are running Windows XP... which makes (XP) the most widely installed operating system of all time. That’s a lot of inertia to overcome.

Yes... I would also argue that for users of Windows 95/98 (and he forgot to mention Me), the move to Windows XP represented a huge leap forward in terms of reliability - XP just didn't crash like its predecessors did. For Windows NT/2000 users, it represented a leap forward in terms of compatibility and deployment.

3. Vista is too slow

With Windows Vista, software bloat appears to have finally caught up with Microsoft.

This software bloat has had the effect of slowing down Windows Vista, especially when it’s running on anything but the latest and fastest hardware. Even then, the latest version of Windows XP soundly outperforms the latest version of Microsoft Vista. No one wants to use a new computer that is slower than their old one.

Yes, yes, triple yes. Let me state this as clearly as I can: Vista is dog slow. Your new computer - the one with two processors, 2GB of RAM, a SATA hard drive, and a 128 mb RAM graphics card - shouldn't be your slowest comptuer. Yet with Windows Vista installed, somehow it is.

This is what I want feedback most about. I've used 6 machines with Windows Vista, and in all 6 cases, have been shocked at how poor performance was for the most routine of tasks. Share your anecdotal evidence with me by clicking on the link below this entry.

Microsoft needs to make an OS with less code, not more.

2. There wasn’t supposed to be a Vista

It’s easy to forget that when Microsoft launched Windows XP it was actually trying to change its OS business model to move away from shrink-wrapped software and convert customers to software subscribers.

The master plan was to get users and businesses to pay a yearly subscription fee for the Windows experience — XP would essentially be the on-going product name but would include all software upgrades and updates, as long as you paid for your subscription. That’s why product activation was coupled with Windows XP.

The idea of doing incremental releases and upgrades of its software — rather than a major shrink-wrapped release every 3-5 years — was a good concept. Microsoft just couldn’t figure out how to make the business model work, but instead of figuring out how to get it right, it took the easy route and went back to an old model that was simply not very well suited to the economic and technical realities of today’s IT world.

I don't think this is right, and I wish Mr. Hiner would have cited a source here.

First, is he saying that Microsoft never planned a next version of Windows after XP? I doubt that.

Second, I worked at Microsoft for two years, and never heard a word about moving to a subscription model. I'm not saying that what Mr Hiner reports isn't fact, I'm just saying that I was pretty close to the actuall sales of software to partners and the public, and never heard it mentioned.

Even if accurate, I don't see how this would have much of an effect on Vista sales either way.

1. It broke too much stuff

One of the big reasons that Windows XP caught on was because it had the hardware, software, and driver compatibility of the Windows 9x line plus the stability and industrial strength of the Windows NT line. The compatibility issue was huge. Having a single, highly-compatible Windows platform simplified the computing experience for users, IT departments, and software and hardware vendors.

Microsoft either forgot or disregarded that fact when it released Windows Vista, because, despite a long beta period, a lot of existing software and hardware were not compatible with Vista when it was released in January 2007. Since many important programs and peripherals were unusable in Vista, that made it impossible for a lot of IT departments to adopt it.

Many of the incompatibilities were the result of tighter security... (Vista) was definitely the most secure OS that Microsoft had ever released but the price was user-hostile features such as UAC, a far more complicated set of security prompts that accompanied many basic tasks, and a host of software incompatibility issues. In order words, Vista broke a lot of the things that users were used to doing in XP.

Agree with this sentiment as well; it's a corollary of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" maxim, something along the lines of, "if it makes things worse, it's not an upgrade, is it?"

Exhibit A: my laptop computer that I use for writing, listening to music, and Internet.

Something crashes or locks up almost daily. The only way to improve the System Stability Chart is to turn off the machine for days at a time - then is doesn't crash.

The deal is simply this: too much stuff doesn't work with Windows Vista, or at least it didn't long enough into its release to make IT departments stay away in droves. I haven't taught a single Vista class where I'm not asked about how to disable User Account Control, which is a well-intentioned, yet unmitigated disaster, especially for home users, who don't' want to be asked to either 'Continue' or 'Cancel' every time they do anything to their machine.

And some additional food for thought: Apple's OSX also has a version of User Account Control. Ever heard about it? Of course not, because it's implemented so much more unobtrusively than User Account Control.

Configure Vista Power Options with Group Policy

You probably know about the new Vista Power Options settings. If not, they are accessed easily enough by opening the Control Panel and then choosing Hardware and Sound | Power Options. And even easier way is to simply type 'power' from Vista's search box.

And speaking of, here's a question that came up in class when discussing Vista's new power options and the Vista Mobility Center:

Can I use Group Policy to configure Power Options?

Yes. Vista ships with 800 new Group Policy settings, and several of these can govern Power Behavior for your entire network.

Here's where to set the Power Options:

Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | Power Management

You can figure it out from there. All of the button settings, hard disk settings, sleep settings, and so on that can be configured for an individual system using the Control Panel can be set for groups of computers1 using these Administrative settings.

If you're curious as to why this all works under Vista (and there's no particular reason you should be; trust me, it won't won't convey any social status in mixed company), it's because previous Windows versions stored power configurations as binary values, which Group Policy doesn't affect. Now, Power Options can be set using the .xml-based .admx files that define the Administrative Template settings under Windows Vista.

1- given that you're working in a domain and using either Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate.

Controlling Windows Vista Startup Items

Controlling Startup items - whether on a Windows Vista or Windows XP machine - can have a big impact on system performance. The goal is to reduce those Startup items to just those you really, really need. Otherwise, they just take up resources that can/should be directed towards other computing tasks.

There are actually a couple of ways to do this.

1) You can view the Vista Startup folder using Windows Explorer - although it's a pain in the ass.

Here's what you need to do to manually edit the startup items for an individual user with the Windows Explorer interface.

1. First, enable viewing of Hidden folders and files.
2. From a Windows Explorer window, choose Organize | Folder and Search Options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. Choose the 'Show hidden folders and files' option.
5. Now, use Windows Explorer to navigate to this directory:

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

A long way to go, but once there, you can see what programs are included in the users Startup directory, and make deletions/additions as you see fit.

You won't see the AppData folder unless you're displaying hidden folders and files.

A simpler method, however, is to choose Start | All Programs | Startup. You can then right-click on the Startup folder and choose Explore. You will then open a Windows Explorer window on the user's startup folder.

2) Use Windows Defender's Software Explorer. To get to the Software Explorer, open Defender and choose the Tools. You'll now see the Software Explorer link.

From here, you can choose Startup Items in the dropdown list. Select a program, and then choose either Remove or Disable. Note, however, that some programs won't allow you to do either one from within Software Explorer.

Control behavior of Vista's Indexing Service

Opinions abound about the Vista Indexing Service and whether or not it slows down system performance. Unfortunately, much of the discussion I’ve seen is anecdotal in nature, with some users reporting that Vista is speedier than XP, and others reporting that it is dog slow.

Personally, I like the Indexing Service. It helps me quickly locate content on a Vista machine without a folder hierarchy doing the job for me.

But the Indexing Service is not something you add, as was the case with Windows XP and the Windows Desktop Search. Rather, it’s built into the Vista OS, and runs by default. For those who want to try out life without the Vista’s Indexing Service, here’s how to disable:

Method One:

1. Open the Control Panel and then choose ‘Uninstall a Program’ from the Programs grouping
   Now, select ‘Turn Windows features on or off.’
2. From this dialog box, you can disable the Indexing Service

Method Two:

1. Disable the Windows Search service using the Services MMC snap-in. If you type ‘services’ into the Vista Start Menu, it should come up.
2. Locate the Windows Search service, then choose ‘Disabled’ as the startup type. You should also Stop the service for it to take immediate effect.

Method Three:

1. If you’d like more selecting control over the Indexing Options, open the Control Panel and locate the Indexing Options application (or you can type ‘index’ from the Start Menu – the Indexing Service should help you locate it in the list of Programs. Ironic, huh? From here, you can remove locations you use rarely, or remove all locations altogether.
2. It is also possible to disable indexing for a certain drive or enable it only for selected folders. You can do this by changing the Properties of a drive or folder (right click on drive letter in Windows Explorer).

You can always switch back later if you want.