Chapter 36: Tuning Windows Vista for Maximum Performance

Overview

Windows Vista automatically sets itself up to give you adequate performance. However, as with the launch of any new operating system, to get maximum performance on your PC hardware, you need to tune Windows Vista. Several tools enable you to enhance performance, primarily disk performance:

• Performance Options dialog box Shows you display, processor, and memory settings that affect performance

• Task Manager Displays the system resources of your computer

• System Monitor Displays graphs of system usage

Another important way to speed up Windows is to tune your hard disk to speed up disk access. Finally, be sure to check what programs Windows is running automatically on startup-you may be running AOL Instant Messenger and Quicken BillMinder, for example, without knowing it, slowing down your system.

Tip  

Don't make a lot of performance changes at once. Change one or two settings and then wait a day to judge the effects.

On the other hand, in our experience, few tuning techniques make a noticeable difference on a balanced system with adequate memory and disk, although they do make some difference on small systems with slow disks. The best ways to improve system performance are to add more memory and a faster disk, in that order. As with the tradition of Microsoft marketing recommendations about memory, always take the memory requirements you see in the Microsoft marketing collateral and multiply it by two. For example, while writing this chapter, Windows Vista Ultimate specifications read 512 MB minimum. However, we recommend with 1 GB of RAM minimum.