Default Windows Vista Install: What general changes to improve speed?

I remember there were guides for Windows XP on all of the unnecessary services and things that you could turn off in a default install to make the system a bit more 'snappy'.

There were also specific guidelines on rather or not your machine was for Gaming, General Use, etc.

Does such a guide exist for Windows Vista?

Other Suggestions?

anonymous coward

Posted 2009-07-15T16:57:14.550

Reputation: 910

Copy paste duplicate of http://superuser.com/questions/2850/default-windows-7-install-what-to-change-to-make-it-faster

– Factor Mystic – 2009-07-15T16:58:51.253

6I may be mistaken, but last time I checked Windows Vista and Windows 7 were different operating systems, and for the benefit of those searching via Google, I figured it was worth separate posts. Vote to change to Community Wiki or something, I don't care, but this is not the same question. – anonymous coward – 2009-07-15T17:35:16.220

I agree -- valid topic – Jeff Atwood – 2009-07-15T17:45:41.327

Please make it a community wiki – BinaryMisfit – 2009-07-15T18:20:29.997

Answers

I have always found Black Viper's service recommendations very useful.

Vincent Buck

Posted 2009-07-15T16:57:14.550

Reputation: 211

Following these recommendations is a good start, though it really depends on your setup and what you want to do with the system every day. Disabling things like network discovery and any sort of software your printer might've come with is a good start as well, though if those are applications you use frequently, YMMV.

Andy Mikula

Posted 2009-07-15T16:57:14.550

Reputation: 1 422

You may not want to mess with any services. You're going to install FogBugz sometime down the road and your system won't have a necessary service running. You're not going to realize it and complain about FogBugz not working. Then you'll switch to the competitor, who doesn't use that service. Then Joel will see to it that your superuser account gets banned.

Anthony Mastrean

Posted 2009-07-15T16:57:14.550

Reputation: 525

One of the things I do to make my system perform better is in the hardware. I use a separate disk for the OS (a raptor usually) and make separate partitions for OS and Swap file. Then I have a disk for applications and a disk for data. This allows the read/writes for the OS to function independently and gives a faster and more resilient system.

Clifford the Red

Posted 2009-07-15T16:57:14.550

Reputation: 175