John's Quick Vista Tuneup Guide

[John64]

i think they have gotten rid of it. Over Remote Desktop which uses the classic one in xp no matter what, i get the new welcome screen in vista, but with a user name and password prompt

[SpeedDMN]

Originally Posted by johnrr6

It takes fast sticks John----get one that says it can do ReadyBoost.

I gotta disagree with you about UAC.

At least for me-----it was the single WORST thing about this new OS....

It is just plain horrible IMHO.....

Especially for an enthusiast....

Now----for my 80 year old Father in Law who clicks on and downloads EVERYTHING----it's a good thing-----because it will scare him to death and keep his machine off my workbench....

But for me-----it just stinks.....

I agree UAC had me pulling my hair out in about 10 minutes. I just don't have anything sensitive enough on my HD's to make it worth going through the endless popups. I can understand why some poeple with security concerns would be willing to run it, but it's more then I can take. BTW how much were you able to knock off the memory usage following your guide?

[Sir Skully]

Thanks johnrr6, I applied them all!

[johnrr6]

Originally Posted by SpeedDMN

I agree UAC had me pulling my hair out in about 10 minutes. I just don't have anything sensitive enough on my HD's to make it worth going through the endless popups. I can understand why some poeple with security concerns would be willing to run it, but it's more then I can take. BTW how much were you able to knock off the memory usage following your guide?

consistently about 4-5%......

Not insignificant......

[John64]

well, i personally care a lot about my data, and I use it in a programming setting where i could very easily kill my system with one of my programs. Also i care a lot about security. For a single user, UAC might be a pain, but i still content that it is perfectly fine if you change the file permissions for all your file storage. My rule of thumb is that if it isn't in my user profile or my data drives, i shouldn't ever need to write to it. Most of my programs do not require admin to run, so that mightbe a little frustration for you, who knows.

[celsmk]

I spent all weekend installing and tuning my new Vista setup. The first detail I noticed was the unusually high disk activity and 2 processes using lots of CPU: searchfilterhost.exe and searchprotocolhost.exe.

After "googling" for a while, found out that those processes are responsible for the Vista built-in search engine.

As I installed a lot of my personal and professional related files at once, Vista was busy trying to index all new files.

I also found a recomendation for unchecking XML files in advanced indexing options.

Coincidence or not, the disk thrashing decreased and now disk activity and the responsiveness to open programs is almost at my previous XP installation standards.

[johnrr6]

Yes----I have seen the same thing....It's even worse with a RAID 5 which is also trying to set up redundant files at the same time-----in case of a crash....

A lot of people are turning off that indexing capability.

What would you recommend, and can you give me the steps you used to shut this down or limit it??

Also----the consequences of shutting it down----in other words----what do you lose.....

I may add it to my "quick" guide.

I find two things confusing about Vista....

This new "Search" capability...Where does searching your computer leave off and Internet searching begin??? And the proper method to do both....confusing----at least to me.....

And the way the windows appear now----the file structure and the way it appears on the left in an open window with options....

I gotta understand what these can do for me----so far----I don't see much....

Thanks-----John

Originally Posted by celsmk

I spent all weekend installing and tuning my new Vista setup. The first detail I noticed was the unusually high disk activity and 2 processes using lots of CPU: searchfilterhost.exe and searchprotocolhost.exe.

After "googling" for a while, found out that those processes are responsible for the Vista built-in search engine.

As I installed a lot of my personal and professional related files at once, Vista was busy trying to index all new files.

I also found a recomendation for unchecking XML files in advanced indexing options.

Coincidence or not, the disk thrashing decreased and now disk activity and the responsiveness to open programs is almost at my previous XP installation standards.

[celsmk]

johnrr6,
I did the following:
Control Panel -> System & Maintenance -> Indexing Options -> Advanced -> File Types Tab and unchecked all XML filter types.

I did not notice any difference at all, but keep in mind that I am a plain home/office user and am using standard non-xml MS Office file formats.

Regards,

Celsmk

[John64]

Well, vista is off my computer for the next few years. It is just too slow. I could understand if this was a Vista Capable machine, but it is a dual core opteron with an X1800XT. I can't play old games period, and the general UI is just too laggy. I guess the niceties of vista will have to wait until i buy my next computer!

[bajo]

Why does my "Search" FREEZE every time I start it ...? it is 100% unusable, even after applying the tweaks...!?

Start Menu Orb >> Search... freeze !

[bajo]

Turned out to be a real problem after doing a Google search.. just disabled the Wsearch service and the problem now seems fixed

[jgis19]

Here is a great guide from hardocp http://enth
usiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMyNywxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[jgis19]

Sorry, maybe this helps [H] Enthusiast - Top 12 Vista Tweaks

[Sandog]

Nice guide John, thanks.

[johnrr6]

Originally Posted by jgis19

Sorry, maybe this helps [H] Enthusiast - Top 12 Vista Tweaks

Good guide----but mostly for visual stuff----not reall a speed tune-up guide....

Here is one step in their guide you need to be careful with:

Step 10: This one is self-explanatory. Do you need Tablet PC components installed? Probably not, unless you are using a Tablet PC. So turn off whatever you don’t need in the name of keeping your Windows install as lean as possible.

Click Start, Control Panel, then under Programs at the bottom click “Uninstall a Program.” In the left-hand pane you’ll see “Turn Windows Features on or off.” Ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing. Uncheck whatever you don’t need.

I tried this tweak and if you remove the entire Tablet PC components as per suggestion----you will lose the built-in Vista "Snipping Tool" which I find very usefull.

You can still save memory usage and just shutdown the service and not remove the entire component as per step 9 in my guide.

I'd also be careful and experiment with what components you were removing entirely------more experimentation needs to be done in this area before I would recommend using this as a tweak. Easier and safer to shut down individual services instead of removing an entire component.

The good news is that it appears that removing a component is totally reversable and you can add it back if you found something you need wasn't working.