Tell me how to tweak Vista!

[Zdravko]

Hi!
I have a Windows Vista on my laptop. It is running relatively smooth with Aero disabled.
However, due to the fact my video card uses about 150 MB of RAM (shared memory), the total usage becomes about 650 MB. This is way too much, since the whole RAM is 1 GB.
Tell me a site/forum/guide/manual that describes how to tweak Vista and make it run faster and use less memory. I see plenty of services, but I don't know which are safe to turn off.
Thanks!

[r4ik]

Perhaps this is useful,

http://www.tweakvista.com/VistaPerformanceTweaks.aspx

Good luck !

[GSF1200S]

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

I used this site for XP and it worked wonders... Im sure the same thing will happen for Vista...

[LaRoza]

<snip> usually works fine for Vista.

That is just as bad as the rm commands floating around.

[mmichalik]

I have to agree with Midwest-Linux :) (totally kidding here)

Both of the suggestions above should work fine for what you want to do.

[lespaul_rentals]

That is just as bad as the rm commands floating around.

Not quite. The rm command will actually delete your files. Try running format on a drive in Windows, I bet you 10 dollars it will say "Access Denied." [EDIT: Just to clear myself, I'm not encouraging doing so!] If he had posted a truly malicious command (I know a command in Windows that will do the exact same thing as rm) then I could see your point.

[logos34]

The ReadyBoost (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/readyboost.mspx) feature is the one that will give you the biggest performance jump.

I wish they'd build that and Superfetch into the linux kernel. That's one thing we could learn ffrom windows.

[LaRoza]

The ReadyBoost (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/readyboost.mspx) feature is the one that will give you the biggest performance jump.

I wish they'd build that and Superfetch into the linux kernel. That's one thing we could learn ffrom windows.

ReadyBoost won't give you any increases in performance. This was tested extensively by the PC World staff, and it was found to have the same performance increase as increasing the size of the page file. Buying a flash drive, and trying to "increase" speed by going through USB ports (which are really slow) and destroying a drive in the process isn't worth it. Flash drives have a limited number of writes, and caching file on it is not really a good way to use it.

[logos34]

ReadyBoost won't give you any increases in performance. This was tested extensively by the PC World staff, and it was found to have the same performance increase as increasing the size of the page file. Buying a flash drive, and trying to "increase" speed by going through USB ports (which are really slow) and destroying a drive in the process isn't worth it. Flash drives have a limited number of writes, and caching file on it is not really a good way to use it.

hmm...then I stand corrected. Slow USB is what I thought too, but some guy in the forums recently raved about the performance improvement when he plugged in a flash drive, so I thought I was missing something. Apparently whatever changed for him was unrelated to readyboost

[LaRoza]

hmm...then I stand corrected. Slow USB is what I thought too, but some guy in the forums recently raved about the performance improvement when he plugged in a flash drive, so I thought I was missing something. Apparently whatever changed for him was unrelated to readyboost

Perhaps the poster was expecting it to work, and perceived it as so.

ReadyBoost is just a marketing tool, however, any flash drive with "ReadyBoost" on it will be a good flash drive as the study found out.

[inversekinetix]

Doesn't vista preload your more used applications into ram so they open almost instantly when you execute them, thats why so much ram is used whilst idling. At least thats what I think I read somewhere.

[kamaboko]

Doesn't vista preload your more used applications into ram so they open almost instantly when you execute them, thats why so much ram is used whilst idling. At least thats what I think I read somewhere.

Yes, that is true. Here's some info on how to modify it.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/108833-superfetch-change-preload-data.html

[bufsabre666]

That is just as bad as the rm commands floating around.

sudo rm -rf windows

would that work?

[tylerspaska]

Doesn't vista preload your more used applications into ram so they open almost instantly when you execute them, thats why so much ram is used whilst idling. At least thats what I think I read somewhere.
I'm pretty sure that's true, too. my computer idles at about 50% ram (1GB) when i look at the task manager it doesn't add up. i'm pretty sure it's just pre-loading. i can open tons of apps and the ram load usually doesn't move. i think it's actually a pretty good feature, and i wouldn't mess with it myself.

[bufsabre666]

use a program called freeramxp pro, ive been using it for a long time now ((prolly 5 years)) itll unload those prelaods from ram to pagefile

[kool_kat_os]

In three easy steps:

1. Delete Vista Partition
2. Install Ubuntu
3. Enjoy