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Putz22 
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 Topic: Microsoft Vista Tweaks
Posted: 06 Sep 2008 at 11:15pm |
Tweak Indexing Options for More Performance The indexing service in Windows Vista is responsible for making those search boxes all over the operating system
lightening fast. By default Windows automatically indexes all files in
your user profile folders, start menu and any files you have setup for
offline access.
If you have a lot of files in these locations and the files change
often you can be putting a heavy load on the indexing service. For
maximum performance when using Windows Vista I recommend disabling
indexing for all other locations other than the Start Menu. This will
lessen the background work that Windows Vista has to do. It will also
slow down your searches of other locations but that is the price you
must pay for this performance benefit.
Follow these steps to tweak the indexing locations:
- Click on the Start Button and key in Indexing Options and hit Enter. Indexing Options will now load.
 - Hit the Modify button.
- Next, click on Show all locations.
- Scroll through the tree-view and uncheck any folders you do not want to be indexed. When you are finished, click OK.
- If you want to change advanced indexing settings such as
what file types are indexed click on the Advanced button. Otherwise hit
Close.
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Putz22
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Posted: 06 Sep 2008 at 11:16pm |
Quick aero speed tipThe transparent glass in Windows Vista computer can look very nice. However, on some computers
that have underpowered video adapters will see a performance hit
when running the transparent glass effect. One way to speed up Windows
Vista and still get the benefits of aero, such as flip 3D and taskbar
thumbnails, is to disable glass transparency.
- Click on the desktop and select Personalize.
- Select Windows Color and Appearance.
- Uncheck Enable Transparency.
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Putz22
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Posted: 06 Sep 2008 at 11:18pm |
Boost your performance with ReadyBoostWindows Vista has many new features that are designed to help older
computers run Windows Vista better. One of those features and the
topic of this tweak is called ReadyBoost. ReadyBoost helps your computer
by giving it more high-speed memory. If your computer is running low
on RAM then it has to kick a lot of applications out of high-speed
physical memory to the paging file on your hard drive.
This usually results in a big hit in performance and increased activity
on your hard drive. ReadyBoost helps this situation by giving Windows
an alternative to having to stick data into the slow paging file on
your hard drive. Instead, ReadyBoost uses a USB storage device that is
faster than a hard disk. This results in a performance boost because
Windows will have a high speed alternative than using the slow paging
file on your hard drive.
In order for ReadyBoost to work, it requires a USB storage device that meets minimum performance and space requirements:
- The device must be at least 64 MB
- The device must be USB 2.0
- It has to be able to read at 3.5 MB/s
- It has to be able to write at 2.5 MB/s
If you are unsure if your USB storage device meets these requirements, just give it a try anyways. To get started using ReadyBoost, follow these steps:
- Plug in USB storage device.
- Go to Computer and right click on the removable storage device and select Properties.
- If your device is compatible, you will see a ReadyBoost tab. Click on that.
- Select Use this device and select the amount of space on it you want to dedicate for the ReadyBoost system file.
- Click OK and you are finished.
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Putz22
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Posted: 06 Sep 2008 at 11:20pm |
Enhance SATA disk performanceDo you have a SATA disk drive in your computer?
If so, you can squeeze a little more performance out of your hard
disk. This speeds up the performance of your hard disk by enhancing
write caching. However, if your computer is not connected to a battery
backup and you loose power you have a increased risk for data loss or
corruption. If you have a laptop
your chances are data loss or corruption are dramatically less since
your laptop battery will kick on if your power source is lost. Let's
get started:
- Click on the Start Button and key in Device Manager and hit Enter.
- Expand Disk Drives.
- Right click on your hard drive and select Properties.
- On the Policies tab, check Enable advanced performance.
- Hit OK and close Device Manager.
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Putz22
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Posted: 17 Sep 2008 at 10:12pm |
Increase network performance when playing media
Windows Vista throttles your network bandwidth when you are playing any multimedia file such as an MP3 or a video. This was designed to ensure the CPU has enough free cycles available to play your media without skipping. The down side is that when you are playing a multimedia file you will notice that your network speed of file transfers will decrease on high speed network connections. By default when you are playing a multimedia file your network transfers are limited to 10 packets per millisecond.
In Windows Vista SP1 Microsoft introduces a registry key that allows you to customize this setting.
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile] |
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NetworkThrottlingIndexValue |
You can set NetworkThrottlingIndexValue between 1 and 70. If you want to disable set the hexadecimal value to FFFFFFFF.
Microsoft warns that if you increase the value above 10 you may experience playback quality issues. Depending on your network setup, it is worth experimenting.
After making any changes a restart is needed.
Read more about this tweak on KB948066
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Putz22
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Posted: 17 Sep 2008 at 10:13pm |
Increase max IE7 downloads
Internet Explorer 7 only allows you to download two files from the same server at a time. This is not a software limit but rather a limit imposed based on the web standard. Since this is simply a software setting, it can be modified and you can increase the limit to something much high such as 10. Follow the steps below to increase your max downloads from the same server:
- Click on the Start Button and type in Regedit.
- When Registry Editor loads navigate through HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion and Internet Settings.
- Right click on MaxConnectionsPerServer and select Modify. Set the decimal value to something greater than 2.
- Right click on MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server and select Modify. Set the decimal value to something greater than 2.
- Reboot.
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MrTWS
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Posted: 18 Sep 2008 at 2:15pm |
Great tips Putz 
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Putz22
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Posted: 28 Jul 2009 at 6:29pm |
Improve old application disk performance
Do you have old programs that have slow disk performance on Windows Vista or Windows 7? If so, you can squeeze a little more performance out of your hard disk by enabling what I call compatibility mode for your file system. This speeds up the performance of your hard disk by changing how write caching works. However, if your computer is not connected to a battery backup and you loose power you have a increased risk for data loss or corruption. If you have a laptop your chances are data loss or corruption are dramatically less since your laptop battery will kick on if your power source is lost. Let's get started:
- Click on the Start Button and key in Device Manager and hit Enter.
- Expand Disk Drives.
- Right click on your hard drive and select Properties.
- On the Policies tab:
Windows Vista: Check Enable advanced performance
Windows 7: Check Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device.
- Hit OK and close Device Manager.
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Putz22
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Joined: 15 May 2008
Location: United States
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Posted: 28 Jul 2009 at 6:30pm |
Increase network performance when playing media
Windows Vista throttles your network bandwidth when you are playing any multimedia file such as an MP3 or a video. This was designed to ensure the CPU has enough free cycles available to play your media without skipping. The down side is that when you are playing a multimedia file you will notice that your network speed of file transfers will decrease on high speed network connections. By default when you are playing a multimedia file your network transfers are limited to 10 packets per millisecond.
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MrTWS
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Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: 28 Jul 2009 at 6:46pm |
I would just like to thank our Technical Administrator Putz for taking the time and trouble to post this helpful information He is a busy man himself but thanks to him for finding time to add these bits to what is probably a NON TECHIE forum anyway, but as it is Universal, I know that some peeps will find these hints and advice invaluable Thanks Putz 
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