50 ways to make Windows Vista faster (part 1)

Whether it’s having some extra power to keep your framerate down in Half Life 2, or simply getting Windows Vista to shut down that second faster, everybody wants a quicker computer.

Because of this, we’ve prepared fifty affordable idea’s to achieve this. Here’s the first batch.

1. Add More Memory

The simplest way to improve performance is to add more memory (RAM) to your system – 1GB (1024MB) is the minimum recommended amount, but add as much memory as you can afford or your system supports. See Crucial for details and pricing.

2. Use Your USB Flash Drive

If you’ve got a spare USB flash drive with at least 256MB free space, you can use it to help give your system a helping hand. Plug the drive into a spare USB2.0 slot and – when prompted – select “Speed up my system” when prompted.

3. Configure Readyboost

If the option doesn’t appear, or you want to override Windows Vista’s recommended settings, open My Computer, right-click your flash drive, choose Properties and switch to the ReadyBoost tab.

4. Pick a new USB Flash Drive

If you want to purchase a flash drive specifically for using as a ReadyBoost device (remember, it’s no substitute for real RAM), opt for a model with faster read/write times (such as the Gizmo Overdrive from Crucial) for the best results.

5. Overclock Your Graphics Card

You can tweak your graphics card to squeeze a few extra frames per second out of playing games. Use a tool like PowerStrip or ATITool to optimise your display, but note you’ll be stressing your graphics card and shortening its life by doing so – you may even damage it by attempting to overclock, so think carefully and remember it’s all at your own risk.

6. Upgrade your Drivers

Certain driver updates – particularly those for graphics cards and chipsets – can lead to better performance. Check your PC, motherboard or graphics card manufacturer to see if a newer driver exists.

7. Super-fast External Drives

Frustrated at how slow USB and Firewire external devices are compared to your internal drive? Fret no more: eSATA is a new standard that offers the performance of an internal drive in an external casing. You’ll need access to an eSATA port – some modern PCs have these built in, but in many cases you’ll need to purchase a plug-in card (PCI or PCI-Express) with your drive. Check out Lacie for drives and adapter cards.

8. Benchmark Your PC

Your Windows Experience Index base score tells you how capable your PC is of running Windows Vista, which gives you a good idea of what you need to upgrade next for better performance. Click Start > Control Panel and select System and Maintenance followed by Performance Information and Tools. Use the links on the left in conjunction with our tips to improve performance.

9. Speed Up Your Network

Wireless networks are still much slower than wired networks, so don’t make all of your PCs wireless unless you need to. Look for 802.11n equipment for the best possible range and performance – remember, the further away from the access point you are, the slower your connection, so if transferring large files from one PC to another, try to place them as close to it as possible or even plug them into the router for the fastest possible transfer speed.

10. Spread Your Paging file

If you’ve got a second internal hard drive or an eSATA-connected drive, you can instruct Windows Vista to use that for the paging file in addition to your own boot drive. Here’s how:

a) Access Virtual Memory Settings

Open System Properties and click Advanced system settings. Click Settings under Performance, switch to the Advanced tab and click the Change button.

b) Set New Paging File

Untick “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”. Scroll through your list of drives and select the least-used partition on your second drive. Choose System managed size and click Set.

c) Reboot and Review

Click OK three times and reboot when prompted. Once complete, return to this screen and verify that both drive C and your new drive have system managed paging files in place.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five