Twelve features to disable in Vista to increase performance

[PTRACER]

It is up to you what you disable and what you leave enabled. It may help if you have an under-spec'd computer, although I wouldn't bother disabling many items below because I like them.

InfoWorld have identified a dozen Vista features that you can turn off right now. Some are shiny baubles that slow down graphics performance, while others are optional utilities that hog memory when they shouldn't. A few can actually be quite useful, though they play a major role in bogging down your PC:

• Sidebar - You pay a heavy performance price for the analog clock, thumbnail slide-show viewer, and Microsoft-centric RSS news feed that dock in the Windows Sidebar. Turning the whole thing off gives you a big speed boost, especially at boot time. To remove the Sidebar, right-click anywhere on the Sidebar and select Close Sidebar. Uncheck Start Sidebar when Windows starts, and then click OK.
  
  Aero - If your PC is underpowered or overloaded, however, Aero may be more trouble than it's worth. To turn it off, right-click the Windows desktop and select Personalize, Window Color and Appearance. In the resulting "Window Color and Appearance" dialog box, click Open classic appearance properties for more color options (if you don't see the option, that means Aero is already turned off). Select Windows Vista Basic and click OK.
  
  Assorted Interface Beautification Options - You can save some additional clock cycles by turning off all or some of Vista's pretty interface options, not all of which are directly connected to Aero. To see the options, click Start, right-click Computer, and select Properties. Click the Advanced System Properties link, the Advanced tab, and then the Settings button inside the Performance box. You can uncheck all of the listed options by selecting Adjust for best performance, or you can simply uncheck the ones you don't care for.
  
  Remote Assistance - Don't worry about turning this item off if you run Vista Home (Basic or Premium). You don't have it. If you run Vista Business or Ultimate, though, you can use Remote Assistance to control one PC from anoth. To get rid of it, click Start, right-click Computer, and select Properties. Click Remote Settings. Uncheck Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer.
  
  Internet Printing Client - Do you ever print documents over the Internet? Neither do I. Chances are, you won't miss out on anything by disabling Vista's Internet Printing Client. Open the "Programs and Features" control panel and click the Turn Windows features on or off link on the left; you'll get the Windows Features dialog box. Expand the Print Services section and uncheck Internet Printing Client. Click OK at this point, and then wait several more minutes for the system to ask to reboot.
  
  Windows Meeting Space - I like Windows' built-in peer-to-peer collaboration program, Meeting Space, which lets you share files across a network while editing them with a remote colleague. But I don't have any use for it in my daily life, and neither do most of the people I know. So I shut Windows Meeting Space off. You can, too. Simply uncheck Windows Meeting Space while you're in the Windows Features dialog box.
  
  Windows Ultimate Extras - One of the best things you can do exclusively in Vista Ultimate Edition is turn off the really pointless features that are found exclusively in Vista Ultimate Edition. I refer, of course, to Ultimate Extras, a set of downloadable add-ons available only to Ultimate users. If you didn't pay for the most expensive version of Vista, these useless add-ons aren't a concern.
  
  Tablet PC Stuff - If you don't have a tablet, these features are useless to you. Turning off Vista's tablet features is a two-step process: Start in the Windows Features dialog box. If you're not already there, see the tip on the previous page for instructions on getting to it. Once there, simply uncheck Tablet PC Optional Components. You complete the job in the Services window, which you open by clicking Start, typing services, and pressing Enter. Find and double-click Tablet PC Input Services. In the "Startup type" drop-down menu, select Disabled, and then click OK.
  
  ReadyBoost - If you're not using this much-hyped Vista feature--which supposedly speeds up Vista by caching memory to a flash drive -- it's actually slowing your system down a tiny bit. (And if you are using ReadyBoost, it's probably still a drag on your PC. For an explanation, read "ReadyBoost Flash Drives Lack Significant Boost.") You turn off ReadyBoost in Services. If you aren't already there, click Start, type services, and press Enter. Find and double-click ReadyBoost. In the "Startup type" drop-down menu, select Disabled, and then click OK.
  
  Search Indexing - This one is a real trade-off. Turning off Vista's indexing will slow searches to a crawl -- I'm talking minutes, not seconds. But ditching this convenient feature could very likely speed up your general PC use significantly.
  
  Offline Files - If you have Business or Ultimate and still don't need Offline Files, turn it off by clicking Start, typing services, and pressing Enter. Find and double-click Offline Files. In the "Startup type" drop-down menu, select Disabled, and then click OK.
  
  Windows Error Reporting Service - To disable this unhelpful service, open the Services window: Click Start, type services, and press Enter. Find and double-click Windows Error Reporting Service. In the "Startup type" drop-down menu, select Disabled, and then click OK.
  
  UAC: Boon or Bloat? - One of Windows Vista's most controversial new features is User Account Control (UAC), which attempts to protect your system from malware by forcing you to authorize certain system-altering actions by clicking through a dialog box from time to time. To some people, this feature is an unwanted annoyance that must be eliminated. Other users appreciate the added security. While I wouldn't go so far as to lump UAC in with the other wasteful features in this article, I can certainly understand why some folks would like to turn it off -- or at least minimize its intrusive behavior. For tips on taming UAC, see Scott Dunn's excellent article "Annoyance Buster: Make Vista's User Account Control Work for You."

[PTfan54]

Thanks, Paul. Very useful post.

[goose]

I wouldn't be too worried about doing intensive tweaking, chaps.

UAC and Indexing are utter garbage, but of all the tweaks I've done to my Vista install, they are the only two that made any tangible difference. My brother's PC actually still has Indexing on (UAC off, but no other tweaking whatsoever) and with a similar configuration, he gets a higher 3DMark score than me. Vista has improved unbelievably since the early days.

[WilliamsF1]

I dont' see USER in that list Paul? Of course, I making the assumption that most of them are useless, but that's another debate all together...

Thanks for the list though, will have to remember it for when I get Vista....

[P34]

Yeah, this is a useful post for the PC users.

[PTfan54]

Here's the Mac vs PC commercial that I want to see...

**PC Sitting at a desk clutching a joystick and clicking buttons rapidly**
Mac: Hey PC, what are you doing?
PC: I'm just playing a computer game.
Mac: Oh cool, which game?
PC: Any game!
Mac: Oh...

The end

[Dan]

With the way we keep getting DRM shoved down our throats that leech themselves to games, I hardly even look at PC games anymore. I'd rather just get a PS3 or XBOX 360 game.

[Speedworx]

I got rid of the sidebar. It was annoying and ruins the desktop.

[goose]

Scotch what I said above. I spent all day reinstalling XP Pro and my various apps - good thing I'm on holidays and have time for this stuff.

Vista totally capitulated last night - Firefox was crashing incessantly and I more or less narrowed it down to some conflict between Vista/Zonealarm/Avast, and rather than go through every possible fix, I figured I'd just get XP going again. I've missed the customisation, the performance etc etc, even though I will miss parts of Vista.

[PTRACER]

With the way we keep getting DRM shoved down our throats that leech themselves to games, I hardly even look at PC games anymore. I'd rather just get a PS3 or XBOX 360 game.

Yeah, EA are really suffering because of that now. The DRM-ridden game Spore has been pirated over 500,000 times now in protest against EA's ridiculous "You can only install this game 5 times, have one player account per game and must activate it over the internet every 10 days to play it" DRM.

A lot of people have done it as a protest, others have done it because they format their machines once every few months and don't want to have to spend 20 minutes on the phone with EA answering questions about why they formatted their machine.

[Sam]

With the way we keep getting DRM shoved down our throats that leech themselves to games, I hardly even look at PC games anymore. I'd rather just get a PS3 or XBOX 360 game.

Yeah, EA are really suffering because of that now. The DRM-ridden game Spore has been pirated over 500,000 times now in protest against EA's ridiculous "You can only install this game 5 times, have one player account per game and must activate it over the internet every 10 days to play it" DRM.

A lot of people have done it as a protest, others have done it because they format their machines once every few months and don't want to have to spend 20 minutes on the phone with EA answering questions about why they formatted their machine.

You say that, but I wonder how many of those 500.000 would have actually bought the game even without DRM instead of getting a pirate version. The argument reminds me of GTR and Starforce, and in both cases I doubt the percentage would be that high.