- Less errors + crashes
- 1-click repairs + backups
Tom M., Utah, USA
Vista isn’t as user-friendly as its dad, Windows XP, and it doesn’t have the flashy-ness of the newer Windows 7. But even though Microsoft hid its unpopular baby in the basement pretty quickly after its release, Vista is pretty solid. And Vista can be faster. With a little optimization, you don’t need to waste money upgrading to Windows 7 If you’re asking yourself, “How do I make my PC faster?”, here’s what I do to make my Vista PC faster.
Drop the excess baggage.
The folks at Microsoft have said it themselves: The main problem with Vista is that it slows down when you do too many things at once. So keep it simple. Vista obviously isn’t the kind of system that lets you browse the internet, write an email, work on a spreadsheet, instant message, and play a game all at once. You just have to pick your task and go with it. And when you’re done, shut down that program and move on to the next thing. It’s simple, but it does make a Windows PC faster.
Plus, it’s no secret that Vista comes with a lot of bloat, and a year or two of downloading files and programs from the internet just compounds the problem. So every once in a while, take an hour or so to go through all your installed programs and get rid of everything you don’t need. And don’t forget to turn off all the preinstalled Windows processes that do not enhance your computing experience.
Run Disk Cleanup and Defragmenter.
The last few versions of Windows all come with these trusty utilities, which should be put to use regularly if you don’t want your computer to get bogged down in its own refuse. If you can remember, run them once weekly. If you don’t remember to do so, just run them whenever you notice your computer running slow. But be aware that the longer you wait between defragmentation sessions, the longer the process will take.
Reduce visual flair.
Vista is undoubtedly prettier to look at than XP, but with all these visual enhancements comes significant slowdown. If you think you can do without the sliding menus, pointer shadows, transparent borders, and so on, try this:
- In your Control Panel, go to System and Maintenance, then Performance Information Tools.
- Click Adjust Visual Effects and go to the Visual Effects tab.
- Select Adjust for Best Performance, and uncheck any of the visual options that you can live without. For best performance, uncheck all of them. After clicking OK, you’ll notice that Vista isn’t quite as pretty as it was, but you’ll get used to it after a few minutes.
Run a badware scan.
If you don’t already have security software on your PC, find a light and effective antispyware program that can run in the background while your PC is running. Make sure it runs a scan periodically. If your PC is running slowly, chances are good that you have at least a few pests lurking on your hard drive, and a thorough scan should make your old PC faster.
Because removing badware is such an important way to make your Vista computer faster, better registry repair software will do it for you. download PC Health Advisor — which, I’ll admit, is one of my fav — helps you get rid of badware, empty your PC’s cache, uninstall old programs, cleans your registry, defragments the disk, all while offering one-click repairs and backups. If you try PC Health Advisor — and I recommend it — , click here to download PC Health Advisor.
