So you are using Windows Vista and feel that its slower than Windows XP? Then you have come to the right place.
Following tutorial will help you in tweaking your Windows Vista to the max and you'll feel a significant improvement in your system performance. So without wasting any time lets start:
1. Following is a registry file containing a few registry modifications, which are completely safe and can increase the performance of Windows Vista. Just download the attached ZIP file, extract it and then run the file:
Restore Default Settings (Use this file if you want to restore default Windows settings)
2. Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Properties (or press <WIN> key + <Pause/Break> key), click on Advanced system settings link in left side pane (You can also open it by typing sysdm.cpl in RUN or start menu search box and press Enter). Now click on Settings button in Performance section:

Now disable all unnecessary options in Visual Effects tab, you can remain following options enabled according to your requirements:
- Enable desktop composition (If you want to use Windows Aero theme)
- Enable transparent glass (If you want to use transparency in Windows)
- Show preview and filters in folder (If you use Details Pane in Explorer)
- Show thumbnails instead of icons (If you want to show thumbnails in Explorer)
- Show window contents while dragging (If you want windows to show content while moving them)
- Smooth edges of screen fonts (If you want to show smooth fonts)
- Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop (If you want to show shadows under desktop icon labels)
- Use visual styles on windows and buttons (If you want to use Windows Aero or Basic theme.)

3. Open Windows Explorer and click on Organize -> Folder and Search Options. Now go to View tab:

Now disable following options:
- Display file size information in folder tips.
- Display simple folder view in Navigation pane.
- Hide extensions for known file types.
- Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color.
- Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items.
Other options don't affect the system performance. You can enable/disable them according to your requirements.
4. Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Manage (You can also open it by typing services.msc in RUN or start menu search box and press Enter).
Now goto Services & Applications -> Services. Here you can set a few unnecessary services to Manual, which will not start with windows and will decrease the boot time and will increase system performance.
Please follow the following tutorial to know about which services can be safely set to MANUAL:
5. Type msconfig in RUN or Startmenu search box and press Enter. Now goto Startup tab and deselect the unnecessary entries, which you don't want to start automatically with Windows, e.g. you can disable VGA driver utility, Sound Card utility, etc to speed up the startup time and to increase system performance.
You can also disable these items using Windows Defender. Open Windows Defender and click on Tools and then click on "Software Explorer".
6. Open Sound in Control Panel (or type mmsys.cpl in RUN or Startmenu search box and press Enter), goto Sounds tab and select No Sounds in Sound Scheme section. Or you can remain some of your favorite sounds but set Exit Windows, Windows Logoff, Windows Logon and Start Navigation to (None).
7. Also don't forget to:
- Defrag the hard disk regularly
- Install only necessary software
- Use the latest device drivers
- Keep your Windows up-to-date
After following all the above mentioned points, you'll definitely notice major improvements in your Windows Vista performance.
This article was posted by VG in following section: Windows Vista.
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Carlos
^^ Oops.
And, does it work on Windows 7 as well?
Thanks
VG
^^ Its a myth just like clearing Prefetch cache. It does nothing good.
romar
great tutorial! hmm.. i just wanna ask something not related with this :)...what might be the solution of having black screen preview in my vista movie maker with mpeg video files? i can import them easily but can't preview!.. other file formats are ok except this extension.. please help..
Sahil
Hey Vishal,
Your a genius and I commented to ask you something
Does making resolution low make our computer faster?
Sahil
Hey Vishal,
Your a genius and I commented to ask you something
Does making resolution low make our computer faster?
GH
THaanks that helped alot! :)
gross earnings
tnx man, wonderful work i really love it and sure will do the necessary maintenance of my pc. just downloaded and installed VG theme and got a very nice output on my pc. now as if i am running
a genuine win7. tnx again. ill be on monitor for your upcoming softs.
gross_earnings (phils.)
Firedemon7
Hello, May I ask what your registry file does? It is just that I don't want my registry changed if I don't know what it's doing. I've edited my registry a little too so How do I know this won't reverse some changes? So can you please provide a list of changes or add a read-me to the folder.
VG
^^ It simply tweaks some system settings like delay while showing context menus, time in terminating non-responding tasks, etc. You can safely apply the tweaks.
Faridah
Hi Vishal
This tutorial is soo helpful and useful. It helps me alot for the tutorial is straight forward with clear instruction. No fluffy jargons. Thanks again.