Clean Your System Registry - Vista Speed Secret

Of course, the fastest and easiest way to speed-up your computer is to allow a software program to do it for you! Although you will find that all of the adjustments in this book will speed up your system, the most effective and easiest way to give your computer blazing speed is to clean up your system’s Registry.
Your computer is like your car: it needs periodic maintenance to keep it running at optimum performance. Installing and un-installing programs, surfing the Internet, emailing, and other everyday activities create a sort of “sludge” that builds up in your computer over time, much like an automobile engine. After a while, it doesn't startup like when it was new, it stalls unexpectedly, and performance is sluggish on the (information) highway.

We strongly recommend running a free Registry scan to find out how many errors you computer is hiding from you. Your computer will likely have hundreds of Registry errors that are dramatically slowing down the potential speed and performance.

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Disable Automatic Disk Defragment - Vista Speed Secret

Windows Vista uses an always-on defragment set up that isn’t that necessary and will cause your system to slow down. Remember to run a defragment manually once a month.

To shut down this feature:

1. Click the Start button
2. Select Computer
3. Right-click on C: Drive icon
4. Select Properties
5. Click the Tools tab
6. Uncheck Run on a schedule
7. Click OK

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Shutdown Search Indexing - Vista Speed Secret

Windows Vista Search Indexing is constantly checking the files on your system to make their information available for quick searching. This is helpful, but can severely slow system performance as the average user doesn’t use the search function frequently.

To shut down constant indexing:

1. Click the Start button
2. Select Computer
3. Right-click on the C: Drive icon
4. Select Properties
5. Select the General Tab
6. Uncheck Index this drive for faster searching
7. On the next dialog box, select Apply Changes to Drive C:,
subfolders and files
8. Click OK

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Remove Spyware, Adware, and Malware - Vista Speed Secret

Have you scanned your system for spyware, adware and other unwanted pests? 1 of 6 computers has some sort of Spyware or Malware! They dramatically slow down your computer because they
use resources to generate popup ads, send spam, and often interfere with the operation of good programs.
If you haven’t scanned recently, we recommend a free scan from a good anti-spyware program. We prefer to use stand-alone, high quality anti-spyware programs like XoftSpy Pro, which give us the ability to scan and repair these problems in seconds.

FINAL NOTE: Recent testing has shown that stand-alone programs do a much better job than the “all-in-one” packages (eg. Norton Internet Security) at detecting spyware, adware, and malware.

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Disable Unnecessary Graphical Effects - Vista Speed Secret

Vista is “sexy” because of its new aero glass transparency effects. Here is how to enable and disable this new eye candy.
1. Click Start (Windows) button
2. Select the Control Panel
3. Double-click Click Appearance and Personalization
4. Under Personalization, click Change the color scheme
5. In the Appearance Settings dialog box, click Windows Vista Basic, and then click OK.

Or, if you prefer a Windows 2000-style interface, click Windows Standard, and then click OK.

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Remove Un-Used Programs & Files - XP Speed Secret

You may have a bunch of software packages on your hard drive that are no longer needed, or they were gratuitously installed when you downloaded some other package. Toolbars, file-sharing programs, free email enhancers, online shopping "companions" and download managers are notorious for this practice. These uninvited guests can put a big drag on your startup time, cause web pages to load slowly, and generally bog down your computer.

1. Click Start button
2. Select Control Panel
3. Double-click Add/Remove Programs icon
4. See what programs are installed that you don’t typically use
5. Select the Remove button for the ones you know you don't need

If you’re unsure about some programs, do a web search to learn about the ones that you need to keep.

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Enable Direct Memory Access (DMA) - XP Speed Secret

1. Right-click on My Computer, select Properties
2. Select the Hardware tab
3. Click the Device Manager button
4. Double-click IDE/ATAPI controllers
5. Double-click on the Primary IDE Channel
6. Click on the Advanced Settings tab (as shown in figure) The tab may or may not be available for each option. It is only available in Primary and Secondary Channels.
7. Set the Transfer Mode to "DMA if Available" both for Device 1 and 0
8. Click OK
9. Perform the same operation for other items in the list, if applicable.

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