How to Optimize Vista

[Lightning]

Doesn't this belong in the tech forums?

Lol, this only improves performance on my machine about 10% when compared to XP, 100% would be equivalent to XP. I'm even running the windows classic UI. Kicking it old school, you might say. I have just about every visual enhancement feature disabled. I even bought a special 4 gb high speed ExpressCard flash memory stick dedicated for vista's Readyboost. Programs still lag like hell switching between them. Photoshop's UI lags all the time when doing specific things like moving around layers. 3d Applications such as Maya and 3ds Max lag HEAVILY when just doing simple things like selecting vertecies, faces, manipulating UVs, and dragging objects. Also, many programs have become allot more unstable for me. Maya never crashed as much as it used to on XP. All these problems I only face in vista. Don't even get me started on how bad the video drivers for my gfx card are on vista. Sure, don't blame vista like any other m$ zealot, blame the third party software developers and hardware drivers for vista's failings.

Not everyone has enthusiast system specs that can handle Vista's ridiculous waist of CPU cycles and ram. Microsoft should have chosen to copy OSX's efficiency while they were at it, they even took the time to perfectly copy OSX's user document filing system, right down to the exact same directory names. They could have at least taken the time to ensure the os runs more efficiently, something OSX does with each new version.

Sounds like your computer just sucks, Jahrain, because I have only 1gb of ram, and I experience NONE of these things.

[jahrain]

My computer has no problem *just* running vista. The problems I experiance when using software that I use almost everyday, such as maya and 3ds max. I just keep getting all these random UI lags, and hiccups constantly when trying to do work. Not to mension 3d applications just crash more randomly, usually when switching between them in vista.

My problem with my drivers for my video card is the absence of the mobility controls so my PC runs my GPU as if it was a desktop and it gets hot very quickly which is why I have to constantly manually downclock it, as the clocking settings don't save after you restart the computer, to nearly half the speed to get it to run games without it soaring past 90C. (Yes I'm using the latest damn drivers so don't tell me again to update my drivers). And don't tell me its my GPU or thermal system, I just had my GPU replaced replaced a few weeks ago due to these problems. It didn't help so I had my thermal system replaced as well even though its quite obvious that it runs fine as my CPU stays nice and cool all the time. In XP the drivers for the same video card was specialized to automatically slowdown the clockspeed and memory bus as it gets hot so my GPU was always running a descently cool temperature, even while playing games.

And enough with the "oh I have the same specs and I don't have that problem". You probably do have that problem but just don't know it because those same vista drivers won't let you see what your current GPU temperatures are. My computer does not suck as everything just runs like its supposed to in XP.

[Lightning]

Hmmm, strange.

Even with those programs running, I still get no slowdowns that weren't present in XP.

Try going into the control panel and choosing a different profile for your power savings.

[jahrain]

Is there any particular reason why with all running applications combined never seem to use more than about 50% of my ram, even when doing a memory intensive process such as rendering but the task manager clearly shows that 90 to 95 % of my ram is being used, and 100% of my physical ram is being used? Its as if some hidden process is using up the other 50% of my physical ram.

[Cortexian]

Only thing I disagree with is the scheduled defrags. I set mine to once a week on Saturday morning at 2:00am, and I haven't had any problems.

[WolfenRage]

I think it best though to only defrag after you do a installation, or put a large file on your hard drive ect. Alot of these tips are good and I use them as well. They are mentioned in a ebook I read, which I recommend. TGTC for Windows Vista. If you do take the advice in this book make sure you read up before you start removing everything though.

I have all my games disable visual theme and desktop composition though
Once I exit them it goes back to aero which is cool.

I even heard of people starting their games, alt tabbing to the desktop.
Cntrl+Alt+Delete and ending the explorer.exe. After done playing Cntrl+Alt+Delete, run new task: explorer.
I haven't tried it yet though, to know if it helps.

[Kornman00]

I even heard of people starting their games, alt tabbing to the desktop.
Cntrl+Alt+Delete and ending the explorer.exe. After done playing Cntrl+Alt+Delete, run new task: explorer.
I haven't tried it yet though, to know if it helps.

win

[Phopojijo]

Is there any particular reason why with all running applications combined never seem to use more than about 50% of my ram, even when doing a memory intensive process such as rendering but the task manager clearly shows that 90 to 95 % of my ram is being used, and 100% of my physical ram is being used? Its as if some hidden process is using up the other 50% of my physical ram.

Because Windows always used all available RAM regardless of how much was used by programs in general.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum...fm/756806.html

It prefetches what it assumes you'll eventually be using so you don't need to access it from the hard drive. Why not? When it needs the RAM it will kick the extraneous off, if it doesn't need the RAM it'll potentially speed up later if it just so happened to prefetch something that ended up being used. As an example, if you use Firefox daily... it might dump firefox into your RAM if it has extra space -- assuming at SOME point you'll turn firefox on and it won't need to even look at the harddrive.

Only thing I disagree with is the scheduled defrags. I set mine to once a week on Saturday morning at 2:00am, and I haven't had any problems.

http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com...ad.php?t=64059

He'd disagree, as would my first 2 times attempting to install Maya and a few Battlefield2 games in Beta2. It doesn't always hurt, but when it does, its a frick'n cyclone.

[leorimolo]

I am yet to know why MP lags more than SP on my laptop :?

[Phopojijo]

I am yet to know why MP lags more than SP on my laptop :?

If your performance gets too high you will have issues with the gamespeed code. For many Xbox games, gamespeed is tied in to the framerate. Inconsistent framerate could therefore cause inconsistent gamespeed.

It might not be *laggy*, it might just be a hiccupy gamespeed. Try turning on Vsync.

See -- everyone else be like this guy... instead of complaining saying everything's broken -- try and fix the issue.

Talked to HiredGun for a couple of emails, and they acknowledged the issue and are looking into my suggestion to revive the 30FPS mode that Halo PC and Halo 1/2 Xbox had. This is what people refer to when they say "Locked framerate" in console programming, to my knowledge.