Ten Vista Features You Can Disable for Better Performance

Before you make a serious investment in a new operating system, we should try to fix what we can. It is the smart move, at least for the short term, until you can get up the cash for a more lasting solution. Then again, maybe once you use the short term fix, you may find that things are going well enough that you may not need a long term fix.

Either way, this is the way to go, so without any further delay let us talk about some of the features of Vista that you can turn off to improve the performance of your system.  

Option One: Turn Off Aero

Aero is that pretty and shiny interface that the folks over at the Microsoft marketing department think is essential. You know, the one that gives you the ability to see those tiny thumbnails of your folders when you hover with your mouse, and all of those other pretty and shiny graphic features that are a cool novelty, but do not have much in the way of actual uses. Aero is, however, a major drain on your system resources. In order to turn off this pretty resource hog, follow these steps:

1. Go to your desktop and right click on it.

2. Select “personalize.”

3. Select “Windows color and appearance.”

4. A dialog box will appear, and when it does, click on “open classic appearance properties” for more color options.

5. Choose “Windows Vista Basics,” and then click on “ok.” 

Option Two: Turn off Internet printing

Almost no one uses the Internet printing client on their Vista system, unless they happen to be on a large network with remote usage of all of their resources. The odds are that if you are reading this, you don’t use it, so shut off this unused feature with the following steps:

1. Open the “programs and features” control panel.

2. Click on “turn Windows features on or off.”

3. You will now be presented with a menu whose items have check boxes next to them. Find the words “internet printing client” and uncheck the box next to it.

4. Click on “ok.” 

Option Three: Boot out ready boost

Ready boost is actually designed by to speed up your system by caching your memory to a flash drive. The effect is basically nugatory for the average user, so unless you are having a serious problem with boot times, you can safely turn this bad boy off. To do so, use the following guide:

1. Click on “start.”

2. Go for the input field and type in “services,” and then click “enter.”

3. Double click on “ready boost.”

4. Find “startup type” and in the associated drop down menu choose “disabled.”

5. Click on “ok.” 

Option Four: Turn off the sidebar

Your sidebar is essentially a collection of widgets, most of which are either duplicates or a little bit useless. Do you really want to have the analog clock or the Microsoft RSS feed at the cost of performance of your system? I didn’t think so. Now that we have established this little fact we can take a look at how to turn off the sidebar:

1. Right click on the sidebar.

2. Select the “close sidebar” option.

3. Uncheck the box next to “start sidebar when Windows starts.”

4. Click on “ok.” 

Option Five: Keep your assistance close to home

If you have the ultimate or the business version of Vista and you don’t use the remote feature, that is the ability to control one system from anther, then this is just a big waste for you. To turn it off just:

1. Click on “start.”

2. Click on “computer.”

3. Click on “properties."

4. Click on “remote settings.”

5. Uncheck the box next to “allow remote assistance connections to this computer.” 

Option Six: Get rid of the meeting space

Windows meeting spaces can be a great tool for communicating with your colleagues on a one-to-one level, but to be honest, it is unlikely to be a tool that most of us use in our day-to-day life. If you don't engage in a high level of collaboration, then you can give meeting space a boot by simply following the steps from option two, only instead of unchecking the box next to “internet printing client,” do the one next to “Windows meeting space” to eliminate the feature. 

Option Seven: Wave good-bye to your slick animations

Much like the Aero interface, these tools look cool at the first blush, but they can be amazing resource hogs, so when your system is having issues, it should be one of the first things to get the axe. On the bright side, unlike some of our other tools, it is not an all-or-nothing affair. Here you will have the ability to pick and choose what animations you want to turn off. To do this just:

1. Click on “start.”

2. Right click on “computer.”

3. Click on “properties.”

4. Click on the words “advanced system settings.”

5. Choose the “advanced” tab.

6. Click on the “settings button” which you will find nestled inside the “performance” box.

7. Choose “custom” and a list with check boxes will appear.

8. Choose the ones you want to get rid of and uncheck them. 

Option Eight: Stop reporting errors to Microsoft

No, I am not being glib, I am talking about your error reporting service options. You may know it better as the annoying pop up box you see when something goes wrong. They were supposed to help reps respond to errors, but few people, if any, get a reply, so shut this big brother off by:

1. Click on “start.”

2. Use the search field, enter “services,” and then hit “enter.”

3. Double click on “Windows error reporting service.”

4. You will see a drop down box labeled “startup type;” when you do, choose “disabled.”

5. Click on “ok.” 

Option Nine: Switch off the options for a tablet PC

If you use a tablet PC, obviously this would be a very bad plan, but the rest of us would benefit from turning off this feature. For those of us without tablets you can follow these steps:

1. Open the “programs and featured control panel as normal.”

2. Click on the words “turn Windows features on or off."

3. Uncheck the box next to the words “tablet PC optional components.”

4. Click on “start.”

5. Enter “services” into the search field and hit enter.

6. Double click on “tablet PC input services.”

7. In the startup type drop down menu, choose “disabled.”

8. Click on “ok.” 

Option Ten: Get rid of search indexing

Okay, so this one is a bit of a balancing act. If you search by file content using the built-in system and not a tool like Google desktop, then this will be a real hit. Doing this will slow your searches to a level that you can not imagine, however, as in a few hundred times the factor you are used to. That means that this is last for a reason; it should be your last resort. If you are ready to do this, then go ahead and:

1. Click on “start.”

2. Put the words “Windows search” into the search field and hit “enter.”

3. Click on “Windows search.”

4. Find the box that is labeled “startup type” and choose “disabled” from the drop down box.

5. Click on “ok.” 

Now that you have done this, your system should be free and clear. Don’t you just love it! Oh wait, your system still isn’t running as fast as you would like it to. Well, there is one last thing you can try, though it is a risk. You could turn off your user accent controls (UAC). 

Let me be clear that turning off UAC is not really an option for everyone. If you have user accounts at different levels, or any non-adult accounts, then don’t do this. Also don’t do this on systems where you could contact a virus or other malware easily. This means that I am talking to:

• Media downloaders

• Email attachment openers

• Frequent new site visitors 

You, and anyone else who is high risk, should not do this. If you choose to do this it is all on your head: 

Step 1: Go to “control panel.”

Step 2: Go to “user account.”

Step 3: Click on “turn user account control on or off.” 

Finally, there is just one thing that you should know before you begin making any changes to your system. While both the intrepid author of this piece and the nice folks in the editorial department at Dev Shed do all that they can to be sure that each and every piece of information that you read is correct, no one can be certain that information will remain accurate as systems change or due to variations between systems because of personalization or the variations in the systems setup. You can not hold us liable for any changes that you choose to make to your system based on the advice given here, or any changes that you have made due to the misapplication of saved advice, which you are under no obligation to follow. Sorry for the lengthy disclaimer, but in this litigious world you can never be too careful.