Ten Vista Features You Can Disable for Better Performance
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So you have found yourself with a slow computer system that is set up with Windows Vista, and you are wondering what, if anything, there is that you can do to help speed things up. I mean sure, you could just get yourself a downgrade to XP or wait until Windows 7 comes out, but those both sound time and money consuming. Fortunately, you have an alternative; read this article to learn how to disable the Vista features you don't use or may not really need.
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:
Go to your desktop and right click on it.
Select “personalize.”
Select “Windows color and appearance.”
A dialog box will appear, and when it does, click on “open classic appearance properties” for more color options.
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:
Open the “programs and features” control panel.
Click on “turn Windows features on or off.”
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.
Click on “ok.”
Next: Option Three: Boot out ready boost >>
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